petroleum geology for reservoir engineers
Course Description
The objectives of this course are to provide petroleum engineers with a basic understanding of the geoscience concepts, methods, and tools used in oil and gas exploration and development. Throughout the course, we will use a petroleum systems approach to integrate parameters that control hydrocarbon occurrence, and reservoir quality and producibility. There will be daily class exercises in which students apply petroleum geology concepts. In addition to conventional oil and gas concepts, pertinent discussions will address unconventional reservoirs, including low-permeability (tight) sandstones and self-sourcing gas reservoirs (coalbed methane and shale gas).
Audience
Fresh Petroleum Engineers
Course Schedule
| 1 | 1. Introduction •Course objectives, approach, and outline 2. Overview of petroleum systems •Concepts 3. Source Rocks, Thermal maturation, Hydrocarbon Generation, Primary Migration •Source rocks, kerogens •Burial history, thermal maturation, and primary migration 4. Reservoir Temperature and Pressure •Temperature gradients and variations •Pressure regimes and gradients 5. Tectonics and Basin Formation •Plate tectonics •Origins and fill of sedimentary basins Exercises |
| 2 | 6. Basic Geologic Principles and Time Concepts •Geologic laws •Unconformities •Geologic time 7. Secondary Migration and Structural Traps •Structural features and styles •Folds, fractures, and faults •Structural traps and fluid contacts •Seals, compartments, thief zones, and coning •Unconformities 8. Naturally Fractured Reservoirs and Insitu Stress •Fracture origins, prediction, and classification •Affects of fractures on reservoir permeability •Affects of fractures on well completion design and reservoir management •In-situ stress: origin and importance •Classification of fractured reservoirs 9. Methods of Evaluating Structural Features •Outcrop •Cores •Well logs •Seismic Exercises |
| 3 | 10. Clastic Depositional Systems and Sedimentary Facies •Mechanisms of basin fill / transport agents •Clastic depositional systems •Facies controls on reservoir geometry, orientation continuity, and quality •Stratigraphic traps 11. Methods of Stratigraphic Analysis, Facies Description and Mapping •Primary and secondary sedimentary structures; bedding contacts •Biostratigraphy •Lithostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic approaches •Well log motif, cores, outcrop analogs •Facies maps •Seismic data (2-D, 3-D, 4-D) •Scalar considerations Exercises |
| 4 | 12. Carbonate Depositional Systems •Carbonate depositional models •Facies controls on reservoir geometry, orientation, and continuity •Carbonate traps 13. Reservoir Properties and Quality •Rock types and rock-forming minerals •Porosity, permeability, and capillary pressure •Diagenetic effects on reservoir properties •Porosity-permeability relations •Flow units Exercises |
Instructors
Dr. Walter Ayers, Mr. Laurence Darmon
Instructors may vary based on location and schedule.
Classes
No classes are currently scheduled for this course.
Add yourself to the waiting list
We will schedule a class for this course, when there are enough participants on the waiting list.