2. Fill in the gaps with the words and expressions above. There are four words you needn’t use:

a. __________ resources are the part of the total resource base that is thought to be technically restored; the technology exists to make its extraction possible.

b. __________ sands (also referred to as oil sands) are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, a heavy black viscous oil.

c. Oil fields __________ from small, less than 20,000 barrels per day, to giants, producing more than 100,000 bpd.

d. It’s an ____________ solution – to use old technical means while we can use advanced technology.

e. The sizes of this oil field confound even experienced geologists.

f. Development and production of _________________ and natural gas resources requires sophisticated processes and techniques.

g. The term oil _________ generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials.

h. The modern oil production is quite different from the black crude oil fountain gushing out of the ground.

i. The decline curve method uses production data to fit a decline curve and estimate future oil __________.

j. If we ___________ oil from these storages we’ll get the necessary amount for sales.

3. Answer the following questions:

What do you know about existing oil and gas resources?

Which oil and gas fields can you name?

What kinds of oil fields exist?

What is the difference between “conventional” and “unconventional” oil fields?

How do you think, will we run out of our oil and gas resources and how soon?

What kind of fields is more profitable for the country?

4. Read the text and check your answers:

How much of the Earth's reserves of oil remain? A simple, but important question, with a complex answer. For 57 years, British Petroleum (BP) has published the Annual Statistical Review of World Energy. It seems like BP has the answer. In reality, the "review" is republished data from The Oil & Gas Journal, a trade magazine. The The Oil & Gas Journal gets its data simply by asking the governments of the country. The numbers provided by the United States, Norway or Great Britain are probably accurate. But most Middle Eastern countries regard oil reserve figures as state secrets and so these figures are suspect.

Oil in the ground can not all be pooled together and called “oil reserves”. There are three generally recognized categories. The first is called proven reserves and BP defines it as; "the estimated quantities of oil which certainly will be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under current economic and operating conditions." That means that economic conditions determine the category of some oil to some extent.

The second is called EUR (Estimated Ultimately Recoverable) oil. This is oil that is infeasible to recover for reasons that are either economic or technical. This category also includes yet-to-be-found oil.

The last category is called non conventional or unconventional. This includes oil from coal, oil shale, oil sands, tar sands, bitumen, heavy and extra heavy oil, deep water oil and natural gas condensates.

"Unconventional" petroleum reserves include:

Heavy oils, which can be pumped and refined just like conventional petroleum. But they are thicker and have more sulfur and heavy metal contamination and require more extensive refining. Venezuela's Orinoco heavy oil belt is the best known example of this kind of unconventional reserve. Estimated reserves: 1.2 trillion barrels.

Tar sands, which can be recovered via surface mining or in-situ collection techniques. This is more expensive than lifting conventional petroleum but not so prohibitively. Canada's Athabasca Tar Sands is the best known example of this kind of unconventional reserve. Estimated reserves: 1.8 trillion barrels.

Oil shale requires extensive processing and consumes large amounts of water. Reserves far exceed supplies of conventional oil.

5. Look at the chart. Compare data about proven and unconventional world oil reserves. Which part of the world has best prospects about oil production in the future? Which has the largest amount of proven reserves and which – of unconventional and recoverable? Use Application 1 to help you present your analysis.

Chart 1