The role of Petroleum Engineers in exploration & production
(E&P) sectors is concerned with functional disciplines such
as drilling, production, pipeline transportation, corporate &
strategic planning, R&D, reservoir management, and enhanced
& improved oil recovery activities.

Career opportunities in India and abroad are expected to be good
for Petroleum Engineers-whether they work with drilling equipment,
on production facilities, with computer models of reservoirs, or
with sophisticated instrumentation & control equipment. In India,
specifically, stress is likely to be on the revitalization of ageing
fields, re-estimation of basic field parameters with new technology,
and intensified application of modern technology.

Specialization Streams in BTech (Petroleum Engineering)

Oil and gas production can be sub-divided into several broad
fields of science and technology:

Geosciences and Reservoir Engineering help us to discover, understand
and model basic reservoir & flow parameters in fields, with
the aim of extracting hydrocarbons.

Reservoir Engineering and Production Engineering-including drilling-help
us to achieve production from wells in an economically efficient
manner.

Production Engineering-in another important aspect-deals with the
surface gathering and transportation of hydrocarbons, marking the
end of so-called ‘upstream’ activity.

All students admitted to the undergraduate program at PDPU receive
the BTech degree in Petroleum Engineering. However, in view of the
broad scope of Petroleum Engineering-and also to cater to the varying
interests and aptitude of students-the BTech degree program offers
the following four specializations to students in their final three
semesters of study:

• Reservoir Engineering

• Operations & Production

• Instrumentation & Control

• Modeling & Virtual Reality

Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering can be defined as the art of development and
exploitation of oil and gas fields, in a manner to get maximum recovery
at minimum cost, through the application of knowledge of geological
events and physical laws of fluid flow. Solution of reservoir engineering
problems often requires innovative thinking, and the application
of integrated knowledge of physics, mathematics, geo-sciences and
engineering.

Today in India, basic reservoir management decisions must be taken
in the context of the New Exploration Policy of the country. With
this policy, more and more companies are joining conventional oil
and gas exploration business including coal bed methane.

Operation & Production

Operation & Production stream is concerned with activities starting
with well construction-drilling & completion-to the production
& processing of hydrocarbons, while satisfying at all times
the necessary health, safety and environmental norms. This entire
activity chain requires well-engineered & meticulous planning,
so as to invite least intervention through the production cycle,
to remain cost effective and safe, even with the growing complexity
and power of modern technology. Another aspect of their work is
intuitiveness to diagnose well and field production problems and
efficient means to carry out the required remedial measures.

Work activity is operational in nature, relies totally on field
work, and is physically demanding. Operations and production personnel
make up about half the workforce in a typical E&P company.

Instrumentation & Control

Over the last fifty years or so, modern instrumentation and
control techniques have transformed oil and gas technology beyond
recognition. Examples may be cited of sophisticated well-logging,
centralized supervisory & control systems, and remotely operated
vehicles (ROVs) used in deep sea production. These instrumentation
and control techniques make use of electronic and electrical components,
and therefore the basic principles related to these subjects are
taught to all students in the second year of the BTech degree programme.

Students opting for specialization in Instrumentation and Control
study several further courses related to electronics, well-logging
instrumentation, and production instrumentation. Examples of application
of such modern technology are: Directional well operations with
digital telemetry instrumentation support, sub-sea completions &
ROV operations in deep water finds, and pipeline grid and LNG terminals
for natural gas utilization.

Modeling & Virtual Reality

Modern computer technology–with its huge processing,
storage and graphics capability - has enhanced tremendously the
engineer’s powers of simulation. When computer simulation
begins to mimic real-world phenomena, the resulting system is known
as a ‘virtual reality’ system. A flight simulator for
an aircraft is an obvious example of such a system, but clearly
such systems can also be applied to the modeling of hydrocarbon
reservoirs in exploration, development, production phases. To understand
the principles underlying such systems, students study courses such
as 3-D modeling of structures, and simulation technology.