Article
Article
Petroleum engineering
Article By:
Doscher, Todd M. Formerly, Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Wyman, Richard E. Wyman & Associates, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.502700
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A discipline comprising the technologies used for extracting crude oil and natural gas from reservoirs. Petroleum engineering is usually subdivided into the branches of petrophysical, geological, reservoir drilling, production, and construction engineering. After an oil or gas accumulation is discovered, technical supervision of the reservoir is transferred to the petroleum engineering group. Petroleum engineering technology has become increasingly sophisticated and demanding with the implementation of new recovery techniques (for example, hydraulic fracturing; see illustration), deeper drilling, and the expanding frontiers of the industry into the hostile territories of arctic regions and deep oceans. See also: Hydraulic fracturing (fracking); Natural gas; Petroleum
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