PROSPECTING FOR PETROLEUM

you I am oil flowing from the depths of the earth serving man in a thousand different ways I helped Communications on the land sea and our roots of the world worships july four aircraft high octane spirit for cars and latias gasoline locomotives diesel I I am all around you the surface of your road Nepalis upon your floors and the beats on your wall in the protection of your roots in the warmth of your home I fight friction and we're in every deer in every bearing in every moving part i am oil liquid mineral out of which a thousand useful products grow listen to my story the story of my origin and of how men carry on the neverending search to find me well how about it professor oh yes yes to understand the theory of how oil is formed we must know something about the earth in which it is found most of us think of the earth is a solid unchanging mass but this is not the case volcanoes earthquakes geezers and other disturbances prove the powerful forces of heat and pressure are at work within the earth these internal forces constantly act upon the Earth's outer shell or crust causing some areas to sink others to buckle or fold in fact it's something like what happens to the skin of a plum as it wrinkles into a prune while these powerful forces by working from within the earth there are also many external forces acting upon the surface of the earth wind rain snow ice and changes in temperature all combined to wear away the higher places and so to fill up the lower box rivers and streams carry countless tons of loose materials towards the sea age after age layer upon layer this sediment is built up and during the process millions of dying plants and marine animals are buried in the layers or starter these layers of sediment are often several miles in depth and they're gradually increasing weight exerts a tremendous pressure on the lower strata causing them to solidify the smud becomes shale sands become sandstone skeletons of marine animals become limestone the remains of plants and marine animals are preserved by saltwater and petroleum is eventually produced from this organic matter by heat and pressure beneath the layers of sediment the earth shrinks this causes the layers gradually to Winkle or foe during the folding process the oil and water are squeezed out of the strata in which they are formed and concentrated in the more porous layers the oil and water separate and oil forms at the top since oil is lighter than water this is a typical oil trap a dome-like structure or anticline the sort fortress forced the oil to the top layers of harder rock above and below prevent the oil from escaping now yes lightest of all collects in the upper part of the dome another typical oil trap is called a fault often the strain set up in the Earth's crust may cause a fracture of the oil-bearing rock and attention one side may step down along the fault plane under compression one side may be forced up along the fault plane the oil is trapped by the caprock bath and by a layer of impervious rock of the fault plane sometimes I only a see part of the earth and be found on the surface these oil seepage is may be caused by a number of conditions for instance by leakage along a fault plane by fracturing of the cap rock above the dome or by erosional strata of the oil trap oil seepage is a rare and for many years they formed man's only source of oil that the net that's another story yes that is another story it's the story which takes us back about 5,000 years back to ancient beverlyn here men are dipping torches in cold runes of heated asphalt the torches burn with an eerie light while men bow down in worship they think the oil is foolish mysterious still mysterious even a century ago when only the medicine man made anything out of it I'm Louisiana my through the food to see it rained all night they are it was dry some so hot i froze don't you cry for me I come from Alabama will avenge oh don't you cry for me I've come from one step right this way folks chefs folks it's the petroleum panacea that coming drop-goal you means oil that's why we call it rock oil guaranteed to cure dandruff stomachache fallen arches takes the sweet cardigan ease your might even tired on your wagon wheels and during my time wait you can use under the oil which they found on the surface they knew nothing of the great wealth of oil hidden beneath the surface for their candles and oil lamps dependent on oil from sperm whales but every year sperm whales were getting scatter then someone refined a lamp oil it was made from coal oil and petroleum see fridges lamp oil proved to be a satisfactory source of light but as the demand for it increased the sources of supply decreased then one day a mr. George Bissell saw our news item about somebody drilling for sort that gave him an idea if they could grow for salt why shouldn't he drill for oil Bissell's company engaged a colonel Drake and they decided to start work near an oil spring at titusville pennsylvania Drake's job was one that had never been attempted before he was going to drill for oil without benefit of science and with very crude equipment day by day foot my foot and they forced their crude drill into the ground and at 69 feet they struck oil big discovery was followed by a period of wild speculations sites were selected by the toss of a coin some people believe they could find oil by using magic twigs or divining rods a few men made quick fortunes but most last heavily and they easily found oil deposits who soon exhausted there was plenty of oil in the ground but nobody knew how to look for it it was in 1860 that the first serious attempts to discover oil deposits were made by geologists at this time they depended entirely upon surface observations they first noted the layout of wells in existing oil fields observing that there's in a certain pattern were producers whilst others in the vicinity were not they also observed that the successful wells were often in the middle of a valley and that the hills on both sides had strata which slipped away downwards this indicated that the valet was over a dome or anticline the top of the anticline having been worn away by erosion from this geologists concluded that oil was most likely to be found in anticlinal structures for many years surface methods and learn were employed until most of the easily found anticlines had been investigated then with the invention of the motorcar they came a big demand for a new petroleum by-product gasoline when geologists were called upon to make greater efforts they knew that there must be large numbers of anticlinal structures hidden underground but the question was how to find them so they had to devise various methods of seeing into the ground one of these methods is to make tests drillings to obtain samples of the rock strata beneath the surface of the earth by analysis and measurement of these samples the types of strata and their inclination can be determined the microscope may reveal in the samples traces of marine animals that help in identifying the various types of strata in another method the principle of magnetism is used millis trucks contain a proportion of iron compounds which make the magnetic magnetic intensities can be measured with a magnetometer in places where rock strata are deeply buried the magnetic intensity will be weaker than in places where the rocks are nearer the surface the strongest magnetic intensity often indicates the center of an anticline the similar method uses a gravity meter which measures the force of gravity exerted by rocks heavy rocks near the surface will exert a stronger pull than the same types of rock more deeply buried one of the most successful methods uses the principle of sound reflection sound is rather like a rubber ball which rebounds more strongly from say a hard tabletop and from a soft pillar in the same way sound is reflected better from hard rocks such as limestone than from softer rocks such as share or sandstone so suppose we dig a hole in the ground and at the bottom explored a charge of dynamite the sound of the explosion travels down through each layer of rock and is reflected back to the surface inflection from the hard limestone a stronger than the reflection from the softer sandstone and shale to detect these very small differences in sound volume a seismometer is used and since sound always travels at a certain known speed we can determine the depth of each layer of rock from experience we can identify each layer of rock by the intensity of its sound reflection the seismograph records a wiggle for each of the various reflected sounds in the order in which they reach the surface the wiggles from the layers of limestone are much more pronounced than the others also by recording the time each son takes to reach the surface we can calculate the depths of the various strata thus by creating several explosions short distances apart the geologists can form a picture of the underground rock formations today although sources of science from soil analysis to aerial survey of the geologists but the geologists can only point out land which might yes I am oil after being almost ignored for thousands of years I have grown in a century to become one of the world's biggest industries from Colonel Drake screwed well producing a few barrels a day to an enormous output of millions of barrels a day from a hit or miss for suit on the part of the adventures and few to a vast highly organized industry employing millions of people Pro luminance by products have become an indispensable feature of civilian and industrial life it takes a lot of oil to fill the world's everyday needs welcome to hound how much oil remains Wow well millions of acres of land remain unexplored many producing areas are not yet fully developed natural gas coal and shale are possible sources of petroleum has yet unneeded to keep pace with the ever increasing demand the search for new oil fields must go on this is the challenging responsibility of those who form the oil industry you