Production of Oil and Gas Final

Production of Oil & Gas
Contents Title
1 Introduction
2
Page No.
2
2 3 3 5 6 7 9 10 10 11 12 13 13 14 15 16
Productions of Conventional Oil and Gas 2.1 Primary Recovery Mechanisms 2.1.1 Solution Gas Drive 2.1.2 Gas Cap Drive 2.1.3 Water Drive 2.1.4 Gravity Drainage 2.1.5 Combination or Mixed Drive 2.2 Secondary Recovery Mechanisms 2.2.1 Rod Pumps 2.2.2 Down-hole Pumps 2.2.3 Water flooding 2.2.4 Gas Injection 2.3 Tertiary Recovery Mechanisms 2.3.1 Thermal EOR 2.3.2 Chemical EOR 2.3.3 Miscible gas EOR
3 Production of Unconventional Oil and Gas 3.1 Extra Heavy Oil Production 3.2 Oil sand Production 3.3 Oil shale Production 3.4 Coal Bed Methane Production 3.5 Natural Gas Hydrates Production 3.6 Tight and Shale Gas Production 4 Conclusions 5 References
Assignment submitted to Dr. Shahid Ghazi
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18 19 24 26 27 29
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PRODUCTION OF OIL AND GAS

1. Introduction
Production is the operation that brings hydrocarbons to the surface and prepares them for processing. Production begins after the well completion and well development. The mixture of oil, gas and water from the well is separated on the surface. The water i s disposed of and the oil and gas are treated, measured, and tested. Production method of hydrocarbons is divided into two categories depending on their extraction techniques as given below: I. II. Conventional Oil and Gas Unconventional Oil and Gas
2. Productions of Conventional Oil and Gas

Extraction of oil and gas involves basically three drive mechanisms: 1. Natural Drive or Primary Recovery Mechanisms 2. Artificial Lift or Secondary Recovery Mechanisms 3. Enhanced Recovery Techniques or Tertiary Recovery Mechanisms
Figure 1. Flow Sheet of conventional oil and gas production methods.

Assignment submitted to Dr. Shahid Ghazi Page 2
Oil recovery processes involve the interplay of flow, transport, rock/fluid interactions, and thermodynamic processes on the meso-scale (several to tens of meters).
2.1 Primary Recovery Mechanisms

Primary recovery mechanisms use the natural energy inherent in the reservoir for production. The physical-chemical properties (density, viscosity, PVT properties, etc.) of hydrocarbons vary over a wide range, and hydrocarbons are found in a variety of formation types (clastic sandstones, fractured carbonates, etc.), so natural driving energy also varies. There are five important primary drive mechanisms. These are: Solution gas drive Gas cap drive Water drive Gravity drainage Combination or mixed drive Recovery factor during the primary recovery stage is typically 5-15%.
2.1.1 Solution Gas Drive

This drive mechanism requires the reservoir rock to be completely surrounded by impermeable barriers. Crude oil under high pressure may contain large amounts of dissolved gas. As production occurs the reservoir pressure drops, and the exsolution and expansion of the dissolved gases in the oil and water provide most of the reservoirs drive energy. The efficiency of solution gas drive depends on the amount of gas in solution, the rock and fluid properties, and the geological structure of the reservoir. A solution gas drive reservoir is initially either considered to be under-saturated or saturated depending on its pressure:
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i. ii.
Under-saturated: Reservoir pressure > bubble point of oil. Saturated: Reservoir pressure bubble point of oil.
For an under-saturated reservoir no free gas exists until the reservoir pressure falls below the bubble point. In this regime reservoir drive energy is provided only by the bulk expansion of the reservoir rock and liquids (water and oil). For a saturated reservoir, any oil production results in a drop in reservoir pressure that causes bubbles of gas to exsolve and expands. When the gas comes out of solution the oil (and water) shrinks slightly. Thus gas expansion is the primary reservoir drive for reservoirs below the bubble point. In the under-saturated phase, gas is only exsolved from the fluids in the well bore, and consequently the GOR is low and constant. When the reservoir reaches the bubble point pressure, the pressure declines less quickly due to the formation of gas bubbles in the reservoir that expand taking up the volume exited by produced oil and hence protecting against pressure drops. When this happens, the GOR rises dramatically (up to 10 times). Further fall in Recovery is low, because the gas phase is more mobile than the oil phase in the reservoir.
Figure 2. Solution gas drive mechanism

