10 Dimensions International

WHAT IS PETROLEUM?Most people associate petroleum with transportation, but petroleum is not just used for fuel. Thousands of everyday vital products come from petroleum. One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 20 gallons of gasoline and four gallons of jet fuel. The remaining 18 gallons are used to make things like solvents, ink, tires, motor oil, ice cube trays, house paint, roofing material, surf boards, hand lotion, candles, shampoo, food preservatives, toothpaste, golf balls, ice cream, heart valves, trash bags, anti-freeze, eyeglasses, shower curtains, and so on.

All these petroleum and associated products come from hydrocarbon resources found under the earth’s surface and require human intervention to produce them. Hydrocarbon is the result of the decomposition of organic matter over the course of millions of years, which is why the derived fuel or energy is a “nonrenewable” source of energy. This means that any depletion of such a deposit cannot be replenished in the foreseeable future. Consequently, there is an absolute neces-sity for other sources of energy to be developed to support the depleting global petroleum reservoirs that have been subjected to intense demand from energy consumers.

FIELD OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERINGThe field of petroleum engineering is all about the exploration and production of various petroleum-based hydrocarbons, particularly natural gas and crude oil. These are some of the most significant sources of energy.

Exploration is the phase prior to actually finding a com-mercial hydrocarbon resource, and the tasks are mainly car-ried out by geoscientists with the cooperation of petroleum engineers. Subsequently, the resource is transferred to the petroleum engineers who become responsible for develop-ment, management, operations and production.

Petroleum engineering, as an academic discipline, originat-ed in 1914 at the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgi-cal and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and the first degree was awarded by the University of Pittsburgh, PA, in 1915.

The number of petroleum engineer students is low com-pared to the other known engineering departments, such as mechanical or electrical; therefore, there is a worldwide industry demand for petroleum engineers.

The petroleum engineers formed a society — the history begins within AIME. AIME was founded in 1871 in Penn-

Integrated task cycle for a typical Reservoir Management Engineer.

WHAT DOES A PETROLEUM ENGINEER REALLY DO?

Few career paths in today’s world offer the amazing variety of key roles that petroleum engineers play in the global economy, and as the world’s demand for hydrocarbons and their products continues to rise, petroleum engineers will play a crucial role in ensuring that demand is met, new technologies are deployed, costs and risks are managed, the environment is protected, and the world’s economic future remains secure.

BY DR. ZILLUR RAHIM, ADNAN AL-KANAAN

AND DR. HAMOUD A. AL-ANAZI

71674araD4R1.indd 10 10/26/14 8:18 PM

sylvania to advance the production of metals, minerals, andenergy resources through the application of engineering. ThePetroleum Branch of AIME became a full-fledged profes-sional society — the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) —in 1957 and the first Board of Directors meeting was held inDallas, Texas, with president John H. Hammond presiding.

The number of SPE members in 2014 exceeded 124,000,making the society the largest in the engineering industry.

WHAT IS A RESERVOIR?“Reservoir” is one of the most common terms in petroleumengineering. What is a reservoir? In a general sense, a res-ervoir is a large natural or artificial lake used as a source ofwater supply. In petroleum engineering terms, a reservoiris where the hydrocarbon migrates into and resides — anunderground source usually thousands of feet deep — sittingin very harsh conditions of pressure and temperature, andbounded by impermeable layers above and below to containthe hydrocarbon.

The two main fabrics of reservoirs are carbonates andsandstones. They possess different chemistry and character-istics, and do not provide open space like lakes. Rather, theyare tightly grained, often consolidated, and hydrocarbon isstored in the very small pore spaces of the rock fabric, known as “porosity.”

When these pore spaces are connected and the fluid can pass from one set of pores to the other, the rock becomes permeable. This phenomenon is defined as “permeability,” and the higher the permeability, the greater is the potential for hydrocarbon flow. The flow of hydrocarbon from the reservoir reaches the wellbore due to pressure differential between the reservoir and wellbore, making the reservoir producible.

