Page 17 - Introduction to Petroleum Engineering

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INTRODUCTION

The global economy is based on an infrastructure that depends on the consumption
of petroleum (Fanchi and Fanchi, 2016). Petroleum is a mixture of hydrocarbon
molecules and inorganic impurities that can exist in the solid, liquid (oil), or gas
phase. Our purpose here is to introduce you to the terminology and techniques used
in petroleum engineering. Petroleum engineering is concerned with the production of
petroleum from subsurface reservoirs. This chapter describes the role of petroleum
engineering in the production of oil and gas and provides a view of oil and gas
production from the perspective of a decision maker.

1.1 WHAT IS PETROLEUM ENGINEERING?

A typical workflow for designing, implementing, and executing a project to produce
hydrocarbons must fulfill several functions. The workflow must make it possible to
identify project opportunities; generate and evaluate alternatives; select and design the
desired alternative; implement the alternative; operate the alternative over the life of the
project, including abandonment; and then evaluate the success of the project so lessons
can be learned and applied to future projects. People with skills from many disciplines
are involved in the workflow. For example, petroleum geologists and geophysicists use
technology to provide a description of hydrocarbon‐bearing reservoir rock (Raymond
and Leffler, 2006; Hyne, 2012). Petroleum engineers acquire and apply knowledge
of the behavior of oil, water, and gas in porous rock to extract hydrocarbons.

Introduction to Petroleum Engineering, First Edition. John R. Fanchi and Richard L. Christiansen.
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/Fanchi/IntroPetroleumEngineering