CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO OIL FIELD AND

RELATED INDUSTRIES
1.1 General
Oil field engineering and quality control is a course of
study offered in design, planning, procurement, construction, quality control and other
such activities to construct the infra structure required for oil production and distribution.
The involvement of mechanical/instrumentation engineers in such activity is explained
here. Hydrocarbon is the techno chemical name for the petroleum products. nvestigation
of oil storage in earth, exploration, processing !separation and purification" and
distribution of hydrocarbon products requires a lot of technical support and s#ill. Oil field
and related industries need trained mechanical/ instrumentation engineers to suit the
technical support for the above activities.
1.$ %ature Of Oil &torage n 'arth
There are plenty of oil reservoirs underneath the earth and
different part of the earth. (merica, (frican countries, )ussia, (rabian countries and
almost all countries in the *orld have oil storage. n ndia *e have oil storages in many
places. The state of +aharashtra, Gu,arat, (ssam li#e that *e have oil storages in many
places, *e have oil production facilities. n +aharashtra !+umbai" and Gu,arat oil
storages are located at off shore *here as in (ssam it is onshore. O%G- !Oil and natural
gas commission" and O- !ndian oil corporation" are the ma,or companies in the public
sector involved in the oil production. )eliance petroleum is the ma,or oil company in the
private sector. (lmost ./0 of our needs for petroleum products are produced in ndia.
The balance amount *e purchase from different countries in the form of crude oil and
various refineries in ndia do further process.
Origin of oil is the natural reservoirs. t is believed that
millions of year1s bac#, huge quantities of biological matters trap underneath the earth,
decayed and formed as hydrocarbon. Ho*ever *e discussed about the technologies used
to construct the infrastructure to produce oil from natural reservoir. The oil industry in
total can be classified into four ma,or areas and they are as follo*ed.
1. Oil 2ells
$. Oil 3roduction 3latforms !3rimary 3rocess"
4. )efineries !&econdary 3rocess"
5. )elated ndustries !&upporting ndustry"
1.$.1 TH' O6 2'66&
The activity of ta#ing the oil out from the natural reservoir,
the process of separation and purification to final product involves a large amount of
technical s#ill. The oil reservoir exists naturally belo* the ground level is under
tremendous pressure. The geological survey gives information about the si7e, quantity,
pressure and location of the oil reservoirs. ( lot of engineering calculation is necessary to
ensure that the operation is successful and economical.
Tubing and casing are inserted through the drilled hole to
the reservoir and the *ell stream fluid comes out through the tubing due to natural
pressure. The flo* of *ell stream fluid *ith high pressure is arrested using a set of valves
installed at the *ell head, the assembly of high pressure valves at the *eld head loo#s
li#e a 81mas tree. %aturally it is #no*n as 81mas tree as indicated in the s#etch.
Once the *ell stream fluid *ith high natural pressure is
arrested by 81mas tree valve, the drilling operation is completed.
1.$.$ O6 3)O9:-TO% 36(T;O)+&
The *ell stream fluid from the *ellhead is to be connected
to a production platform. The amount of *ell stream fluid from a single *ell is not
sufficient for functioning a production platform. ( number of *ells are connected to
common header using pipes and from *hich parallel connections are made to different
separators.
The process platforms are primary processing units of
petroleum products. The *ell stream fluid is the ra* material and crude oil is the final
product. &ome of the *ells partially produce natural gas also. &ome of the process
platforms ma#e facilities for the further processing of crude oil.
&eparator is the static equipment intended for the first
process. The *ell stream fluid is sub,ected to the separation process and hydrocarbon gas,
crude oil, *ater and *astages are the product from the separator. The output from the
separator is sub,ected to further processing to get final products of purified crude, 6%G,
etc.
1.$.4 )';%')'&
)efineries are the secondary processing plants for
hydrocarbon. nput of the refinery is crude oil and outputs are petrol, naphtha, #erosene,
diesels, 63G, 6%G, furnace oil, bitumen etc. n ndia *e have a number of refineries.
The refineries are distributed in the country based on the availabity of the crude. <)6
!<ochin )efineries 6imited", +)6 !+angalore )efineries 6imited", -3-6 !-hennai
3etroleum -orporation 6imited" are some of them. The varieties of process performed in
the refinery are much larger than the primary process platforms. 9ue to the same the si7e
of a refinery is much larger than the primary process platforms.
1.$.5 )'6(T'9 %9:&T)'&
Other than the three stages of industries explained above,
many other industries are functioning as supporting industries to the oil field. ;or
example static equipments such as pressure vessels, heat exchangers, columns,
separators, reaction vessels etc required for a refinery is manufactured in various heavy
steel fabrication industries. The rotary equipments such as pump= motor, agitator,
generators, cooling fans etc are manufactured in some other industries. &ome factories
manufacture pipe, plates, pipefittings, flanges, valves etc required for the oil industry.
(ll such factories are supporting industries or related
industries to the oil field. 9esign, planning, procurement, fabrications, testing, >- and
such other activities for the industry are also performed by mechanical engineers.