15FPTE221
Reservoir
Engineering
INTRODUCTION
Lecture 1
Petroleum Engineering
“Is a field of engineering concerned with the
activities related to the production of
hydrocarbons, which focus on maximizing
economic recovery of hydrocarbons from
subsurface reservoirs.”
Petroleum Engineering Branches
• Drilling engineering
• Well completion (designing well casing and cementing )
• Well directional drilling (vertical, horizontal, slanted, or multilateral)
• Reservoir engineering
• Petroleum geology and exploration
• Reserve estimation
• Formation evaluation (well logging and testing)
• Reservoir simulation
• Improved oil recovery
Petroleum Engineering Branches
• Production engineering
• Vertical and horizontal flow lines
• Artificial lift
• Optimizing production
• Petroleum well work over
• Formation acidizing and fracturing
• Petroleum economics
Petroleum Reservoir
Petroleum Reservoir is a subsurface pool of
hydrocarbons (oil and gas) contained in porous rock
formations.
Petroleum Reservoir
• Must have sufficient porosity (f) to store the oil
• Must have sufficient permeability (k) to allow fluid flow
• Sandstones and carbonate rocks form the majority of reservoirs world-wide.
Role of Petroleum Reservoir Engineers
• In charge in the evaluation of petroleum reservoir
• Estimate the hydrocarbon volume “in-place” and predict recovery
• Determine the initial distribution of reservoir fluids
• Characterize reservoir by driving mechanism and fluid type
• Calculate the flow of fluids through reservoir into the well performance
Role of Petroleum Reservoir Engineers
• Analyze and predict individual oil or gas well performance
• Maximize production rates and ultimate recovery of oil and gas
• Design and select well locations
• Design economically optimal production profile
• Screen reservoirs for Improved Oil Recover
• In charge of reservoir modelling and simulation studies to determine
optimal development plans
Role of Petroleum Reservoir Engineers
Must thoroughly understand
• The phase behavior of the petroleum fluids
• The mechanism of these fluids flow through porous media
Therefore, reservoir engineering is necessarily interdisciplinary, requiring knowledge of
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Classical engineering
• Mathematics
• Computer science
Role of Petroleum Reservoir Engineers
As opposed to many other engineering disciplines, reservoir engineers
must always cope with great uncertainties as they are dealing with a great
black box.
