Page 23 - Handbook Of Multiphase Flow Assurance

Flow assurance background 17

Flow assurance background

Prior to petroleum production there was water, and water was produced through wells.
There are reports of scale encrustation of water wells in ancient Egypt water production
system.
Initial small-scale use of petroleum began in Persia and China. Early oil came from natural
seeps, and wells were dug by hand or pierced with a spring pole. One of the uses of petro-
leum was Early petroleum production in Northern Persia, now Azerbaijan was indicated by
Marco Polo and other travelers. By the early 1800s production in the region averaged 80–90
barrels per day.
Large scale production of petroleum did not start until half a century later driven by
increasing demand for petroleum. Around 1853, a modern version of the kerosene lamp
was invented by a Polish inventor in Lviv, then part of the Russian empire and Poland,
and now located in Ukraine. The reliable kerosene lamp created a steady demand for ker-
osene and for petroleum. Today, kerosene makes up just over 1% of refined oil products
whereas 5% goes to jet fuel and 50% to gasoline (DOE, 2017, 2019). Kerosene lamps still
consume as much fuel worldwide as all US jet planes combined. Besides the light, heat-
ing and transportation, petroleum also helped to reduce the hunting of whales and the
dismantling of forests for fuel.
The global production of petroleum kept increasing through the years. The upward
inflections as shown in Fig. 1.9 in the cumulative global oil produced observed around
1860, 1910, 1960 represent technology shifts which came in response to the production
demand. Below in Figs. 1.10–1.14 are few examples of how the use of technology trans-
formed the industry to make it more efficient.
In 1859, the first application of drilling technology and creation of the E&P industry took
place.

10,000
1000

100

10

1
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
0.1

0.01

0.001
Fig. 1.9 World oil produced, Billions of barrels (Azerbaijan, 2017; Geohelp, 2017; Oil150, 2017;
TSP, 2017; US EIA, 2017).