Petroleum seep

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Oil seep
)
Naturally occurring oil seep near McKittrick, California, United States.
Petroleum seep near the Korňa in northern Slovakia.
Tar "volcano" in the Carpinteria, California, asphalt mine. Oil exudes from joint cracks in the petroliferous shale forming the floor of mine. 1906 photo, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 321
Tar bubble at La Brea Tar Pits, California

A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous

geological layers, or across them through fractures and fissures in the rock, or directly from an outcrop
of oil-bearing rock.

Petroleum seeps are quite common in many areas of the world, and have been exploited by mankind since paleolithic times. Natural products associated with these seeps include bitumen, pitch, asphalt and tar. In locations where seeps of natural gas are sufficiently large, natural "eternal flames" often persist. The occurrence of surface petroleum was often included in location names that developed; these locations are also associated with early oil and gas exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments, which have grown into the petroleum industry.

History of petroleum seep exploitation

Prehistory

The exploitation of

bituminous rocks and natural seep deposits dates back to paleolithic times. The earliest known use of bitumen (natural asphalt) was by Neanderthals some 70,000 years ago, with bitumen adhered to ancient tools found at Neanderthal sites in Syria.[2]

Ancient civilizations

After the arrival of

Ionian islands, Greece).[5] Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus[citation needed], one of the tributaries of the Euphrates
.

In ancient times, bitumen was primarily a

Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. In ancient Egypt, the use of bitumen was important in creating Egyptian mummies — in fact, the word mummy is derived from the Arab word mūmiyyah, which means bitumen.[3] Oil from seeps was exploited in the Roman province of Dacia, now in Romania
, where it was called picula.

In East Asia these locations were known in China, where the earliest known drilled

Song Dynasty
coined the word 石油 (Shíyóu, literally "rock oil") for petroleum, which remains the term used in contemporary Chinese.

In southwest Asia the first streets of 8th century

flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.[5] It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.[10]

Eighteenth century Europe

In Europe, petroleum seeps were extensively mined near the

Elisabeth of Russia the first oil well and refinery were built in Ukhta by Fiodor Priadunov. Through the process of distillation of the "rock oil" (petroleum) he received a kerosene-like substance, which was used in oil lamps by Russian churches and monasteries (though households still relied on candles).[17]

Colonial Americas

The earliest mention of petroleum seeps in the Americas occurs in

Peter Kalm, in his 1753 work Travels into North America, showed on a map the oil springs of Pennsylvania.[5]

In 1769 the

Gaspar de Portolà, made the first written record of the tar pits in California. Father Juan Crespí wrote, "While crossing the basin the scouts reported having seen some geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs; it boils up molten, and the water runs to one side and the tar to the other. The scouts reported that they had come across many of these springs and had seen large swamps of them, enough, they said, to caulk many vessels. We were not so lucky ourselves as to see these tar geysers, much though we wished it; as it was some distance out of the way we were to take, the Governor [Portola] did not want us to go past them. We christened them Los Volcanes de Brea [the Tar Volcanoes]."[19]

Modern extraction and industry

Natural asphalt with embedded wood, Pitch Lake, Trinidad and Tobago. Asphalt has been produced from Pitch Lake since 1851.

During the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, oil seepages in Europe were exploited everywhere with the digging, and later drilling, of wells near to their occurrences and the discovery of numerous small oil fields such as in Italy.[20] [21]

The modern history of petroleum exploitation, in relation to extraction from seeps, began in the 19th century with the refining of kerosene from crude oil as early as 1823, and the process of refining kerosene from coal by Nova Scotian Abraham Pineo Gesner in 1846. It was only after Ignacy Łukasiewicz had improved Gesner's method to develop a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available "rock oil" ("petr-oleum") seeps in 1852 that the first rock oil mine was built near Krosno in central European Galicia (Poland/Ukraine) in 1853. In 1854, Benjamin Silliman, a science professor at Yale University, was the first American to fractionate petroleum by distillation. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world.

The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853, and the second in nearby Romania in 1857. At around the same time the world's first, but small, oil refineries were opened at Jasło in Poland, with a larger one being opened at Ploiești in Romania shortly after. Romania is the first country in the world to have its crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics, namely 275 tonnes.[22][23] By the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire, particularly in Azerbaijan, had taken the lead in production.[24]

The first oil "well" in North America was in

, both named for their petroleum seeps.

Other sources of oil initially associated with petroleum seeps were discovered in Peru's

Masjed Soleiman in 1908, as well as in Venezuela, Mexico, and the province of Alberta
, Canada.

