Petroleum Industry
The petroleum industry, also known as oil industry, includes the global presence of exploration, extraction, refining, trransporting through oil tankers and pipelines and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil amd gasoline (petrol). Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, synthetic fragrance, and plastics.
The industry is usually divided into three major components : Upstream, Midstream and Downstream.
Upstream deals with Drilling and Production.
Upstream Sector:-
• The upstream sector includes searching for potential underground or underwater crude oil and natural gas fields.
Exploration Services involve use of seismic methods to evaluate where and how to prove a drilling prospect, high speed computers, 3D and visual interpretation theatres.
Drilling includes well design, drilling rig operation and process and related technologies.
Well Completion involves bringing the production on line with advanced downhole equipment applications, downhole monitoring and automated well control equipment.
Midstream Sector :-
Midstream is a term used to describe one of the three major stages of oil and gas industry. Midstream activities include the storage, processing and transportation of petroleum product and natural gas.
• Midstream refers to points in the oil production process that falls between the upstream and midstream.
• These may include companies that specialize in operating tanker ships, pipelines, or storage facilities.
Midstream activities are commonly included as a part of other operations for much of the global oil and gas industry. The midstream and downstream activities takes place after initial production phase known as upstream.
Downstream:-
The downstream sector is the refining of petroleum crude oil and the processing and purifying of raw natural gas as well as the marketing and distribution of products derived from crude oil and natural gas.
• The downstream sector reaches consumers through such as gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuels, diesel oil, fuel oils lubricants, waxes asphalt, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
• Downstream operations can also play a part in the medical field and agriculture sector.
Why are oil and gas important?
Oil is one of the most important raw material. Everyday we use hundreds of things that are made from oil or gas.
Oil and gas are also important for the number of jobs they provide. Tens of thousands of people work in the oil and gas industry. According to this Britain Report, Each week Britain produces about two million tones of oil and gas. This is worth about £39 million pounds a day to the people of Britain.
How were oil and gas formed ?
Gas and crude oil are found underground. Much of the world is covered by sea. The sea contains many tiny animals and plants. These tiny animals and plants called plankton. When they die they sink to the bottom of the sea. Those that died millions of years ago are the source of today's oil and gas.
The pressure and temperature deep underground turned the chemicals from the decaying animals and plants into crude oil and gas.
Top Colleges in India
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai
• Indian School of Mines University (ISM),Dhanbad
• University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun
• Chandigarh University (CU), Mohali
• Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU),Gandhinagar
• Rajiv Gandhi Institute Of Petroleum Technology(RGIPT), Uttar Pradesh
• Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Pune
Scope
Being a field where the pay is on higher side, many student pursue petroleum engineering.
There is a demand for petroleum engineers, at all levels from the both the public and the private sector companies and organizations.
Job Profile
• Reservoir engineer
• Technical Support Engineer
• Senior geoscientist
• Field engineer
• Petroleum technologist
• Drilling engineer
• Process engineer
• Senior petro physicist
• Technical support specialist
• Geoscience pressure expert
Key Recruiters…
• Bharat Petroleum Corporation
• Haldia Petrochemicals
• Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
• Indian Oil Corporation
• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC
• Shell Technology
• Schlumberger
• British Petroleum
• Halliburton
Career and Job Prospects
Petroleum engineering being a rare field of engineering study, offers quite good job opportunities to the graduates. Freshers may find ample scope in public undertaking as well as in corporate sector that deal with petroleum exploration and extraction.
• A petroleum engineer work involved bringing oil or gas from the reservoir to the surface economically safely and within minimum damage to the reservoir and facilities.
• Other activities include management of material resources and contractor relationship and also supervising drilling personnel. They work in multi-disciplinary teams alongside other enginerers, scientist, drilling teams and contractors.