Upstream Engineering

Upstream Business in the Oil and Gas industry consists of from an exploration, transportation up to the downstream facilities through oil and gas separation and purification facilities, and compression or boosting stations.

Upstream Engineering is a specialised engineering discipline that is responsible for all activities of the exploration and production in the oil and gas industry including the geological survey, onshore and offshore drilling, etc. The Upstream Engineering covers the test drilling to determine the viability of the hydrocarbon reservoirs or resources such as conventional crude oil or natural gas, or unconventional deposits including shale oil or gas as well as the engineering, fabrication, installation, safe and reliable operation, and maintenance of the production facilities in accordance with the specifications, codes and standards, and local legislations.

Upstream, Midstream and Downstream are three major components in an oil and gas business. Upstream is from an exploration, transportation up to downstream facilities through oil and gas separation and purification facilities. Midstream is the storage and transport Upstream products by a pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker or truck. Downstream consists of from receiving facilities of oil or gas and treatment, upgrading, and producing of the final products, the downstream plants are a refinery, petrochemical, chemical plant, and products distributions.

Offshore Engineering is the engineering discipline that deals with the design and construction of the natural resources (oil and gas, etc.) and offshore wind farm projects located in the ocean, and the distance from the coast can be near or far intended to work in a stationary position in the ocean environment. The Offshore Engineering is responsible for the development of the offshore works including from oil and gas exploration and extraction, and telecoms and power cabling, to wind farms, wave power, and offshore minerals mining, etc., in most economical and environmentally safe ways and maximising production.

Blowout is a sudden bursting and release of air from a system that is an uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids into the wellbore, and sometimes catastrophically to the surface.

Blowout Preventer (BOP) is a mechanical device designed to prevent oil from escaping a well during the process of drilling. (e.g., Annular Blowout Preventer) (Refer to the Hydril)

Breaker is 1) a chemical that reduces the viscosity of a fluid by breaking long-chain molecules into shorter segments. A surfactant may be added to an emulsion as the Breaker to reduce the viscosity of the fluid by breaking down the long chain molecules into shorter molecules; 2) a circuit breaker; 3) a heavy sea wave that breaks into white foam on the shore; 4) a person who does not obey a law or rule, etc. (a lawbreaker); 5) as a machine for breaking up or crushing a substance, such as rock, coal, or plant fibres.

Centraliser (Centralizer) is a device used to centralise a piece of equipment, in upstream, a device fitted with a hinged collar and bowsprings to keep the casing or liner in the centre of the wellbore.

Christmas Tree is an assembly of valves, spools, and fittings used to regulate the flow of pipes in a well that is connected to the top of a well to direct and control the flow from the well. The Christmas Tree and Wellhead are used interchangeably; however, a wellhead and Christmas Tree are entirely separate pieces of equipment. A wellhead must be present in order to utilise a Christmas tree and can be used without a Christmas Tree during drilling operations.

Crude Oil Production is the quantities of oil extracted from oil reservoirs that is the commercial crude and the volume of average daily crude oil production rate. The Crude Oil Production includes crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs).

Conventional Reservoir is simply known as the traditional way to drill for the raw natural gas, crude oil, and petroleum that contains free gas in interconnected pore spaces and flow easily to the wellbore.

Probable Reservoir is the additional reservoir which analysis of geoscience and engineering data indicate that is less likely to be recovered than proved reserves (P90) but more certain to be recovered than possible reserves (P10). The Probable Reservoir (P50) is equally likely that actual remaining quantities recovered will be greater than or less than the sum of the estimated Proved plus Probable Reserves. (Refer to the P50 (and P90, Mean, Expected and P10))

Proven Reservoir is a petroleum reserve in which there is a 90% certainty by analysis of geological and engineering data that the oil and gas can be recovered.

Unconventional (UNCON) Reservoir means do not meet the criteria for conventional production that produces from low permeability formations. There are three main types of UNCON reservoirs presently being developed; while a fourth class, gas hydrates, is also being investigated for potential production. The permeabilities and associated gas type for UNCON’s are: Tight Gas Sands (TGS); Coal Bed Methane (CBM); Shale Gas and Shale Oil.

Unproven Reservoir is a geologically equivalent to proven reservoirs, but unproven status rests on technical, regulatory, or political issues. The Unproven Reservoirs fall into two categories: probable and possible that has a 10% chance of recovery.

Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) is the method for production in heavy oil reservoirs that can contain high-pressure steam without fracturing the overburden. It is sometimes referred to as huff and puff.