By 1910, these too were being developed at an industrial level. Initially these petroleum sources and products were for use in fueling lamps, but with the development of the internal combustion engine, their supply could not meet the increased demand; many of these early traditional sources and "local finds" were soon outpaced by technology and demand.

Petroleum seep formation

Tar seep at Rozel Point, on the mud (salt) flats of the Great Salt Lake.
Re-worked tar on beach at Rozel Point, Utah. The black rocks are basalt: the tar is brown and looks like cow manure.

A petroleum seep occurs as a result of the seal above the

buoyancy force
. The seal is breached due to the effects of overpressure adding to the buoyancy force, overcoming the capillary resistance that initially kept the hydrocarbons sealed.

Causes of overpressure

The most common cause of overpressure is the rapid loading of fine-grained sediments preventing water from escaping fast enough to equalise the pressure of the overburden.[26] If burial stops or slows, then excess pressure can equalize at a rate that is dependent on the permeability of the overlying and adjacent rocks. A secondary cause of overpressure is fluid expansion, due to changes in the volume of solid and/or fluid phases. Some examples include: aquathermal pressuring (thermal expansion), clay dehydration reactions (such as anhydrite) and mineral transformation (such as kerogen to oil/gas and excess kerogen).

Types of seeps

There are two types of seep that can occur, depending on the degree of overpressure.[27] Capillary failure can occur in moderate overpressure conditions, resulting in widespread but low intensity seepage until the overpressure equalizes and resealing occurs. In some cases, the moderate overpressure cannot be equalized because the pores in the rock are small so the displacement pressure, the pressure required to break the seal, is very high. If the overpressure continues to increase to the point that it overcomes the rock's minimum stress and its tensile strength before overcoming the displacement pressure, then the rock will fracture, causing local and high intensity seepage until the pressure equalizes and the fractures close.[28]

California seeps

Diatomite outcrop containing oil that seeps out in hot weather, near McKittrick, in Kern County California.
Oil stained outcrop near Kern River oilfield, in Kern County California.
Oil seep in the Simi Valley area of Ventura County, California

California has several hundred naturally occurring seeps, found in 28 counties across the state.[29] Much of the petroleum discovered in California during the 19th century was from observations of seeps.[30] The world's largest natural oil seepage is Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel, California.[31] Three of the better known tar seep locations in California are McKittrick Tar Pits,[32] Carpinteria Tar Pits and the La Brea Tar Pits.[33]

At Kern River Oil Field, there are no currently active seeps. However, oil-stained formations in the outcrops remain from previously active seeps.[31]

Seeps known as the

Asphalto, two miles from present day McKittrick. Fuel oil for the railroad was highly desired, especially since there are very few coal-bearing formations in California.[34]
The field is produced now by conventional oil wells, as well as by steam fracturing.

The oil seeps at McKittrick are located in

Ventura County, tar seeps are aligned with east–west faulting. In the same area, Sulphur Mountain is named for the hydrogen sulfide-laden springs. The oil fields in the Sulphur Mountain area date from the 1870s. Production was from tunnels dug into the face of a cliff, and produced by gravity drainage.[35]

The petroleum fly (Helaeomyia petrolei) is a species of fly that was first described from the La Brea Tar Pits and is found at other California seeps as well.[36] It is highly unusual among insects for its tolerance of crude oil; larvae of this fly live within petroleum seeps where they feed on insects and other arthropods that die after becoming trapped in the oil.[37]

Offshore seeps

In the

tonnes.[38] When a petroleum seep forms underwater it may form a peculiar type of volcano known as an asphalt volcano
.

The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources published a map of offshore oil seeps from Point Aguello (north of Santa Barbara) to Mexico.[39] In addition, they published a brochure describing the seeps. The brochure also discusses the underground blowout at Platform A which caused the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. It also describes accounts from divers, who describe seepage changes after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.[40]

In Utah, there are natural oil seeps at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake.[41] The oil seeps at Rozel Point can be seen when the lake level drops below an elevation of approximately 4,198 feet (1,280 m); if the lake level is higher, the seeps are underwater. The seeps can be found by going to the Golden Spike historical site, and from there, following signs for the Spiral Jetty. Both fresh tar seeps and re-worked tar (tar caught by the waves and thrown up on the rocks) are visible at the site.

