Saturday 15 October 2016

The Techniques Of Oil And Gas Exploration

By Kevin Jackson


Oil and gas are the main components used in gearing the economy of a country. This is because it is highly used in almost all aspects of the economy. Almost 80% of the industries use these products making them heavily used. Nevertheless, these resources can be exhausted and therefore, mining companies have to keep up with the demand and continue looking for more of these resources. Discussed below are some of the ways of oil and gas exploration.

The investigation to find out the presence of the natural resources is important because it is expensive to mine. Companies must be sure that there is something that is worth mining in the area. Mining without investigation can cause a lot of losses for companies. It is because they might end up getting nothing in the area which is a loss and has serious environmental effects to the area.

Before the drilling process starts, the geologists must assess the area and factor in the following aspects- the reservoir, source rock, trap, and cap rock. Once they ensure the factors are present, the mining experts employ various techniques to make sure the drilling process becomes successful. The first technique is the geophysical survey. Also known as the seismic survey. The process involves the measure of heat flow, electrical currents, density variation, geochemical reactions as well as magnetic and gravitational irregularities.

The seismic survey serves as one of the common methods used by the mining experts in assessing if the hydrocarbons exist more so in the deep water surveillance. The method uses sound to find out the level of the rock formation especially in deep waters. Established firms use the vibrator trucks and at times the small explosives to record the sound. They record that using a geophone. That helps them easily know the level of the deposits to know how far or near it is from the surface of the earth.

Another method that is used to measure the areas that can be mined is known as an offshore survey. This method uses bubbles. The bubbles are busted on the surface of the rock that has the natural resource. The sound then travels through the rock which is then recorded and measured. The unique sound that the rock will produce sometimes may indicate the availability of the resources being searched.

Magnetometers and Gravimeters can also be used to get information about the area where the resources can be mined. As their names suggest, they are mostly used to investigate the gravitys influence the area. Geochemical is used to explore the availability of gas underneath the surface

For the mining to be effective, the geologists have to assess the structure of the exploration site. They do this through a method called the remote sensing. To start with, an aerial photograph is taken to map the proposed area. This helps to reveal some important details like the vegetation type, soil, minerals and other features.

If the explorers do not have the necessary information about the area, it can be difficult to know where to get the resources. For this case, they usually do a wildcat welling. It is the only way they can get the necessary information about where to get the resources from.




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