Petroleum engineering

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Example of a map used by reservoir engineers to determine where to drill a well. This screenshot is of a structure map generated by contour map software for an 8500 ft deep gas and oil reservoir in the Earth field, Vermilion Parish, Erath, Louisiana. The left-to-right gap near the top of the contour map indicates a fault line. This fault line is between the blue/green contour lines and the purple/red/yellow contour lines. The thin red circular contour line in the middle of the map indicates the top of the oil reservoir. Because gas floats above oil, the thin red contour line marks the gas/oil contact zone. Contour map software screen snapshot of isopach map for 8500ft deep OIL reservoir with a Fault line.jpg
Example of a map used by reservoir engineers to determine where to drill a well. This screenshot is of a structure map generated by contour map software for an 8500 ft deep gas and oil reservoir in the Earth field, Vermilion Parish, Erath, Louisiana. The left-to-right gap near the top of the contour map indicates a fault line. This fault line is between the blue/green contour lines and the purple/red/yellow contour lines. The thin red circular contour line in the middle of the map indicates the top of the oil reservoir. Because gas floats above oil, the thin red contour line marks the gas/oil contact zone.

Petroleum engineering is a field of engineering concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. [1] Exploration and production are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. Exploration, by earth scientists, and petroleum engineering are the oil and gas industry's two main subsurface disciplines, which focus on maximizing economic recovery of hydrocarbons from subsurface reservoirs. Petroleum geology and geophysics focus on provision of a static description of the hydrocarbon reservoir rock, while petroleum engineering focuses on estimation of the recoverable volume of this resource using a detailed understanding of the physical behavior of oil, water and gas within porous rock at very high pressure.

Contents

The combined efforts of geologists and petroleum engineers throughout the life of a hydrocarbon accumulation determine the way in which a reservoir is developed and depleted, and usually they have the highest impact on field economics. Petroleum engineering requires a good knowledge of many other related disciplines, such as geophysics, petroleum geology, formation evaluation (well logging), drilling, economics, reservoir simulation, reservoir engineering, well engineering, artificial lift systems, completions and petroleum production engineering.

Recruitment to the industry has historically been from the disciplines of physics, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and mining engineering. Subsequent development training has usually been done within oil companies.

Overview

The profession got its start in 1914 within the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). The first Petroleum Engineering degree was conferred in 1915 by the University of Pittsburgh. [2] Since then, the profession has evolved to solve increasingly difficult situations. Improvements in computer modeling, materials and the application of statistics, probability analysis, and new technologies like horizontal drilling and enhanced oil recovery, have drastically improved the toolbox of the petroleum engineer in recent decades. Automation, [3] sensors, [4] and robots [5] [6] are being used to propel the industry to more efficiency and safety.

Deep-water, arctic and desert conditions are usually contended with. High temperature and high pressure (HTHP) environments have become increasingly commonplace in operations and require the petroleum engineer to be savvy in topics as wide-ranging as thermo-hydraulics, geomechanics, and intelligent systems.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is the largest professional society for petroleum engineers and publishes much technical information and other resources to support the oil and gas industry. It provides free online education (webinars), mentoring, and access to SPE Connect, an exclusive platform for members to discuss technical issues, best practices, and other topics. SPE members also are able to access the SPE Competency Management Tool to find knowledge and skill strengths and opportunities for growth. [7] SPE publishes peer-reviewed journals, books, and magazines. [8] SPE members receive a complimentary subscription to the Journal of Petroleum Technology and discounts on SPE's other publications. [9] SPE members also receive discounts on registration fees for SPE organized events and training courses. [9] SPE provides scholarships and fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students.

According to the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, petroleum engineers are required to have a bachelor's degree in engineering, generally a degree focused on petroleum engineering is preferred, but degrees in mechanical, chemical, and civil engineering are satisfactory as well. [10] Petroleum engineering education is available at many universities in the United States and throughout the world - primarily in oil producing regions. U.S. News & World Report maintains a list of the Best Undergraduate Petroleum Engineering Programs. [11] SPE and some private companies offer training courses. [12] [13] [14] Some oil companies have considerable in-house petroleum engineering training classes. [15] [16]