The petroleum seeping at Rozel Point is high in

hypersaline lacustrine environment.[43]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Scientists Find That Tons Of Oil Seep Into The Gulf Of Mexico Each Year". ScienceDaily. January 27, 2000. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  2. .
  3. ^ a b Hirst, K. Kris (2009). "Bitumen - A Smelly but Useful Material of Interest". Archaeology. About.com. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  4. ^ McIntosh, Jane. The Ancient Indus Valley. p. 57
  5. ^ a b c d Redwood, Thomas Boverton (1911). "Petroleum" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 316–323.
  6. ^ George E. Totten. "A Timeline of Highlights from the Histories of ASTM Committee D02 and the Petroleum Industry". ASTM International. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  7. .
  8. ^ Ajram (1992), p. ?.
  9. Saudi Aramco World
    , January–February 1995, pp. 20-7
  10. ^ Istoria Romaniei, Vol II, p. 300, 1960
  11. ^ "Pechelbronn petroleum museum" (in French). Archived from the original on 2012-03-12.
  12. ^ "Mines d'asphalte du Val-de-Travers (Neuchâtel)". Muséum d'histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genève (in French). Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved October 26, 2007.
  13. ^ Le bitume et la mine de la Presta (Suisse), Jacques Lapaire, Mineraux et Fossiles No 315 Archived 2008-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "Asphaltum" Stoddart's Encyclopaedia Americana (1883) pages 344–345
  15. ^ Eirinis' paper, titled "Dissertation sur la mine d'asphalte contenant la manière dont se doivent régler Messieurs les associés pour son exploitation, le profit du Roy, & celui de la Société, & ce qui sera dû à Mr d'Erinis à qui elle apartient 'per Ligium feudum' " is held at the BPU Neuchâtel - Fonds d'étude [Ne V] catalogue Archived 2008-12-17 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ History of Pechelbronn oil Archived 2009-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ ""К сему Федор Прядунов руку приложил…" | ИД НЭП | УХТА". Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  18. .
  19. ..
  20. ^ van Dijk, J.P., Affinito, V., Atena, R., Caputi, A., Cestari, A., D'Elia, S., Giancipoli, N., Lanzellotti, M., Lazzari, M., Orioli, N., and Picone, S. (2013); Cento Anni di Ricerca Petrolifera - L'Alta Val d'Agri (Basilicata, Italia meridionale). Atti del 1º Congresso dell’Ordine dei Geologi di Basilicata, “Ricerca, Sviluppo ed Utilizzo delle Fonti Fossili: Il Ruolo del Geologo”, Potenza, 30 novembre – 2 dicembre 2012, pp. 29-76. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268130832_Cento_Anni_di_Ricerca_Petrolifera_l%27alta_val_d%27Agri_Basilicata_Italia_meridionale
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  22. ^ PBS: World Events
  23. ., p. 5
  24. ^ John Steele Gordon Archived 2008-04-20 at the Wayback Machine "10 Moments That Made American Business", American Heritage, February/March 2007.
  25. .
  26. .
  27. . Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  28. ^ "Oil & Gas Seeps - The Natural and Human Histories of Oil and Gas Seeps". California Department of Conservation (Conservation.ca.gov). Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  29. ^ Natural Oil and Gas Seeps in California Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ . Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  31. ^ McKittrick Tar Seeps. Buena Vista Museum Of Natural History.
  32. ^ La Brea Tar Pits. Page Museum.
  33. ^ McKittrick Oil Field, article by R.L. Hewitt, Trico Oil and Gas Company, in AAPG/SEPM/SEG Guidebook, Joint Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, March 1952, Boris Laiming, The Texas Company, Editor.
  34. ^ Piru to Ojai Road Log, by J.W. Sheller, State Exploration Company, in AAPG/SEPM/SEG Guidebook, Joint Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, March 1952, Boris Laiming, The Texas Company, Editor.
  35. ^ "A Guide to the Insects of the Coal Oil Point Reserve - Flies". Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Sbnature.org). Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  36. PMID 10103240.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  37. ^ Oil in the Sea III: Inputs, Fates, and Effects. 2003.
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  39. ^ [2] California Offshore Oil and Gas Seeps Map
  40. ^ Geosights, Spiral Jetty. Utah Geological Survey.
  41. ^ T.F. Yen and G.V. Chiligarian, editors, Asphaltenes and Asphalts, volume 1, Elsevier Science B.V, 1994. Page 302.
  42. ^ Guoying Sheng, Jiamo Fu, S. C. Brassell, A. P. Gowar, G. Eglinton, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damste, Jan W. de Leeuw and P. A. Schenck, Sulphur-containing compounds in sulphur-rich crude oils from hypersaline lake sediments and their geochemical implications, in Chinese Journal of Geochemistry. Published by Science Press, co-published with Springer-Verlag GmbH, 1987-04-01.

External links