Saturation is an important aspect of a reservoir as differ-ent fluids, such as water, oil and gas, can coexist in the same structure. No single fluid is usually found to saturate the entire reservoir. Even if a single fluid existed, such as in a very dry gas reservoir, not all the gas can be produced by virtue of some of the gas sticking to the porosity walls, termed as resid-ual saturation.

Porosity, movable hydrocarbon saturation, reservoir thick-ness and extent generally define the amount of hydrocarbonaccumulated in a field and permeability defines the produc-tion potential.

WHO IS A PETROLEUM ENGINEER?A petroleum engineer is employed by an oil company todesign, test, and implement methods to produce petroleumproducts from the earth and sea floor. These engineers areinvolved in confirming the commercial presence of oil or gas,locating the drilling sites, designing products by combiningtheir efforts with other engineering groups, contributing tothe development of software to control and run equipmentand simulate hydrocarbon flow through the reservoir, plan-ning field development, and oversee the removal and process-ing of the petroleum itself.

A petroleum engineer possesses a mix of various skills inmathematics, chemistry, geology, physics, finance, etc., over

Dimensions International 11

A cut out view of a hydrocarbon reservoir illustrating rock bedding and layering.

THIS GRAPH SHOWS THE MEMBERSHIP GROWTH OF THE

SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS (SPE) FROM THE LATE

1950s TO 2014. MEMBERSHIP CURRENTLY EXCEEDS 124,000.

SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS (SPE) MEMBERSHIP

COUNT BY REGION.

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

01950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Y E A R

0

(TH

OU

SA

ND

S)

16

12

8

4

Africa

Canad

ian

Easte

rn N

orth

Am

erica

Gulf C

oast

Nor

th A

mer

ica

Mid

-Con

tinen

t Nor

th A

mer

icaM

iddl

e Eas

tNor

th S

ea

North

ern

Asia P

acifi

c

Rocky

Mou

ntain

Nor

th A

mer

ica

Russia

n & C

aspi

an

South

Am

erica

& C

arib

bean

South

Cen

tral &

Eas

tern

Eur

ope

South

ern

Asia P

acifi

c

South

weste

rn N

orth

Am

erica

Unass

igne

d

Wes

tern

Nor

th A

mer

ica

71674araD4R1.indd 11 10/26/14 8:18 PM

12 Dimensions International12 Dimensions International

and above the core petroleum engineering subjects. The dis-cipline also overlaps several other engineering branches thatinclude chemical, civil, and mechanical engineering; however,the work is focused on the evaluation and production of gas

and oil reservoirs, making them available to the consumer invarious forms and stages.

Given the vast scope of petroleum engineering, asingle person obviously cannot champion all the tasks.The petroleum engineering functions are broadly divid-ed into three categories: Upstream, Midstream, andDownstream. The very onset of exploration with thedrilling of exploratory wells and subsequent develop-ment and production of the field is considered Upstreamand is often referred to as Exploration and Production(E&P). The Midstream sector includes all the complexpipeline networks to transport the hydrocarbon fromthe wells to the purification plants, refineries and otherinstallations. The ultimate refining and processing ofthe crude, purification of natural gas, operating pet-rochemical plants, deriving products from oil and gas,etc., compose the Downstream industry. The delineationof a field (identifying field boundaries) and its develop-ment by drilling a sufficient number of wells, ensuringthat the hydrocarbon production target is met and thefield is produced optimally and economically, and man-aged diligently by using proper production strategies areimportant tasks carried out by the Upstream petroleumengineers. They ensure that the reservoir life cycle ismaximized by applying the most appropriate engineer-ing and earth science technologies while fully complyingwith safety and environmental regulations.

