INTRODUCTION TO

PETROLEUM
ENGINEERING

PETR 2001

Instructor

Name:
E-mail:
Tel #:
Office Hours:

Nicole Ramcharan
nicole.ramcharan@utt.edu.tt
642-8888 Ext.
Any day/Anytime on Canvas

Canvas:

https://utt.instructure.com

Now you

Week

Topic

Date

Introduction to Petroleum Engineering

1 Sep 2015

Reservoir Fluids

8 Sep 2015

Petroleum Geology

15 Sep 2015

Exploration Technology

22 Sep 2015

Drilling Overview

29 Sep 2015

Drilling Overview

6 Oct 2015

Basic Well Completions

13 Oct 2015

Reservoir Properties

20 Oct 2015

Recovery Mechanisms

27 Oct 2015

10

Reserves

3 Nov 2015

11

Production Operations

10 Nov 2015

12

Well Interventions

17 Nov 2015

13

Study Days

Nov 24-25

Final Exams

Nov 26-Dec 10

INTRODUCTION TO
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

History of Oil

Ancient Oil

At least 6,500 years ago, people living in the marshes

of what is now Iraq learned to add bitumen to bricks
and cement to waterproof their houses against floods.
Soon people realized that bitumen could be used for
anything from sealing water tanks to gluing broken
pots.
By Babylonian times, there was a massive trade in this
black gold throughout the Middle East, and whole
cities were literally built with it.
This primitive industry spread from the Middle East to
China with the discovery of oil while drilling wells to
obtain salt water from which salt could be obtained.

Early Distillation

Petroleum Distillation techniques was discovered by the Arabs in

the Middle East about 2,000 years ago.
At first, people were only interested in the thick, sticky form of
bitumen that was good for gluing and waterproofing. A thinner
form called naft (giving us the modern word naphthalene) burst
into flames too readily to be useful.
By the 6th century BCE, the Persians had realized that naft could
be lethal in battle. Persian archers put it on their arrows to fire
flaming missiles at their enemies.
Much later, in the 6th century CE, the Byzantine navy developed
this idea further. They used deadly fire bombs, called Greek
fire, made from bitumen mixed with sulfur and quicklime. The city
of Alexandria in Egypt was burned during warfare using this.

Illumination

Up until the 1850s, oil seepages were collected in various

parts of the world for medicinal purposes using primitive
oil-gathering methods involving skimmings and oil-soaked
rags.
Fuel lamps used animal grease, vegetable fat, camphene,
town gas and whale oil. Whale oil had the highest quality
and was the most expensive.
The need for a cheap illuminant (primary) and lubricant
(secondary) started entrepreneurial innovations to meet
these needs in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

The Drake Well

New York lawyer George Bissell (181284) was sure that liquid oil below
ground could be tapped by drilling. He formed Seneca Oil and hired
Edwin L. Drake (181880), a retired railroad conductor, to go to Titusville,
Pennsylvania, where water wells were often contaminated by oil.
On August 28, 1859, Drakes men drilled down 70ft and struck oil to
create the USs first oil well. This well eventually produced 8 barrels per
day.
It is dated as the birthday of oil industry in US. Though, James Williams
had completed the first commercially producing oil well one year earlier
and oil seekers in Azerbaijan did the same few years earlier. Drake went
one step further and he proved that oil could be obtained in sufficient
quantities to meet the increasing demand by drilling through rock.
It should also be noted that wells were also being drilled in Canada and
Trinidad.

Expansion

After Drakes discovery, excitement and

activity developed in the region, and hundreds
of wells were drilled in northwestern
Pennsylvania through the 1860s and the
balance of the century.
Some of these produced as high as 3,000
barrels per day [STB/day]

Standard Oil

Early oil industry, highly competitive many players

Standard Oil (SO) emerged as dominant firm based in the US
gained by cost reduction and aggressive but legal tactics
SO first modern corporation legal entity with limited liability and
bureaucratic structure
By the mid 1880s, Standards had also moved into marketing and
controlled about 80%, almost comparable to the 90% control of
the refining.
An innovation made to make marketing more efficient and lower
cost was the railway tank car which eliminated the need to pile
bulky, leaky, awkward and expensive barrels into boxcars.

Distillation Modern Oil

The modern oil age began in 1853, when a Polish chemist

named Ignacy Lukasiewicz discovered how to do this on an
industrial scale. In 1856, he set up the worlds first crude oil
refinery at Ulaszowice in Poland.
Canadian Abraham Gesner (17911864) had managed to
make kerosene from coal in 1846, but oil yielded it in larger
quantities and more cheaply.
Kerosene quickly replaced the more expensive whale oil as the
main lamp fuel in North America and Europe. The rising demand
for kerosene produced a scramble to find new sources of oil
especially in the US.

