Production engineering is a subset of petroleum engineering

Petroleum engineering

Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...

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Production engineers design and select equipment to extract and treat oil and gas well fluids

Production fluid

Production fluid is the fluid mixture of oil, gas and water in formation fluid that flows to the surface of an oil well from a reservoir. Its consistency and composition varies.Fluids may be described by a multitude of characteristics including:...

. They often are degreed as petroleum engineers, although they may come from other technical disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering) and subsequently be trained by an oil and gas company.

Overview

Production engineers' responsibilities include:

1. Evaluating inflow and outflow performance between the reservoir and the wellbore
   Wellbore
   A wellbore is any hole drilled for the purpose of exploration or extraction of natural resources such as water, gas or oil where a well may be produced and a resource is extracted for a protracted period of time....
   
   .
2. Designing completion systems
   Completion (oil and gas wells)
   In petroleum production, completion is the process of making a well ready for production . This principally involves preparing the bottom of the hole to the required specifications, running in the production tubing and its associated down hole tools as well as perforating and stimulating as...
   
   , including tubing
   Production tubing
   Production tubing is a tube used in a wellbore through which production fluids are produced .Production tubing is run into the drilled well after the casing is run and cemented in place. Production tubing protects wellbore casing from wear, tear, corrosion, and deposition of by-products, such as...
   
    selection, perforating
   Perforation (oil well)
   A perforation in the context of oil wells refers to a hole punched in the casing or liner of an oil well to connect it to the reservoir. In cased hole completions, the well will be drilled down past the section of the formation desired for production and will have casing or a liner run in...
   
   , sand control, matrix stimulation, and hydraulic fracturing
   Hydraulic fracturing
   Considerable controversy surrounds the current implementation of hydraulic fracturing technology in the United States. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of utilizing pressurized water, or some other liquid, to fracture rock layers and release petroleum, natural gas, or other...
   
   .
3. Selecting artificial lift
   Artificial lift
   Artificial lift refers to the use of artificial means to increase the flow of liquids, such as crude oil or water, from a production well. Generally this is achieved by the use of a mechanical device inside the well or by decreasing the weight of the hydrostatic column by injecting gas into the...
   
    equipment, including sucker-rod lift (typically beam pumping
   Pumpjack
   A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well....
   
   ), gas lift, electrical submersible pumps, subsurface hydraulic pumps, progressing-cavity pumps, and plunger lift.
4. Selecting equipment for surface facilities that separate
   Separator (oil production)
   The term separator in oilfield terminology designates a pressure vessel used for separating well fluids produced from oil and gas wells into gaseous and liquid components. A separator for petroleum production is a large vessel designed to separate production fluids into their constituent components...
   
   and measure the produced fluids (oil, natural gas, water, and impurities), prepare the oil and gas for transportation to market, and handle disposal of any water and impurities.