INTRODUCTION

Department of Petroleum Engineering

Faculty of Technical Engineering

Bright Star University

Mohammed Abdelsalam 1
 What is Petroleum Engineering?
 What Does Petroleum Mean?
 Generation of Petroleum
 Chemical Composition of Petroleum
 Petroleum Products
 Fractional Distillation
 The First Oil Wells
 Libya:
* History * Oil & Gas Industry * Oil reserve * NOC * Overview
 Petroleum literally means ‘rock oil’. The word comes
from the Greek word ‘petra’ (meaning ‘rock’) and the
Latin word ‘oleum’ (meaning ‘oil’).
 The word petrol is a shortened version of ‘petroleum’.
 Petroleum products are all the substances made from
petroleum.
 Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply
oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black
liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons,[1] and
is found in geological formations. The name
petroleum covers both naturally occurring
unprocessed crude oil and petroleum
products that consist of refined crude oil.
 Petroleum is primarily recovered by oil drilling.
Drilling is carried out after studies of structural
geology, sedimentary basin analysis, and
reservoir characterization. Unconventional
reserves such as oil sands and oil shale exist
 an engineering discipline concerned with the activities
related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can
be either crude oil or natural gas.
 considered as upstream sector of the oil and gas
industry, which are the activities of finding and
producing oil and gas.
 A petroleum engineer is involved in nearly all stages of
oil and gas field evaluation, development and
production. The goal of a petroleum engineer is to
maximise hydrocarbon recovery at a minimum cost
while maintaining a strong emphasis on reducing all
associated environmental problems.
 Petroleum engineers are divided into several groups:
 Petroleum geologists find hydrocarbons by analysing
subsurface structures with geological and geophysical
methods.
 Reservoir engineers work to optimize production of oil
and gas via proper well placement, production levels,
and enhanced oil recovery techniques.
 Drilling engineers manage the technical aspects of
drilling exploratory, production and injection wells. It
also include mud engineer who manage the quality of
drilling fluid.
 Production engineers, including subsurface engineers,
manage the interface between the reservoir and the
well, including perforations, sand control, downhole flow
control, and downhole monitoring equipment; evaluate
artificial lift methods; and also select surface equipment
that separates the produced fluids (oil, gas, and water).
 The largest professional society for petroleum
engineers and publishes much information concerning
the industry.
 Employer:
 Government
 Oil Company.
 Service Company.
 Supporting Company.
 Academic
 Others
 Location:
 Office
 Onland Oil Rig
 Offshore Oil Rig
 Offshore Production Platform
 The oil we find underground is called crude oil.
 Crude oil is made of a mixture of different chemicals
called hydrocarbons. These were produced when tiny
plants and animals decayed under layers of sand and
mud.
 Crude oil doesn't always look the same – it depends where
it comes from.
 Sometimes it is almost colourless, or it can be thick and
black. But crude oil usually looks like thin, brown treacle.
 When it comes out of a well (especially an undersea well),
the crude oil is often mixed with gases, water and sand.
 Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, toxic,
flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of
hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other
organic compounds, that are found in geologic
formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is
recovered mostly through oil drilling. It is refined and
separated, most easily by boiling point, into a large
number of consumer products, from gasoline and
kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to
make plastics and pharmaceuticals.
 Tiny animals and plants that live in the
sea are called plankton.
 The plankton that lived in hundreds of
millions years ago made our crude oil.
 When they died they sank to the bottom
and slowly got buried by sand and mud.
 Over millions of years, the dead animals
and plants got buried deeper and deeper.
 The heat and pressure gradually turned
the mud into rock and the dead animals
and plants into oil and gas.
 Oil is trapped in special (rare) geological structures
 Most of the oil in the world comes from a few large wells
 About one in ten exploratory drillings strike oil
◦ and this in places known to be oil-rich: get nothing in most of
world
Q Spring 2013 13
 Crude oil is a mixture of
hydrocarbons.
 They are often chains of carbon
atoms with hydrogens attached.
 The longer chains have higher
boiling points, so they can be
separated by distillation.
 The simplest groups are the alkanes
and alkenes. They all end with 'ane'
and 'ene' respectively. meth = 1 carbon, eth =
 The first bit of their name depends 2, prop = 3, but = 4, pent
on the number of carbon atoms. = 5, hex = 6.
 Petroleum generation takes place in source rocks,
which may be defined as organic rich, fine grained
sediments deposited under low energy, reducing
conditions.
 Most commonly, petroleum source rocks containing a
minimum of 0.3% to 0.5% by weight of organic matter.
 Preservation of the organic matter is the key to the
development of potential source rocks.
 The environment of source rock deposition is therefore
characterised by a relatively deep, unagitated (low
energy) body of water with an oxygen starved bottom
but abundant life at the surface.
 The non-hydrocarbon organic matter (kerogen) is the
major source of oil and gas deposits.
 The generation of hydrocarbons from the source material
depends primarily on the temperature to which the organic
material is subjected. Hydrocarbon generation appears to
be negligible at temperatures less than 150oF (65oC) in the
subsurface and reaches a maximum within the range of
225o to 350oF (107o and 176oC), the “hydrocarbon window”.
Increasing temperatures convert the heavy hydrocarbons
into lighter ones and ultimately to gas. However, at
temperatures above 500oF (260oC), the organic material is
carbonized and destroyed as a source material.
Consequently, if source beds become too deeply buried no
hydrocarbons will be produced. (Wikipedia)
 Petroleum is primarily composed of hydrocarbons, which are
molecules made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The specific
chemical composition can vary, but generally includes:

 1. **Alkanes (Paraffins):** Saturated hydrocarbons with single bonds

between carbon atoms.
 2. **Cycloalkanes (Naphthenes):** Saturated hydrocarbons with
carbon atoms forming a ring structure.

 3. **Aromatics:** Hydrocarbons with a ring structure containing

alternating double bonds, such as benzene.

 4. **Olefins (Alkenes):** Hydrocarbons with at least one double bond

between carbon atoms.

 Apart from hydrocarbons, petroleum may also contain trace amounts

of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and metals. The precise composition varies
across different crude oils, influencing their properties and
applications in refining processes.
 Fractional distillation splits the crude oil into simpler
mixtures called fractions. The different fractions are
taken out of the still at different levels.
 This happens in a distillation tower (which we shorten
to still).
 The crude oil is heated in a furnace to about 370°C and
is pumped into the bottom of a distillation tower. Most
of the hydrocarbons are gaseous, though the very thick
ones are still a liquid even at this temperature.
 The tower is like a giant heat
exchanger - it removes heat from
the gases as they rise up it. The
temperature falls to 20°C by the
time the vapours reach the top.
 The vapours condense as they
rise up the tower. The heavier
ones (with higher boiling points)
condense first. The thinner, runny
ones get further up the tower
before they condense. And the
gases pass out of the top.
 A distillation tower splits crude
oil into separate fractions.
 Each fraction is a mix of
hydrocarbons. Each fraction
has its own range of boiling
points and comes off at a
different level in the tower.
 In reality, a single tower could
not cover the full range of
temperatures needed to split
up the heavier fractions.
 Libya has attracted hydrocarbon exploration
since 1956, when the first wildcat oil well was
drilled onshore in the Sirte Basin. Libya
granted multiple concessions to Esso, Mobil,
ENI, Texas Gulf, and others, resulting in major
oil discoveries by 1959.
 The drilling of oil wells in Libya was first authorised by
the Petroleum Law of 1955.[8] The National Oil
Corporation is the largest oil company of Libya .

 [9] Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the
ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels (6.60
× 10 9 m 3 ) (or 3% of world oil reserves in 2007
 The National Oil Corporation NOC; Arabic: ‫المؤسسة الوطنية‬
‫ للنفط‬is the national oil company of Libya. It dominates
Libya's oil industry, along with a number of smaller
subsidiaries, which combined account for around 70% the
country's oil output of NOC's subsidiaries, the largest oil
producer is the Waha Oil Company (WOC), followed by
the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), Zueitina Oil
Company (ZOC), and Sirte Oil Company (SOC).
 Libya is a member of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and holds the largest
proven oil reserves in Africa (followed by Nigeria and
Algeria), 41.5 Gbbl (6.60×109 m3) as of January 2007,
up from 39.1 Gbbl (6.22×109 m3) in 2006. About 80%
of Libya's proven oil reserves are located in the Sirte
Basin Province, which accounts for 90% of the
country's oil output.
Thank you