Depletion Drive Reservoir is characterised by a rapidly increasing gas–oil ratio from all wells, regardless of their structural position that is recovered by expansion as the gas pressure falls with the production of gas originally in place.

Drill Ship is a maritime vessel modified to include a drilling rig that is a vessel designed for new oil and gas wells or for drilling purposes.

Desalter is a process unit in an upstream and oil refinery that removes salt from the crude oil in which the salt is dissolved in the water in crude oil to reduce the negative effect in the downstream processes due to scale formation, corrosion, and catalyst deactivation. In the Desalter, the crude oil is heated and mixed with 5-15% volume of fresh water so that the water can dilute the dissolved salts. The oil-water mix is put into a settling tank to allow the salt-containing water to separate and be drawn off. Frequently, an electric field or demulsifying chemicals are also used. Typical desalted crude has the concentration of 1 PTB (Pound/thousand Barrels).

Drilling Rig is a machine used to drill that creates holes for drill water wells, oil wells, and natural gas extraction wells in the earth subsurface. The Drilling Rig consists of mud tanks, the mud pumps, the derrick or mast, the draw-works, the rotary table, the drill-string, the power generation equipment and auxiliary equipment, etc. (refer to the list of components of oil drilling rigs). The Drilling Rig can be mobile equipment mounted on a truck or trailer, or movable permanent structures.

Dry Gas Field is a reservoir gas made up primarily of methane that is the yield dry or lean gas and very small quantities of condensate.

Egasser is a device used in drilling to remove gasses from drilling fluid which could otherwise form bubbles that removes all gases and vents them into the atmosphere at a safe distance from the drilling rig.

Exploration is the action of a searching oil and gas, finding and taking them. The Exploration is a sequential process of information gathering with an idea or geologic model and discovery of petroleum and natural gas followed by licencing, land acquisition, appraisal, and actual test drilling and boring, etc.

Field Appraisal is the process of quantifying reserve levels and production potential that occurs at the exploration phase of the petroleum field life cycle closely links with the next stage.

Gas Cap is saturated gas to be collected at the top of the reservoir that is naturally occurring, secondarily formed by release of solution gas, or generated by gas injection for pressure maintenance. The Cap Gas overlies the oil that is produced only after all the oil has been produced and treated as Non Associated Gas.

Gas Cycling or Re-Cycling is a process in which produced gas is re-injected into the reservoir after removal of the condensate that is the pressure maintaining in a natural gas field, the condensate separates from the dry gas in the reservoir.

Gas Lift System is an artificial lift method by injecting gas into the production tubing to raise water or oil which increase the flow rate of crude oil by injecting gas to lift the oil. The Gas Lift system is a closed system empowered by high-pressured gas, and has the effect of reducing the hydrostatic pressure in the outlet tube compared with the hydrostatic pressure at the inlet side of the tube considering a gas lift system design, produced fluid type, and productivity index of the wellbore, etc.

Gas Lift Injection is the gas injection to an oil reservoir in order to mix gas with oil, reduce the fluid density and so assist oil flow.

Gas Water Contact in a hydrocarbon reservoir is miscible and crucial for volumetric and petrophysical calculations because the gas and oil are lighter than water that forms a bubble at the high end of the trap formed by the impermeable barriers. The Gas Water Contact between gas and water is not necessarily sharp, typically a transition zone between pure gas and pure water in reservoirs.

Geosteer is the optimal placement of a wellbore based on the results of downhole geological logging measurements.

Horizontal Drilling is a hydraulic fracturing in horizontally drilled wells.  After a period of vertical drilling in order to reach shale deposits, a lateral extension of up to 5000 feet is drilled parallel to the rock layer containing the shale. Lateral drilling has many advantages, including reduce ground surface disruption.

Hubbert Curve is a model for predicting the likely production rate of any finite resource over time. The rate of production of individual wells grows exponentially from discovery until a peak is reached, at which point production steadily, and sometimes swiftly, declines, in the result resembles a symmetrical bell-shaped curve. It first appeared in Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels, geologist M. King Hubbert's 1956 presentation to the API during his tenure at the Shell Oil Company.

Hull is a main ​body or ​frame of an offshore structure or a ​ship, most of which goes under the ​water.

Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) is a process used to recover the trapped oil in sedimentary rocks that involves the high-pressure injection of fracking fluid into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely.

