Oil and Natual Gas Production in the Illinois Basin

Since its incorporation in June of 2000, Western Pipeline Corporation has been involved in oil and gas exploration in 5 states including six multi-well projects in the Illinois basin.

The Illinois basin is an oval depression containing Cambrian through Permian sedimentary rocks. A basin in geologic terms is a large-scale structural formation of rock. They are geologic depressions, the opposite of domes.

Three to five hundred million years ago Illinois was a shallow tropical ocean located near the equator at that time. The ocean left huge thicknesses of sand sediment behind which became sandstone. It also left behind billions of seashells. These shells and fragments of shells made of calcium carbonate combined to form limestone. During the Paleozoic Era the rocks were periodically bent and folded. The earth's crust periodically sank, creating the broad, depression called the Illinois basin.

The Illinois basin began as a failed rift. A failed rift occurs when continental rifting (when the Earth's crust and outer layer are pulled apart) began, but then failed to continue. After the rifting episode, the basin began to form as a thick succession of sandstone and carbonate rocks deposited above the center of the rift.

Basins appear on maps as almost circular or elliptical, with concentric layers of strata. The layers dip toward the center. If you look at the strata of a basin the oldest rocks are on the outside and get younger as you go in towards the center. Structural basins like the Illinois Basin are sources of coal, petroleum, and groundwater. The oil producing area of Illinois is part of the Illinois Basin. The Illinois Basin covers southern Illinois, western Kentucky and western Indiana.

Oil and natural gas have been produced in the Illinois basin from Paleozoic rocks. Most of the basin's hydrocarbons have been produced from sandstones, carbonate rocks as well as Devonian, Silurian, and Ordovician rocks.

The first attempt at drilling oil wells in Illinois was near Champaign in 1853. These wells produced "swamp gas" or "drift gas" from glacial fill but no oil. Since 1853, about 155,000 oil, gas, and injection wells have been drilled in Illinois.The first oil wells were drilled in the early 1860's. Commercial oil production began in Illinois in 1905. Most oil produced in Illinois from 1894 through 1937 was produced in shallow areas of less than 1000 feet. In 1937 deeper zones were discovered from 2,500 to 3,500 feet. The deepest well ever drilled was over 13,000 feet deep. Peak oil production occurred in Illinois between 1955 and 1963 with an average yearly production of 80 million barrels. The current yearly production is approximately 10-12 million barrels.

About the Author

Bob Jent is the CEO of Western Pipeline Corporation. Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

Offshore Oil Drilling Labor

Natural oil and its by-products are perceived as valuable commodities across the world. Obtaining this high demand commodity from reservoirs where it has collected deep within the earth proves to be an inexact and demanding undertaking. Adding to the challenge of the oil drilling industry, no concrete methods have been discovered for accurately determining the location of oil deposits. The only way to know for certain if a location contains oil is to actually drill into the ground at the risk of a costly disappointment. What's more, offshore drilling facilities must reach into the depths of the earth underneath the floor of the ocean using specialized industrial equipment to extract oil. Nonetheless, successful offshore oil drilling operations are set up at the locations of producing reservoirs throughout the world.

Oil drilling operations originally took place only on land. Next shallow water drilling evolved, and eventually extensive equipment made offshore deep ocean drilling feasible. Since oil forms from the remains of ancient sea life under intense heat and pressure for millions of years, the ocean bottom is a desirable site for oil exploration. For marine oil and natural gas drilling, offshore oil platforms are set up in the ocean above the location that is to be drilled. Platforms can be anchored to the ocean floor, float on the surface or create an artificial island in the sea.

Laborers who work on offshore oil drilling rigs typically spend weeks at a time at sea living either on the platform or in a nearby anchored ship. Many oil platforms contain amenities similar to those in hotels such as a means of eating, places for sleeping and laundry facilities which allow workers to reside on the rig for extended periods of time. A schedule is typically arranged such that workers stay offshore and work with members of their team for a specified number of days, then return to shore for another specified number of days. For instance, a common schedule is for a worker to stay offshore for fourteen days, and then return home for fourteen to twenty one days at a time. Anyone considering employment on an offshore rig should assess his or her ability to meet the physical demands inherent to the job as well as whether a career with extended time away from home is a suitable lifestyle. Offshore oil jobs can facilitate lucrative careers for fitting individuals.