There are four areas of concern for a petroleum engi-neer: finding the oil/gas, evaluating hydrocarbon poten-tial, maximizing recovery and transportation and stor-age. The major specialties include: design, oversee andrun multimillion dollar drilling and production opera-tions, perform laboratory tests, studies, and experimentsto understand the reservoir and enhanced recovery meth-ods, and develop computer simulation models to deter-mine the optimal recovery process.

Upstream petroleum engineers are further dividedaccording to their specialties; some specialize in drillingengineering and are responsible for designing and actualdrilling of the wells. “Production” engineers ensure propercompletion and tie-in of the well to the processing plants,

Left A computer model of a field development plan simulated by the petroleum engineers with optimal well spacing and configuration. Right A reservoir simulation model combined with geology showing well placement and hydrocarbon movement.

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040

Y E A R

QU

AD

RIL

LIO

N

BT

U

250

200

150

100

50

0

BS

EN

RO

LL

ME

NT

(T

HO

US

AN

DS

) 120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Mec

hani

cal

Elect

rical

/Com

pute

rCivi

lOth

er

Compu

ter S

cienc

eChe

mica

l

Engin

eerin

g (G

ener

al)

Biomed

ical

Aeros

pace

Indu

stria

l

Met

allu

rgica

lPet

role

um

Enviro

nmen

tal

Biolog

ical &

Agr

icultu

ral

Archi

tect

ural

Civil/E

nviro

nmen

tal

Eng. S

cienc

es &

Phy

sics

Nucle

ar

Engin

eerin

g M

anag

emen

tM

inin

g

HISTORIC AND FUTURE ENERGY DEMAND WORLDWIDE.

ENROLLMENT OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN BACHELOR DEGREE

PROGRAMS (2013).

SOURCE: U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (RELEASE DATE JULY 25, 2013).

71674araD4R1.indd 12 10/26/14 8:18 PM

Dimensions International 13

managing production operations, and optimizing operat-ing expenses.

“Stimulation” engineers fracture and rejuvenate wellsto enhance productivity, making unconventional reservoirscommercially producible. “Reservoir” engineers fully eval-uate reservoir properties, potential, and forecast oil andgas production rates.

Petroleum reservoir management is one of the mainbranches of petroleum engineering and includes: overall fielddevelopment and planning, maximizing property value, evalu-ating production performance, ensuring reservoir health, andbeing responsible in supplying and sustaining a substantialportion of world energy.

Among all aspects of petroleum engineering, reservoirmanagement engineering, mainly comprised of reservoir engi-neers, is the final authority and responsible entity for the sup-ply of petroleum to a country. Reservoir management engi-neers forecast 1- to 5-year operating and business plans byrunning complex simulation models that include field devel-opment design and strategy, optimal drilling direction andwell configuration, production performance forecasts, long-term production sustainability and financial budgeting. Theirwork is office-based and a significant part of it is spent inter-acting and working with the drilling engineers, log and corespecialists, laboratory scientists, and completion, stimulation,and production technologists to ensure that field developmentprogresses as per design and requirement.

During the initial training and assignments, a petroleumengineer rotates between fields and offices, such as manufac-

turing installation, production plants, well sites, labo-ratories and computing centers. Petroleum engineerscan work in offices or in the field, or at both places,depending on the specialization and focus.

Therefore, a reservoir management engineer whodeals with well productivity enhancement, designingfield development, managing and optimizing reser-voir performance, can spend their career in an officeenvironment with infrequent visits to operation facilities.

A production engineer, on the other hand, deal-ing with well completion, reservoir stimulation, andsurface installations splits his or her job between theoffice and operation sites, as needed. A drilling engi-neer who is responsible for the actual drilling of a well,mostly needs to stay on-site during the duration of timeassigned to him. An experienced drilling engineer canchoose to work on designing wells, optimizing technol-ogies, supervising operations, and managing logistics,thereby spending much time in the office.

When petroleum engineering is mentioned, it mostlikely refers to the Upstream.

