Petro Bowl Example Questions

Please use this key to populate the appropriate columns for questions you write.

This is meant to cover a broad range of categories. If your question is not covered by these, please mark it "Other."

Questions may fall into multiple categories. Please mark it with only one category as seems most appropriate to you.

Categorization is used for statistical purposes only.

Note that Calculations may only be used as Bonus Questions!

Type

Category

Type

Category

Difficulty

Technical

Drilling &

Completions

Non-Technical

History

Low

Reservoir &

Formation

Evaluation

People

Medium

Production &

Facilities

Statistics

High

Geology

Current Events

General

Engineering

Geopolitics

Calculation

SPE/PetroBowl

Other

Trivia

Calculation

Other

This is meant to cover a broad range of categories. If your question is not covered by these, please mark it "Other."

Questions may fall into multiple categories. Please mark it with only one category as seems most appropriate to you.

1

Q: This man is President of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a leading international energy

consulting firm. He was previously a lecturer at the Harvard Business School and the John F.

Kennedy School at Harvard. He coauthored the bestseller 'Energy Future', wrote his prize-winning

book 'Shattered Peace', and won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Prize" - a book that yielded many of the

questions seen today. Who is he?

A: Daniel Yergin

S: The Prize

2

Q: The American Institute of Mining's Metallurgical Petroleum Branch Executive Committee determined

the best way to meet this group's needs was to develop a "publication so dominantly petroleum as to

secure wide reader interest," one that would "rapidly gain the respect of the industry..." In January of

1940, they succeeded with the first publication of what journal that is now sent to every SPE

member?

A: Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT)

S: Frontiers in Technology - Petroleum Engineering P3

3

Q: As a drilling engineer it is often your job to design the casing string for wells. If you went with P-110

casing, what does the 110 indicate?

A: Minimum Yield Strength, in this case 110,000 psi

S: The Rotary Rig and its Components - UT

4

Q: In 1905, this Russian leader provoked strikes of the oilfield workers in Baku, and later defended

these same fields from Germany in World War II. Who was he?

A: Stalin

S: The Prize

5

Q: In exploration, wells are often drilled in unproved territory where no oil or gas production exists.

About one of these out of every ten drilled proves to be productive, although not necessarily

profitable. What is the term used for this type of exploration well that can also be used to describe a

feral feline ?

A: wildcat

S: The Rotary Rig and its Components - UT

6

Q: In 1962, his reputation as a fearless firefighter spread when he put out a fire in Algeria nicknamed

the Devil's Cigarette Lighter. It had been burning for six months, fueled by 550 million cubic feet of

gas a day. Six years later, John Wayne portrayed him in the movie "Hell Fighters". Name this

pioneer in the well control and fire fighting business.

A: Red Adair

S: http://www.famoustexans.com/redadair.htm

7

Q: For most drilling organizations, the greatest drilling problem worldwide in terms of time and financial

cost occurs when high-contact forces caused by low reservoir pressures, high wellbore pressures, or

both, are exerted over a sufficiently large area of the drillstring. This results in a condition whereby

the drillstring cannot be rotated or pulled along the axis of the wellbore. What term is used to

describe this dreaded condition?

A: differential sticking

S: http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=differential%20sticking

8

Q: An excellent hydrocarbon trap, it consists of an arch-shaped fold in rock in which rock layers are

upwardly convex. The oldest rock layers form the core of the fold, and outward from the core

progressively younger rocks occur. What is this geological structure called?

A: anticline

Q: The American Institute of Mining's Metallurgical Petroleum Branch Executive Committee determined

1

Q: The packing model, assuming uniform grain size in sedimentary rocks, considers two ideal

geometric arrangements - rhombehedral and cubic. For 15 points each, within 3%, what is the

porosity resulting from a) cubic packing; b) rhombehedral packing

A: a) 47%; b) 26%

S: http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=rhombohedral%20packing

2

Q: With all oil supplies cut off and desperate to fuel its war machine, the fantastic pine root

campaign was launched. Guided by the slogan "two hundred pine roots will keep a plane up for

an hour" women and children scoured the countryside digging up pine roots and then boiling

them and distilling the liquid to produce pine root oil - which at its peak produced 75,000 barrels

per month. For 25 points, this effort proved futile however for what country?

A: Japan

S: the Prize pg 363

3

Q: For 5 points each and a maximum of 30 points, name as many OPEC countries as you can. A

wrong answer and you must stop.

A: Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela

S: www.opec.org

4

Q: While hydrocarbons by definition are compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon, motor

fuels consist of saturated hydrocarbons, also known as alkanes. For 25 points, what is the

lightest straight chain alkane that exists as a liquid at standard conditions?

A: Pentane