Oil recovery is typically between 20% and 30% of original oil in place. Of this only 0% to 5% of oil is recovered above the bubble point. There is usually no production of water during oil recovery unless the reservoir pressure drops sufficiently for the connate water to expand sufficiently to be mobile. Even in this scenario little water is produced.
2.1.2 Gas Cap Drive

When a reservoir has a large gas cap, there may be a large amount of energy stored in the form of compressed gas. The gas cap expands as fluids are withdrawn from the reservoir, displacing the oil by a gas drive. Expansion of the gas cap is limited by the desired pressure level in the reservoir and by gas production after gas comes into production wells. The presence of the expanding gas cap limits the pressure decrease experienced by the reservoir during production. The actual rate of pressure decrease is related to the size of the gas cap.
Figure 3. Gas cap drive mechanism The GOR rises only slowly in the early stages of production from such a reservoir because the pressure of the gas cap prevents gas from coming out of solution in the oil and water. As production continues, the gas cap expands pushing the gas-oil contact (GOC) downwards. Points of importance when managing a gas cap reservoir are:
i.
Thick oil columns are best, and are perforated at the base, as far away from the gas cap as possible. This is to maximize the time before gas breaks through in the well.
ii.
Wells with increasing GOR (gas cap breakthrough) can be shut in to reduce field wide GOR.
iii.
Produced gas can be separated and immediately injected back into the gas cap to maintain gas cap pressure.
The recovery of gas cap reservoirs is better than for solution drive reservoirs (20% to 40% OOIP).
2.1.3 Water Drive

A water drive reservoir has a hydraulic connection between the reservoir and a porous, water saturated rock called an aquifer. The water in an aquifer is compressed. As reservoir pressure is reduced by oil production, the water expands, creating a natural water-flood at the reservoir/aquifer boundary. Reservoir energy is also supplied by compressibility of the rock in the aquifer. Regardless of the source of water (edge water or bottom water), the water drive is the result of water moving into the pore spaces originally occupied by oil, replacing the oil and displacing it to the producing wells. The pressure history of a water driven reservoir depends critically upon: i. ii. iii. The size of the aquifer. The permeability of the aquifer. The reservoir production rate.
If the production rate is low, and the size and permeability of the aquifer is high, then the reservoir pressure will remain high because all produced oil is replaced efficiently with water. If the production rate is too high then the extracted oil may not be able to be replaced by water in the same timescale, especially if the aquifer is small or low permeability. In this case the reservoir pressure will fall.
The GOR remains very constant in a strongly water driven reservoir as the pressure decrease is small and constant, whereas if the pressure decrease is higher (weakly water driven reservoir) the GOR increases due to gas exsolving from the oil and water in the reservoir. Likewise the oil production from a strongly water driven reservoir remains fairly constant until water breakthrough occurs.
Figure 4. Water drive mechanism The recovery from water driven reservoirs is usually good (20-60% OOIP). Recovery efficiencies of 70 to 80 % of the original oil in place (OOIP) are possible in some water drive reservoirs.
2.1.4 Gravity Drainage

The density differences between oil and gas and water result in their natural segregation in the reservoir. This process can be used as a drive mechanism, but is
relatively weak, and in practice is only used in combination with other drive mechanisms. Gravity drainage is a slow process because gas must migrate up structure or to the top of the formation to fill the space formerly occupied by oil. The best conditions for gravity drainage are: i. ii. Thick oil zones. High vertical permeability.
Figure 5. Gravity drainage mechanism The rate of production engendered by gravity drainage is very low compared with the other drive mechanisms. However, it is extremely efficient over long periods and can give rise to extremely high recoveries (50-70% OOIP). Gravity segregation of fluids is probably present to some degree in all petroleum reservoirs, but it may contribute substantially to oil production in some reservoirs.
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2.1.5 Combination or Mixed Drive

