More petroleum holdings US

Petroleum

The UK petroleum industry, also referred to as downstream, consists of over 200 companies involved in the refining, distribution and marketing of petroleum products. They range from large, multinational oil companies, supermarket chains and independent retail groups, through to the independent retailer with a single site.

The main product of the downstream industry is transport fuel. This market is split into commercial and retail. The commercial market includes power generators, industrial, transport and agriculture customers, independent fuel distributors, the government and its agencies, public services and the military. The retail market covers fuels mainly sold from high street filling stations. The downstream petroleum industry employs over 150,000 people directly, and several thousands of contract workers. The workforce is mainly employed in stabilising, refining and manufacturing, and in forecourt retailing activities.

Environmental concerns

Increased public concerns about environmental disasters and the effects of fossil fuels on global warming have sharpened the industry’s focus on environmental and safety issues. As the demand for energy grows so do concerns about the impact on the environment.

The UKOOA Sustainability Strategy Update and Progress Report 2005 details the industry’s progress in developing and implementing a sustainability strategy, and the Offshore Oil and Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2005, indicate that protection of the environment is high on the agenda of all oil companies. Environmental management now forms a key part of the decision-making process.

Recent improvements include:

• use of ultrasonic leak detection to reduce gas flare losses;
• introduction of more thermally efficient power plants on platforms;
• installation of simultaneous steam and electricity production facilities in refineries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions;
• work with conservation organisations to preserve habitats that will allow species to flourish;
• investments in new technology to maximise output from existing fields.

The offshore industry produces 80% of the UK’s primary energy. It also generates 3% of the country’s carbon dioxide and methane emissions

Politics of Alternative fuels

Vinod Khosla (a well known invester in IT firms and alternative energy) argues[19] that the political interests of environmental advocates, agricultural businesses, energy security advocates (such as ex-CIA director James Woolsey) and automakers, are all aligned for the increased production of ethanol. He pointed out that from 2003 to 2006, ethanol fuel in Brazil has replaced 40% of its gasoline consumption while flex fuel vehicles went from 3% of car sales to 70%. Brazilian ethanol, which is produced using sugarcane, reduces green house gases by 60-80% (20% for corn produced ethanol). Khosla also says that ethanol is about 10% cheaper per given distance. There are currently ethanol subsidies in the United States but they are all blender’s credits, meaning the oil refineries receive the subsidies rather than the farmers. There are indirect subsidies due to subsidising farmers to produce corn. Vinod says after one of his presentations in Davos, a Senior Saudi oil official came up to him and threatened: “If biofuels start to take off we will drop the price of oil.”[20] Since then, Vinod has come up with a new recommendation that oil should be taxed if it drops below $40.00/barrel in order to counter price manipulation.

Ex-CIA director James Woolsey and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar are also vocal proponents of ethanol.[21]

In 2005, Sweden announced plans to end its dependence on fossil fuels by the year 2020.[22]

Alternative methods petroleum extraction

Alternative methods

During the oil price increases of 2004-2008, alternatives methods of producing oil gained importance. The most widely known alternatives involve extracting oil from sources such as oil shale or tar sands. These resources exist in large quantities; however, extracting the oil at low cost without excessively harming the environment remains a challenge.

It is also possible to chemically transform methane or coal into the various hydrocarbons found in oil. The best-known such method is the Fischer-Tropsch process. It was a concept pioneered in Nazi Germany when imports of petroleum were restricted due to war and Germany found a method to extract oil from coal. It was known as Ersatz (English:”substitute”) oil, and accounted for nearly half the total oil used in WWII by Germany. However, the process was used only as a last resort as naturally occurring oil was much cheaper. As crude oil prices increase, the cost of coal to oil conversion becomes comparatively cheaper. The method involves converting high ash coal into synthetic oil in a multi-stage process. Ideally, a ton of coal produces nearly 200 liters (1.25 bbl, 52 US gallons) of crude, with by-products including tar.^{[citation needed]}

Currently, two companies have commercialised their Fischer-Tropsch technology. Shell in Bintulu, Malaysia, uses natural gas as a feedstock, and produces primarily low-sulfur diesel fuels. ^[8] Sasol ^[9] in South Africa uses coal as a feedstock, and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products.

The process is today used in South Africa to produce most of the country’s diesel fuel from coal by the company Sasol. The process was used in South Africa to meet its energy needs during its isolation under Apartheid. This process produces low sulfur diesel fuel ; it also is an increased threat to environment, as it produces large amounts of greenhouse gases.

An alternative method of converting coal into petroleum is the Karrick process, which was pioneered in the 1930s in the United States. It uses high temperatures in the absence of ambient air, to distill the short-chain hydrocarbons of petroleum out of coal.

