Petroleum production engineering

Production engineering is a subset of petroleum engineering.

Production engineers design and select equipment to extract and treat oil and gas well fluids. They often are degreed as petroleum engineers, although they may come from other technical disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering) and subsequently be trained by an oil and gas company.

Overview

Production engineers' responsibilities include:

1. Evaluating inflow and outflow performance between the reservoir and the wellbore.
2. Designing completion systems, including tubing selection, perforating, sand control, matrix stimulation, and hydraulic fracturing.
3. Selecting artificial lift equipment, including sucker-rod lift (typically beam pumping), gas lift, electrical submersible pumps, subsurface hydraulic pumps, progressing-cavity pumps, and plunger lift.
4. Selecting equipment for surface facilities that separate and measure the produced fluids (oil, natural gas, water, and impurities), prepare the oil and gas for transportation to market, and handle disposal of any water and impurities.

Suggested Reading

• Journal of Petroleum Technology, Society of Petroleum Engineers