The Oil Industry of Germany
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1, ‘. -. ..— ., ‘. r,’, FOREIGN :, ; ‘.’. oPERATIONS “ , ‘% ‘“====! ‘. “ ●-l--==-- L’-Al-” J. The Oil Industry of Germany .- PAUL D. TORREY I PETROLEUM ENGINEER Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/JPT/article-pdf/16/06/589/2217999/spe-868-pa.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 MEMBER AIME I ‘AUSTIN, TEXAS # Abstract ment was ut g much slower rfrte thiln in tflis country be- mke the curly wells producmf oil in ~i“,tll‘quanlity. Drill- TIIri.Getvnm oil indostty begun shortly ajtw oil was dis. ing was undertaken, just. m w~s ttr~ case in northwestern cowred in the United Stntav, bitt tlte development of oil Pennsylvania, hcctiuse of surface se?ps in the County of prodticticsn was or a much slower ru[e bemase tire early Celle, p~rticulmly in. the vicinity of the Village of Wigtze, wells produced in small quaniity. Starting in 1876 in this area. he:ivy oil wtis prod Llce~ from ~ Dl,citlg Wor[d war If t[le e.rist[ng fie!cis were prodaced numerous shidlow wells. Subsurface mining opcmtions 10 thtiir ntaxiinunt rapwit~, bat it was not until after tlw were commenced in [he shidlow Wietze field in 1920.. In Fedrtal Republic of Germun,v was jormed, ivhen tile oil the beginning @ this mining opcralion, oil was produced industry received tile benefits of sabmmtial protective tar.. by s6epage from the reservoir rock into the tunnels which ifhf. that extensive exploration for new fields was cwnt- ‘. had hee~ excavated away from the centrql shaft. Subse- ilzenced. This work rcsaitwt in the discovery of new re- ~‘ quently. the oil sand was excava[ed art~ brought to the shr- serves oj stibstantial size, and at the present tinle Gernmny-” face where it was washed and the oil extracted by this has the largest domewic production of oil i:t Free .Earope. process. A great mound of washed @rd near the milic Under the terms oj tile Earopeail Economic CoIItInmZ- shaft indicates the magnitude of these under~round ity Trcat~, the s.wient of protective tari~~s on itnpotwd opemlions. \ cr)tde c)il, imder }~llicl; the German oil industry has ffoor- It is estimated that recovery.was inc{~ased from shout i.shed, were to be discontinued gtwdmtlly and were to be [5 per cent of oil in place by the pro~luction obtained vliininatee by 1970, As it was facecl with this prospect, from wcik to ybout ~tl per cent by the ni~ning operation. the Gerttm oil industry tippersled to its goverwent for In recent yews expansion of the Wictzemine was dis- assistance, wllicA wm granted by a recent act of Pwii- continued largely for economic reasons, ~y it has been lnent Which proviclm jor tbe paytnent of snbsidit+s oit do- . used for several interesting oil recovery a,xperiments, It t)lestic oil ptwdaciion’ in deer;asin~ amount for six Yem. was concluded as a result of the~e +xperii-pcnts t@t as A ISO, low interest loans ate to be made to German conz- much oil could he produced by various recoQ~ry processes panies to enable thenl to prospect”for oil in forei~n lanrlr, using wells drilled into the oil reservoirs frpm the istrr- face, so the mining operation was shut down:in the sum-” Introduction mer of 1963, This operation was notable in that it pro- The recent discovery of Ia/ge gas reserves in The Neth- vided the unique opportunity of direct inspection under- erlands and the commencement of the application of the ground of st producing oil reservoir, and of direct obser- European Economic Community Treaty relating to oil on vation of the effects @f various recovery processes, Jan. 1, 1964, have had a profound effect on the ,oil indllstry Petroleum was of such insignificant impotttmce at the of Germany. Germany is the most important oil country time the General Mining Law of Germany was adopted in Free Europe, so, because of the significance of these in lf165 that it was not included with other minerals, Thtrs, events, it is believed that a discussion of the petroleum up until 1934, when the first Petroleum Law was enrtcted geology of Germany, a description of thp way that oil rtrtd which vested title to ali undiscovered oil and gas fields’ have been found, developed and produced, and a fields in the state, development of the oil fields and the consideration of the impending changes in the fuel econo- production of oil was carried on by lease agreements be- my of the nation should be of interest to the United States tween land owners and oil companies sitniiar to the man- engineers, ner in which land is leased, wells are driiled and oil is produced in the U.S. The Petroleum Act of 1934 did not History , invalidate existing iease agreements and some oil, chiefly frornthes hallow.f ieldsofea rlydiscovery,is still produced The” German ~i ‘incfustFy h?d ‘its beg(nriing at approxi- under such agreements, mately the same time as in th: United States, but develop- At the time the first Petroieunv I.aw was enacted, Ger- Original m+musmbt rer~ived in %wiety of Pkoleum Enxineem office man oii production was still relatively unimportant, Feb. 13, 1064. Revised mmm%crint receikl Amil 14, 11164,Pflper mwMt- ed as Dlstiwrulshed Latuw presentation. amount ing to only about 2.50,000 metric tons! or approxi- JuNE, 1964 589 ..’