Recovering oil from an unconsolidated sand by means of combustion

Author

David K. Anderson

Abstract

"For many years, there has been talk expressing great concern about the oil reserves in the United States. Every four or five years, articles are published stating that we are running out of oil and our proved reserves, to date, are only adequate, at our present rate of consumption, for about 20 years. While this is true, it does not leave us with the complete picture. The industry in the past 20 years has never had more than a 20 year reserve. It must be said, however, that it is becoming more difficult with each passing year to find oil enough to keep our reserves 20 years ahead of our present rate of consumption.

An oil reserve as defined in the Petroleum Dictionary is “Oil remaining underground, proven to a high degree of probability, the recovery of which is commercially feasible at present day prices and costs."

As is generally known only a small portion of the oil found in the earth is ever recovered. If we take a high rate of recovery of 50 per cent, then there are 33 billion barrels of unrecoverable oil remaining in the ground as of 1947.

If an economical method of extracting oil could be found, our proved reserves would be increased many-fold. Many articles have been written along this line and in the past two decades much work has been done.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine experimentally the maximum amount of oil that may be recovered by means of combustion from an unconsolidated sand saturated with oil.

The economic side of the problem can not be determined until more laboratory work has been done and field experiments have been performed"--Introduction, pages 1-2.

Advisor(s)

Martin, R. I.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Mining Engineering

Comments

Master of Science in Mining Engineering, Petroleum Engineering Option

Publisher

Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy

Publication Date

1951

Pagination

v, 33 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (page 32).

Rights

© 1951 David K. Anderson, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Thermal oil recovery -- ResearchOil sands

Thesis Number

T 987

Print OCLC #

5985276

Electronic OCLC #

946038335

Recommended Citation

Anderson, David K., "Recovering oil from an unconsolidated sand by means of combustion" (1951). Masters Theses. 2984.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/2984