Syllabus and courses
The major specializations under the discipline of petroleum engineering are :
Petroleum Upstream Engineering - This main focus is over the fundamentals of exploration and production of oil and gas.
Petroleum Downstream Engineering - In this specialization, the practical aspects of processing techniques of petroleum refinery and natural gas, which includes the production phase and it cost estimation.
There are also sub-branches of petroleum engineering:
Reservoir Engineering - This involves the assessment of oil and gas deposits, and mainly focused over the estimation part of these reservoirs which includes surveillance engineers, production engineers, simulation engineers, and geothermal engineers.
Drilling Engineering - This involves the process of drilling and the extraction of gas or oil keeping the cost factor and environmental safety as a priority.
Production Engineering - This is the sub-branch which deals in the selection of the types of equipment that are to be used for the extraction purposes from the sources.
During the first year of this course, in general, the common engineering subjects are of focus, and at the beginning of the second year subjects that are of focus are the petroleum engineering(petroleum, oil and natural gas) with the additional lab works and workshop sessions. This course also includes activities like industrial visits and project work. The general topics covering the study of this Petroleum Engineering are :
- Probability and Statistics
- Numerical Methods
- Petroleum Exploration
- Oil and Gas Well Drilling Technology
- Reservoir Engineering
- Petroleum Formation Evaluation
- Oil And Gas Well Testing
- Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques