Reservoir engineer jobs involve surveillance or production engineering and simulation modeling, with responsibilities including optimizing production rates and estimating reserves. Geothermal engineering is another related field. The engineer must determine whether a new oil, gas, or geothermal reservoir has sufficient resources and lifespan for drilling. All jobs require an engineering background.
There are generally two types of reservoir engineer jobs: surveillance or production engineering and simulation modeling. Both types of reservoir engineer jobs are part of petroleum engineering, which deals with the development and maintenance of oil and gas fields. Geothermal engineering is another related branch in which reservoir engineer jobs are offered. This involves the development and maintenance of hot water or steam tanks.
Some of the responsibilities of a reservoir engineer include optimizing production rates and conducting simulation studies to locate potential reservoirs. These engineers also estimate the amount of reserves available in existing reservoirs and determine the performance of each well. Another part of the job is analyzing pressure data.
Surveillance engineering involves monitoring existing reservoirs. The main responsibility of the reservoir engineer, in this context, is to maximize the reservoir output without causing overproduction. Overproduction simply produces more product than can be stored, transported, processed, or sold at any given time. This often leads to wasted resources and shortens the life of the reservoir.
In geothermal reservoirs, overproduction is avoided by injecting extracted water back into the reservoir. This maintains pressure and allows the reservoir to be productive for a long time. Through surveillance engineering, a reservoir management program is designed to maximize reservoir life. Some of the tools used in surveillance engineering include decay curve analysis and material balance monitoring.
Simulation modeling involves finding and examining potentially viable oil, gas or geothermal reservoirs. The reservoir engineer’s primary responsibility is to determine whether a new oil field, gas field or hot water reservoir has sufficient resources and a long enough lifespan to allow a well to be drilled. Well drilling and maintenance expenses are weighed against the potential revenue generated by the newly discovered reservoir. Only reservoirs that have many resources are considered for drilling.
An oil platform requires a large investment from the company. It is up to the reservoir engineer to correctly model the potential oil reserve and determine whether drilling is feasible. The model usually takes into account the estimated reserve level, reservoir characterization studies and petrophysical studies. Most studies are designed and performed by the reservoir engineer. All reservoir engineer jobs require an engineering background, be it petrochemical engineering, chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering.
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