Work force in many industries is aging
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Major shortage of technical personnel NOW!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Job Supervision at -45°C…(Prudhoe Bay, Alaska) (~-50°F)
As a PETE you can work inmany faraway places.
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
…and at +45°C(Lekhwair, Oman)(~+115°F)
“support engineers”
PETE
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
BUT, you don’t have to travel!Huge unconventional gas reserves,right here at home…
…not to mention the Gulf of Mexico, W. Texas, Latin America, Canada, andAlaska!
Largest U.S. Gas Field!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Outline• Technical Aspects of Oil & Gas
• The Oil & Gas Industry supply & demand oil & gas reserves petroleum engineer’s role
• The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Hydrocarbon Molecules—many simpleSimplest hydrocarbon is methane--CH4
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
And some are very complex!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Where Do We Find Hydrocarbons?
in a big lake ofoil… …made from dinosaurcarcasses?
No! on both counts!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Oil and Gas Deposits—are in Porous Rocks
• Deep source rocks Shales containing remains of mostly algae
• Underground reservoir rocks porous rock, usually sedimentary (sandstone, limestone)
not lakes!• Traps
Porousrock beds with impermeable cap rock Now we can even produce from source rocks
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Rhombohedral Packing of Spheres—26% Porosity
In reservoirs,oil is here...
…and theoriginal oilsource wasmainlyalgae!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Cross Section of a Petroleum System
Overburden Rock
Seal Rock
Reservoir Rock
Source Rock
Underburden Rock
Basement Rock
Top Oil WindowTop Gas Window
Geographic Extent of Petroleum System
Petroleum Reservoir (O)
Fold-and-Thrust Belt(arrows indicate relative fault motion)
EssentialElements
ofPetroleum
System
(modified from Magoon and Dow, 1994)
O O
Sed
imen
tary
Bas
in F
ill
O
Stratigraphic Extent of
PetroleumSystem
Pod of ActiveSource Rock
Extent of Prospect/FieldExtent of Play
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Seal
Reservoirrock
Seal
Migration route
Oil/watercontact (OWC)
Hydrocarbonaccumulation
in thereservoir rock
Top of maturity
Source rock
Fault(impermeable)
Seal
Generation, Migration, & Accumulation
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Industry & Petroleum Engineering
• Energy Supply & Demand• World Oil & Gas Reserves• The Need for Petroleum Engineers
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Alternative energy will save us…eventually
One Windmill blade
• 1000 windmills to replace one coal-fired power plant
• Hundreds of windmills to replace one natural gas-fired power plant.
• And gas is the greenest fossil fuel
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Petroleum Resources (modified from
November/December 2004, Drilling Contractor Magazine)
Gas Hydrates
Oil Shale
Unconventional Reservoirs
Large Volumes, “Difficult” to Develop
Conventional Reservoirs
Small Volumes, “Easy” to Develop
Gas Shales
Heavy Oil
Coalbed Gas
Low Permeability Reservoirs (Oil and Gas)
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
Higher
Prices
Improved
Technology
Plus Development of Infrastructure and Delivery of Alternative EnergyWe will need more Aggie Engineers!!!
EasyStuff!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Crude oil prices since 1861
--last few years driven by demand!
Specialty product
commoditygeopolitics
Demand!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Oil & Gas Reserves
“Reserves are those quantities of petroleum which are anticipated to be commercially recoverable from known accumulations from a given date forward.” SPE-WPC (1997)
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Proved conventional oil reserves currently
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
You can help change theImport picture!
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Advances in Well Drilling• In early days we borrowed technology from other industries… Water-well drilling rigs Anti-tank weapon technology to shoot through steel/cement to connect wellbore to reservoir
• …Now others borrow from us Drilling for evidence of water on Mars using Baker Hughes drilling equipment
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
1900Adapted Water Well Technology
2000
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
The Petroleum Engineer’s Role• Petroleum engineers are primarily concerned with the economic extraction of oil, gas, and other natural resources from the earth. They: design, drill, and operate wells and well systems
evaluate the resources of subsurface formations
manage the underground reservoirs in which the resources are found•Massive computer use in the office•Great opportunities to supervise in the field
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Harold Vance Dept of Petroleum Engineering• Great students
entering students have among the top scores at Texas A&M and College of Engineering
• Great faculty 4 faculty are members of the National Academy of
Engineering 15 faculty are Society of Petroleum Engineers –
Distinguished Members
• Great scholarship program students who carry 3.0 and 13 hours typically
have departmental merit scholarships
• Great degree program top-ranked program in US among the largest programs in US strong demand results in competitive admission
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Other Interesting Facts• Many executives of major, multinational oil companies are Aggie Petroleum Engineers
• 15-20% of US petroleum engineering graduates are from Texas A&M
• Petroleum engineers command among the highest starting salaries nationwide Summer internships often pay $4000-5000 per month—and summer jobs often lead to full-time employment
See following slide
Careers in Petroleum Engineering
Other Interesting FactsModified from NPR, 9 September 2013 (Removed lowest majors)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/10/219372252/the-most-and-least-lucrative-college-majors-in-1-graph?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=nprfacebook