CONCLUSION

In conclusion, production engineering is a part of petroleum engineering which attempts to

maximize production in a cost-effective manner. This involves one or more wells. Appropriate
production engineering technologies and methods of application are related directly and
interdependently with other major areas of petroleum engineering, such as formation evaluation,
drilling, and reservoir engineering. It has been concluded that a complete oil or gas production
system consists of a reservoir, well, flowline, separators, pumps, and transportation pipelines.
Reservoir engineering in its widest sense overlaps production engineering to a great
degree. The reservoir supplies the wellbore with crude oil or gas. The accumulation of
hydrocarbon in geological traps can also be classified as reservoir. It is a porous and permeable
underground formation containing an individual bank of hydrocarbons confined by impermeable
rock or water barriers and is characterized by a single natural pressure system. It also has three
types of driving mechanisms which cause the hydrocarbons to be produced, which include waterdrive reservoir, gas-cap drive reservoir as well as dissolved-gas reservoir.
The well, in the other hand, provides a path for the production fluid to flow from bottom
hole to surface and offers a means to control the fluid production rate. Oil and gas wells are
drilled like an upside-down telescope. The large diameter borehole section is at the top of the
well. Each section is cased to the surface, or a liner is placed in the well that laps over the last
casing in the well. Entrance of fluids into the well, following their flow through the porous
medium, the near-well zone, and the completion assembly, requires that they are lifted through
the well up to the surface.
The flowline leads the produced fluid to separators. The fluids produced from oil wells
are normally complex mixtures of hundreds of different compounds. Generally, there are three
types of separators available from manufacturers, which include horizontal, vertical, and
spherical separators. After separation, oil is transported through pipelines to the sales point by
pump. Usually, reciprocating piston pumps are used to provide mechanical energy required for
the transportation. Compressors are used for providing gas pressure required to transport gas
with pipelines and to lift oil in gas-lift operations. The compressors used in todays natural gas
production industry fall into two distinct types which are reciprocating and rotary compressors.

After the fluid reaches the top, it is likely to be directed toward a manifold connecting a
number of wells. The reservoir fluid consists of oil, gas and water. Traditionally, the oil, gas, and
water are not transported long distances as a mixed stream, but instead are separated at a surface
processing facility located in close proximity to the wells. An exception that is becoming more
common is in some offshore fields, where production from subsea wells, or sometimes the
commingled production from several wells, may be transported long distances before any phase
separation takes place. Finally, the separated fluids are transported or stored. In the case of
formation water it is usually disposed in the ground through a reinjection well.