Petroleum production engineering is a subset of petroleum engineering. Petroleum production engineers design and select subsurface equipment to produce oil and gas well fluids. They often are degreed as petroleum engineers, although they may come from other technical disciplines (e.g.,

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

) and subsequently be trained by an

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

company.

Overview

Petroleum production engineers' responsibilities include: # Evaluating inflow and outflow performance between the

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

and the

wellbore A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petrole ...

. # Designing completion systems, including tubing selection,

perforating A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

, sand control, matrix stimulation, and

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

. # Selecting artificial lift equipment, including sucker-rod lift (typically beam pumping), gas lift, electrical submersible pumps, subsurface hydraulic pumps, progressing-cavity pumps, and plunger lift. # Selecting ( not design ) equipment for surface facilities that separate and measure the produced fluids (oil, natural gas, water, and impurities), prepare the oil and gas for transportation to market, and handle disposal of any water and impurities. Note: Surface equipments are designed by Chemical engineers and Mechanical engineers according to data provided by the production engineers.

References

{{Petroleum industry Petroleum engineering

Overview

Suggested reading

References