Hydril is one of the types of blowout preventers (BOP's) that is a specialised valve which is used to prevent blowout while monitoring, controlling, or sealing oil and gas wells. The annular blowout preventer is known as Hydril, which is named after one of the manufacturers of the device. (e.g., GE Hydril Line of Products means the GE O&G Hydril Annular Blowout Preventer, including, without limitation, the hydraulic piston, the packing unit, the elastomer compounds and the valves associated therewith.) (Refer to the Blowout Preventer (BOP))

Inflow Control Valve is 1) an active component installed as part of a well completion to partially or completely choke flow into a well; 2) a passive component installed as part of a well completion to help optimise production by equalising reservoir inflow along the length of the wellbore.

Injection Well is a well in which fluids are injected rather than produced to maintain reservoir pressure (e.g., oil and gas reservoir) for dispersal or storage (e.g., wastewater).

Kill Pump is a high-pressure pump designated for well-kill purposes that is the operation of placing a column of heavy fluid into a well bore in order to prevent the flow of reservoir fluids without the need for pressure control equipment at the surface.

Lubricator Valve is the topmost valve on a Christmas tree that is used to isolate the reservoir from the environment.

Master Valve is a valve installed at the supply point which controls flow into the main system. The Master Valve is located on the Christmas tree that controls all flow from the wellbore in upstream business.

Memory Gauge is a type of electronic gauge that is designed with a pressure and temperature trigger and have a fully automated option. Memory Gauges are generally used to measure bottomhole pressures and temperatures in response to various production rates in tests to assess well productivity and reservoir performance.

Mineral Exploration is the discovery of a still unknown mineral resource that consists of the value of expenditures on exploration for petroleum and natural gas and for non-petroleum deposits; it includes prelicence costs, licence and acquisition costs, appraisal costs and the costs of actual test drilling and boring, as well as the costs of aerial and other surveys, transportation costs, etc.

Ocean Bottom Cable is an assembly of vertically oriented geophones and hydrophones connected by electrical wires that is dragged into position or dropped over any ocean-floor topography. The Ocean Bottom Cable is to enable surveying in areas of obstructions or shallow water inaccessible to ships towing seismic streamers. Recent developments provide four component (4C) seabed systems to record shear wave (S-wave) as well as P-wave energy.

Offshore is located at sea some distance from the shore that is an outside of the base location of the country. (Opposite of the Onshore)

Offshore Geotechnical Engineering is a branch of geotechnical engineering that focuses on the application of geological principles for the exploration or extraction of natural resources (oil, natural gas, coal, minerals, etc.). The Offshore Geotechnical Engineering is responsible for the foundation design, construction, maintenance and decommissioning for human-made structures in the sea including oil platforms, artificial islands and submarine pipelines, etc.

Offshore Platform (or Offshore Drilling Rig) is a large structure with facilities to drill wells and extract the oil and natural gas also, temporarily store product on the vessel or platform at the mobile offshore. The Offshore Drilling Rig can be a jackup that is up to 400 feet of water, semi-submersible, or drillship that is up to 12,000 feet of water.

Offshore Work is the activities and operations that takes place at sea, including activities in bay, in inland, or in inland seas directly connected to oceans. The Offshore works includes transportation of people and equipment from shore to the offshore location, either by vessel or helicopter.

Oil Mining is a method of petroleum extraction that is based on the digging of a system of underground mining excavations.

Oil Production Facility is a facility which performs processing of production fluids from oil wells in order to separate out key components and prepare them for export.

Oil Reserves are the estimated amount of crude oil located in a particular economic region that can be technically recovered and financially feasible at the present price of oil. Proven Oil Reserves are a reasonable certainty of being recoverable under existing economic and political conditions, with existing technology. Reserves amounts for world total: 1,726,685 million of barrels (MMbbl) - USA EIA (2017)

Oilfield (or Oil Field) is an area with the large amount of oil under the earth's surface. The Oilfield consists of a reservoir, oil exploration equipment, pipelines to transport, and supporting facilities. (Refer to the Oil Well)

Operating Gas Lift Valve (OGLV) is the lowermost gas-lift valve on the production tubing down the well in a gas-lift system. An OGLV is opened in sequence, injecting the gas that forces fluid in the tubing to the surface.

Petroleum Extraction is one of oil and gas exploration technologies that is the removal process (extraction) of oil from the well reservoirs. The Petroleum Extraction can be recovered in the range of 60% of the available resources from most wells. The Petroleum Extraction can be: the Primary Extraction; Secondary Extraction; Tertiary Extraction.

Primary Extraction is the primary stage of crude oil recovery by underground pressure to drive fluids to the surface after an oil well has been drilled. When the pressure falls, artificial lift technologies, such as gas lift technology which is gas pumps back down the well underneath the oil, or gravity drainage of oil from upper parts of the well and displacement of oil by water. The Primary Extraction is able to recover 5 to 15% of the total amount of petroleum within a well.

