Billion Barrels Of Oil Reserves Research Articles

Displacements in the Context of Social Crises in the Oil-Rich Niger-Delta of Nigeria and Oil-Rich Bakassi Peninsula in Cameroon

The Niger -Delta constitutes Niger's ―oil belt' that lies along the Guinea coast of the country. The region sits on top of about 176 trillion cubic feet of gas and about 35.2 billion barrels of oil reserves. It also accommodates 20 million people which belong to more than 40 ethnic groups. Similarly, the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula in the Western Cameroon juts into the Gulf of Guinea. Adjacent to the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, the Bakassi Peninsula was the subject of a long distance diplomatic dispute between the two countries until 2002. The swampy Peninsula, cut by series of channels, covers an area of 50 sq km and has large untapped reserves of petroleum. Nigeria and Cameroon have disputed over the possession of Bakassi for some years, leading to considerable tension between the two countries. In 1981, the two countries were on the verge of war over the oil rich peninsula. This paper discusses both theoretical and empirical perspectives of patterns of displacement of people as a forced/involuntary migration in Nigeria and Cameroon. This perspective is based on a force- subject-migration reasoning.

Perspective: Big Oil, Rural Poverty, and Environmental Degradation in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is richly endowed with both renewable and non-renewable natural resources. It contains 20 billion of Africa's proven 66 billion barrels of oil reserves and more than 3 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves. Oil and gas resources of the Niger Delta account for over 85% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), over 95% of the national budget, and over 80% of the nation's wealth. Paradoxically, the Niger Delta remains the poorest region, due largely to the ecologically unfriendly exploitation of oil and gas and state policies that expropriate the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta of their rights to these natural resources. The ecological devastation occasioned by the activities of oil transnational corporations (TNCs) have rendered farming and fishing useless, previously the main occupations of these rural people. The people of the Niger Delta are deprived of their share of the wealth on which the entire nation depends; they "benefit" only from compensation for incidents of oil pollution. At the same time, occurrences of oil spills in the Niger Delta region have increased. In this article, it is argued that the ecologically unfriendly activities of oil TNCs, and the state's petroleum development policies, lead to poverty in the Niger Delta, and poverty in turn leads to environmental degradation. It is the dynamics of this interconnectedness that we wish to explore.

The Oil and Gas Industry in Kazakstan

In Kazakstan, there are currently over sixty known oil and natural gas fields, including five sedimentary basins with a potentially large amount of proven and expected gas and oil bearing seams. The largest and best known are the Caspian (Prikaspiiski), South Mangishlak (Uzhno-Mangishlakski), Ustiurt-Buzachi (Ustiurtsko-Buzachinski), Torgai (Torgaiski), and Chu-Sarisu (Chu-Sarisuiski). Kazakstan is ranked twenty-fourth among the world's 55 oil-producing countries by many analysts. It has about 60 billion barrels of oil reserves. Indeed, it has been estimated by many of the same analysts that the offshore fields in the Caspian Sea, which borders Kazakstan's western territory, contain at least 26.6 billion barrels of extractable oil reserves. Yet in 1994, according to an article in Oil and Gas Journal, the government of the United States stated that it “does not consider Kazakstan as the most important source of oil supplies for the United States; however, Kazakstan might play [an] important role in reduction of the [sic] oil price.” Oil is a vital resource for Kazakstan and its extraction will play a major role in fostering the country's future development and relations with major oil consumers. Accurately estimating Kazakstan's reserves, and its ability to sell it on the world market, remains a major concern for Almaty.

Genetic stratigraphy and sandstone distribution of the Moray Firth Humber Group (Upper Jurassic)

Abstract Upper Jurassic sandstones are of great economic importance in the Moray Firth, where 22 known fields originally contained almost three billion barrels of oil reserves. Principles of genetic stratigraphy provide the basis for recognition, correlation and mapping of eight Moray Firth Humber Group units. Genetic unit boundaries, which are biostratigraphically constrained, represent marine flooding surfaces or unconformities that resulted principally from tectonic/erosional episodes. Tectonic evolution in the Late Jurassic consisted of pre-rift and syn-rift phases, with accompanying differences in facies associations and sandstone distribution. Pre-rift sandstones comprise regressive pulses within a predominant overall transgressive setting, a coal-bearing deltaic/paralic succession is commonly succeeded by shallow marine deposits. The transgression commenced in the Callovian in the west and shoreline facies migrated eastwards through into the Kimmeridgian ( sensu gallico ), toward the junction with the Central North Sea graben system. Syn-rift sandstones are mostly turbiditic in origin, deposited during episodic Late Cimmerian tectonism, that started in the late Kimmeridgian and continued through into the Early Cretaceous. Only isolated remnants of the shallow marine equivalents to these deep marine systems have been found to data, such as those of Volgian age in the Glamis field on the Fladen Ground Spur.