Petroleum engineering salaries

Petroleum engineering has historically been one of the highest-paid engineering disciplines, although there is a tendency for mass layoffs when oil prices decline and waves of hiring as prices rise. In 2020, the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the median pay for petroleum engineers was US$137,330, or roughly $66.02 per hour. [17] The same summary projects there will be 3% job growth in this field from 2019 to 2029. [17]

SPE annually conducts a salary survey. In 2017, SPE reported that the average SPE professional member reported earning US$194,649 (including salary and bonus). [18] The average base pay reported in 2016 was $143,006. [18] Base pay and other compensation was on average was highest in the United States where the base pay was US$174,283. Drilling and production engineers tended to make the best base pay, US$160,026 for drilling engineers and US$158,964 for production engineers. Average base pay ranged from US$96,382-174,283. [19] There are still significant gender pay gaps, plus or minus 5% of the US average pay gap which was 18% difference in 2017. [20] [19]

Also in 2016, U.S. News & World Report named petroleum engineering the top college major in terms of highest median annual wages of college-educated workers (age 25–59). [21] The 2010 National Association of Colleges and Employers survey showed petroleum engineers as the highest paid 2010 graduates, at an average annual salary of $125,220. [22] For individuals with experience, salaries can range from $170,000 to $260,000. They make an average of $112,000 a year and about $53.75 per hour. In a 2007 article, Forbes.com reported that petroleum engineering was the 24th best paying job in the United States. [23]

Sub-disciplines

Petroleum engineers divide themselves into several types: [1]

Education

Petroleum Engineering, like most forms of engineering, requires a strong foundation in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. [24] Other fields pertinent to petroleum engineering include geology, formation evaluation, fluid flow in porous media, well drilling technology, economics, geostatistics, etc. [24] [25]

Petroleum Geostatistics

Geostatistics as applied to petroleum engineering uses statistical analysis to characterize reservoirs and create flow simulations that quantify uncertainties of the location of oil and gas. [26]

Petroleum Geology

Petroleum geology is an interdisciplinary field composed of geophysics, geochemistry, and paleontology. [27] The main focus of petroleum geology is the exploration and appraisal of reservoirs containing hydrocarbons via technical forms of analysis. [27]

Well Drilling Technology

Well drilling technology is primarily the focus for drilling engineers. The two forms of well drilling are percussion and rotary drilling, rotary being the most common of the two. An important aspect of drilling is the drill bit, which creates a borehole of approximately three and a half to thirty inches in diameter. The three classes of drill bits, roller cone, fixed cutter, and hybrid, each use teeth to break up the rock. [28] To optimize drilling efficiency and cost, drilling engineers make use of drilling simulators that allow them to identify drilling conditions. [29] Drilling technologies including horizontal drilling and directional drilling have been developed to obtain hydrocarbons profitably from impermeable and coal-bed methane accumulations.

Professional associations

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Well drilling</span> Method of extracting a natural resource

Well drilling is the process of drilling a hole in the ground for the extraction of a natural resource such as ground water, brine, natural gas, or petroleum, for the injection of a fluid from surface to a subsurface reservoir or for subsurface formations evaluation or monitoring. Drilling for the exploration of the nature of the material underground is best described as borehole drilling.

Petroleum geology is the study of the origins, occurrence, movement, accumulation, and exploration of hydrocarbon fuels. It refers to the specific set of geological disciplines that are applied to the search for hydrocarbons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil well</span> Well drilled to extract crude oil and/or gas

An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may be termed a gas well. Wells are created by drilling down into an oil or gas reserve and if necessary equipped with extraction devices such as pumpjacks. Creating the wells can be an expensive process, costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, and costing much more when in difficult-to-access locations, e.g., offshore. The process of modern drilling for wells first started in the 19th century but was made more efficient with advances to oil drilling rigs and technology during the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrocarbon exploration</span> Attempts to locate oil and gas

Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth's crust using petroleum geology.

Well logging, also known as borehole logging is the practice of making a detailed record of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole. The log may be based either on visual inspection of samples brought to the surface or on physical measurements made by instruments lowered into the hole. Some types of geophysical well logs can be done during any phase of a well's history: drilling, completing, producing, or abandoning. Well logging is performed in boreholes drilled for the oil and gas, groundwater, mineral and geothermal exploration, as well as part of environmental and geotechnical studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of Petroleum Engineers</span> Not-for-profit professional organization

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petroleum reservoir</span> Subsurface pool of hydrocarbons

A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen is created in surrounding rock by the presence of high heat and pressure in the Earth's crust.

