Extracting Innovations


Book Description

This book considers the most contemporary innovations propelling the extractive industries forward while also creating new environmental and social challenges. The socio-ecological fabric of innovation in the extractive industries is considered through an integrative approach that brings together engineers, natural scientists, and social scientists—academics and practitioners—giving an empirically grounded and realistic evaluation of the innovations in this sector. It synthesizes a series of questions including:




No Standard Oil


Book Description

In No Standard Oil, environmental policy expert Deborah Gordon examines the widely varying climate impacts of global oils and gases, and proposes solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in this sector while making sustainable progress in transitioning to a carbon-free energy future. The next decade will be decisive in the fight against climate change. It will be impossible to hold the planet to a 1.5o C temperature rise without controlling methane and CO2 emissions from the oil and gas sector. Contrary to popular belief, the world will not run out of these resources anytime soon. Consumers will continue to demand these abundant resources to fuel their cars, heat their homes, and produce everyday goods like shampoo, pajamas, and paint. But it is becoming more environmentally damaging to supply energy using technologies like fracking oil and liquefying gas. Policymakers, financial investors, environmental advocates, and citizens need to understand what oil and gas are doing to our climate to inform decision-making. In No Standard Oil, Deborah Gordon shows that no two oils or gases are environmentally alike. Each has a distinct, quantifiable climate impact. While all oils and gases pollute, some are much worse for the climate than others. In clear, accessible language, Gordon explains the results of the Oil Climate Index Plus Gas (OCI+), an innovative, open source model that estimates global oil and gas emissions. Gordon identifies the oils and gases from every region of the globe-along with the specific production, processing, and refining activities-that are the most harmful to the planet, and proposes innovative solutions to reduce their climate footprints. Global climate stabilization cannot afford to wait for oil and gas to run out. No Standard Oil shows how we can take immediate, practical steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the crucial oil and gas sector while making sustainable progress in transitioning to a carbon-free energy future.




The Energy Journal


Book Description




Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources


Book Description

When the U.S. Department of the Interior released its 1989 estimates of how much undiscovered oil and gas remain in the United States, a controversy ensued. Some members of the petroleum industry charged that the estimates were too low. This book evaluates the scientific credibility of the statistical and geological methods underlying the estimates.




Statistical Methods for Estimating Petroleum Resources


Book Description

This book describes procedures for determining the total hydrocarbon (petroleum) resource or resource potential in a region. Statistical concepts and methods employed in petroleum resource assessment are the subject of the manuscript, extensively illustrated by numerous real case studies. Prof. Lee's computer-aided Petroleum Information Management and Resource Evaluation System (PETRIMES) methodology has been adopted by governments around the world and by major multinational oil companies to perform resource assessment and to predict future oil and gas production. Though this methodology is so widely used, there is no "user's guide" to it, and this book will be the definitive resource for PETRIMES users.




Value of Information in the Earth Sciences


Book Description

Gathering the right kind and the right amount of information is crucial for any decision-making process. This book presents a unified framework for assessing the value of potential data gathering schemes by integrating spatial modelling and decision analysis, with a focus on the Earth sciences. The authors discuss the value of imperfect versus perfect information, and the value of total versus partial information, where only subsets of the data are acquired. Concepts are illustrated using a suite of quantitative tools from decision analysis, such as decision trees and influence diagrams, as well as models for continuous and discrete dependent spatial variables, including Bayesian networks, Markov random fields, Gaussian processes, and multiple-point geostatistics. Unique in scope, this book is of interest to students, researchers and industry professionals in the Earth and environmental sciences, who use applied statistics and decision analysis techniques, and particularly to those working in petroleum, mining, and environmental geoscience.




Unconventional Gas Reservoirs


Book Description

Natural gas, especially unconventional gas, has an increasingly important role in meeting the world's energy needs. Experts estimate that it has the potential to add anywhere from 60-250% to the global proven gas reserve in the next two decades. To maintain pace with increasing global demand, Unconventional Gas Reservoirs provides the necessary bridge into the newer processes, approaches and designs to help identify these more uncommon reservoirs available and how to maximize its unconventional potential. Loaded with reservoir development and characterization strategies, this book will show you how to: - Recognize the challenges and opportunities surrounding unconventional gas reservoirs - Distinguish among the various types of unconventional reservoirs, such as shale gas, coalbed methane, and tight gas formations - Drill down and quantify the reservoir's economic potential and other critical considerations - Gain practical insights and tools to efficiently identify, appraise, and develop unconventional gas reservoirs - Understand various techniques used to analyze reservoir parameters and performance as well as how they were applied to numerous real-world case studies - Upgrade to the latest information on perspectives and insights with discussion of key differences used for today's unconventional gas characterization versus original conventional methods that failed in the past




The "Peak Oil" Scare and the Coming Oil Flood


Book Description

Is the earth's oil supply starting to run out, or is there far more oil than some experts believe? This book points out flaws in the research used to warn of an oil shortfall and predicts that large new reserves of oil are soon to be tapped. In the last decade, oil experts, geologists, and policy makers alike have warned that a peak in oil production around the world was about to be reached and that global economic distress would result when this occurred. But it didn't happen. The "Peak Oil" Scare and the Coming Oil Flood refutes the recent claims that world oil production is nearing a peak and threatening economic disaster by analyzing the methods used by the theory's proponents. Author Michael C. Lynch, former researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), debunks the "Peak Oil" crisis prediction and describes how the next few years will instead see large amounts of new supply that will bring oil prices down and boost the global economy. This book will be invaluable to those involved in the energy industry, including among those fields that are competing with oil, as well as financial institutions for which the price of oil is of critical importance. Lynch uncovers the facts behind the misleading news stories and media coverage on oil production as well as the analytic process that reveals the truth about the global oil supply. General readers will be dismayed to learn how governments have frequently been led astray by seeming logical theories that prove to have no sound basis and will come away with a healthy sense of skepticism about popular economics.




Quantification and Prediction of Hydrocarbon Resources


Book Description

The oil price shocks of the mid-1980s and their aftermath created radical changes in the petroleum industry, and underlined the need for reliable information on petroleum resources. Integration between the disciplines of petroleum geology, exploration geophysics, reservoir/petroleum engineering and economics became a necessity for resource management and strategic planning. This volume is designed to bring together some of the best techniques evolved to meet these challenges. The very broad scope of the volume, ranging from the macro (global) to micro (field and prospect) level, provides an overview of the thought processes currently prevalent in the industry and academia on the subject of resource quantification and prediction.This is one of the first books to cover the extensive assembly of hydrocarbon quantification and prediction techniques - of value to petroleum industry management, geoscientists, engineers and economists. Containing hundreds of illustrations, some in colour, the book is arranged in 26 chapters with a detailed subject index. Many service companies and university departments with links to the industry will also find much to interest them.