LaBarge Project: Availability of CO2 for Tertiary Projects

Abstract Exxon Co., USA is constructing a large gas processing facility northeast of Kemmerer on the Lincoln-Sweetwater County line in southwest Wyoming. The plant will process raw gas from three Exxon operated units northwest of LaBarge, in Sublette County. The LaBarge Field is being developed primarily to recover and sell methane; however, the field is also a significant source of carbon dioxide, sulfur and helium. As a source of CO, the LaBarge Field will provide oil producers in the Rocky Mountain area an opportunity to increase production in their mature fields through EOR projects. A 649-mile pipeline is planned to transport up to 650 Mcfd of CO, to users throughout Wyoming and Willisiton Basin. Exxon's CO, marketing survey indicates potential CO, demand of 4.4 trillion cubic feet in the planned marketing area for enhanced oil recovery. About 25% of the CO2 demand identified is already contracted. LaBarge CO2 will allow Northern Rocky Mountain 'operators to potentially recover an additional one billion barrels of oil reserves. Introduction Exxon's gas plant, scheduled for startup this year, is designed to process 480 million cubic feet per day of raw gas yielding 114 Mcfd ( m = million, G = billion, T = trillion) of methane, and 250 mcfd of CO2. The initial phase of the plant is currently being built and a future expansion is under evaluation. Expansion timing will depend on the economic climate and commitments for plant products. while methane is the primary product being developed in the LaBarge Project, the field will also produce marketable quantities of CO2, sulfer, and helium. The CO2 is being offered for sale to operators in Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, and Canada as an injectant for their EOR projects. Background The well field consists of three Exxon operated units covering over 63 square miles (see Fig. 1). These units are located about 10 miles northwest of the town of LaBarge in Sublette County. Exxon owns an average of 95% (Jan.'86, leased committed acreage) of the Lake Ridge, Fogarty Creek, and Graphite Units. Production is from the Madison, a 900 foot thick carbonate reservoir ranging in depth from 14,000 to 18,000 feet. Structurally the Madison Reservoir is located on a large NW-SE trending anticline. The boundaries have not yet been accurately defined but do extend beyond the three Exxon operated units. The National Petroleum Council estimated that the LaBarge-Big Piney area contains 20–25 Tcf of CO2 reserves alone (EOR, p.33, 1984). P. 249^

Recent Development in Wilmington-Long Beach Unit Oil Field: ABSTRACT

The Wilmington oil field is a broad, asymmetrical, anticlinal structure broken by a series of transverse normal faults which divide the producing zones into more than 50 separate pools. The seven producing zones in the field range in age from middle Miocene (Topanga) to early Pliocene (Repetto). Since the discovery of the field in 1936, cumulative production of the Wilmington oil field reached an estimated 1.049 billion barrels of oil at the end of 1965. Current daily production (exclusive of the Long Beach Unit) is approximately 102,000 BOPD, of which 65,000 barrels is estimated to result from salt-water injection. As of December 31, 1965, total cumulative salt-water injection in the Wilmington oil field was 1.2 billion barrels. Land subsidence has been arrested in most f the field except for a 4-square-mile area at the center of the bowl, where maximum subsidence has been reduced to approximately 0.2 feet per year. Development of the Long Beach Unit (East Wilmington) started on July 16, 1965, when Thums Long Beach Company, under the terms of its contract with the City of Long Beach, spudded its first well, J-146, on the City's newly built Pier J site. By the end of 1965, Thums completed 24 wells (5 are water injectors) from Pier J and was producing approximately 11,000 BOPD. Geologic information from the recently completed wells confirms in general the structural interpretation based on the 1954 seismic survey and core holes drilled in 1962. Some horizontal lithologic changes are evident. It is estimated that 1,000 production and injection wells ultimately may be required to develop the estimated 1.2 billion barrels of oil reserves under a water-injection pressure-maintenance program during a 35 year period. These wells will be drilled from the harbor's Pier J locations and from four drill-site islands. The Long Beach Unit may reach a peak production of nearly 200,000 BOPD by 1970. End_of_Article - Last_Page 649------------