Petroleum Geology Course Content Overview
- Energy and the Economy
- Fossil Fuel Energy
- The History of Extraction
- Hydrocarbons and Petroleum Geology
- Petroleum Systems
- Data Compilation, Collection and Mapping in Exploration
- Analysis and Model Development in Exploration
The Energy and the Economy lesson weaves together foundational threads on energy concepts and units, sources of energy, and the core role of energy in our everyday lives.
The Fossil Fuel Energy lesson takes the learner on a journey through various geopolitical landscapes, international energy resources, and how they intersect with society in the world today. You can explore the supply and demand side of the global energy equation through a variety of interactive graphs and charts. The final topics at the end of the lesson cover energy utilization in the United States and the importance of the shale revolution.
Next, The History of Extraction lesson guides you through the start of the current energy picture and leads you to where we are today. You get a glimpse of extraction, combustion, case studies of oil fields, and a general overview of oil and gas regulation.
The Hydrocarbons and Petroleum Geology lesson offers insight into basic hydrocarbons, including the essentials of geology, basic rock types, and how plate tectonics contributes to petroleum resources.
The Petroleum Systems lesson explores the fundamental elements needed for petroleum accumulation. A successful petroleum system requires the perfect timing of hydrocarbon generation, maturation, migration, and trapping. You will better understand how geologists investigate the earth to find just such a perfect ordering of events, both for conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources.
The lesson on Data Compilation, Collection and Mapping in Exploration present the sophisticated methods used to search for petroleum resources. You can explore the data types and maps that enable geologists to find key elements such as geological structures.
The next lesson on exploration, Analysis and Model Development in Exploration, demonstrates how technical aspects of the search for petroleum often result in subsurface models for exploration targets