THE SCIENCE OF OIL

[Music] [Applause] some things are hidden from men some things we know beneath the Earth is oil hidden from men to find the oil to bring its power to men our way is science [Music] [Applause] [Music] in Saudi Arabia mountains rise in the west and south the land slopes off to the Lan Plains to the east we know that most of this was once a sea when the world was young millions of years ago there was water over all this and sea creatures were living here and here they died and fell fell to the Bottom of the Sea the sun and water changed them while the silt and mud washed down from the mountains to bury them layer upon layer formed in the millions of years to a thickness of several miles in time the great weight and other causes changed the buried sea life and made part of it oil some layers of Earth are impervious through which oil or water cannot pass other layers are porous within the layers of porous Rock oil can move and water with it in the millions of years the layers shifted pushed upward in places by forces within the Earth forming a geological structure and so we search for these structures in which the oil may be trapped between layers of impervious rock this is what we call a reservoir how do we know because the Rocks tell us we drill exploratory Wells to bring up samples of rock in Saudi Arabia within these rocks we find evidence of ancient sea creatures [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Earth is wind the Earth is deep how do we search for oil we mapped the Earth above with aerial photographs and with extensive and arduous surveys On The [Music] Ground by drilling exploratory Wells to learn the nature of the underground formations we map the layers of rock beneath the Earth the rock is studied and the information charted geologists use the gravity meter to measure the intensity of gravity beneath the surface and the magnetometer to estimate the thickness of the sedimentary rocks we follow the layers of rock by making seismographic surveys spaced apart a row of sensitive instruments measure the time for energy caused by an explosion to be returned from The Rock layers we are mapping [Music] we are [Music] ready the force explodes in a wave of shark bouncing off the layer of rock we have been tracing bouncing back to the instruments we have placed upon the ground at another point the procedure is repeated each instrument registers the shock differently all of this data is written on the paper recording slowly the Earth is being mapped layer by layer hundreds of records are transferred to Maps until we come to know where we may find [Music] oil a structure may not have oil the oil may not be found in commercial quantities or it may cost more to get the oil than the oil is worth here is the oil Derek used to lift the drill pipe the engines Supply the power for the Hoist that lifts the pipe and to move the rotary table which will grip the pipe and turn it here is the bit the cutting tool with the the teeth that bite and grind through Rock to make the long deep hole the crew fastens the bit to a length of pipe the bit is lowered until it touches the earth below here is a special mixture of Clays and chemical compounds called drilling mud the drilling mud system is connected the driller controls the Hoist the engine turns the rotary table the rotary table turns the pipe the pipe turns the bit the bit chews its way downward drilling mud comes down the pipe cooling the bit as it grinds the rock the drilling mud is then forced back to the surface bringing up pieces of rock the rising Mud lubricates The Turning pipe filling the sides of the hole and sealing it the mud is cleaned of its cuting of rock and pump back down [Music] again as the pipe goes down it must grow longer hundreds of times pipe is added piece by piece the drilling pipe is lifted into the Derek Here Comes The Traveling block with the elevators that hold and lift the [Music] [Applause] [Music] pipe lots of things can go wrong bits wear out and break the pipe breaks but men of experience can cope with these mishaps [Music] it is time to line the hole with casing bigger pipes to be joined together lowered and cemented in the hole the casing shuts out water prevents cave-ins and holds the pressure If oil is found experts do this work for it requires a special kind of skill cement is sent down the inside of the casing and forced up between the casing and the hole after the cement hardens the drilling continues core samplings are brought up examine carefully by geologists in the field and by the scientists back at headquarters we are deep now thousands of feet after many weeks of drilling we have cut through a layer of impervious Rock here is where we hope to find oil the bit cuts through the cement this time we are successful we have struck an oil bearing formation the well has deepened and finally completed [Music] and now the bit comes up final tubing goes down this time to bring up oil the drilling rig is moved away to drill another well [Music] all that we see now is a cluster of valves and gauges called a Christmas tree deep in the Earth the oil moves within the pores of rock within the oil is gas under pressure trying to