Enhanced oil recovery, also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Whereas primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the physical or chemical properties of the oil itself in order to make it easier to extract. When EOR is used, 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil can be extracted, compared to 20% to 40% using only primary and secondary recovery.

Steam-assisted gravity drainage is an enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells are drilled into the oil reservoir, one a few metres above the other. High pressure steam is continuously injected into the upper wellbore to heat the oil and reduce its viscosity, causing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore, where it is pumped out. Dr. Roger Butler, engineer at Imperial Oil from 1955 to 1982, invented the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process in the 1970s. Butler "developed the concept of using horizontal pairs of wells and injected steam to develop certain deposits of bitumen considered too deep for mining". In 1983 Butler became director of technical programs for the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA), a crown corporation created by Alberta Premier Lougheed to promote new technologies for oil sands and heavy crude oil production. AOSTRA quickly supported SAGD as a promising innovation in oil sands extraction technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reservoir engineering</span>

Reservoir engineering is a branch of petroleum engineering that applies scientific principles to the fluid flow through a porous medium during the development and production of oil and gas reservoirs so as to obtain a high economic recovery. The working tools of the reservoir engineer are subsurface geology, applied mathematics, and the basic laws of physics and chemistry governing the behavior of liquid and vapor phases of crude oil, natural gas, and water in reservoir rock. Of particular interest to reservoir engineers is generating accurate reserves estimates for use in financial reporting to the SEC and other regulatory bodies. Other job responsibilities include numerical reservoir modeling, production forecasting, well testing, well drilling and workover planning, economic modeling, and PVT analysis of reservoir fluids. Reservoir engineers also play a central role in field development planning, recommending appropriate and cost-effective reservoir depletion schemes such as waterflooding or gas injection to maximize hydrocarbon recovery. Due to legislative changes in many hydrocarbon-producing countries, they are also involved in the design and implementation of carbon sequestration projects in order to minimise the emission of greenhouse gases.

Petrophysics is the study of physical and chemical rock properties and their interactions with fluids.

Drilling engineering is a subset of petroleum engineering.

A petroleum geologist is an earth scientist who works in the field of petroleum geology, which involves all aspects of oil discovery and production. Petroleum geologists are usually linked to the actual discovery of oil and the identification of possible oil deposits, gas caps, or leads. It can be a very labor-intensive task involving several different fields of science and elaborate equipment. Petroleum geologists look at the structural and sedimentary aspects of the stratum/strata to identify possible oil traps or tight shale plays.

Subsurface engineers are a subset within Petroleum Engineering and typically work closely with Drilling engineers. The job of a Subsurface Engineer is to effectively select equipment that will best suit the subsurface environment in order to best produce the hydrocarbon reserves. Once the hardware has been selected, a Subsurface Engineer will monitor and adjust the equipment to ensure the well and reservoir produces under ideal circumstances.

In 2017 the department was merged with the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources Engineering, forming the new Department of Geoscience and Petroleum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas</span> Public university in Moscow, Russia

The Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas is a public university in Moscow, Russia. The university was founded in 1930 and is named after the geologist Ivan Gubkin. The university is colloquially known as Kerosinka, meaning 'kerosene stove'.

Heavy oil production is a developing technology for extracting heavy oil in industrial quantities. Estimated reserves of heavy oil are over 6 trillion barrels, three times that of conventional oil and gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fracking in Canada</span>

Fracking in Canada was first used in Alberta in 1953 to extract hydrocarbons from the giant Pembina oil field, the biggest conventional oil field in Alberta, which would have produced very little oil without fracturing. Since then, over 170,000 oil and gas wells have been fractured in Western Canada. Fracking is a process that stimulates natural gas or oil in wellbores to flow more easily by subjecting hydrocarbon reservoirs to pressure through the injection of fluids or gas at depth causing the rock to fracture or to widen existing cracks.

