Petroleum and Petroleum products are valuable for any country. Shortage
of petroleum could make Industries, automobiles and households come to
a standstill. They are dependent on petroleum in some way or the other.
There is a need to find more petroleum reservoirs to meet the growing
demand. But the search for petroleum is not an easy task in complex geological
locations. This has resulted in a huge demand for professionally trained
personnel to meet the challenge.
Petroleum engineers search the world for reservoirs containing oil or
natural gas. In other words, Petroleum engineers are involved in the exploration
and production of oil and natural gas and also in each stage of oil field
evaluation, development and production. Where as Engineering is the art
and science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences,
like Physics or Chemistry, as in the construction of engines, bridges,
buildings, mines, ships chemical plants, etc; Petroleum Engineering is
the discipline in which the principles of Geology, Physics and Engineering
are applied for the recovery, development and processing of petroleum.
It is basically mining Engineering, but deals only with oil and gas.
Petroleum Engineering covers a wide range of activities from the discovery
of natural sources, examination of the natural characteristics and the
development of modern machinery for the extraction and processing of petroleum.
The work of a petroleum engineer begins with the exploration of reservoirs.
After the reservoir is discovered, they are involved in working with geologists/
geo physicists and other specialists for examining the geologic formation
and the nature of the rock containing the reservoir, determining the drilling
methods to be used, and monitoring the drilling and production activities.
They also work on designing tools and operation procedures in order to
gain maximum efficiency in the recovery of oil and gas. Computers are
used extensively by petroleum engineers in order to calculate the next
possible method of recovery of petroleum from different reservoirs. Models
and designs of drilling and other equipment are also simulated on computers.
The petroleum industry is broadly divided into two major sectors –
the upstream sector and the downstream sector. Work in the upstream sector
consists of the exploration, production and exploitation of oil and natural
gas. The downstream sector comprises the refining, marketing and distributing
functions. Petroleum Engineers function within the upstream sector &
Petroleum Engineering is involved in the exploration and production activities
of petroleum as the upstream end of the energy sector. It is an increasingly
technical profession that involves procuring reserves from places that
predecessors deemed too difficult or not economic with the technology
of the day, or commodity prices. Their goal is to achieve the maximum
profitable recovery of oil and gas from a given petroleum source by determining
and developing the best, most efficient production methods.
