The phrase "oil production" has long been firmly entrenched in the global vocabulary and, to a large extent, has become a symbol of the modern era. Today, this product of the earth’s bowels, along with its eternal satellite - natural gas, is a practically uncontested foundation of world energy.
The problem is added by the fact that the reserves of this unique combustible substance are irreplaceable. The reason for most wars of the past and present centuries is precisely oil production, which sometimes develops from a tough competitive economic struggle into armed clashes of various sizes and intensity.
In addition, over the past two decades, passions have been fueled by numerous authoritative analysts, who have frightened gloomy forecasts by the world community that there will be enough oil reserves on the planet for a maximum of fifty years. But, despite this, today the world's oil production is almost equivalent to its use. And the reserves of this overvalued product do not even think to be exhausted.
So what is this “apple of discord"? Oil is, from the point of view of chemistry, a natural oily liquid, consisting of various hydrocarbons of the most diverse molecular structure, on which, in fact, the grade of "black gold" and the quality of the product depend. Oil molecules can be long, branched, short, closed in rings or multi-ring carbon atomic chains.
In addition to carbon, oil also contains oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen compounds. True, in very small quantities. In total, the composition of oil can contain up to a thousand different components. This product, which is the most complex in structure and valuable for the energy industry, accumulates in the strata of porous rocks, which are called reservoirs.
The best reservoirs, a kind of natural reservoirs, are sandstone strata encased in impermeable rocks (various types of clay and shale), which prevent the leakage of the product from this natural oil storage. Accordingly, in such conditions, oil production is greatly facilitated.
Due to its incredible energy intensity and extremely high transportability, this gift of the earth’s bowels in the early twentieth century took a leading place in the energy industry. With the development of science and technical disciplines, oil has been widely used in almost all spheres of human activity.
An interesting fact is that the cost of oil production is much lower than, say, coal. But its energy value is disproportionately higher. It is difficult on our planet to find a product that would play such a grandiose role in the development of human civilization as “black gold”.
The technology of oil production directly depends on the geological features of the field and individual conditions of occurrence of the product. The beginning of field development is always preceded by exploration and evaluation of the economic profitability of oil production. Currently, oil production is carried out by the fountain method, tubing, gas lift, as well as the method of hydrodynamic modeling and many others.