About the Author

About the Author: Bob Jent is the CEO of Western Pipeline Corporation. Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

United States Oil Consumption

The United States consumes eleven percent of world oil production and imports 60% of this oil from foreign sources. Consumption continues to grow and is projected to increase by 44 percent by 2025. Domestic production is expected to meet only 30 percent of the need in 2025. If these projections pan out this means that we will be importing 10 percent more oil in 2025 than now. It's frightening to think what the price of gasoline will be in 2025 if these projections become a reality. Hopefully, by then we will have alternates sources of energy to meet a large part of our needs.

Consumption of oil by developing nations is expected to double over the next 20 years leading to increased competition for oil exports. China's oil consumption is increasing at record paces every year.

These developing nations will represent 62 percent of the growth in worldwide petroleum consumption. Petroleum consumption in the developing countries was just over one-half of the total consumption of the industrialized countries in 1997. It is projected to reach 90 percent of the total consumption of the industrialized countries by 2020. This means developing countries will be competing at almost the same level with industrialized countries for a scarce resource. The projected world demand of 118 million barrels a day in 2025 would require global oil output to expand by more than fifty percent.

According to these projections the U.S. will need 44% more oil by 2025, 10% more from foreign sources and will have twice as much competition from developing countries in acquiring the oil. At the same time, proven reserves of conventional oil are projected to peak over the next 10 to 20 years.

Various alternative sources of energy are being pursued by oil companies, like Western Pipeline Corporation, to address the issue. Further development of existing, producing domestic oil reserves, exploration and extraction of heavy oil and natural bitumen which holds enormous promise, solar, wind, hydrogen and natural gas power are all being developed.

Current energy policy is targeting eight nations as alternative oil suppliers for increased government investment and closer political alliances: Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia and Venezuela. The hope is that these alliances will help counter the risk of over 25 percent of U.S. oil coming from Arab OPEC states. By 2025, OPEC is expected to be producing 46 percent of the world's oil.

About the Author

Bob Jent is the CEO of {a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/united-states-oil-consumption.html "}Western Pipeline Corporation.{a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/united-states-oil-consumption.html"} Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

Natural Gas Demand in the United States

Demand for natural gas in the United States has more than doubled over the last twenty years, while supply has been flat. The existing producing gas fields are being exhausted. To maintain production companies like, Western Pipeline Corporation, are extracting gas more efficiently from existing wells and using advanced technology to find more wells to drill.

There are many environmental and economic benefits associated with natural gas. Natural gas produces no emissions of sulfur dioxide or particulate matter and much lower levels of greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxides than oil and coal. The impact on water quality is far less also as it produces no solid waste. The cleanliness of natural gas compared with other fuels combined with the high efficiency of natural gas equipment can help reduce air pollutants that produce smog and acid rain.

Natural gas is used in over 60 million homes, 78 percent of restaurants, 73 percent of lodging facilities, 51 percent of hospitals, 59 percent of offices and 58 percent of retail buildings. It's the nation's fastest growing energy source with expected increases in demand of 22 percent by 2030. In 2005, Americans used 21.9 trillion cubic feet while producing only 18.2 trillion cubic feet. The shortfall was met by foreign imports, predominantly from Canada where it's easily shipped south via pipeline. But Canada's natural gas production is also flat. It's expected that Canada will export less natural gas as it uses more of it to extract crude oil from the oils sands in Alberta.

U.S. production of natural gas has been flat for the last 20 years. It's estimated that there is enough natural gas in the undiscovered natural gas resources of the U.S. to last more than 47 years at current production rates. Federal lands contain the majority of this undiscovered natural gas. However, exploration on federal lands is restricted by Congress. Diversification of natural gas supply is possible using unconventional sources, such as tight sands gas, shale and coal bed natural gas.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are expected to make up a larger share of our natural gas needs. Liquefied Natural Gas is created by cooling normal natural gas to 260 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. It's delivered via superinsulated ships and re-gasified at its destination. As demand rises the shortfalls in domestic supply will increasingly be met by LNG. A big reason LNG is gaining in popularity is because natural gas reserves held by the big Western oil companies are growing at a faster pace than their crude oil reserves. The growth rate for natural gas reserves is about 4 percent, while the growth rate for crude reserves is less than 1 percent. There are currently only five LNG terminals in the U.S. while more than 40 are on the drawing board. However, locating LNG facilities is hard because of the fear of explosions.