The Combination driving mechanism is one in which both water and free gas are available in some degree to displace the oil toward the producing well. Two combinations of driving forces can be present in combination drive reservoirs. These are: 1. Solution gas drive and a weak water drive 2. Solution gas drive with a small gas cap and a weak water drive.
Figure 6. Combination drive mechanism Also the gravity segregation can play an important role in any of the aforementioned drives. Combination-drive reservoirs can be recognized by the occurrence of a combination of some of the following factors: i. Relatively rapid pressure decline. Water encroachment and/or external gas-cap expansion are insufficient to maintain reservoir pressures. ii. Water encroaching slowly into the lower part of the reservoir. Structurally low producing wells will exhibit slowly increasing water producing rates. iii. If a small gas cap is present the structurally high wells will exhibit continually increasing gas-oil ratios, provided the gas cap is expanding. It is possible that the
gas cap will shrink due to production of excess free gas, in which case the structurally high wells will exhibit a decreasing gas-oil ratio. This condition should be avoided whenever possible, as large volumes of oil can be lost as a result of a shrinking gas cap. Combination Drive has 20% to 65% recovery efficiency.
2.2 Secondary Recovery Mechanisms

Over the lifetime of the well the pressure will fall, and at some point there will be insufficient underground pressure to force the oil to the surface. After natural reservoir drive diminishes, secondary recovery methods are applied. They rely on the supp ly of external energy into the reservoir in the form of injecting fluids to increase reservoir pressure, hence replacing or increasing the natural reservoir drive with an artificial drive. Some artificial lift methods are: Sucker Rod Pumps Down-hole Pumps Water Flooding Gas Injection On average, the recovery factor after primary and secondary oil recovery operations is between 35 and 45%.
2.2.1 Sucker Rod Pumps

Sucker Rod Pumps, also called Donkey pumps or Beam pumps, are the most common artificial-lift system used in land-based operations. Motor drives a reciprocating beam, connected to a polished rod passing into the tubing via a stuffing box. The sucker rod continues down to the oil level and is connected to a plunger with a valve.
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On each upward stroke, the plunger lifts a volume of oil up and through the wellhead discharge. On the downward stroke it sinks with oil flowing though the valve. The motor speed and torque is controlled for efficiency and minimal wear with a Pump off Controller (PoC). Use is limited to shallow reservoirs down to a few hundred meters, and flows up to about 40 liters (10 gal) per stroke.
2.2.2 Down-hole Pumps

Down-hole pump or Submersible pump inserts the whole pumping mechanism into the well. In modern installations, an Electrical Submerged Pump (ESP) is inserted into the well. Here the whole assembly consisting of a long narrow motor and a multi phase pump, such as a PCP (progressive cavity pump) or centrifugal pump, hangs by an electrical cable with tension members down the tubing Installations down to 3.7 km with power up to 750 kW have been installed.
Figure 7. Sucker Rod Pump
Figure 8. Down-hole Pump
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At these depths and power ratings, Medium Voltage drives (up to 5kV) must be used. ESPs works in deep reservoirs, but lifetime is sensitive to contaminants such as sand .
2.2.3 Water Flooding

This method involves the injection of water, through specially set up wells that have ceased production, at the base of a reservoir to: i. ii. Maintain the reservoir pressure Displace oil (usually with gas and water) towards production wells.
The successful outcome of a water flood process depends on designs based on accurate relative permeability data in both horizontal directions, on the choice of a good injector/producer array, and with full account taken of the local crustal stress directions in the reservoir. The efficiency of water flooding is determined by intrinsic factors, such as hydrocarbon properties, microscopic oil displacement efficiency, rock /fluid properties, and reservoir heterogeneities. Ultimately, the recovery factor for water flooding is determined by a number of external factors, including the architecture, number, and placement of water injection and production wells.
Figure 9. Water Flooding

2.2.4 Gas Injection

This method is used to maintain gas cap pressure even if oil displacement is not required. By injecting gas into this oil, the specific gravity is lowered and the well will start to flow. Typically gas is injected between casing and tubing, and a release valve on a gas lift mandrel is inserted in the tubing above the packer. The valve will open at a set pressure to inject lift gas into the tubing. There is an additional complication in that reinjected lean gas may strip light hydrocarbons from the liquid oil phase. At first sight this may not seem a problem, as recombination in the stock tank or afterwards may be carried out. Gas lift can be controlled for a single well to optimize production, and to reduce slugging effects where the gas droplets collect to form large bubbles that can upset production. Gas lift can also be optimized over several wells to use available gas in the most efficient way.
2.3 Tertiary Recovery Mechanisms

