Where do oil and natural gas come from and

how is it formed?
All of the oil and gas we use today began as microscopic plants and animals living in the
ocean millions of years ago. As these microscopic plants and animals lived, they absorbed
energy from the sun, which was stored as carbon molecules in their bodies.
When they died, they sank to the bottom and over millions of years, layer after layer of
sediment and other plants and bacteria formed layers of an organic polymer called
kerogen. This material is by far the most abundant organic material in the Earths crust.
Sand, clay and other minerals were buried with the kerogen during geological time and
eventually were turned into sedimentary rocks. Rocks which have abundant kerogen are
called oil shales or black shales.
With ever deeper burial, heat and pressure began to rise. The amount of pressure and the
degree of heat, along with the type of kerogen, determined if the material became oil or
natural gas. More heat produced lighter oil. Even higher heat or kerogens made
predominantly from plants, produced natural gas.
After oil and natural gas were formed, they tended to migrate through tiny pores in the
surrounding rock. The rocks also moved and folded (just like a small carpet bunches up
on the floor) over millions of years, as tectonic plates shifted. Some oil and natural gas
migrated all the way to the surface and escaped. Other oil and natural gas deposits
migrated until they were caught under or against a layer of rock that it couldnt move
through. It was trapped and sealed against this impermeable rock, and slowly, very slowly,
the oil and gas built up. As it did, reservoirs were formed. These trapped deposits are
where we find oil and natural gas today.
Most oil and gas fields are found in sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone
because they have the rock porosity and rock permeability for oil and gas to move through
and accumulate. The porosity determines the capacity of the reservoir and the
permeability determines the productivity of the reservoir.

How Natural Gas Is Formed

Like oil, natural gas is a product of decomposed organic matter, typically from
ancient marine microorganisms, deposited over the past 550 million years.

This organic material mixed with mud, silt, and

sand on the sea floor, gradually becoming buried over time. Sealed off in an
oxygen-free environment and exposed to increasing amounts of heat and
pressure, the organic matter underwent a thermal breakdown process that
converted it into hydrocarbons.
The lightest of these hydrocarbons exist in the gaseous state under normal
conditions and are known collectively as natural gas. In its pure form, natural gas
is a colorless, odorless gas composed primarily of methane. Methane, the
simplest and lightest hydrocarbon, is a highly flammable compound consisting of
one carbon atom surrounded by four hydrogen atoms (chemical formula: CH4).

Natural Gas 101

How Natural Gas Is Formed

Shale Gas and Other Unconventional Sources of Natural Gas

Natural Gas Flaring, Processing, and Transportation

Uses of Natural Gas

Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas

The Future of Natural Gas

Once natural gas forms, its fate depends on two critical characteristics of the
surrounding rock: porosity and permeability. Porosity refers to the amount of
empty space contained within the grains of a rock. Highly porous rocks, such as
sandstones, typically have porosities of 5 percent to 25 percent, giving them large
amounts of space to store fluids such as oil, water, and gas. Permeability is a
measure of the degree to which the pore spaces in a rock are interconnected. A
highly permeable rock will permit gas and liquids to flow easily through the rock,
while a low-permeability rock will not allow fluids to pass through.
After natural gas forms, it will tend to rise towards the surface through pore
spaces in the rock because of its low density compared to the surrounding rock.
Most of the natural gas deposits we find today occur where the gas happened to
migrate into a highly porous and permeable rock underneath an impervious cap
rock layer, thus becoming trapped before it could reach the surface and escape
into the atmosphere.
There are two general categories of natural gas deposits: conventional and
unconventional. Conventional natural gas deposits are commonly found in
association with oil reservoirs, with the gas either mixed with the oil or buoyantly
floating on top, while unconventional deposits include sources like shale gas,
tight gas sandstone, and coalbed methane.

U.S. Natural Gas Resources and Reserves

The United States is endowed with substantial natural gas resources, and new
discoveries and advances in drilling techniques have revised estimates of their
size sharply upward in the past few years. In 2009, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) estimated that the U.S. possesses 2,203 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas that could be recovered using current technology.
Conventional resources represent 46 percent (1,009 trillion cubic feet) of the total
resource base, while the rest includes unconventional natural gas resources, such
as tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane. Of the total U.S. gas resource, 273
trillion cubic feet of gas are classified as reserves, which can be extracted under
current economic and operational conditions [1].
As of 2012, the largest known gas reserves in the world are found in Russia,
which has five times the reserves of the United States [2]. Iran and Qatar have
four and three times as much gas as the U.S., respectively, and significant
reserves are also present in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates,
Nigeria, and Venezuela. Total world reserves of natural gas are estimated at 6,707
trillion cubic feet [3].

Exploration and Production of

Conventional Natural Gas Resources
Potential natural gas deposits can be located with seismic testing methods similar
to those used for petroleum exploration. In such tests, gas prospectors use
seismic trucks or more advanced three-dimensional tools that involve setting off
a series of small charges near the Earths surface to generate seismic waves
thousands of feet below ground in underlying rock formations.
By measuring the travel times of these waves through the Earth at acoustic
receivers known as "geophones," geophysicists can construct a picture of the
subsurface structure and identify potential gas deposits. However, to verify
whether the rock formation actually contains economically recoverable quantities
of natural gas or other hydrocarbons, an exploratory well must be drilled.
Once the viability of a site is determined, vertical wells are drilled to penetrate the
overlying impermeable cap rock and reach the reservoir. Natural buoyancy then
brings the gas to the surface, where it can be processed and sent to homes.

To learn more about exploration and production methods for

unconventional sources, please see Shale Gas and Other Unconventional Sources
of Natural Gas.
References:
[1] Energy Information Administration. 2012. Annual Energy Review. Table 4.1
Technically Recoverable Crude Oil and Natural Gas Resource Estimates, 2009.
[2, 3] Energy Information Administration. 2012. International Energy Statistics.
Proved Reserves of Natural Gas.