Downstream engineers, often called petrochemi-cal engineers, are more skilled in fluids and chemistry,and are responsible for the proper separation, pro-cessing and purification of crude, running the refineryplants, and working in the process of converting petro-leum raw materials to develop and produce a diverserange of products, commodities, and specialty chemi-cals, including medicines.

As demands increase for alternative energy, some for-ward-thinking petroleum engineers are turning their talentsto working on clean energy products that produce lowercarbon emissions.

Many petroleum engineers travel the world or live in for-eign countries — wherever their explorations take them tofind and recover these valuable natural reserves. Petroleumengineers interact with world industry professionals on aregular basis through meetings and conferences, to becomefamiliar with each other’s challenges, share and disseminate

Left A well log showing formation lithology, reservoir development and gas saturation. Right A computer model of a gas field.

SAUDI ARAMCO CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION. IN 2013, THE AVERAGE

PRODUCTION WAS 9.4 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL PER DAY.

Y E A R

MIL

LIO

N B

AR

RE

LS

PE

R D

AY 12

10

8

6

4

2

01975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

71674araD4R1.indd 13 10/26/14 8:18 PM

14 Dimensions International14 Dimensions International

information, and deduce solutions to tough problems.Another facet of petroleum engineering is the financial anal-

ysis of each project. Petroleum engineers must gauge financial viability and determine if the entire process will be economical. Organization, integration, and analysis of data are important

parameters for engineers to carry out such evalu-ations.

Petroleum engineers have a future full of challenges and oppor-tunities. In addition to working in the onshore conventional fields, they must develop and apply new technology to recover hydrocar-bons from offshore oil and gas fields and from

unconventional shale oil and gas, tar sands, and tight gas. They must also devise new techniques — enhancing second-ary and tertiary modes of exploitation — to recover oil and gas left in the ground after exhausting conventional pro-ducing methods. This can include injecting chemicals in the

reservoir and making it preferential to oil flow or using in situ combustion and heating techniques to make heavy oil lighter in the reservoir so that it can be easily flowed back to the well.

In practice, “conventional oil and gas,” or the term “conventional resources,” applies to oil and gas that become producible after the drilling, completion and perforation operations, just by the natural reservoir pressure or sometimes by apply-ing compression.

After the reservoir has been producing for a long period of time — usually decades — the natu-ral pressure of the wells may be too low to pro-duce the remaining quantities of oil and gas. At that time, different recovery techniques are used to boost production, which may include water and gas injection or sophisticated compression mecha-nisms; but these oil and gas fields will still be con-sidered conventional resources.

Unconventional reservoirs cannot produce com-mercially except by the use of sophisticated drill-ing methods and extensive hydraulic fracturing conducted from the very onset of the development initiative. As opposed to a conventional field, an unconventional field produces with a much larger number of wells at a much lower production rate, requiring the application of numerous optimization techniques to bring the cost down so as to make the project economical.

In either case, careful planning and design, along with the application of high-end technology for commercial and economic extraction of hydro-carbon, is required.

A petroleum engineer is responsible for working with engineers of other disciplines during explora-

Total >85 (MMBPD)

OIL

PR

OD

UC

TIO

N (

MM

BP

D)

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

Russia KSA

USAIra

nChi

naCan

ada

Iraq

UAE Ve

nezu

ela

Mex

icoKuw

aitBra

zilNig

eria

Norway

Alger

iaAng

ola

Kazak

stan

Qatar UK

Colum

bia

Total >260 billion cubic ft per day (Bcfd)

GA

S P

RO

DU

CT

ION

(B

cfd

)

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

USARus

sia EUIra

nCan

ada

Qatar

Norway

China

KSA

Alger

ia

Nethe

rland

sIn

done

siaM

alay

siaUzb

ekist

anEgy

pt

Turk

men

istan

Mex

ico UAEBol

ivia

Austra

lia UK

DAILY OIL PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY IN 2013.

DAILY NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY IN 2012.

Trucks carrying state-of-the-art service equipment to well sites in the desert.

