Petroleum reservoir engineering

Article By:

Doscher, Todd M. Formerly, Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

Lee, W. John Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

Claridge, Elmond L. Formerly, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.

Last reviewed:January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.503500

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• Petroleum reservoir engineering, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

The branch of petroleum engineering concerned with predicting the optimum economic recovery of oil or gas from hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs. Petroleum reservoir engineering requires coordinated application of many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, and chemical engineering. Originally, the role of reservoir engineering was exclusively that of counting oil and natural gas reserves. The reserves—the amount of oil or gas that can be economically recovered from the reservoir (see illustration)—are a measure of the wealth available to the owner and operator. It is also necessary to know the reserves to make proper decisions concerning the viability of downstream pipeline, refining, and marketing facilities that will rely on the production as feedstocks. See also: Natural gas; Petroleum; Petroleum engineering; Petroleum reserves

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