About the Author

Bob Jent is the CEO of {a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/natural-gas-demand-in-united-states.html "}Western Pipeline Corporation.{a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/natural-gas-demand-in-united-states.html"} Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

Technological Innovation In The Natural Gas Industry

Sophisticated technology is being used today in the exploration and production of natural gas and oil. Technology is offering a huge contribution in providing low cost, environmentally sound methods of extracting these resources. Companies like, Western Pipeline Corporation, use these technologies extensively. The economics of producing natural gas are being improved as deposits formerly considered too uneconomic to develop are now feasible.

Natural gas deposits are being found deeper and deeper in the ground in remote, challenging areas. These technologies make the exploration and production more efficient, safe and environmentally friendly.

The major technological innovations are:

3-D and 4-D Seismic Imaging - 3-D seismic imaging creates a three-dimensional model of the subsurface layers and 4-D expands on this, by adding time as a dimension, allowing exploration teams to observe how subsurface characteristics change over time

CO2 - Sand fracturing involves using a mixture of sand propants and liquid CO2 to fracture formations, creating and enlarging cracks through which oil and natural gas may flow more freely. This type of fracturing does not damage the deposit, generates no below ground wastes and protects groundwater resources.

Coiled Tubing - Coiled tubing technologies replace the traditional rigid, jointed drill pipe with a long, flexible coiled pipe string. This greatly reduces the cost of drilling, as well as providing a smaller drilling footprint, requiring less drilling mud, faster rig set up, and reducing the time normally needed to make drill pipe connections.

Slimhole Drilling - Slimhole drilling is exactly as it sounds; drilling a slimmer hole in the ground to get to natural gas and oil deposits. Because of its low cost profile and reduced environmental impact, slimhole drilling provides a method of economically drilling exploratory wells in new areas, drilling deeper wells in existing fields, and providing an efficient means for extracting more natural gas and oil from undepleted fields.

Offshore Drilling Technology - Natural gas and oil deposits are being found at locations that are deeper and deeper underwater. New technology, including improved offshore drilling rigs, dynamic positioning devices and sophisticated navigation systems are allowing safe, efficient offshore drilling in waters more than 10,000 feet deep.

New technologies and applications are constantly being developed. Two other technologies that are drastically changing the natural gas industry are liquefied natural gas and natural gas fuel cells. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is valuable for the transportation of natural gas because LNG takes up about one six hundredth the volume of gaseous natural gas. Fuel cells powered by natural gas have the ability to generate electricity using electrochemical reactions as opposed to combustion of fossil fuels to generate clean and efficient electricity.

About the Author

Bob Jent is the CEO of {a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/natural-gas-storage.html "}Western Pipeline Corporation.{a href=" http://westernpipeline.blogspot.com/2007/06/natural-gas-storage.html"} Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

What are Oil Seeps?

Put simply, oil seeps are naturally occurring oil and natural gas "springs" which rise from oil reservoirs within the earth and emerge at the surface. Seeps usually contain some mixture of natural gas, crude oil, water and asphaltum, which is a thick substance commonly known as tar. Similar to the manner in which freshwater springs on the earth's surface originate from collected water underground, oil seeps originate from underground collections of oil that have accumulated within porous rock and have been contained by impermeable rock.

Oil seeps occur both on shore and under water, and provide valuable insight about the location of oil reservoirs deep within the earth. Since we have yet to develop a one hundred percent accurate way of determining the location of underground oil reservoirs, the presence of oil seeps provides valuable clues that can reduce the risk of wasted capital for oil drilling endeavors by companies such as Western Pipeline Corporation. The first project believed to have been dedicated to drilling for oil, led by Edwin Drake, took place in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in an area that was chosen in part because of the known oil seeps.

Oil seeps provide a natural resource which has been used by humans for various purposes throughout history, long before the advent of commercial drilling as we know it today. Native Americans are believed to have used resources collected from oil seeps for such purposes as lantern fuel, lubricant for wagon wheels and adhesive for weapons and canoes centuries ago. Asphaltum from seeps is also believed to have been used by such civilizations as face paint and for decorative additions to bowls and jewelry.

