Exploration

Making petroleum and its products available to the world begins with exploration and development. Exploration focuses on finding oil and gas fields hidden deep underground. Oil is formed in sedimentary rocks and migrates through a sedimentary basin's fluid system. Some is eventually trapped in a variety of geologic environments. It is up to oil exploration teams to locate these traps. These teams are primarily comprised of geologists and geophysicists.

Geologists study rocks, minerals and fossils to determine where oil and gas accumulations are likely to be found. They also understand global plate tectonics and how the basins of the world have evolved over time. Geophysicists study the physics of the earth. They often use seismology, the study of sound within the earth, and seismic surveying, the study of manmade sounds within the earth. Saudi Aramco explorationists primarily look for traps found by geophysicists in areas where geologists have determined that oil is likely to be found.

Once a field is located, development begins. Development entails studying a hydrocarbon reservoir to determine exactly how much oil or gas is present and how it may be safely and effectively extracted or produced. The techniques used in development are similar to those of exploration but are usually done in much more detail and can extend over the life of the field.

Saudi Aramco succeeds by taking a systematic approach to exploration. All exploration studies done by its scientists are kept in libraries, even studies that had negative results. Exploratory wells that were unsuccessful in finding oil or gas, called dry holes, provide valuable information about conditions in the sedimentary rocks thousands of feet down. Oil is generally found in a new basin after a long search, which may take many years, so a systematic approach to exploration and good record keeping are extremely important. The science of oil exploration matured over the last century and is now very sophisticated. Exploration and development require computer specialists to operate the powerful computers necessary for processing, analyzing and mapping the vast stores of data collected.

Two other important groups of specialists are the drillers and the petroleum engineers. The drillers are the ones responsible for the actual drilling of all exploration or development wells. The petroleum engineers become involved during the early development of a field after its initial discovery. They are largely responsible for managing a reservoir. In cooperation with, and using the data supplied to them by the geoscientists and those who directly produce the hydrocarbons, the engineers build highly detailed, 3-D reservoir models and input these models into sophisticated reservoir simulation computer programs that predict the current and future production of a reservoir.