Petrochemical Engineering in Nigeria

Petrochemical engineering is an aspect of engineering concerned with the activities related to production of hydrocarbons,which can be either crude oil or natural gas.Exploration and production are deemed to fall within the upstream of the oil and gas industry.

   Types of petroleum engineers

Reservoir engineers

Drilling engineers

Production engineers

petroleum engineering

• Introduction
• History
• Branches of petroleum engineering
• Related
• Contributors & Bibliography

petroleum engineering, the branch of engineering that involves the development and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas fields as well as the technical analysis and forecasting of their future performance. Its origins lie in both mining engineering and geology. Thepetroleum engineer, whose aim is to extract gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon products from the earth, is concerned with drilling, producing, processing, and transporting these products and handling all the related economic and regulatory considerations.

History

The foundations of petroleum engineering were established during the 1890s in California. There geologists were employed to correlate oil-producing zones and water zones from well to well to prevent extraneous water from entering oil-producing zones. From this came the recognition of the potential for applying technology to oil-field development. The American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (AIME) established a Technical Committee on Petroleum in 1914. In 1957 the name of the AIME was changed to the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers.

Petroleum technology courses were introduced at the University of Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1910 and included courses in oil and gas law and industry practices; in 1915 the university granted the first degree in petroleum engineering. Also in 1910 the University of California at Berkeley offered its first courses in petroleum engineering and in 1915 established a four-year curriculum in petroleum engineering. After these pioneering efforts, professional programs spread throughout the United States and other countries.

From 1900 to 1920 petroleum engineering focused on drilling problems, such as establishing casing points for water shutoff, designing casing strings, and improving the mechanical operations in drilling and well pumping. In the 1920s petroleum engineers sought means to improve drilling practices and to improve well design by use of proper tubing sizes, chokes, and packers. They designed new forms of artificial lift, primarily rod pumping and gas lift, and studied the ways in which methods of production affected gas–oil ratios and rates of production. The technology of drilling fluids was advanced, and directional drilling became a common practice.

The economic crisis that resulted from abundant discoveries in about 1930, notably in the giant East Texas Field, caused petroleum engineering to focus on the entire oil–water–gas reservoir system rather than on the individual well. Studying the optimum spacing of wells in an entire field led to the concept of reservoir engineering. During this period the mechanics of drilling and production were not neglected. Drilling penetration rates increased approximately 100 percent from 1932 to 1937.