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Petroleum Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Petroleum engineering designs and manages the methods used to locate, drill, extract and process crude oil and natural gas from underground reservoirs, spanning reservoir engineering, drilling engineering and production engineering, and covering both onshore and offshore operations. The Society of Petroleum Engineers is now the largest professional society for petroleum engineers, publishing peer reviewed journals and technical resources and providing continuing education and mentoring to practicing petroleum engineers worldwide.

Facts
Core Concern
Locating, drilling, extracting and processing crude oil and natural gas from underground reservoirs. 1
Core Principle
Petroleum engineering covers the activities of producing hydrocarbons, crude oil and natural gas, and its exploration and production work is classed as the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. 2
Disputed
Origin Year
1859 1
Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, founding the modern petroleum industry; the first dedicated petroleum engineering degree programs did not appear until around 1910 to 1915.
Connections

Associated With

Chemical Engineering, Fields

Refining crude oil into usable fuels and feedstocks is chemical engineering territory adjoining petroleum engineering own upstream focus.

Drilling Rig, Inventions

Drilling rigs are central to petroleum engineering

Fractional Distillation, Methods

Crude oil refining method

Geological Engineering, Fields
Mechanical Engineering, Fields

Drilling rigs and pumping equipment are principally mechanical engineering hardware.

Ocean Engineering, Fields
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, Engineered Systems

Crude oil pipeline system

Includes

Anthony F. Lucas, Engineers
Source Anthony F. Lucas (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Everette Lee DeGolyer, Engineers
Source Everette Lee DeGolyer (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Open Questions

Does the 1859 well Edwin Drake drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania mark the true first oil well, or do earlier wells in Poland, Germany and Canada hold genuine priority?, Open Questions
Source Edwin Drake (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
2. Petroleum Engineering (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Overview section
    Exploration and production are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
  • Lead section, opening definition of petroleum engineering
    Petroleum engineering is a field of engineering concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas or both.
  • Overview section, profession's founding paragraph
    The profession got its start in 1914 within the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME).
  • Overview section, Society of Petroleum Engineers paragraph
    The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is the largest professional society for petroleum engineers and publishes much technical information and other resources to support the oil and gas industry.
View the Source
Anthony F. Lucas (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Anthony F. LucasView the Source
Everette Lee DeGolyer (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Everette Lee DeGolyerView the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
Does the 1859 well Edwin Drake drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania mark the true first oil well, or do earlier wells in Poland, Germany and Canada hold genuine priority?

Drake is credited as the first American to successfully drill for oil, and the well he drilled launched the modern petroleum industry, but documented claims of prior art for oil drilling exist from Bobrka, Poland in 1854, Wietze, Germany in 1857, and Oil Springs, Ontario in 1858, each predating the Drake well.

What would resolve this An agreed definition of what counts as a genuine oil well, mechanically drilled rather than dug, and commercially significant rather than experimental, against which the historical record could be measured.
History of TechnologyWikipedia contributors, Edwin Drake (Wikipedia)
Frequently Asked Questions

When did petroleum engineering become a distinct profession?

Petroleum engineering became a distinct profession in 1914, when the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) gave the field its first professional home. The first degree specifically in petroleum engineering followed in 1915, awarded by the University of Pittsburgh.
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