Twinkie Coring
The Challenge: Let's discover how petroleum engineers find oil!
Recommended Materials: 1 Twinkie, 1 clear straw, paper towels to clean up
- Unwrap the Twinkie and set it laying down on a paper towel or plate.
- Pick up the clear straw and hold it vertically over the middle of the Twinkie.
- Push through the entire Twinkie.
- Pull out the straw to see the different layers: "cake", cream filling, then back to the "cake" layer. The "cake" layer represents a rock layer. The cream filling represents our oil reservoir.
- Share your observations and a video of your experiment on Flipgrid.
Petroleum Engineers find ways to extract oil and gas from below the Earth's surface, which are important to produce energy and everyday products. As oil and gas reservoirs are usually hundreds or even thousands of feet below the surface, it would be extremely helpful to petroleum engineers to learn as much as they can about the rock formations below the surface. There are many ways to evaluate what the subsurface looks like, including coring. While drilling a well, a core bit is used to take multiple cylindrical rock samples, or cores, as the drill bit moves deeper into the Earth. The cores are sent to a lab to be analyzed for their reservoir properties. Coring provides valuable information to petroleum engineers about the geological history of the rock, fluid flow, amounts of oil and gas, and other physical geomechanical properties.
About UT Society of Petroleum Engineers: Society of Petroleum Engineers is a professional organization that focuses on the knowledge of oil and gas exploration and development. Here at The University of Texas at Austin, our chapter provides student members with various networking and social opportunities such as bi-weekly general meetings with companies, Technical Talks, Lunch and Learns, and Senior Banquet. Visit our website.
Interested in Petroleum Engineering? Discover more.
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