SOURCE: THE WORLD FACTBOOK, 2013.

SOURCE: THE WORLD FACTBOOK, 2012.

71674araD4R1.indd 14 10/26/14 8:18 PM

Dimensions International 15

tion, to development and production, to selecting the most optimized development plan. The petroleum engineer normal-ly works very closely with the Exploration team that includes geologists and geophysicists on estimating hydrocarbon poten-tial and reserves, and when an exploration is successful and a discovery is made.

“Reserves” is an important term often used by petroleum engineers and is defined as the amount of hydrocarbon that can be commercially produced under current technological constraints from a certain field. Reserves is closely synony-mous to the frequently used abbreviation “EUR” that stands for estimated ultimate recovery. With time, reserves can increase due to improvement and advancement in technical capability, application of innovative ideas, lowering of cost, extension of the developed area, or increase of field volumet-rics. The reserves numbers are always lower than the ini-tial hydrocarbon in place, which is defined to be the total volume of naturally occurring underground accumulations, producible or not. Reserves divided by the hydrocarbon in place is known as the recovery factor.

Petroleum engineers are able to continuously update field delineation more precisely and recompute hydrocar-bon reserves estimates and the production potential with the increased data acquired throughout the development phase. When a delineation drilling confirms the availability of suf-ficient reserves that will lead to a commercial exploitation project, the petroleum engineers design the field develop-ment by evaluating reservoir and hydrocarbon properties, drilling and completion strategies, complexities, recovery methods, cost and safety issues.

SAUDI ARABIA: AN EXAMPLE OF EXPLORATION AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERINGOne of the most outstanding examples of oil and gas — from discovery to production — lies with the history of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom granted oil concessions to Standard Oil of California (Socal, today’s Chevron) in 1933, and the company started drilling exploratory wells in Dammam in 1935. Dammam-2 produced about 3,800

barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and the company had 1,150 employees. However, the well started producing water and Dammam-3, 4, 5 and 6 were not promising.

Max Steinke was the chief geologist for Socal and due to his insistence, vision, hard work, and patience, Dammam-7, also known as the “prosperity well,” made the most out-standing discovery, which has led the Kingdom to eventually become the possessor of 20 percent of world oil reserves.

The Dammam-7 well became the symbol of success that initially yielded 3,700 bpd, but opened up the vast horizon of more exploration, delineation and development.

The company name was changed to the Arabian Ameri-can Oil Company (Aramco) in 1944 and eventually to Saudi Aramco in 1988.

With the use of best-in-class technology, reservoir and petroleum engineering practices, application of innovative ideas and concepts, and above all, the best group of talents and highly skilled professionals, Saudi Arabia has made itself into a world-class oil and gas producing champion, providing the Kingdom and the world with the energy needed to meet the ever-challenging and growing demand.

Throughout the 80-plus years of history, Saudi Arabia has become a world leader in exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing.

With 121 oil and gas fields, the country possesses 260.2 billion barrels of proven conventional crude oil and conden-sate reserves and 288.4 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

In 2013, Saudi Aramco produced 3.4 billion barrels of oil, about one in every eight barrels of the world’s crude oil pro-duction and 4 trillion standard cubic feet (Tscf) of natural gas compared to the world's total production of 125 Tscf.

While the crude oil is for export, Saudi gas production is entirely dedicated to support the domestic energy consump-tion: mainly for electricity, de-salination plants, turbines and machinaries, and downstream industry.

Next time when you drive your car, travel by plane, sit in your home in air-conditioned comfort, plan your cruise, light your house, eat ice cream, play golf, or take your medica-tion, think of the contribution of the petroleum engineers to our society.

Left: A hydraulic

fracturing site to stimulate and improve

production from unconventional

reservoirs (Pennsylvania,

U.S.). Right:

A photo of a typical drilling

rig. Photo by Mahdi Hussain

71674araD4R1.indd 15 10/26/14 8:18 PM