Obtaining Unconventional Oil and Gas is Easier than Ever Before

Posted by Ainsley Aiken on May 15th, 2018

The pace at which the world is changing today, demands lots of energy sources. These energies include gas and oil. They are formed over millions of years. The dead remains of plants and animals get captured for years inside the earth. As the depth increases, there is a rise in heat and pressure. The amount of pressure and the degree of heat, along with the type of biomass are responsible for determining whether the formed material is oil or gas. Extracting these from deposits deep underground isn’t as simple as just drilling. A number of factors need to be kept in mind. The porosity of the rock and the viscosity of the deposit can impede the free flow of product into the well.

What is unconventional oil and gas?

Most of us are familiar with oil and natural gas “pools” that are found under the ground. Pools are located in rocks with tiny interconnected pores that contain these. Sandstone is one such example. Now, pools in which wells can be drilled so that these products can be easily pumped to the surface are commonly referred to as conventional products. Decades of usage of these resources around the world has resulted in the decline of these resources. Basically, most of the resources that could have been produced using traditional methods are already being accessed.

Explanation with an example

As new technologies emerged, producers are able to produce unconventional resources that were previously impossible to obtain. These resources do not flow naturally through the rocks, making them much more difficult to produce. To understand better, let’s take an example of a sponge and a piece of clay: it’s easy to squeeze water out of a saturated sponge, which can be regarded as conventional; squeezing water out of clay is harder, which can be regarded as non-conventional. So, it shows that non-conventional sources of oil and gas are difficult to obtain.

The difference lies in the usage

Regardless of how they are produced or the rocks they come from, both are almost same. Unconventional simply refers to the methods that are used as well as, the types of rocks from which the resources are produced. Oil found in low-permeability rocks including sandstone, siltstones, and carbonates are referred as unconventional resources. Natural gas locked in fine grains usually called as shale gas is also one of its kind. There have been great changes that came along with the rapid development of unconventional energy sources. So, make sure that the resources don’t get eliminated soon.