---
title: Petroleum Geology & Engineering
description: Where the barrel comes from and what turns it into products: source rocks and traps, seismic, drilling and well control, reservoir drive mechanisms and recovery factors, production engineering and artificial lift, then distillation, cracking and refinery economics. Learners will be able to follow a well from prospect to product slate and explain why a shut-in is expensive.
category: engineering
subcategory: chemical-engineering
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/petroleum-geology-and-engineering
---

# Petroleum Geology & Engineering

Where the barrel comes from and what turns it into products: source rocks and traps, seismic, drilling and well control, reservoir drive mechanisms and recovery factors, production engineering and artificial lift, then distillation, cracking and refinery economics. Learners will be able to follow a well from prospect to product slate and explain why a shut-in is expensive.

## Available Resources

6 Books • 1 Courses • 3 Websites

## Websites

### 1. How an Oil Refinery Works

**Author:** Brian Potter

A working tour of refinery process units, tracing crude classification, atmospheric distillation, catalytic cracking, reforming and hydrotreating through a real plant, and closing on the Nelson Complexity Index that ranks how much upgrading a refinery can do.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-an-oil-refinery-works

**Tags:** refining, Nelson Complexity

### 2. PetroWiki

**Author:** Society of Petroleum Engineers

The engineering lookup layer, built from the SPE Petroleum Engineering Handbook without the price.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://petrowiki.spe.org/PetroWiki

**Tags:** petroleum engineering, reference

### 3. AAPG Wiki

**Author:** American Association of Petroleum Geologists

The geology lookup layer, built from the AAPG Treatise of Petroleum Geology. The twin of PetroWiki.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://wiki.aapg.org/Main_Page

**Tags:** petroleum geology, reference

## Books

### 1. Oil 101

**Author:** Morgan Downey

A reference covering the full chain from reservoir geology and drilling through refining chemistry, product specifications, transport and the mechanics of benchmark pricing, giving readers the physical vocabulary behind terms traders and analysts use daily.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://oil101.morgandowney.com/

**Tags:** oil markets, refining, geology, pricing

### 2. Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production

**Author:** Norman J. Hyne

The best comprehensive bridge between geology and drilling mechanics. Do not let 'nontechnical' fool you.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** $119.00

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593704933?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** petroleum geology, drilling, production

### 3. A Primer of Oilwell Drilling

**Author:** Paul M. Bommer

The whole drilling sequence, illustrated, with no calculus. The rung between Hyne's breadth and Bourgoyne's mathematics.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** $110 print / $94 ebook

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0886982278?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** drilling, rig systems, well control

### 4. Applied Drilling Engineering

**Author:** Adam T. Bourgoyne Jr., Keith K. Millheim, Martin E. Chenevert, F.S. Young Jr.

The 'red book', on almost every drilling engineer's shelf. The canonical text on the scientific principles of well construction.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1555630014?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** drilling engineering, well construction

### 5. Petroleum Production Systems

**Author:** Michael J. Economides, A. Daniel Hill, Christine Ehlig-Economides, Ding Zhu

The physics behind the shut-in section: skin effect, well deliverability, flow in horizontal wellbores, artificial lift.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0137031580?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** production engineering, well performance, artificial lift

### 6. Elements of Petroleum Geology

**Author:** Richard C. Selley, Stephen A. Sonnenberg

Oil generation chemistry, reading seismic datasets, and the stratigraphic traps that hold hydrocarbons.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0128223162?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** petroleum geology, seismic, traps

## Courses

### 1. Drilling, Completing, and Producing from Oil and Natural Gas Wells

**Author:** Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy

Five short videos, a full Stanford lecture and a quiz. The right first stop for a non-engineer.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://understand-energy.stanford.edu/energy-resources/fossil-fuel-energy/drilling-completing-and-producing-oil-and-natural-gas-wells

**Tags:** drilling, completion, fracturing

## Youtubes

### 1. Petroleum Reservoir Engineering (22 lectures)

**Author:** Pankaj Tiwari

Reservoir engineering at degree depth: fluid and rock properties, material balance, drive mechanisms, recovery factors.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwdnzlV3ogoXaR022q94pSCRVCOOqkciO

**Tags:** reservoir engineering, material balance, drive mechanisms

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