Oil for Illumination

Oil and the kerosene lamp changed life and the

clock by which the world lived.
Kerosene was by far the most important refinery
product.
Other products included naphtha, gasoline (then used
as a solvent or turned into gas for illuminating
buildings), fuel oil, and lubricants for moving parts in
trains, railway cars, agricultural equipment, cotton
spindles and petroleum jelly.

Spindletop

In1901,Anthony Lucas drilled the first discovery

well at Spindletop in 1901. The well blew out and
it was estimated to be the largest gusher in the
history of the oil industry with 100,000 barrels per
day [STB/day]
(Modern blow-out systems now prevent uncontrolled
release of oil.)

This initial Spindletop well was followed by the first

major oil boom in Texas.
In early 1900s, oil was discovered in many regions
of the world as demand for oil increased.
By the 1960s the oil industry truly became a world
industry with further developments in the Middle
East, Southeast Asia, and the North Sea .

Electric Light

The main sources of artificial light by the end of the 19th

century were kerosene, gas (synthetic gas from coal or natural
gas), and candles, and all had the same problems: they
produced soot, dirt, and heat; consumed oxygen; and always
posed the danger of fire. Thus, they posed both health and
safety hazards.
Luckily, Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the mimeograph,
the stock ticker, the phonograph, storage batteries, and
motion pictures started working on electric illumination in
1877 and within two years had developed the incandescent
light bulb. By 1885, 250,000 light bulbs were in use and by
1902, 18 million.

Automobiles

However nothing transformed the oil industry more than the

arrival of the motor car in the US.
In 1900, there were just 8,000 cars on US roads. Car ownership
reached 125,000 in 1908, and soared to 8.1 million by 1920.
In 1930, there were 26.7 million cars in the USall of which
needed fuel, and that fuel was gas made from oil.
Soon speculative prospectors known as wildcatters were
drilling anywhere in the US where there was a hint that oil might
be lurking.
Oil from California, Oklahoma, and especially Texas fueled a
tremendous economic growth that soon made the US the worlds
richest country.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act/ SO

Public opinion and the political/legal system had forced competition in the
petroleum industry in the US.
In late July 1911, Standard Oil announced its plan for dissolution and
divided into several different entities:

Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon)-kept almost 50% of net value; Standard Oil of
New York (Mobil)-kept 9% of net value; Standard Oil of California (Chevron);
Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) (American arm of BP); Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco);
Continental Oil (Conoco); Atlantic (part of ARCO and then Sun Oil).

Decentralization brought increased operational flexibility and liberation of

technological innovation. These technological advances led to improved
efficiency in the oil industry.

A year after the dissolution of SO, shares for the successor companies doubled, and
tripled. The value of all the old SO stocks doubled, and Rockefellers worth increased
to $900 million, the equivalent of $9 billion today. (Rockefellers the wealthiest man of
his time, and arguably the wealthiest in history.)

Present Day

Technological and economic developments of the oil

have been growing worldwide and the world is now
very dependent on oil and gas resources.

Video

History of Oil

History of Natural Gas

The ancient "eternal fires" in the area of present day

Iraq that were reported in Plutarch's writings around 100
to 125 A.D. probably were from natural gas escaping
from cracks in the ground and ignited by lightning.
First drills: Over 2,000 years ago in Sichuan, the Chinese
began to drill wells.
Using bamboo tipped by iron, they were able to get at brine
(salt for health and preserving food) underground.

When they drilled very deep, they found not just brine but
also oil and natural gas.

The natural gas was burned under big pans of brine to boil
off the water and obtain the salt.

History of Natural Gas

In 1821 in Fredonia, New York, William A. Hart drilled

a 27ft well in an effort to get a larger flow of gas
from a surface seepage of natural gas.
For most of the 1800s, natural gas was used almost
exclusively as a fuel for lamps. Because there were no
pipelines to bring gas into individual homes, most of the
gas went to light city streets.
After the 1890s, however, many cities began converting
their street lamps to electricity. Gas producers began
looking for new markets for their product.

History of Natural Gas

In 1855, Robert Bunsen invented a burner that mixed air

with natural gas. The "Bunsen burner" showed how gas could
be used to provide heat for cooking and warming buildings.
It took the construction of pipelines to bring natural gas to
new markets. There were very few pipelines built until after
World War II in the 1940s.
Improvements in metals, welding techniques and pipe making
during the War made pipeline construction more
economically attractive. (Today, the U.S. pipeline network,
laid end-to-end, would stretch to the moon and back twice.)

History of Oil in T&T

History of Oil in T&T

100 Years of Oil Production (MEEA video)

Early Years https://youtu.be/Ucyt52-mo2o

Defining Years https://youtu.be/vuY_nznevqY

The history of oil exploration in Trinidad goes back to

the 19th century, when the first oilwell was drilled in
Trinidad in 1866.
Commercial production began in 1908.
Over the years, more than 100 oil companies have
been involved in the petroleum industry.