Primary and secondary recovery methods usually extract only about 35% of the original oil in place. Clearly it is extremely important to increase this figure. Many enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods have been designed to do this, and a few are discussed below. They fall into three broad categories: Thermal EOR Chemical EOR Miscible gas EOR All are extremely expensive, are only used when economical, and are implemented after extensive SCAL studies have isolated the reservoir rock characteristics that are causing oil to remain unproduced by primary and secondary methods.
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2.3.1 Thermal EOR

Thermal recovery is used when the oil is so viscous, or thick, that it cannot flow through the reservoir and into a well. These processes use heat to improve oil recovery by reducing the viscosity of heavy oils and vaporizing lighter oils, and hence improving their mobility. The techniques include: i. ii. iii. iv. Steam injection In situ combustion (injection of a hot gases that combusts with the oil in place). Microwave heating downhole Hot water injection
It is worth noting that the generation of large amounts of heat and the treatment of evolved gas has large environmental implications for these methods. However, thermal EOR is probably the most efficient EOR approach.
Figure 10. Thermal EOR

2.3.2 Chemical EOR

These processes use chemicals added to water in the injected fluid of a water flood to alter the flood efficiency in such a way as to improve oil recovery. This can be done in many ways, examples are listed below: i. ii. iii. iv. v. Increasing water viscosity (polymer floods) Decreasing the relative permeability to water (cross-linked polymer floods) Increasing the relative permeability to oil (micellar and alkaline floods) Decreasing S or (micellar and alkaline floods) Decreasing the interfacial tension between the oil and water phases (micellar and alkaline floods) Chemical flood additives, especially surfactants designed to reduce surface or interfacial tension, are extremely expensive. Thus the whole chemical EOR flood is designed to minimize the amount of surfactants needed, and to ensure that the EOR process is economically successful as well as technically.
Figure 11. Chemical EOR

Chemical flooding is therefore not a simple single stage process. Initially the reservoir is subjected to a preflush of chemicals designed to improve the stability of the interface between the in-situ fluids and the chemical flood itself. Then the chemical surfactant EOR flood is carried out. Commonly polymers are injected into t he reservoir after the chemical flood to ensure that a favorable mobility ratio is maintained. A buffer to maintain polymer stability follows, and then a driving fluid, which is usually water, is injected. The mobilized oil bank moves ahead of the surfacta nt flood, and the total process reduce the amount of the surfactant fluid used.
2.3.3 Miscible Gas Flooding

This method uses a fluid that is miscible with the oil. Such a fluid has a zero interfacial tension with the oil and can in principal flush out all of the oil remaining in place. In practice a gas is used since gases have high mobility and can easily enter all the pores in the rock providing the gas is miscible in the oil. Three types of gas are commonly used: i. ii. iii. CO2 N2 Hydrocarbon gases
All of these gases are relatively cheap to obtain either from the atmosphere or from evolved reservoir gases. The high mobility of gases can cause a problem in the reservoir flooding process, since gas breakthrough may be early due to fingering, leading to low sweep efficiencies. Effort is then concentrated on trying to improve the sweep efficiency. One such approach is called a miscible WAG (water alternating gas). In WAG, water slugs and CO2 slugs are alternately injected into the reservoir; the idea being that the water slugs will lower the mobility of the CO 2 and lead to a more pistonlike displacement with higher flood efficiencies. An additional important advantage of miscible gas flooding is that the gas dissolves in the oil, and this process reduces the oil viscosity, giving it higher mobility and easier recovery.
Figure 12. Miscible gas EOR
3. Productions of Unconventional Oil and Gas

Unconventional oil and gas are petroleum produced or extracted using techniques other than the conventional methods. These resources are: Extra heavy oil (oil with high viscosity) Oil sand or Tar sands (sand containing bitumen) Oil shale (rocks containing kerogen, a solid bituminous materials) Coal Bed Methane, CBM (natural gas associated with coal that is not profitable for extraction) Tight and Shale gas (natural gas associated to oil shale) Natural gas hydrates (natural gas trapped in t he structure of water ice)
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3.1 Extra Heavy Oil Production

