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Kapuni
Taranaki is a great place for oil and gas and Kapuni is one of the very best finds. The first drill bit pierced this field in 1959 and eight hours later there was enough natural gas to supply New Zealand's gas needs for a day. 46 years later there are 14 wells on the field. Kapuni is a biggie.
Rewind to 1959
What was happening way back then? Read the events below, decide whether each one is true or false and check your answers at the end of this week's TreasureLink.
1. The Chinese Gooseberry gets a new name. From now on it will be called the Kiwifruit.
2. The biggest crowd in the history of New Zealand sport flocks to Ardmore to watch the Grand Prix. More than 80,000 are at the racetrack.
3. The Harbour Bridge opens in Auckland.
4. The Massey Ferguson tractor arrives in New Zealand.
5. Half of New Zealand's farms now get their fertilizer by aerial topdressing.
Answers at the bottom of the page.
The world starts drilling
Three places claim to have drilled the first oil well. There's Canada in 1858 and Pennsylvania in the United States a year later. People in Virginia in the USA say they supplied drilling tools to Pennsylvania so perhaps they think they were first.
We do know that while these wells were being drilled, settlers in New Plymouth, New Zealand were complaining about oily scum on Ngamotu Beach. They had to wipe their shoes and lift their dresses. Three prospectors began to look for oil there in 1865.
Oil was a bit like gold. It started a rush. Check out the photo here of an early Pennsylvania field and decide how close the drilling rigs were to each other.
What is natural gas?
The cartoon above tells you how oil and gas is formed but look here for a more detailed explanation.
Now print out this diagram and add some labels so it becomes all you need to show how oil and gas is formed. Don't forget to give it a title.
Word watch
All the words and phrases below come from this week's story. Decide on the best meaning and then check your answers as you read the story.
1. expectant (a ) looking for something to happen or (b) looking forward to
2. expansion (a) blow out or (b) enlargement
3. dramatic (a) satisfying or (b) breathtaking
4. surveyors (a) people who measure the land or structures on the earth's surface or (b) people who draw maps
5. formations (a) special types of rocks or (b) layers of the earth deep underground
6. seismic survey (a) a way of building up a picture of the size and shape of rock underground or (b) mapping the land by helicopter
7. lateral thinking (a) looking at a problem from other sides rather than just head on or (b) using technology to work a problem out
8. compensation (a) money paid for a purchase or (b) paying someone for inconvenience or a loss
9. archaeologist (a) a person who studies past human life and culture by examining material evidence or (b) a person whose ancestors once lived in the area
10. petrochemical heart (a) the centre of the gas and oil industry or (b) the dead centre of a gas field
Answers at the bottom of the page
Blowout!
Read the first part of this week's story down to "Shocking New Technology". Find out why Kapuni's first drilling crew looked like the two characters in the cartoon above.
A blowout is the uncontrolled flow of oil and gas. The blowout preventer is a stack of heavy duty valves attached to the top of the well. These valves are used to control the pressure.
Write a speech bubble for each of the characters. One is a Kiwi "who didn't know anything" and the other is Dutch- "an expert".
What's this drilling mud?
Drilling mud helped shut down the blowout in the first part of the story but what is this mud and how is it used?
The drill bit is carried on the end of a series of hollow steel lengths of drill pipe that screws together to form the drill string.
Special drilling mud is pumped at high pressure down the drill string to lubricate the bit as it grinds away. This mud spurts out a series of small holes in the bit at about 100 metres per second. The drill bit is wider than the drill string so this means the mud can travel back to the surface in the space outside the drill string.
When the first Kapuni well had a blowout the workers altered the drilling mud to help stop the oil flow. Would they have thickened or thinned the mud? Work it out with a classmate and then work together on a diagram of the bit, the drill string and the well to show how it all works.
Compare your diagram to the two here. Did you get it right?
Tramping the survey line
Read "Shocking New Technology," taking special note of what happens in a seismic survey.
Here's a little more information.
The holes are about 20 metres deep. A small stick of dynamite is covered with gravel and dirt.
Teams lay out the recording cables on the ground and then the dynamite is detonated.
These days the equipment is sensitive enough to measure the force of an ant's footsteps. It records the sound waves bouncing back off rocks kilometres below.
Geologists build a detailed picture of rock beneath the surface by estimating the speed at which shockwaves travel through different types of rock.
The survey described in the story was 50 years ago. Imagine doing the same survey now. Which parts might have changed? Talk it over with a classmate.
Discover then drill
"Seismic Discovery," tells you what the survey discovered, how they built the rig and what happened to the newly found gas and oil. Read this part of the story and then draw a step by step guide on a map of the North Island. Show what happened to the oil and gas and where it was shipped to. Find a map here.
Begin at the well in Kapuni to show where the condensate (light oil) went, how it got there and what happened to it when it arrived. (Marsden Point is up near Whangarei.) The next part of the story explains how the gas got to Auckland and Wellington so when you find that out, you can finish your map.
Pipe coming through!
Finish reading Pipe Dreams and then solve the problems (in the PDF below) in pairs or in a group of four. The consequences are things that might happen if your solution is followed through.
Gas for good?
Read ""Gas online"" and find out how long it took before customers were starting to snap up natural gas.
What if this gas runs out? What will happen to all those gas customers then? Check out what Gas New Zealand has to say. The first two questions will tell you but read more if you like.
Now that's a clever idea
Read all about ""Gas Recycling"" and find out how the oil people used the same lot of gas to draw out two lots of oil. Draw a quick sketch to show what's happening under the ground in the cartoon above.
Famous firsts
Finish the story now and find out about all the firsts Kapuni can now be proud of.
Fast forward to 2005
Gas won't power your mobile phone but your solar shirt could. Researchers in Canada have invented a flexible plastic solar cell. It's said to be five times more efficient than anything we do now to try to convert sun into electrical energy. The best plastic cells in use today turn about 6% of the sun's power into usable electrical energy. This solar cell energises 30% of the sun's power.
The cell harnesses infra red light from the sun and can form a flexible film on the surface of cloth, paper and other materials. The plastic could be woven into shirts and used to charge things like mobile phones. People could have a continuous supply of power even if the sun isn't shining. With infra red cells everything that is warm gives off some heat, so even when it's dark outside power will remain in the cells.
Ted Sergeant is the head researcher and he's looking for investors who could turn the invention into something that makes a lot of money.
Form a small group and make up a telecom advertisement for TV that shows the advantages of the solar shirt. Act it out to the class or video it. Telecom would love this shirt. People could text and phone each other all day!
Answers
Rewind
All true except for number 4. By 1959 the Massey Ferguson had been in New Zealand for 11 years.
Click to go back to the questions.
Word Watch
1a, 2b, 3b, 4a, 5b, 6a, 7a, 8b, 9a, 10a
Click to go back to the questions.
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