History of Oil in Trinidad Krishna Persad

Average Daily Oil & Gas Production

CRUDE OIL RESERVES
1908- 2013

MMBOE/D
0.90

Oil Production (bbls/day)

0.80

0.70

0.60

0.50

0.40

0.30

0.20

0.10

0.00

Gas Production (bbls oil equivalent/day)

Crude Oil Reserves as of 2011

Proved

/ million barrels
:
728.3

Probable/ million barrels
:
334

Possible/million barrels
:
1,560

Avg. T&T production/bopd
:
101,169

World proved reserves/
billion barrels
:
1469.6

T&T proved reserves 0.6 billion barrels

OIL PRODUCTION Avg for first 5

months 2015
COMPANY

CRUDE OIL

Trinmar(Petrotrin)

21,729

Petrotrin + LO/FO

22,101

bpTT

CONDENSATE

11,480

BHP

8,068

Repsol

12,875

EOG Resources

1,278

BG

1,643

TEPGL

1,040

Small companies

1,336

Total

67,149+ 14,401 = 81,550

NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION

Avg. for Year to April 2015
Company

bpTT

Gas Production
MMscfd
2,009

BG

927

EOG Resources

544

BHP

383

Repsol

31

Petrotrin

23

Total

3,917

The Petroleum Industry

Petroleum Industry

The Petroleum Industry may be defined as that

industry where a well is drilled through the rock
structure of the earth to a sub-surface reservoir of
the resource [hydrocarbon], and, by some means,
that resource is caused to flow into the well to be
produced back to the surface.

Organization/Sequence of the Modern

Petroleum Industry

Exploration
Production
Transportation
Refining and Petrochemicals
Marketing
Consumer
The oil and gas chain.mp4

Production

Production in the industry is now divided into two

categories:

Upstream Operations: which are considered to be

Exploration and Production, or those operations to the
point of metering the produced resource into the
transportation system.

Downstream Operations: which refers to operations which

occur beyond the point of metering the produced resource
into the transportation system. These include
transportation, refining and petrochemicals, marketing, and
delivery to the consumer.

T&Ts Petroleum Industry

In Trinidad, wells range in depth from less than 100 to over

15,000.
If oil is found and there is sufficient pressure at depth, the oil
is allowed to now via pipelines into a storage tank.
In areas of low formation pressure, oil is produced by the use
of submersible pumps.
Most of our land wells are pumping wells, whereas the
offshore wells are mostly flowing wells.
From the storage tanks the oil is pumped to the refinery
(Pointe-a-Pierre or Point Fortin) for processing. In the case of
the East Coast on, it is pumped into tankers for export.

Refining

In Trinidad we export our east Coast oil as crude

and pipe the rest to our local refineries for
processing.
The total refining throughput capacity in Trinidad is
approximately 330,000 bopd.
At present only 85,000 bopd is being refined.
The main products produced at our refineries are
fuel oil, 94solene, kerosene, aviation fuel, lubricants,
and greases.

Marketing

BPTT markets its own oil it ships all its East Coast
crude to a special refinery in the United States.
Most of our locallv produced refined oil is sold to
Caricom and the Eastern Seaboard States of the
United States of America.
National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited
handles all aspects of marketing.

Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum Engineering may be defined as the use of applied

physics and chemistry to extract hydrocarbons from the
ground and produce them safely in a stable form into the
stock tank.
Petroleum Engineering is divided into different disciplines:

Geophysicists and Geologists

Petrophysicists
Drilling Engineers
Logging Engineers
Completion Engineers
Production Engineers
Reservoir Engineers

Petroleum Engineering Disciplines

Geophysicists and Geologists locate, identify and map reservoir

rocks. They use a range of tools to do this with the primary one
for the geophysicist being the velocity of sound in rocks and fluids.
The Petrophysicist studies the fine details of the rocks to assist
in identification of heterogeneties that will reduce the production
or containment of hydrocarbons in these rocks.
The Drilling Engineer [and the drilling department] will drill the
well to bring oil and/or gas to the surface. They are concerned
with the mud program, the cementing program, the casing
program and the fracture mechanisms of the underground rocks.

Petroleum Engineering Disciplines

The Logging Engineer conducts and interprets the electric and

radioactive logs that will identify hydrocarbon vs. water and also
oil vs. gas.
The Completion Engineer will design the right completion that
will efficiently allow the oil and gas to flow from the reservoir into
the wellbore without undue production of reservoir particles
[sand].
The Production Engineers are responsible for the safe and
efficient production of the hydrocarbons. This will entail producing
the wells at the optimum rate of installing artificial lift [such as
sucker rod pumps, gas lift etc.] to lift the fluids to the surface.

Petroleum Engineering Disciplines

The Reservoir Engineer is responsible to quantify the

amount of oil and gas that exists in the underground
reservoirs within the lease boundaries that the company
owns or has leased and how much of it can or will be
produced i.e. reserves.
The Reservoir Engineer is also interested in the
recovery factor that one can achieve from a reservoir.
Also, how long these reserves will take to be produced
from the reservoir and determination of production life
of the reservoir.