Petroleum Engineering Course

Lesson 1 • Health, Safety, and Environmental Basics

Introduces hazard identification, regulatory frameworks, and environmental obligations in petroleum operations. Grounds all technical work in responsible practice.

Lesson 2 • Properties of Reservoir Fluids

Defines crude oil, natural gas, and water properties relevant to engineering calculations. Links fluid behaviour to production and processing decisions.

Lesson 3 • Units, Measurements, and Industry Standards

Establishes consistent use of field and SI units, conversion factors, and reporting conventions. Ensures accuracy in all subsequent engineering calculations.

Lesson 4 • The Global Petroleum Industry

Covers industry structure, major players, and the upstream-midstream-downstream value chain. Establishes the professional context for all subsequent technical content.

Lesson 1 • PVT Analysis and Fluid Sampling

Covers pressure-volume-temperature relationships, formation volume factors, and solution gas-oil ratio. Provides data inputs for reservoir simulation and production forecasting.

Lesson 2 • Porosity Concepts and Measurement

Defines total, effective, and secondary porosity and explains laboratory and log-based measurement methods. Connects pore volume to storage capacity calculations.

Lesson 3 • Rock Compressibility and Geomechanics Basics

Introduces pore compressibility, effective stress, and their impact on reservoir performance. Prepares students for compaction drive and subsidence analysis.

Lesson 4 • Fluid Saturation and Capillary Pressure

Explains water, oil, and gas saturation distribution and capillary pressure curves. Establishes the basis for fluid contact determination and irreducible saturation.

Lesson 1 • Net Pay Determination and Log Synthesis

Applies cutoffs for porosity, saturation, and shale volume to define net pay intervals. Integrates all log types into a composite petrophysical model.

Lesson 2 • Porosity Logs

Interprets neutron, density, and sonic logs to calculate porosity and identify gas zones. Builds on rock property concepts from the previous chapter.

Lesson 3 • Gamma Ray and Lithology Logs

Uses gamma ray, spontaneous potential, and photoelectric logs to identify lithology and shale volume. Provides the first step in net pay determination.

Lesson 4 • Fundamentals of Well Logging

Explains the purpose of well logging, tool conveyance methods, and log quality control. Establishes the workflow for integrating logs with core and test data.

Lesson 1 • Reserves Classification and Estimation

Explains proved, probable, and possible reserves categories and volumetric estimation methods. Aligns with international reserves reporting standards.

Lesson 2 • Decline Curve Analysis

Applies exponential, hyperbolic, and harmonic decline models to production data. Provides practical tools for reserves estimation and production forecasting.

Lesson 3 • Material Balance Equation

Derives and applies the general material balance equation (MBE) for oil and gas reservoirs. Enables estimation of original hydrocarbons in place from production data.

Lesson 4 • Drive Mechanisms and Recovery Factors

Identifies solution gas, gas cap, water, and compaction drives and their effect on recovery efficiency. Connects drive type to production strategy selection.

Lesson 1 • Well Planning and Trajectory Design

Covers pore pressure prediction, fracture gradient, and wellbore trajectory design for vertical and directional wells. Establishes the engineering basis for casing and mud programmes.

Lesson 2 • Drilling Fluids and Hydraulics

Explains drilling fluid functions, rheological models, and hydraulic optimisation for bit cleaning. Links fluid design to wellbore stability and formation damage prevention.

Lesson 3 • Well Control Principles

Identifies kick warning signs, explains shut-in procedures, and applies the driller's and wait-and-weight methods. Prepares students to respond to well control emergencies.

Lesson 4 • Drill Bit Selection and ROP Optimisation

Compares roller cone and PDC bit designs and applies weight-on-bit and RPM optimisation. Connects bit performance to overall well cost reduction.

Lesson 1 • Fracture Design and Treatment Execution

Applies fracture design software inputs, fluid selection, and real-time treatment monitoring. Connects design parameters to post-fracture production improvement.

Lesson 2 • Hydraulic Fracturing Fundamentals

Explains fracture initiation, propagation, and proppant transport in hydraulic fracturing. Provides the physical basis for fracture design in tight and conventional reservoirs.

Lesson 3 • Perforating Design and Optimisation

Covers perforation gun systems, shot density, phasing, and underbalance design. Links perforation geometry to inflow performance and skin reduction.

Lesson 4 • Completion Architecture and Selection

Compares open-hole, perforated, and gravel-pack completions and their suitability for different reservoir conditions. Establishes the framework for all subsequent completion design decisions.

Lesson 1 • Production Troubleshooting and Surveillance

Identifies causes of production decline including scale, wax, asphaltene, and sand production. Establishes a systematic surveillance workflow to maintain well performance.

Lesson 2 • Inflow Performance Relationships

Derives Vogel, Fetkovich, and Jones IPR models for oil and gas wells. Provides the inflow side of the nodal analysis framework used throughout this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Gas Lift Design and Optimisation

Designs continuous and intermittent gas lift systems including valve spacing and injection rate. Applies nodal analysis to optimise gas lift performance.

Lesson 4 • Nodal Analysis and System Optimisation

Combines IPR with tubing performance curves to identify the operating point and optimise production. Enables systematic diagnosis of flow restrictions in the well system.

Lesson 1 • Tertiary EOR Methods

Evaluates miscible gas, chemical (polymer, surfactant), and thermal EOR methods by mechanism and screening criteria. Provides a comparative framework for EOR selection.

Lesson 2 • Integrated Field Development Planning

Combines subsurface, drilling, facilities, and economic inputs into a coherent field development plan. Culminates the core curriculum by integrating all prior engineering disciplines.

Lesson 3 • Secondary Recovery and Waterflooding

Applies Buckley-Leverett theory and pattern selection to waterflood design and performance prediction. Builds directly on relative permeability and reservoir drive concepts.

Lesson 4 • Reservoir Simulation Fundamentals

Introduces finite-difference simulation, grid design, and history matching for reservoir management. Enables students to use simulation as a field development planning tool.