Seismic Imaging

Oil Companies have to spend a lot of money on digging oil. They don't like to waste their time and money on an unproductive spot. There are so many failures in spotting the oil surface.
Seismic Imaging is one of the most important innovations in Oil Exploration helps in reducing the number of unproductive wells and useful to find productive wells.
                            
In the seismic imaging process, an energy source such as a vibrator truck sends sound waves deep into the earth. This relies on the idea that sound bounces off and travels in different ways. Special devices called geophones are positioned on the surface, which receives the sounds that bounce back up and send the information to recorder trucks.
Engineers and geophysicists study the recorded sound waves to interpret what kinds of layers of rock formation lie in that location. This way, they can construct 3-D images of what lies under the surface.

History of OIL

Before the discovery of oil, people used Wood and Coal. People burned wood for Cooking, Warmth and also used as a building material. Wood is reminded as a global fuel for centuries.
In the 18th century after the invention of Steam Engines coal comes into the picture. Steam Engines can be powered either by wood or coal. Comparatively, with wood, coal became the most preferred fuel because coal produced 4 times energy as much energy as the same amount of wood and was cheaper to produce, easier to distribute. Coal has massive growth in the scale of industrialization.                                                     
The oil had been discovered by Chinese in 600 B.C and transported in pipelines from bamboo. However, Colonel Drake's heralded discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 with a well drilled just 69.5 feet deep. The earliest exploration companies began seeking oil for refining into a newly invented lamp fuel called kerosene. This "rock oil" fuel was cheaper than Whale oil and far safer than the more popular but explosive fuel, camphene and the Spindle top discovery oil in Texas in 1901 set the stage for the new oil economy.
Early energy issues included the need for an infrastructure for producing, storing, transporting oil and natural gas. As discoveries grew, the rush for "black gold" resulted in complex economic issues on a national scale, including wasteful over-production, sudden collapses of oil prices, questionable stock promotions and frequent boom and bust cycles.

Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing developed in 1940. It came into application in 1950.

Hydraulic Fracturing treatment is used to achieve adequate flows in Shale gas,

Tight gas, Tight oil, and Coal Seam gas wells. Some hydraulic fractures can form naturally in certain veins or dikes.

In Tight Reservoirs the rocks containing the oil don't have large pores. The oil flow from the rocks is weak and drilling a simple well into the rock won't get much of the oil out.

So to take oil from this Tight Reservoirs and Shale gas Hydraulic Fracturing is used. In the Hydraulic Fracturing, they inject a high-pressure injection of 'Fracking Fluid' like water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents into the wellbore to create cracks or fractures in the rock formations. Fractures can extend hundreds of feet long. To keep the fractures from closing again, drillers send down a proppant, which is a mixture of fluids, sand, and pellets. These allow the oil to flow more freely from the rock.

Offshore Drilling and ROVS(Remotly Operated Vehicle)

As the oil and gas industry moves to a more subsea environment, ROVs will become an even more important tool in drilling, development, and repair offshore. In fact, some ROVs are being built to work on specific subsea developments, with manipulators and tools designed for work on equipment in a precise field. In this case, as the subsea architecture is being designed, the ROV that will handle the subsea work is taken into account, as well, ensuring that all tasks at hand can be managed by the ROV.

One of the technologies that spurred the development of offshore drilling was ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). In the 1970 Oil industry adapted ROV for drilling. Diving in deep water is dangerous for people. So the Military is using this ROV technology to retrieve the lost equipment underwater.

New "Smart material " that can respond dynamically to its environment

Researchers have developed new material by combining the graphene oxide with the hydrogels made
from a natural material seaweed-derived alginate. This new Smart Material is durable and can respond dynamically with its environment used in a variety of biomedical applications.
One Limitation in the use of alginate hydrogels is that they tend to fall apart under mechanical load or in low salt solutions.
The research shows that under the chemical treatments this smart material is capable of becoming more stiffer or softer. It means that this new smart material is able to react to its surroundings. In addition, the alginate-GO retains alginate the ability to repel oils, giving the new material potential as a sturdy antifouling coating.

Membrane Technology is one of the fast growing Technology in Separation Process

Natural gas and Crude oil are extracted from the ground or under the ocean with Pipeline transport extracted oil and gas to refineries. In refining, the Oil and Natural gas undergo a lot of changes that involve the specialized Manufacturing Process. Distillation is an important process in manufacturing. Distillation has 2 types
1. CDU (Complex Distillation)
2. VDU(Vacuum Distillation)
CDU separates the Kerosene, Diesel, Naphtha and Atmospheric gas oil from the crude feedstock.
VDU recover valuable oils from reduced crude.
Membrane Technology represents one of the more rapidly growing technologies that can operate as a "New Trick" standalone process to "Old Dog" distillation technology.
Oil Price volatility, geopolitics and economic uncertainty all contribute towards the continued need to innovate and technologically advance with "New Tricks" if Petroleum and Petrochemical companies are to survive in this highly competitive industry.