(b) The extensive se of pipelines helped with the distribution of more than 3 million gallons of
fuel per month.
(8) During Operations Desert Shield and Storm, U.S. forces consumed over 2.5 billion gallons of
bulk petroleum. This was accomplished through the use of Military Sealift Command and commercial tankers,
the Inland Petroleum Distribution System, host nation support, military tank vehicles and petroleum units with
collapsible storage tanks.
(9) As the modern battlefield continues to evolve, petroleum and its effective distribution is
recognized as one of the critical paths to success in an offensive scenario. On an integrated Airland Battlefield
with the extensive use of land vehicles, aircraft, and watercraft, modem warfare requires not only tremendous
quantities, but, also a supply system that can provide those fuels where they are needed when they are needed.
The biggest challenge for the petroleum officer is to provide a logistical tail that can keep up with the offensive
thrust so that we can continually press the enemy. This requires a constant review and updating of doctrine and
equipment as lessons are learned.
2.
The Integrated Petroleum Company: The beginnings of the petroleum industry can be traced back to John
D. Rockefeller.
a. Rockefeller, Maurice B. Clark, and Samuel Andrews formed a partnership in 1862 to operate a small
refinery in Cleveland, Ohio. Out of these small beginnings, the Standard Oil Company was to be formed about 10
years later. The company eventually reorganized into Standard Oil Trust, the first integrated oil company.
b. There are four primary functions of the integrated oil company: production, refining, transportation
and marketing.
(1) Production.
(a) The production branch of the industry is concerned with the science and mechanics of
exploring for new oil fields, drilling wells, and actually bringing the oil to the surface.
(b) Production is the process of recovering petroleum fluids from their underground reservoirs
and preparing those fluids for transportation to the refineries. The two fluids that are generally produced from a
reservoir are crude oil and natural gas.
(c) Production also includes getting the fluid ready for transportation and sale to a refinery. This
is accomplished through a gathering system which collects the fluids produced at all the wells in an oil field and
brings them together at a production platform.
(d) At the production platform, the fluid is processed. The process accomplishes the following:
1 Removes water from the fluid through the use of settling, chemicals, electrical current,
and/or heat treatment. The type of processes used depends on how emulsified or mixed the oil and water are.
2 Separates the natural gas from the crude oil. The crude oil and natural gas are separated
tough a series of separators operating under different pressures or temperatures such that the lighter gases are
extracted from the top of the separator and the fluid is extracted from the bottom. This string of vessels is called
the separator train.
QM5200
21-4
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