expand the gas drives the oil to the well up the pipe to the Christmas tree the gauge shows the high pressure of the gas and oil we cannot use the oil until we separate it from the gas from the Christmas tree a flow line of high pressure pipe carries the mixture of gas and oil to a separator plant this one is like many others in Saudi [Music] Arabia at high pressure the mixture enters this vessel where the pressure is lower the release of pressure causes much of the gas to separate from the oil it rises to the top where it is piped away the oil flows out at the bottom freed of much gas into a second vessel where it gives up more gas and loses more pressure and finally finally with most of the gas removed the oil flows into the spheroid tank giving up more gas some gas Still Remains in the oil especially a dangerous gas called hydrogen sulfide or H2S most oil in Saudi Arabia contains this poisonous gas and is known as sour crude we cannot ship this oil until we take out the hydrogen sulfide as a safety precaution this is the work of the stabilizer here the oil is piped in at the top inside it descends over a series of trays releasing much gas as it passes down the column to a baffle where it is carried off into a steam heated reboiler the heated oil now re-enters the stabilizer column releasing more gas as the oil descends the hydrogen s IFI Rises and is piped out to a flare where this dangerous gas is burned now stabilized the oil is ready for shipment through the pipelines to the terminal at [Music] rastor for loading on tank ships to be sent to the markets of the world or it may be sent over the long trans Arabian pipeline that crosses the desert of Northern Arabia IIA through the pumping stations that push it along all the way to siden on the Mediterranean Sea other pipelines carry gas from gas oil separator plants to injection plants as production continues there is less gas below the ground to drive the oil upward and the pressure gradually drops we drill special Wells gas injection Wells and send great volumes of Compressed Gas back into the Earth to help maintain pressure in the reservoir so that the oil will continue to flow this injected gas is conserved for future energy requirements beneath a producing oil well where we cannot see it lies an oil reservoir scientific methods help us to determine its shape and size Drillers syn many wells in strategic locations Reservoir Engineers reconstruct and study the oil reservoir and plan the production to recover the utmost quantity of oil from the wells to the separators to the stabilizers to tankers to be shipped as stabilized crude oil to the markets of the world markets developed and served by Specialists and technicians of worldwide organizations [Music] it is sourer crude unstabilized which goes to the refinery at ranura a Refinery that has kept pace with the demands for improved oil [Music] products within oil is energy energy in many forms which we call hydrocarbons oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons hundreds of Kinds in hundreds of combinations which men of science recognize by these forms at Ros tanura we distill the oil and blend it back as we wish to make many kinds of [Music] [Applause] products the process begins here in the crude distillation unit heated oil enters the column of the atmospheric section where approximately half of it flashes into vapor or vapor born droplets which Rush upward the lightest hydrocarbons rising to the highest levels the liquid Parts descend to be met by steam which separates more of the lighter hydrocarbons and sends them upward the napas from which gasolines are made leave the column at the top at a a lower level kerosene distillate the basic hydrocarbons of airplane jet fuel comes off below this we take off diesel gas oil the raw material from which we make our diesel fuel the remaining fraction is sent to the vacuum section where more diesel blending oil is made leaving a remainder called vacuum residuum the seemingly endless process of refining continues this whole system the crude distillation unit produces many products raw products which are used in other units of the refinery from the hydr forer and the thermal reformer comes highquality gasoline the alkal plant produces base stock for Aviation gasoline at the desulfurizer diesel oil is improved by removing sulfur from residuum of this unit come heavy fuel oil and so the work goes on every day every hour around the clock noon Sunset day after day the refinery never stops producing Energy Products streams of products into tanks and back to treating and blending making products for use in Saudi Arabia and abroad gasoline and premium gasoline Aviation gasoline cooking gas household kerosene diesel fuel asphalt paving asphalt tar and airplane jet fuel energy that [Music] flows from many lands the ships come to the peers and into their holes flows this great source of energy stabilized crude oil and Refinery products from Saudi [Music] Arabia the Earth is wide the Earth is deep some things are hidden from men some things we know with all we know we cannot know enough we continue to learn to find great energy to bring this power to men our way is science [Music]