More recently explored is thermal depolymerization (TDP), a process for the reduction of complex organic materials into light crude oil. Using pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons. This mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. In theory, TDP can convert any organic waste into petroleum.

Financial Petroleum Holdings

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The prospects that have been evaluated all represent either un-tapped proven reserves or re-entry or rejuvenation projects of formerly producing wells in the South Eastern United States. As technology US Petroleum Holdings has continued to improve, old wells and old fields that were once too dangerous, too unproductive or “empty” can be reopened and produce economically. These wells are preferred because they are already along the gas and oil pipeline routes that crisscross the United States (i.e. infrastructure costs to monetize new finds in these old wells are minimal).

These investments represent late-stage investment which mitigates the riskUS Petroleum Holdings  to investors and the time to production on these wells is shorter than if investments were made in the early stages.

Financial Petroleum Holdings

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The prospects that have been evaluated all represent either un-tapped proven reserves or re-entry or rejuvenation projects of formerly producing wells in the South Eastern United States. As technology has continued to improve, old wells and old fields that were once too dangerous, too unproductive or “empty” can be reopened and produce economically. These wells are preferred because they are already along the gas and oil pipeline routes that crisscross the United States (i.e. infrastructure costs to monetize new finds in these old wells are minimal).

These investments represent late-stage investment which mitigates the risk to investors and the time to production on these wells is shorter than if investments were made in the early stages.

Drilling an Oil Well in US Petroleum Holdings

DRILLING AN OIL WELL

The earliest oil wells were drilled percussively (cable-tool drilling), that is, holes were drilled simply by hammering at the earth. Very soon, the limited depths which this method could attain meant that rotary drilling was introduced. Modern wells drilled using rotary drills can achieve lengths of over 12,000 meters / 38,000 feet.

Until the 1970s, most oil wells were vertical (or, more specifically, were supposed to be vertical – deviations introduced by different lithology and mechanical imperfections meant that most wells were at least slightly deviated). However, modern technologies (directional drilling) allow strongly deviated wells which can, given sufficient depth, actually become horizontal. This is of great value as the reservoir rocks which contain hydrocarbons are usually horizontal, or sub-horizontal. A well, therefore, which passes along a reservoir (rather than through it, as a vertical well must) can tap a larger volume with a much larger surface area (and thus a correspondingly higher production rate). Using deviated and horizontal drilling, it has also become possible to reach reservoirs several kilometers away from the drilling place (Extended Reach Drilling), allowing to produce hydrocarbons from underneath e.g. environmentally sensitive areas or offshore close to the coast line.

Drilling

The well is created by drilling a hole (5 to 30 inches wide) into the earth with an oil rig turning a drill bit. After the hole is drilled, a metal pipe slightly smaller than the hole size (called a ‘casing’) is run into the hole. The outside of the casing is then bonded and secured to the hole with cement. The casing provides structural integrity to the newly drilled wellbore in addition to isolating potentially dangerous high pressure zones from each other and from the surface.

With these zones safely isolated and the formation protected by the casing, the well can be drilled deeper (into potentially more-unstable and violent formations) with a smaller bit, and also cased with a smaller size casing. Modern wells often have 2-5 sets of subsequently smaller hole sizes drilled inside one another, each cemented with casing.

Science of Petroleum Holdings Oil

Most geologists view crude oil, like coal and natural gas, as the product of compression and heating of ancient organic materials over geological time scales. According to this theory, it is formed from the decayed remains of prehistoric small marine animals and algae. (Terrestrial plants tend to form coal.) Over millennia this organic matter, mixed with mud, is buried under thick sedimentary layers of material. The resulting high levels of heat and pressure cause the remains to metamorphose, first into a waxy material known as kerogen, and then into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as catagenesis. Because hydrocarbons are less dense than the surrounding rock, these migrate upward through adjacent rock layers until they become trapped beneath impermeable rocks, within porous rocks called reservoirs. Concentration of hydrocarbons in a trap forms an oil field, from which the liquid can be extracted by drilling and pumping.

Geologists also refer to the “oil window”. This is the temperature range that oil forms in-below the minimum temperature oil does not form, and above the maximum temperature natural gas forms instead. Though this corresponds to different depths for different locations around the world, a ‘typical’ depth for the oil window might be 4 – 6 km. Note that oil may be trapped at much shallower depths, even if it is not formed there. Three conditions must be present for oil reservoirs to form: a rich source rock, a migration conduit, and a trap (seal) that concentrates the hydrocarbons.

The reactions that produce oil and natural gas are often modeled as first order breakdown reactions, where kerogen breaks down to oil and natural gas by a large set of parallel reactions, and oil eventually breaks down to natural gas by another set of reactions.

