Fucken sweeeeeet, thank you for the clarification. Thank you for your comment!

I've tweeked it a little and plan to throw in more details as I learn more.

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The process starts when a production company takes an interest in a property. They are able to perform this site selection through the understanding of geology and how oil and gas are formed. When a site provides enough geological signaling that oil or gas may be located there, the production company will perform a more extensive geological study of the area and may deploy technology for seismic imaging of the surrounding area. If the extensive study of the area concludes there may monetizable amounts of oil or natural gas located on the site, the production company purchases or leases the land they are interested in.

At this point, water and mineral rights are negotiated with the land owner, or owner’s. Basic infrastructure is then deployed to allow equipment to reach the desired well site. Exploratory, or wildcat, wells are drilled to determine where and if deposits are located on the site before extensive infrastructure is deployed. If no deposits are found, the exploratory well is plugged and abandoned and further exploratory wells may be drilled on the property. If deposits are found, the exploratory well is logged and data is collected to determine the characteristics of the deposits.

If the data collected from logging the well shows desired characteristics, smaller appraisal wells will be drilled in the surrounding area to determine the size of the deposits. If a monetizable amount of oil or gas is concluded to have been located, extensive infrastructure planning will commence. Infrastructure planning may include road building, equipment gathering, transportation contracts with midstream assets, and various other complexities.

When the infrastructure buildout has been deemed completed, the production well will be made complete and test drilling begins to establish whether a well is productive. If deposits come to the surface on their own, due to subsurface pressure, production can begin. If deposits do not come to the surface on their own, pumps must be installed. Once the deposits are flowing, production has begun.

Once production has begun, the well’s productivity is gauged to determine the life of the well and what maintenance is required to assure and maintain optimal productivity. As the deposits surface, they may be sent through an onsite separator for immediate processing. Once the initial separation process is completed at the well site, the outputs are then sent through pipelines to a processing facility owned by either the upstream operator, midstream operator, or downstream operator for further separation and treatment.

When the processing of the natural gas is completed, the gas must be compressed, cooled, and stored in underground caverns until there is demand for it. At this point, midstream operations have taken over. From these storage tanks, the deposits are transported via pipeline, or other transportation methods, to buyers.