Extra heavy oil does not flow easily because of the high viscosity, and some deposits are too viscous to flow at reservoir conditions. There are several techniques to reduce viscosity as: i. ii. Cycle Steam Simulator (CSS) Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
At the surface conditions, the oil is too viscous to be transported by pipeline. Therefore, oil upgrading or the use of heated pipelines is needed.
3.1.1 Cycle Steam Simulator

Cyclic Steam Simulator (CSS) is a traditional production technology that involves steam injection in the reservoir (through wells) to heat the viscous oil. The mixture of steam, condensed water and heated oil are then pumped to the surface. The Cyclic Steam Stimulation or "huff-and-puff" method has been in use by Imperial Oil at Cold Lake since 1985 and is also used by Canadian Natural Resources at Primrose and Wolf Lake and by Shell Canada at Peace River. In this method, the well is put through cycles of steam injection, soak, and oil production. Following are the steps: i. Steam is injected into a well at a temperature of 300 to 340 degrees Celsius for a period of weeks to months ii. The well is allowed to sit for days to weeks to allow heat to soak into the formation iii. The hot oil is pumped out of the well for a period of weeks or months.
Once the production rate falls off, the well is put through another cycle of injection, soak and production. This process is repeated until the cost of injecting steam becomes higher than the money made from producing oil. The CSS method has the advantage
that recovery factors are around 20 to 25% and the disadvantage that the cost to inject steam is high.
Figure 13. Cycle Steam Simulator (CSS) for Heavy Oils
3.1.2 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage is a more recent technology which implies two horizontal wells. Steam injected in the upper well heats the ground to reduce oil viscosity, allow oil to flow down and to be extracted through the lower horizontal well. The SAGD process requires thick and clean deposits, but needs less energy input and offers higher bitumen recovery, i.e. about 70% against 25%30% from CCS.
3.2 Oil Sand Production

Oil sand (tar sand) contains about 83% sand, 10% bitumen, 3% clay and 4% water. Bitumen is the heavy oil extracted from oil sand. Oil sand can be mined from either the surface or by in-situ mining.
Following are some extraction processes: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. Surface mining Cold flow Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Vapor Extraction Process (VAPEX) Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI) Combustion Overhead Gravity Drainage (COGD)
It takes about 2 to 3 barrels of water for one barrel of bitumen. The water however is often recycled. If so, water requirement decreases to about 0.5 barrel water per barrel of oil.
3.2.1 Surface Mining

Oil sand located within a 75-m depth is considered suitable for surface mining. In surface mining, the oil sand is shoveled by large devices and driven to an extraction facility. About 90% of the bitumen is recovered in the process. The separation of oil from sand is done by using hot water and chemicals. After the extraction, oil can be sold as raw bitumen or upgraded to a lighter hydrocarbon called synthetic crude oil. The upgrading is done by increasing the ratio of hydrogen to carbon by either removing carbon (coking) or adding hydrogen (hydro-cracking). The production of 1 barrel oil from surface mining requires removal of at least two tons of oil sand.
3.2.2 Cold Flow

In this technique, also known as cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), the oil is simply pumped out of the sands, often using progressive cavity pumps. This only works well in areas where the oil is fluid enough. It is commonly used in Venezuela (where the extra-heavy oil is at 50 degrees Celsius). It has the advantage of being cheap and the disadvantage that it recovers only 5-6% OOIP.
Figure 14. Surface Mining of Oil sands
3.2.3 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)

Steam assisted gravity drainage was developed in the 1980s by the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority and fortuitously coincided with improvements in directional drilling technology that made it quick and inexpensive to do by the mid 1990s. In SAGD, two horizontal wells are drilled in the oil sands, one at the bottom of the formation and another about 5 meters above it. These wells are typically drilled in groups off central pads and can extend for miles in all directions. In each well pair, steam is injected into the upper well; the heat melts the bitumen, which allows it to flow into the lower well, where it is pumped to the surface. SAGD has proved to be a major breakthrough in production technology since it is cheaper than CSS, allows very high oil production rates, and recovers up to 60% OOIP.
Figure 15. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) use for oil sands
3.2.4 Vapor Extraction Process (VAPEX)

