The Basic Steps Of Oil Production


by Mayoor Patel - Date: 2007-04-01 - Word Count: 402 Share This!

Oil production is the process of locating, drilling, extracting, and refining crude oil into gasoline and other products. The production of oil literally drives modern economies. Most industries depend on crude oil products in some fashion. Manufacturers need oil as a raw material and to operate the factories. The transportation industry needs oil to fuel trucks and airplanes. Consumers need oil and gasoline to commute to their jobs. The production of oil is a highly complex process requiring several important steps.

Oil is a thick hydrocarbon mixture that naturally occurs beneath the ground. Geologists speculate that crude oil is formed when ancient deposits of organic materials were buried. Millennia of heat and pressure transform this ancient plant material into crude oil. Unfortunately this oil cannot be produced simply by digging! This crude oil is often trapped within rock layers miles beneath the ground.

Production of oil cannot begin until it is found. There are several methods of oil exploration. Sometimes oil naturally seeps to the surface, suggesting that more lies beneath. Test wells can be drilled, but this is expensive and time consuming. Gravity and magnetic surveys are initially used to locate areas of interest to oil producers. Seismic surveys are then used to detect features in deep rock formations that might contain oil. Much like radar or ultrasound, vibrations are directed into the rock formations. The reflected waves give a rough idea of the geology of the area.

The oil's production continues by drilling down to the oil deposit. Oil drilling is an expensive and time consuming process, especially during offshore drilling. Extremely hard drill bits are rotated downward into the rock strata to form a continuous hole. Oil workers continuously add extensions to the drilling pipe until the drill head reaches the desired depth. Oil production continues as the well is capped and the crude oil is brought to the surface.

Crude oil is a mixture of thousands of chemicals which must be separated, or refined, into more useful parts. Production continues in a refinery, which performs this separation process. Distillation is often used in crude production. During distillation, the crude oil is gradually heated. Different fractions boil at different temperatures, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and so on. As each crude oil fraction boils off, the vapors are captured and condensed into a pure product. This simplified oil production scenario concludes with the transportation the various fuels and products to their markets.


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Mayoor Patel is the writer for the website http://oil-production.oil-universe.com/. Please visit for information on all things concerned with Oil Production

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