. ~... ,--- . ----- , ... .-. mately 1.78 million bbl in 1934, The enactment of the which petroleum hyi.iroctirbons h~ve accumulated. Many Petroleum Law, which opened all of the unleased land in of the oil fields are associated in some way with salt mass- Germany to exploration, served to stimulate what was es; in addition, typical anticlinal, structpces were formed then a small industry, and production increased to around by the same tectonic movements and a *ry complex type 4,27 million bbl in 1939. At that time it was recognized of structure, @rtly associated with overthrust faulting, was that available oil production would be inadequate to fuel developed simultaneously in -the area between the Ems ‘the war efforts of the nation so, to provide for these needs, and Weser rivers, East of the Wcxer, along the Aller River, the production of motor fuels by the hydrogenation of between the Harz Mots@ains to the southeast and the Elbe coal was begun, A total of 26 synthetic fu’el plants were River, salt domes and salt anticline are encountered in buik, and during- Worid War II it is reported that 40 per areas where thick series of Lower’ Cretaceous and Jurassic cent of available hydrocarbon fuels Were produced from sediments exist. The older oil fields of (3ermany are in crude’ petroleum and 60 per cent were produced by the this region where oil accumulation has taken place along synthetic fuel plants. During the war the production of the flanks of salt domes, and in traps formed by an over- crude petroleum was increased without any consideration lap of Lower Cretaceous beds. of economics, and it reached a peak of 7.13 mil]ion bbl in . North of the Elbe River there is a series of complex, 1940, parallel salt anticline which -are separated by deep, st*p- Germanyss productiori declined to arotnid 3,56 mi(~on Iy dippirqj synclimd troughs. Some of these salt masses. bbl in 1947. In these post-war years the donlestic oil Pro- notably those west of the city of Hamburg, as known to duction was used almost exclusively as luel for essential extend south of the Elbe River and have a length of up to Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/JPT/article-pdf/16/06/589/2217999/spe-868-pa.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 highway transportation and for industries which had sur- 100 km. Oil fields are locatcd along the flanks of the salt vived and which were being rebuilt after suffering devas- finticlines, and because of the steep dips they generally tating destruction which resulted from intensive bombing are elongated in shape and may be not more than one by the Allied air forces. well-location wkle. The structure of many of t& tlelds is After tf?e Federal Republic of Germany was formed, further complicated by faulting. the question of assisting domestic oil production was given The existence of salt domes in northwestern Germany - immediate consideration. In 1953 a law governing petrol: has been known fol many years. Their presence was first cum taxes and tariffs on foreign crude oil was enacted indicated by brine springs. $ubsequentfy, wells drilled in which h~s served to give the industry a protective subsidy the vicinity of the springs proved the existence ot” salt of DM 75/ton,* which is equivalent to approximately ~as..es at shallow depth. The salt deposits were exploited $2,63/bbl. Under such financial stimulation the explora- both by wells and by underground. mines, and as a result tion for new oi[ tieIds was intensified, and resulted in a of mining operations salts of potassium were discovered. series of discoveries that have made the Federal Republic these being the end product of the evaporation of Per- the most important oil producing nation in Free Europe. mian seas, This notable discovery led to the deve~opment Geology of the important German prkash industry.. The types of structures in Germany which have con- Oilfields in the Federal Republic havi been iotuxf in trolled the accumuftation of oil duplicate structural condi- three distinct geologic proyinces, the Northwest German tions in certain United States fields. Generally speaking. Basin, the Rhine Valley Graben and the Afpine Foothills. the area of the larger German oil fields is much smaller Of these three areas the Northwest German Basin” is by than the area of the larger United States fields.