Petroleum geology and its importance in petroleum engineering

Geology as a science is a discipline that has several contributions in engineering, as for example it has contributions in civil engineering as is the case of the contribution it makes in seismic resistance, geodesic engineers are also nourished by this discipline, but undoubtedly the contribution with great significance is shown in petroleum engineering, since it uses the knowledge and foundations of geology in the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons (oil and gas).

What are the objectives of geology's contribution to petroleum engineering?

With the knowledge that geology can contribute to petroleum engineering, one of the first objectives to achieve is the fact that by means of what we already know about geology we can locate the oil fields taking into consideration the theories of the origin of petroleum based on geological traps, anticlines, salt domes, unconformities, among others.

Just thinking that petroleum engineering could not be nourished by the knowledge of geology, then it would pay the serious consequence of having economic losses, not being able to economize in oil exploration, since in oil exploration thanks to the knowledge in geology can reduce the probability of drilling an oil well and that this is dry without productive volumes of oil, so it can be concluded for this case that another important objective pursued with the geology of petroleum is to be able to economize in oil exploration activities.

There is an intrinsic point to highlight, and it is the fact that the knowledge of geology in the oil industry allows to know in all its aspects the geological science in its engineering application version.

In well drilling operations is where a significant contribution can be seen, such as the fact that through geology a three-dimensional description of the reservoir containing hydrocarbons can be made thanks to the drilling data that can only be obtained thanks to what we know today about geology, as is the case of the masterlog and lithological descriptions made in real time during the drilling of a well.

By means of geology, the oil industry can evaluate oil resources since oil prospects are evaluated on the basis of petrophysical aspects that are known in the field of geological knowledge.

In conclusion I close with a very important reflection, rooted in the fact that we can realize the importance that geology has had in the oil industry, just by seeing that large oil companies worldwide give special importance to their geology departments, geophysics and geochemistry departments, because their contribution is diversified and oriented to continue expanding research to fully know the scope that geology can continue to have in other branches of petroleum engineering.

Bibliographic reference consulted and recommended

• Notes on petroleum geology. Author: Eduardo Rodriguez Santana. Division of Earth Sciences Engineering. Department of petroleum geology and geohydrology.

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