Miller and Mochen, Ltd. is a petroleum consulting company based in Houston, Texas. The firm provides services including reserves certifications, audits, and independent evaluations. They prepare evaluations according to the standards of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation S-X and the Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS) published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil and gas reserves and resource quantification</span> Industry concept of crude oil and natural gas reserves and resources

Oil and gas reserves denote discovered quantities of crude oil and natural gas that can be profitably produced/recovered from an approved development. Oil and gas reserves tied to approved operational plans filed on the day of reserves reporting are also sensitive to fluctuating global market pricing. The remaining resource estimates are likely sub-commercial and may still be under appraisal with the potential to be technically recoverable once commercially established. Natural gas is frequently associated with oil directly and gas reserves are commonly quoted in barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). Consequently, both oil and gas reserves, as well as resource estimates, follow the same reporting guidelines, and are referred to collectively hereinafter as oil & gas.

References

  1. 1 2 "Petroleum Engineers: Occupational Outlook Handbook: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  2. ↑ "Petroleum Engineering". Britannica. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  3. ↑ "Drilling Automation". Journal of Petroleum Technology. December 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ "JPT Flow Sensor Technology Seeks to Replace the Coriolis Meter". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  5. ↑ "JPT Competing Companies Building Robots to Place Receivers". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  6. ↑ "JPT Robot Removes Operators From Extreme Environments". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  7. ↑ "SPE Member Resource Guide" (PDF). Society of Petroleum Engineers. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Publications | The Society of Petroleum Engineers". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  9. 1 2 "Professional Membership Benefits | Society of Petroleum Engineers". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  10. ↑ "Petroleum Engineers: Occupational Outlook Handbook: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  11. ↑ "Best Undergraduate Petroleum Engineering Programs (Doctorate)". U.S. News & World Report. February 6, 2018.
  12. ↑ "PEICE – Practical Professional Career Training for the Oil & Gas Industry". www.peice.com. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  13. ↑ "PetroSkills Oil and Gas Training | World's Petroleum Training". www.petroskills.com. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  14. ↑ "Online Training, Online Courses, Web-based Learning Management System - Learning Management Express(LMX) - NexLearn". www.oilandgastraining.com. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  15. ↑ "Energy Pipeline: Noble Energy's outdoor training facility brings industry to community's fingertips" . Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  16. ↑ "Oil and Gas Training & Career Development | Schlumberger". www.slb.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  17. 1 2 "Petroleum Engineers : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  18. 1 2 "Oil and Gas Pay | Salary Survey | Society of Petroleum Engineers". www.spe.org. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  19. 1 2 "2017 SPE Membership Salary Survey Highlight Report-November 2017" (PDF). Society of Petroleum Engineers. January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Highlights of women's earnings in 2017 : BLS Reports: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  21. ↑ "Top 10 College Majors That Earn the Highest Salaries". U.S. News & World Report. February 6, 2018.
  22. ↑ "NACE". Naceweb.org. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  23. ↑ "America's Best- And Worst-Paying Jobs". Forbes. 2007-06-04. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  24. 1 2 Cunha, Luciane B.; Cunha, J. C. (2004-01-01). Petroleum Engineering Education - Challenges and Changes for the Next 20 Years. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/90556-MS. ISBN   9781555631512.
  25. ↑ Petroleum Engineering: Principles and Practice. Springer Science & Business Media. 2012-12-06. ISBN   9789401096010.
  26. ↑ Chambers, Richard L.; Yarus, Jeffrey M. (2006-11-01). "Practical Geostatistics - An Armchair Overview for Petroleum Reservoir Engineers". Journal of Petroleum Technology. 58 (11): 78–86. doi:10.2118/103357-JPT. ISSN   0149-2136.
  27. 1 2 Selley, Richard C.; Sonnenberg, Stephen A. (2014-11-08). Elements of Petroleum Geology. Academic Press. ISBN   9780123860323.
  28. ↑ Ma, Tianshou; Chen, Ping; Zhao, Jian (2016-12-01). "Overview on vertical and directional drilling technologies for the exploration and exploitation of deep petroleum resources". Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources. 2 (4): 365–395. Bibcode:2016GGGG....2..365M. doi: 10.1007/s40948-016-0038-y . ISSN   2363-8427.
  29. ↑ Boonyapaluk, P.; Hareland, G.; Rampersad, P. R. (1994-01-01). Drilling Optimization Using Drilling Data and Available Technology. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/27034-MS. ISBN   9781555634704.

Bibliography

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