VAPEX is similar to SAGD but instead of steam, hydrocarbon solvents are injected into the upper well to dilute the bitumen and allow it to flow into the lower well. It has the advantage of much better energy efficiency over steam injection, and it does some partial upgrading of bitumen to oil right in the formation.
Figure 16. Vapor Extraction Process (VAPEX)

3.2.5 Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI)

This is a very new method that combines a vertical air injection well with a horizontal production well. The process ignites oil in the reservoir and creates a vertical wall of fire moving from the "toe" of the horizontal well toward the "heel", which burns the heavier oil components and upgrades some of the heavy bitumen into lighter oil right in the formation. Historically fireflood projects have not worked out well because of difficulty in controlling the flame front and a propensity to set the producing wells on fire. However, some oil companies feel the THAI method is more controllable and practical, and have the advantage of not requiring energy to create steam.
Figure 17. Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI) It uses less freshwater, produces 50% less greenhouse gases, and has a smaller footprint than other production techniques.
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3.3 Oil shale Production :

Oil shale resources are generally located at shallow depths. Shale oil extraction is usually performed: i. Above ground (ex-situ processing) by mining the oil shale and then treating it in processing facilities ii. Underground (in-situ processing) by applying heat and extracting the oil via oil wells.
3.3.1 Ex-situ Processing

Oil shale can be combusted directly or converted into oil by retorting, i.e. kerogen heating up to 500C in the absence of oxygen (Internal combustion technologies process oil shale lumps varying in diameter from 10 to 100 millimeters ) . The resulting product is a liquid with high concentration of nitrogen and other impurities that needs an upgrading process. Internal combustion technologies such as the Paraho
Direct are thermally efficient, since combustion of char on the spent shale and heat recovered from the shale ash and evolved gases can provide all the heat requirements of the retort. Hot recycled solids technologies deliver heat to the oil shale by recycling hot solid particles typically oil shale ash. These technologies usually employ rotating
kiln or fluidized bed retorts, fed by fine oil shale particles generally having a diameter of less than 10 millimeters. Externally generated hot gas technologies are similar to internal combustion technologies in that they also process oil shale lumps in vertical shaft kilns. Significantly, though, the heat in these technologies is delivered by gases heated outside the retort vessel, and therefore the retort vapors are not diluted with combustion exhaust.
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3.3.2 In-situ Processing

In-situ technologies heat oil shale underground by injecting hot fluids into the rock formation, or by using linear or planar heating sources followed by thermal conduction and convection to distribute heat through the target area. Shale oil is then recovered through vertical wells drilled into the formation. These technologies are potentially able to extract more shale oil from a given area of land than conventional exsitu processing technologies, as the wells can reach greater depths than surface mines. They present an opportunity to recover shale oil from low-grade deposits that traditional mining techniques could not extract. Wall conduction in-situ technologies use heating elements or heating pipes placed within the oil shale formation. The Shell in-situ conversion process (Shell ICP) uses electrical heating elements for heating the oil shale layer to between 650 and 700 F (340 and 370 C) over a period of approximately four years. The processing area is isolated from surrounding groundwater by a freeze wall consisting of wells filled with a circulating super-chilled fluid. Disadvantages of this process are large electrical power consumption, extensive water use, and the risk of groundwater pollution. Externally generated hot gas in situ technologies use hot gases that are heated above-ground and then injected into the oil shale formation. The Chevron
CRUSH process injects heated carbon dioxide into the formation via drilled wells and heats the formation through a series of horizontal fractures in which the gas circulates. In Volumetric heating radio waves are used to heat shales for oil production. The oil shale would be heated by vertical electrode arrays. ExxonMobil Electrofrac uses electrical heating with elements of both wall conduction and volumetric heating methods. It injects an electrically conductive material such as calcined petroleum coke into the hydraulic fractures created in the oil shale formation which then forms a heating element. Heating wells are placed in a parallel row with a second horizontal well
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intersecting them at their toe. This allows opposing electrical charges to be applied at either end.
Figure 18. In-situ retorting of oil shales
3.4 Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Production

