Engineering disciplines petroleum

There are three basic engineering fields of knowledge. These are called the engineering arts and sciences. They are the mechanical arts and sciences, the chemical arts and sciences, and the electrical arts and sciences. Every specific engineering discipline, such as petroleum engineering, utilizes one of the basic engineering fields of knowledge as their scholarly foundation. 

This petroleum and natural gas engineering two-volume handbook is written in the spirit of the classic handbooks of other engineering disciplines. The two volumes reflect the importance of the industry its engineers serve (i.e., Standard and Poor s shows that the fuels sector is the largest single entity in the gross domestic product) and the profession s status as a mature engineering discipline. 

The specific petroleum engineering discipline chapters cover drilling and well completions, reservoir engineering, production, and economics and valuation. These chapters contain information, data, and example calculations related to practical situations that petroleum engineers often encounter. Also, these chapters reflect the growing role of natural gas in industrial operations by integrating natural gas topics and related subjects throughout both volumes. 

This glossary provides brief explanations for nearly 200 important terms in the science and engineering of petroleum emulsions. The field of petroleum emulsions encompasses aspects of so many different disciplines that there exists a voluminous body of terminology. A selection of frequently encountered terms has been made including scientific terms related to the basic principles and properties of emulsions, and petroleum production and processing terms used to describe practical emulsions and their treatment. In addition, cross-references for the more important synonyms and abbreviations are included. 

It is important to define the necessary codes and standards to which a design will adhere. This permits effective communication with other engineering disciplines and equipment vendors, and also allows for appreciation of the full extent of the design. Standards commonly used include British Standards Institution, the American National Standards Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, the Deutscher Nornenauschuss, and the International Standards Organization. 

The major petroleum and chemical companies have basically defined chemical engineering, as their origins and growth have coincided with this discipline. Table 3-5 lists the top chemical companies in the world in 1995. 

Notwithstanding such intradisciplinary conflicts, the transformation of chemical engineering that Walker led was remarkably successful, and he is widely regarded as the father of the discipline. Testimony to the success were the impacts of graduates, ideas, approaches, and research results on the chemical and petroleum industries of the United States. That country had come out of World War I the world s most powerful economy [32]. 

Most equipment used in the chemical, petroleum, and related industries is designed for the movement of fluids, and an understanding of fluid flow is essential to a chemical engineer. The underlying discipline is fluid mechanics,t which is based on the law of mass conservation, the linear momentum principle (Newton s second law), and the first and second laws of thermodynamics. 

In the United States the entire discipline is still a coherent field of engineering science but generally directed toward specific applications (e.g. petroleum engineering, minerals engineering, etc.). In Germany a division has taken place... 

The mechanical sciences have been the lubrication and the friction in a symbiosis between the petroleum industry and the transportation industry. On one side, refiners make different fuel, which have created the discipline of chemical engineering. On the other side, fuels conversion specialists have worked to make more efficient engines. 

During the twentieth century the chemical and process industry was one of the greatest contributors to improving mankind s quality of life. This contribution arose from the application of chemical engineering to manufacturing products on a wholly new scale. It involved both academic and industrial practitioners in the development of the discipline, which acquired a coherence suited to this period, based initially on the unit operations approach pioneered at MIT. The major achievement of the discipline was in the development of economic and safe processing of materials in bulk, often based on petroleum feedstocks. 

We are well aware that most of us come from different disciplines. It is perhaps the first time that biologists and analytical chemists face automobile or petroleum engineers to delineate automobile exhaust gases and investigate possible scenarios for the future. We are however confident that such a composition for the discussion panel contributed to the kind, of "objective knowledge" that we most urgently need. 

The other common disciplines in engineering indude aerospace engineering, biomedical, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, petroleum engineering, nudear engineering, and materials engineering. 

In 1934, Hammerschmidt showed that gas hydrates are implicated in a natural gas pipeline blockage and since then hydrate control has been a major activity in the gas and oil industry with a substantial associated cost factor. The recent (2010) Deep Star Horizon oil well problems in the Gulf of Mexico again brought to the fore that gas hydrates often show up where they are not wanted. Gas hydrate control comes under the discipline of flow assurance in petroleum and chemical engineering. A comprehensive text in this area is the book by Sloan and Koh. ... 

The sampling was partly opportunistic and partly purposeful for maximum variation to include engineers in all major disciplines, experience levels and types of business (except defence). Both companies and individuals were approached. Some companies responded with a cross section of their engineers and others with individuals none declined our requests. While most were mechanical engineers, the sample included telecommunications, civil, electrical, mechatronics, control and instrumentation, petroleum, offshore, subsea and several other engineering specialisations. Six were female and almost all had engineering degree qualifications. 

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