Oil Basics

Introductions to oil

Were does our oil come from? A simple introduction to the basics of the origin of oil

Oil News and Statistics
Great places to dig into the oil industry in more detail.

www.oil.com Oil and Gas current new and analysis of the industry. Get up the minute news from around the world about current events in oil and gas.

BP 2004 Energy Review: Statistical review of world energy 2004 produced by Beyond Petroleum. If you were to read one document to get the big picture of world energy current and projected us this would be the one! Includes a look at world energy use of all forms of energy. It also includes digital marketing and forward looking projections. Since BP has expanded, in a serious way, its interests to include alternative energy sources, the discussions of prospects for various forms of energy can be considered a good baseline discussion for comparison with other more obviously biased sources.

Alexander's gas and oil connections: Current news and hundreds of specific notes on oil and gas fields around the world. Some familiarity with oil and gas terminology would be helpful to get the full benefit of reading the articles. This is an excellent site to see a wide range of opinions expressed about the future of oil production from primarily oil industry experts.

Petroleum World: Oil and Gas news with a latin America emphasis. Venezuela is an especially important oil source for the US and so an eye on what is happing in Latin and South America is important for understanding influences on the oil market.

Energy Information Agency/Department of Energy: Most complete site to find information about consumption, pricing, inventories of all major energy forms. For example total energy use in the US can be found here.
The data can be a bit formidable to digest and so what may be much more helpful as an overview are a number of web development Melbourne presentations given by EIA administrators to various groups that summarize the energy outlooks short-term and long-term and by particular regions. You can access a list of the most recent presentations by visiting their page entitled: Recent Presentations by
the EIA Administrator and EIA Staff

International Energy Organization: Check out their worldwide energy outlook for a look at a primarily optimistic oil scenario. This can be considered the global equivalent to the EIA above.

Oil Price History and Analysis: A must read overview of the history of crude oil prices with many helpful graphics.

US National Energy Policy Report: Read the 2001 report presented to President Bush.

Links to Oil Companies and Organizations

www.bp.com: The homepage of Beyond Petroleum. Since changing their name from British Petroleum, BP has moved to invest in alternative energy sources more than any other large petroleum founded company. A great place to get information about both oil and energy in general.

www.exxon.com: The homepage of Exxon/Mobile Corporation. They also have some extensive data about world oil production and energy resources.

www.texaco.com: Homepage of Texaco corporation

www.pemex.com: The Homepage of Pemex the Mexican Oil company that runs the Cantral oil field which is one of the largest oil fields in the world. (note: in Espanol)

Sinopec: One of the largest Chinese Oil companies that is actively looking to drill and recover oil around the world.

OPEC: Go to the source with regards to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Non-Conventional Oil
Non-conventional oil is defined as petroleum that is in the form of non-viscous bitumen, trapped in shale rock in non-liquid form or very heavy viscous oils that require special conditions for extraction. There are many that looks to the large deposits of non-conventional oil (potentially larger than all known conventional oil >2.1 trillion barrels) as a way to make up for potential shortfalls in production of conventional oil. Below are some links and descriptions of the major forms of non-conventional oil.

1. Tar Sands (also called Oil Sands):
Oil that is trapped in material in a thick or hard form called bitumen may be extracted by heating the sand/material and releasing the oil to be collected and processed. There are mobile websites in various places in the world but South America and Canada hold the greatest potential. That potential is indeed tremendous as the oil in Canada's tar sands could exceed the reserves of Saudi Arabia. What is crucial to question of global oil production is to understand the potential to develop this oil source for large scale oil production. Factors such as cost to extract, quality of oil, and environmental factors all must be considered. Below are a few links that provide the basic story of tar (oil) sands and their prospective future.

Oil sands site from government of Alberta. This link is to an overview of what tar sands are and their use.

Syncrude Canada Ltd. is the world's largest producer of crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. A privately funded venture Syncrude produced around 13% of all of Canada's petroleum needs.

WHAT FUTURE FOR EXTRA HEAVY OIL AND BITUMEN : THE ORINOCO CASE An article that describes the Orinoco tar sands and their potential for providing large amounts of oil in the near future.

2. Oil Shale:

Oil Shales is actually a term applied to any rock that contains bituminous material called kerogen which can yield petroleum products when distilled. When heated to high temperatures (500° C) oil can be separated out of the rock. The US Geological Survey has estimated the supply of oil present in oil shale's around the world at over 2 trillion barrels which is similar to all known proven reserves of conventional crude oil. The majority of this oil can be found in the oil shales of the western United States.

Global Oil Shale Issues and Perspectives This pdf contains a synthesis of the symposium on oil shale held in Estonia in 2002 reporting on overall production of oil shale, technical and environmental challenges and future prospects. A very good introduction to the oil shale business.

Non-conventional Oil Books: (Amazon.com links)

Shale Oil and Tar Sands: The Promises and Pitfalls (An Impact Book) by Richard B. Lyttle (1982). Now this is more of a historical perspective of the shale oil and tar sand potential. When written, the oil shales business had just peaked and was steeply declining due primarily to a drop in crude oil prices which made oil shale very expensive.

Shale Oil: Tapping the Treasure by Robert Alden Loucks (2002). This book traces the history of the US governments attempt to develop oil shale in the 70s and 80s. It then looks at current technology for developing oil shale and assess the possibilities for the future. Overall, the author has a positive assessment of oil shales future.

Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale by Andrew Gulliford (2003). Another book that traces the history of the Colorado Oil shale business through the 70s and 80s.