Page 28 - Petroleum and Gas Field Processing

The development of petroleum fields involves the collective and
integrated efforts and experience of many disciplines. Geologists
and geophysicists are needed, as described earlier, to define, describe,
and characterize the reservoir. Reservoir engineers set the strategy for
producing the petroleum reserves and managing the reservoir for the life of
the field. Production and completion engineers design the well completions
and production facilities to handle the varying production methods and
conditions, and drilling engineers design the well-drilling programs based
on well-completion design. In the past, each group used to work separately
and deliver its product to the next group. That is, when geologists and
geophysicists finish their work, they deliver the product to the reservoir-
engineering group. Then, reservoir engineering would deliver the results of
their work to production engineering, and so on. In almost all cases, it was
necessary for each group to go back to the previous group for discussion,
clarification, or requesting additional work. This has been realized as a
very inefficient operation. In recent years, most major companies have
adopted what is known as the multidisciplinary team approach for field
developments. In this approach, a team consisting of engineers and
scientists covering all needed disciplines is formed. The team members
work together as one group throughout the field development stage. Of
course, other specialists such as computer scientists, planners, cost
engineers, economists, and so forth work closely with the team or may
become an integral part of the team. Experience has shown that this field
development approach is very efficient; more and more companies are
moving in this direction.
The following sections provide brief descriptions of the roles and
functions of drilling, reservoir, and production engineering.

1.6 DRILLING ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS

Following the preparation stage of field development (i.e., setting the
production strategy, determining the locations of the wells in the field, and
designing the well completions), the drilling-related activities begin. The
drilling program is first designed. Then, plans are prepared and executed
to acquire the required equipment and materials. The drilling sites in the
field are then prepared for the equipment and materials to be moved in,
and the drilling operations begin. Depending on the organization of
activities within the oil company, drilling engineers may only be
responsible for drilling and casing of the well, and production engineers
will be responsible for completion of the well. Alternatively, drilling
engineers may be responsible for drilling and completion of the wells.

Copyright 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.