Travel the Oregon Trail

Did you know that you can not pump your own gas in Oregon? Did you know that there is no sales tax in Oregon? Well...I just spent the last week in Oregon on a lacrosse trip and found out many new things about the northwest coast.  It rains a lot during the spring or maybe all the time! But, as I drove through the state of Oregon as a young geologist, I noticed that there was a massive amount of Basalt.  As a petroleum geologist, I wondered if there is any gas and oil production in the state of Oregon, and if there is, where are they producing?

(The Greatest Game for Computer, early 1990s)

Apparently, according to the Bureau of Land Management, there are no active drilling or exploration sites in Oregon.  There are multiple lease sales though for the potential exploration to take place.  The thick basalt flows could potentially be a good seal for marine type reservoirs below, but drilling through basalt is very costly.  Maybe in the near future "when" oil and gas prices increase more exploration drilling will take part in the State of Oregon.  Another thought was drilling and production offshore of Oregon, but the Oregon state House bill 3613 bans offshore Oregon coast drilling until year 2020.  With no sales tax and no domestic petroleum production where does Oregon collect for its states financial needs? ...it must be from all the tourist going to Crater Lake :)

A Day in the Life

All of us at school run into the days, weeks, of work on a single project and lose connection with the rest of the world.  We spend countless hours working days and nights, exhausting our bodies and minds.  Lately, the past eight weeks, I have spent a large portion of my life working on a project for an international competition in the Great Bight Basin, Australia.  The competition is call the Imperial Barrel Award sponsored by AAPG.  This Thursday the team and I will be presenting our investigation of oil prospective properties in the basin for a school review.  The region competition will be on March 19, and then the international competition in Houston will be on April 9, 2011.

The Bight Basin is a highly prospective area for oil and gas exploration.  There has only been a few unsuccessful well drilled in the basin; therefore, most of the exploration is done through seismic data.  Our Team and other teams are evaluating this basin for the best locations to drill the next well.  We are mapping multiple units that have the potential to act as a reservoir and areas that contain all the petroleum elements and systems for hydrocarbon potential.   This article (Regional Geology of the Bight Basin) is a good source about the geology of the basin and exploration history.  With that being said...I hope the team and I find the best spot, and we find the billion dollar well.

Dont Miss the Boat

With all the recent activity around the globe and conflicts going on in the eastern countries, there will be a decreasing of oil supply importing into the United States.  Some of these countries (such as Libya and Egypt) have some of the largest oil fields and reserves known in the world.  With that being said, it is important to recognize the importance of domestic oil and start targeting oil reserves in the United States to keep our oil prices within reason. Below is a movie from Thomas Petrie, Vice Chairman of Bank of America, talking about the opportunities in US Shale oil right now. He also discusses about investment opportunities into medium and smaller companies that are focusing on these shale plays today.  Please take a look at the video...I would like to here your thoughts on it with the current situations of higher oil prices relative to the conflicts going on in the east right now. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jSLTvVMTSc

"Shale Oil Plays Blog"

So...This Shale Oil Plays Blog discusses about new oil discoveries in shale oil and gas, providing maps and additional information.  One of the recent post (U.S. Shale Plays Not Just About Natural Gas But Oil As Well) talks about how some of the shale formations in the United States are not just capable of producing gas (biogenic) but are mature enough to produce oil. 

The article discusses that most of the shale formation contain kerogen and some bitumen (oil).  Kerogen is simply a solid material that is insoluble organic matter which is a diagenetic alteration product of organic material laid down with sediments.  Bitumen is the fraction of the organic matter in sedimentary rocks which is soluble in organic solvents.  One of the diagrams below shows the three types of kerogen and different types of petroleum.  The other one shows you relativily the amount of bitumen in a shale rock. 

Therefore, to convert the the kerogen to bitumen it must be heated up or thermally matured.  The petroleum industry is starting to find certain shale plays (such as the Eagle Ford) which contain a higher amount of bitumen than kerogen due to being at a deeper depth and mature level.  

But, you also have to think about being over mature?  If the formation is too deep, it could possibly pass the oil window and fall into a gas generation window.  The Van Krevelen Diagram below shows the maturation paths of the three different types of kerogen. The diagram shows the path ways through Diagenesis-Catagenesis-Metagenesis of the three types of kerogen.  (The diagrams were provided by Dr. Curtis, Colorado School of Mines)

With an understanding of oil generation, companies can target more oil prone shale formations while the price of oil is high. 

Volatile Natural Gas Market...(follow up)

To follow up with a comment on a previous post about the volatility in the natural gas market, the Wall Street Journal published are article called Big Oil Bangs the Drum for Natural Gas.  This article discusses how companies have done a good job providing natural gas reserves for the future of energy, but they also point out the fact that the boom in production has created a "global gas glut", possibly lasting until 2020, keeping the prices at a low.  And therefore if the United States produces such a large supply of natural gas, exporting might be a good idea?

Looking at the environmental benefits of natural gas, the world should take advantage of the low prices and high supply, creating a shift in energy consumption.  Coal is cheap and abundant but natural gas is cleaner.  Unlike oil though, there has to be an infrastructure in place to transport gas, pipelines must be installed. So what are the dis-advantages to use natural gas more?

From a business perspective, the market for natural gas can be very risky right now in the short run.  The potential for a quality long term investment would be a good idea. The future for natural gas looks good.

As stated in the article, "In its 2030 energy forecast last month, ExxonMobil predicted a shift toward natural gas by businesses and governments precisely because it is so reliable and affordable."

Bring the Gulf Back to Life

Since the BP oil spill is a hot topic in class recently and up for discussion the rest of the semester, drilling in the gulf is still at a halt due to the offshore accident.  A lot of people do not realize that the gulf is a major asset to our domestic oil and job market in the petroleum industry.  The moratorium has been lifted to start drilling in the gulf, but the issuing of new permits has not started.  Therefore, drilling companies are only able to finish any existing projects and most companies are just sitting still (some have even sent there drill ships and rigs to other countries).  The video below is with ATP CEO, who discusses the status of drilling in the gulf and the return to normalcy. 

The BP oil spill was a tragic event and specifically to the offshore regions of the petroleum industry.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future to offshore drilling. A large number of conventional plays in today's world are being drilled in offshore and shelf environments.  If the U.S. continues to restrict the permitting of drilling in the deeper sea horizons, there might be a large influx in price and supply of oil.

Self Evaluation

For the first evaluation period, I have posted just above the minimum number of post (9) and have commented on multiple other blogs (10-12).  I have also responded to many comments on my blog within a reasonable time.  For never blogging before, I feel that my blogs has started to move away from the deficit model to more interaction from the audience with questions and changing of writing style.  I have used multi-media tools (photos and videos) to build my posts with visual aids.  I have also always linked my posts to publish articles related to the material if necessary.  I use recent events and ideas to attract and engage an audience who want to stay up to date with the technology and science about shale oil and gas. My posts are written at a manageable length and the information is organized for my audience.  One thing that I need to work on is the frequency of my posts, making sure I am posting throughout the week.  If I have to give myself a grade it would be around a "B" right now.