Petroleum Engineering - Essay Example

In simple terms, the task of engineers is to provide a link between ideas and physical reality (Lyons& Gary 12). Petroleum falls in the category of minerals used by people or humanity for many years. For a couple of decades ago, people used materials or minerals where they referred to them by different names such as oil from rocks, shining water, and sweat of devil. Some of the names have been in place for several years such as naphtha and petros (Lyons& Gary 17). In Greek, Petros stands for rock while in Roman it means oil or petroleum.

For many years, surface springs and tar pits have been the only source of oil or petroleum. However, this argument has not been reliable because most people look for petrol beneath the earth’s surface. For instance, during 1859, Drake Edwin struck oil after drilling 69 feet (Lyons& Gary 22). On August 27, the year 1859, United States of America marked the origin of Petroleum and Oil industry (Lyons& Gary 24). Despite the fact that few people had participated in commercial sale of oil, Drake was instrumental in proving that production of oil could occur in large scale.

Analysis of crude oil shows that the composition of crude oil takes has carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur. Carbon and hydrogen forms a big percentage in terms of composition of crude oil than nitrogen and oxygen. In terms of products, crude oil has the following products: hydrocarbon gas, petroleum ether, gasoline, kerosene, light gas, heavy gas and reside. All these products have different uses. For example, hydrocarbon gas finds its use as a natural gas while petroleum ether is a cleaner or solvent (Lyons& Gary 32).

Petroleum occurs in rocks that are of three types, namely sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. The classification is these rocks are according to origin as shown below. Igneous rocks originate from cooling and solidification process of magma in molten state. Magna results from the interior of the earth following eruption process. These rocks form almost 95% of the earth’s crust. They have a crystalline and hard structure with voids or pore spaces. This category of rocks consists of basalt, granite, serpentines, and andesite (Lyons& Gary 34).

Sedimentary rocks forms the second classification of rocks used to produce petroleum. These rocks emanate from deposition of both inorganic and organic matter. Deposition of animal and plant fossils alongside igneous rock occurs in layers or strata. Sedimentary rocks fall further into three types, namely chemical, organic, and clastic sediments. Formation of clastic sediments is through deposition after a series of breakdown and transport. Clastic sediments mostly include breccias, sandstone, sands, gravels, siltstone, and marble.

The second type of sedimentary rock is the chemical sediment that has mineral salts such as sulfate and chlorides. Lastly, the formation of organic sediments is through compaction process by wind, ice, snow, or rain (Lyons& Gary 39). Metamorphic rocks forms the last category of rocks that results from tectonic process in an environment that has elevated temperature and pressure. This environment changes the structure and composition of sedimentary and igneous rocks to form metamorphic rocks. These types include shales, marble, and quartzites (Lyons& Gary 40).

Two groups of theories explain the actual occurrence