In coal deposits, significant amounts of methane-rich gas are generated and stored within the coal structure. The gas is normally released during mining but more recent practices aimed to capture and extract the gas not only for safety and environmental reasons, but also for economic exploitation. CBM however is typically methane gas trapped within coal deposits that are not profitable for extraction because of high depth or poor coal quality. Coal beds have low permeability that decreases with increasing depth. Therefore, hydraulic fracturing and/ or horizontal wells are needed to easy the fluid to flow through a well. Because of the pressure, water permeates into coal and traps the gas. It is then extracted again thus reducing the pressure and enabling methane to flow out of the coal through the well. In the first stage of production, a large
amount of contaminated water is produced, which is usually re-injected in the formations. Todays research efforts aim to develop techniques based on CO 2 injections into coal bed formations to enhance methane production. The easy CO2 adsorption by coal helps methane to be released and offers significant potential for CO2 geological storage and reduction of CO 2 in the atmosphere.
Figure 19. Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Production
3.5 Natural Gas Hydrates Production

Natural gas hydrates are solid gas molecules surrounded by a lattice of water molecules. They are formed by water and natural gas (methane) at high pressures and low temperatures. In such conditions they are rather stable or dissociate very slowly. At present, in oil and gas industry, natural gas hydrates are seen as a problem rather than as a resource. Formation of snow alike hydrates can damage oil and gas pipelines and cause problems in well drilling. exploitation as an energy resource, i.e.
Three basic methods exist for gas hydrate
i. ii. iii.
Depressurization Thermal injection Inhibitor injection
In some cases, hydrates are located above gas reservoirs and dissociate as the production of natural gas reduces the underground pressure. Depressurization is
therefore the easiest method to extract hydrates and implies a few technical challenges. However, well depressurization does not necessarily reduce the pressure of entire hydrate layer.
Figure 20.Natural Gas Hydrates Production In thermal Injection techniques, steam and hot water are injected into the well to decompose hydrates and generate gas. A challenge in this process is that hydrates are often found at deep locations and injected fluids are cooled before it reaches the hydrate layer. Inhibitors injection techniques are used in offshore natural gas pipelines to prevent hydrate formation. Injection of inhibitors like methanol will dissolve methane from the hydrate and the gas is released. More research is needed to ensure that the inhibitor is evenly distributed through the hydrate layer. Ongoing research efforts are also exploring if compact hydrate structures can be used to transport natural gas over long distances.
3.6 Tight and Shale Gas Production

Natural gas with low permeability (below 0.1 mD) does not flow easily. Low-permeability natural gas is called tight gas when it is contained in oil rock and shale gas when it is in shale rock. This resource cannot be developed profitably by vertical wells because of low flow rates. Production of tight and shale gas require hydraulic fracturing or horizontal wells. Hydraulic fracturing consists of pumping a fluid into wells to increase pressure and produce fractures in the formation rock. In order to keep the fracture open after the injection stops, sand with high permeability is added to the fracture. Horizontal wells techniques provide greater surface area in contact with the deposit compared to vertical wells, and enables more effective gas transfer and recovery of the gas in place. Todays technology is only suitable for onshore production and offers a maximum recovery rate of 20% of the volume in place. These production technologies have significant potential for improvements as there is a lack of basic research on tight and shale gas production. So far, current production techniques have been developed based on empirical approaches.
Figure 21. Shale Gas Production

4. Conclusions
Oil and gas reservoirs present in our earth are main sources of energy, buried underneath or present on/near the surface. Different techniques are applied to get their production, regarded as conventional or unconventional reservoirs. Although recovery rate has been maximized by artificial and enhanced techniques, there is need of new production techniques to get 100% recovery. More over techniques to get more recovery from unconventional reservoirs should be developed.
5. References
www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/oil.../Shale_Gas_March_2011.pdf www.iea-etsap.org/web/E.../PDF/P02-Uncon%20oil&gas-GS-gct.pdf petrofed.winwinhosting.net/upload/IAI/17.../OffshoreoilandProd.pdf www-static.shell.com/static/usa/downloads/alaska/os101-ch3.pdf www.scribd.com/doc/78493539/Oil-Gas-Production-Handbook www.total.com/MEDIAS/MEDIAS.../EN/TOTAL-EORbis-GB2.pdf www2.ggl.ulaval.ca/personnel/paglover/.../Chapter%203.PDF www.scribd.com/doc/30111114/Petroleum-Enhanced-Oil-Recovery www.halliburton.com/public/pe/contents/Brochures/.../H04564.pdf research.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional/10/07/oil.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_oil_extraction#cite_note -koel-18
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