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> How do these "established and widely accepted scientific claims" explain why oil wells are filling back up? Rocks are variably porous. It wouldn't surprise m
by eloff 5y ago
> How do these "established and widely accepted scientific claims" explain why oil wells are filling back up?
Rocks are variably porous. It wouldn't surprise me at all to exploit a well until production is low, wait a period of time, and find there's small amounts of newly accessible oil there. Oil could maybe get squeezed out of the surrounding rock by the pressure differential crated by removing the oil in the first place.
I don't know if that's true though, it's just a theory of mine. The success of fracking lends some credence to it.
- dredmorbius 5y agoNote that hydrofracking literally works by using high-pressure water to expande cracks in the oil-bearing rock layer, then wedging bits of sand into the cracks to hold them open. Wellhead pressure (or lack thereof) is another major aspect of drilling and well production. Early "gushers" would spout 100s of feet (30--60m) into the air, spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day. Pressures could be ... immense (I've lost track of a cite I had for maximum recorded, though it was large). Mature or less-prolific wells have far less reservoir pressure and rely on slow seepage through what's actually mostly-solid rock. "Stripper" wells operated by pump-jacks may return only 10--15 barrels of oil per day. As the price of oil (or electricity necessary to run the pumps) rises and falls, these wells are literally turned on and off due to being only marginally economically profitable. Fracked petroleum wells have an operational life of ~10 years, possibly less. There are traditional wells still pumping strong after 80+ years. The First Oil Well, Bahrain, has been supplying oil since 1931, 90 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Oil_Well,_Bahrain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Oil_Well,_Bahrain