ABSTRACT
Geologists believe that crude oil and natural gas were largely created by the gradual burial and compression of organic material under high temperatures beneath the floors of the early oceans. Non-associated natural gas is found at depths below 15,000 feet where the increase in temperature and pressure results in the breakdown of hydrocarbons and in a marked increase in the proportion of non-associated natural gas. The equipment and techniques used in exploration, production, pipelining, and processing of crude oil and natural gas are very similar. By the mid-1970s, for example, an estimated 2.5 million exploratory and development wells had been drilled for crude oil and natural gas in the United States compared with 105,000 in Latin America, less than 13,000 in Africa, and 3,000 in the entire Middle East. The organic compounds that had been deposited in the rock layers formed into crude oil and natural gas.
