Petroleum engineering: Why is the study of geology important for oil production?
There is a key factor to know where there is oil, and that is that if we know how oil was formed, then we can know which are the areas that are more likely to harbor this fluid. That is why it is key to be able to designate a separate study of something that we could call petroleum geology, that is, a section only to study the geology that can give us answers to the origin, occurrence, migration and accumulation of oil and natural gas, all with the aim of being more effective stages of exploration and production of hydrocarbons.
How can sedimentary basins be analyzed by studying petroleum geology?
Logically, there are indications of finding oil in geographic locations where there is a probability that in the past there was a lake environment, however, aspects such as: “Is the oil field composed of a trap?
Is the oil field composed of a trap?
What type is the trap?
How is the maturity of the oil reservoir?
How is the migration capacity of the hydrocarbons?
When we want to give answers to all these questions, it is almost impossible to get answers if we analyze it with the geological study of oil from the perspective of seeing it only on the surface, that is, we would have to focus our study on the geology of the subsoil, and for this it is necessary that we drill exploratory wells.
A clear example of the geological analysis of the subsurface is when we are drilling and we are collecting cuttings samples of the subsurface rocks, we already know the environment found in the subsurface, but it is only with the drilling of wells that we can study and analyze the subsurface rocks.
In the exploration stage it is very important to study the petroleum geology, since in the analysis of sedimentary basins the geology is present in all the surface and subsoil elements, since we study from which is the source rock, the reservoir rock, the quantity of oil in place and the quality of the same, and the reservoirs containing the hydrocarbon, which in the end will define the completion of a well because of the way in which it is going to be put to produce.
This preliminary study is fundamental, since with it we could know where the hydrocarbons can migrate to, and we can also know the geological faults that form the seal rock or also called producing rock or producing reservoir.
As a conclusion I can say that in the three stages of petroleum engineering such as exploration, drilling and production, I would say that the geological study will be present in the three stages, being very important the geological study in the three stages, reason why a petroleum engineer should always be associated with the geological knowledge in the production of hydrocarbons.
Recommended references
V. Guerriero; et al. (2011). "Improved statistical multi-scale analysis of fractures in carbonate reservoir analogues".
V. Guerriero; et al. (2009). "Quantifying uncertainties in multi-scale studies of fractured reservoir analogues: Implemented statistical analysis of scan line data from carbonate rocks".
A. Amosu, Y. Sun (2019). "A Quantitative Probabilistic Framework for Estimating the Critical Moment in a Petroleum System".