Secondary Extraction is a secondary recovery of petroleum after natural forces no longer drive oil to the surface (Primary Extraction) that is the most widely applied recovery technique by supplying external energy to the reservoir by injecting fluids (water, natural gas, air, or carbon dioxide reinjection and gas lift) to increase reservoir pressure, hence increasing or replacing the natural reservoir drive with an artificial drive. Secondary recovery accounts for 30% of the total output obtained from an oil well.

Tertiary Extraction (or Enhanced Extraction) is the final stage of oil extraction that is applied to increase the liquidity of the oil including thermal recovery, gas injection, chemical flooding, or oil eating bacteria. are being used in this step to increase the mobility of the oil in order to increase extraction. The Tertiary Extraction (or Enhanced Extraction) accounts for 5 to 15% of the total amount that can be recovered from a well.

Rig is 1) a structure used to support machinery and equipment for a particular purpose; 2) the machine used to drill a wellbore.

Single Hull means that the ship has only one hull structure.

Slug Catcher is a static equipment installed in the upstream oil and/or gas pipeline facilities to catch or collect the slugs at the outlet of pipeline systems. Usually, a large quantity of slug is existed in the oil and gas reservoirs with the crude oil, natural gas, water, salts, etc., and transportation pipelines. The Slug Catcher removes the slug in the produced oil and gas at the processing facilities, and the accumulated slug inside the pipeline allows the pressure drops.

Splash Zone is the transition from air to water when a marine structure into the sea that is intermittently wetted by waves, wind-blown water spray, and tidal action. (Refer to the Submerged Zone)

Straddle Plant a gas processing plant located on or near a gas transmission line in the upstream facilities that is the surface equipment intended to reprocess natural gas for the purpose of recovering other fuels from the natural gas and includes any underground storage facilities.

Strategic Reserve is the reserve of a commodities such as a crude oil, that is controlled and maintained by the government to protect a country’s economic and National Security.

Subsurface Safety Valve (SSSV) or Downhole Safety Valve is a component on an oil and gas well that is installed in the upper wellbore designed to close automatically in an emergency situation to prevent the uncontrolled release of reservoir fluids in the event of a worst-case-scenario surface disaster.

Suction Pit is a mud tank, usually made of steel, which mud is picked up by the suction of the mud pumps.

Three Dimensional Survey (3D Survey) is used in the subsurface geological features of interest in hydrocarbon exploration that is the cross-line direction as closely spaced receiver and shot lines, and carried out by shooting closely spaced parallel lines typically, no significant gaps in the coverages.

Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) is the newest method of extracting oil from heavy oil deposits that is the injection of air into the tunnel or for end of the well and then a fire is ignited in order to burn heavier components of the oil.

Underground Blowout is an uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids from high pressure zones to lower pressure zones that may be reacted properly and closes the blowout preventers (BOPs).

Well is 1) a deep hole made in the ground through which water, oil or gas can be obtained; 2) in good health.

Gas Well is a well drilled specifically for natural gas to the surface and contain little or no oil, a Gas Oil Ratio (GOR - the ratio of the volume of gas that comes out of solution (oil) at standard conditions) over 100,000 scf/stb.

Intelligent Well is a signify degree of direct monitoring equipment and completion components are installed within the well completion that can be adjusted to optimise production automatically and remotely.

Oil Well is a producing well with oil that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface.

Well Interference is the interaction of operating oil, gas, or water wells drilled from the surface that is the change in pressure at one well caused by production from one or more other wells.

Wellhead is a component at the surface of an oil or a gas well that provides a safe operation and manages the flow of oil or gas from the well into a gathering system. The Wellhead system consists of valves, spools and assorted adapters that control the pressure of the production well by a blowout preventer (BOP). The Wellhead also incorporates a hanging the production tubing and installing the Christmas Tree and surface flow-control facilities.

Wellhead Backpressure is the pressure registered in the wellhead of the operating wells.

Wing Valve is a valve located at the christmas tree, above the master valve, on the flow line that used for a drill stem test.

Array Sonic is the acoustic logging device that is designed to measure one or more acoustic-wave properties to obtain data about subsurface formations. The Array Sonic is Schlumberger trade name, and Halliburton’s Full Wave Sonic System is similar.

Fire Flooding is the generation of combustion in the reservoir by igniting a fire at the injection well that is the best working method to reduce the oil viscosity and help vaporise reservoir water to steam. Continuous injection of air or other gas mixture with high oxygen content will maintain the flame front.

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