Oil Location

So, Where Is Oil Found?

Well, if you were to zoom in on a chunk of rock, let's say a sandstone (down to about 0.000001 meters!), you would see thousands of little flecks of stone stuck together with spaces in between them. These spaces are called pores and the term porosity refers to the percentage of pore space to little stones over a given area.

It is within these pore spaces that oil, gas and water reside.

The rock containing the hydrocarbon is called the reservoir rock, and can be a variety of rock types, but is typically a sandstone or limestone. This is due to the relatively high porosities these rock types possess. High quality sandstone reservoirs can have porosities in excess of 25%.

High porosities usually mean higher reserves potential.

Another term used to describe the quality of a reservoir is permeability. Permeability is the measure of the connectivity of the pore spaces to each other. If the pore spaces were not connected to each other, oil would not be able to flow, regardless of whether or not there was good porosity.

Industry experts experience great difficulty (i.e., expense) producing poor permeability reservoirs.

A noteworthy aspect of reservoirs is that you can (and do!) have several reservoirs atop each other, all of which are capable of oil production. Oil and gas, migrating from one or more source rocks (where does oil come from?), , can be trapped in alternating sandstone/limestone zones by clay/shale barriers.

Based on the characteristics of each zone, industry experts can produce oil, with one well or several wells, or decide only to produce from one zone alone

(see oil production talk).

A sole reservoir with a shale barrier, and multiple alternating reservoirs of petroleum reserves, with sealing barriers are known, singularly, as an oilfield.

Oilfields can exist in the ocean, on land, at depths of several miles, or near the surface. They are found in barren locales or in urban areas. Industry travels the world, enduring harsh extremes to find and produce the coveted treasure.

Go to Oil Accumulation from Oil Location