Oil seeps on land, though they may only release small amounts of oil and be difficult to see, provide scientists with important clues about the underground environment and the potential of an oil reservoir being located beneath. Likewise, oil seeps in the ocean are evidence of possible oil reservoirs below the sea floor, which modern oil drilling technology is now capable of extracting. Oil and natural gas released through vents in the ocean floor float and collect on the surface of the water, often forming oil covered natural gas bubbles and eventually a film of oil on the surface, making them easy to locate. Over time, large amounts of oil collect on the surface that eventually become visible from satellite images. Combined with information from other technologies, satellite analysis of oil seeps can provide scientists important data about the type of oil that is present as well as the potential for successful excavation.

The presence of oil seeps leading to further exploration has resulted in the discoveries of numerous productive oil reservoirs in the past. Without the natural clues about subsurface activity provided by oil seeps, we may have never discovered oil and its many commercial uses that are so common today.

About the Author

About the Author: Bob Jent is the CEO of Western Pipeline Corporation. Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

Oil HYIP: What is it? Why is it Becoming so Popular?

Why are oil HYIP investments starting to become so popular? The most obvious reason is of course oil prices flirting with $75. Anytime an extremely profitable market emerges, HYIPs in that market are soon to follow. Another reason is because of modern day communications technology, especially the internet. HYIPs tend to be ahead of the curve. Often the basis for a HYIP plan is one simple idea. A few ideas are so simple and so obvious that it is amazing that no one did it years ago.

It's 1985. Reagan is in office, Dallas is the #1 show on CBS, and the American oil and gas industry is BOOMING. The oil and gas investment fraud business is booming at this time as well. Coincidence? Securities laws have changed a lot since then. In those days companies would send unsolicited materials through the mail and cold call to find their clients. A lot of people didn't have access to information and didn't know to be watching for scams.

Times have changed, many of the old methods are known by the public and outdated. This type of scamming is dying out. After the bottom fell out of the oil market in the nineties the major companies like Exxon and Shell sold their interests in small and declining U.S. oil and gas fields and invested their time and money on large, untapped fields abroad and offshore. The buyers of these interests were mainly small, independent, U.S. based firms.

Fast forward to today. In 2007 the emerging nations of China and India (not to mention many other third world countries) are putting away their bicycles and getting into cars or on motorbikes. Oil demand is at an unprecedented global high. Many of the large offshore fields are declining. Terrorism and politics are increasingly tightening the areas that U.S. based companies can conduct exploration. All of these elements ensure that the price of oil will be high for many years to come.

Exploration and production technology has changed the outlook of the industry since the 1980's also. Reserves that would have been considered unproducible or not economically producible are now some of the most profitable fields in the world thanks to modern technology. With high oil and gas prices the private firms who now own the interests in U.S. oil and gas are making outstanding profits drilling and producing their own wells.

A trend is starting in the oil and gas business. Major companies like Shell, Exxon, etc. are buying back into U.S. interests, and private companies are holding out for outrageous prices. Investors who own shares of these small companies or working interest in the wells stand to make obscene returns. Many people are looking for a way in and have no idea where to start. Lot's of people who don't know what they're doing are being scammed out of their money.

HYIP programs have always been around have taken many different forms. All it takes is for someone to have one brilliant idea and the desire and vision to capitalise on it. In the 21st century the internet and digital currencies have marked a new era for HYIP. The capability to quickly and efficiently organize and orchestrate a large global HYIP is now here.

Making money in oil and gas HYIP is not rocket science. Knowledgeable people in the oil and gas industry have been doing it for the last 100 years. The majority of that knowledge has stayed with professionals in the business. A person does not need to be geologist to know what to do. All you need is some common sense and the right information. Just knowing the right questions to ask can make the due diligence process fast and easy. Obviously the most important thing is to know that the people you're working with are honest.

For more information about me and investing in oil HYIP, click here InvestOilHYIP.com

About the Author

My name is Justin Hamilton. I specialize in investment strategy architecture using a broad array of specialized knowledge about many diverse and interdependent financial centers and industries. It is necessary to see a market from a global perspective to make accurate predictions. You can learn more about me and oil HYIP investing at my website.