History of oil: Power of energy by Holding Petroleum US

The modern history of petroleum began in 1846, with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene from coal by Atlantic Canada’s Abraham Pineo Gesner. Poland’s Ignacy Lukasiewicz discovered a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available “rock oil” (“petroleum”) in 1852 and the first rock oil mine was built in Bra, near Krosno, in southern Poland in the following year. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world, and Meerzoeff built the first Russian refinery in the mature oil fields at Baku in 1861. At that time, Baku produced about 90% of the world’s oil. The battle of Stalingrad was fought over Baku (now the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic ).

In the 8th century, the streets of the newly constructed Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from easily accessible petroleum from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce naphtha. These fields were described by the geographer Masudi in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads.

The first commercial oil well drilled in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858, dug by James Miller Williams. The American petroleum industry began with Edwin Drake’s discovery of oil in 1859, near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The industry grew slowly in the 1800s, driven by the demand for kerosene and oil lamps. It became a major national concern in the early part of the 20th century; the introduction of the internal combustion engine provided a demand that has largely sustained the industry to this day. Early “local” finds like those in Pennsylvania and Ontario were quickly exhausted, leading to “oil booms” in Texas, Oklahoma and California.

By 1910, significant oil fields had been discovered in Canada (specifically, in the province of Alberta), the Dutch East Indies (1885, in Sumatra), Persia (1908, in Masjed Soleiman), Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico, and were being developed at an industrial level.

Even until the mid-1950s, coal was still the world’s foremost fuel, but oil quickly took over. Following the 1973 energy crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, there was significant media coverage of oil supply levels. This brought to light the concern that oil is a limited resource that will eventually run out, at least as an economically viable energy source. At the time, the most common and popular predictions were always quite dire, and when they did not come true, many dismissed all such discussion. The future of petroleum as a fuel remains somewhat controversial. USA Today news (2004) reports that there are 40 years of petroleum left in the ground. Some would argue that because the total amount of petroleum is finite, the dire predictions of the 1970s have merely been postponed. Others argue that technology will continue to allow for the production of cheap hydrocarbons and that the earth has vast sources of unconventional petroleum reserves in the form of tar sands, bitumen fields and oil shale that will allow for petroleum use to continue in the future, with both the Canadian tar sands and United States shale oil deposits representing potential reserves matching existing liquid petroleum deposits worldwide.

Today, about 90% of vehicular fuel needs are met by oil. Petroleum also makes up 40% of total energy consumption in the United States, but is responsible for only 2% of electricity generation. Petroleum’s worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals, makes it one of the world’s most important commodities. Access to it was a major factor in several military conflicts, including World War II and the Persian Gulf War. About 80% of the world’s readily accessible reserves are located in the Middle East, with 62.5% coming from the Arab 5: Saudi Arabia (12.5%), UAE, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. The USA has less than 3%.

What US Petroleum Holdings do?

 

 

Traditionally, the oil prospecting business has been considered highly speculative and somewhat risky on many levels. We most certainly recognize this factor and have taken every means necessary to address these issues. There are several factors in the oil business that have changed over the last 10 years.

First and foremost, technology has improved to the point where geological surveys below the earth’s surface, utilizing the latest state-of-the-art penetration devices, can give extremely accurate pictures of oil deposits. Not only are we now able to pinpoint where the oil is, but determine with great accuracy approximately how much oil is there.

Second, the price increase in oil over the last ten years has allowed the industrial sector and the US government to push for domestic production of oil. While in the early 1990’s the price of oil was relatively low, therefore it was not cost effective to pursue domestic drilling programs. Today, with oil hitting lifetime highs resurgence in domestic drilling is taking place and creating a new frontier for those who are willing to make an investment, which has the potential to be extraordinarily lucrative.

Third, and finally RISK! In the post WWII era, drilling for oil as an independent or as a “wildcater” proved in many cases to be a boom-bust proposition. Now with market price and technology, as two driving forces, there is no reason not to be able to extract oil from a proven reserve well site. The big question is simply “how much oil” will be derived from a site. US Petroleum Holdings is not in the business of taking unnecessary risk. All the sites we are involved in have proven reserves – but that may not be enough. Consequently, we have implemented a risk management system through an advanced asset allocation program.

US Petroleum Holdings: who we are

US Petroleum Holdings, Corp. is an independent energy company engaged in the procurement, exploitation, development, acquisition and operation of oil and natural gas properties with a geological focus in the United States. The company has implemented a business strategy that emphasizes development opportunities where the company has acquired several properties within a general area with proven reserves.

The recent up trend in the oil and natural gas market has resulted in sector investments becoming extremely beneficial. Consequently, the company has sought to procure working interests in properties that are either currently producing or will produce crude oil and natural gas within the next quarter.

Our projects implement and utilize the most innovative, state-of-the-art and cost-effective technologies that can profitably recover oil and natural gas as well as extend the productive life of US domestic reserves, reducing the reliance on energy imports.