Petroleum Engineering or Petroleum Engineering is one of the most important engineering disciplines in the College of Engineering and is interested in studying the scientific and practical concepts of oil and understanding the methods of extracting, dismantling, extracting, processing and benefiting from it, By investing in oil, which is one of the most important treasures that humanity needs in its daily life.
Due to the difference of substances in nature and the complexity and overlap of their properties, And take note and deepen it, The study of engineering has been distributed to many engineering fields, each of which is interested in a specific field saturated with study and analysis.
Therefore, many engineering disciplines have emerged such as mechanical, electrical, petroleum, civil, architecture, mechatronics, automatic control, agriculture, nuclear engineering, artificial intelligence engineering….. Other..
In this research, we will shed light on what is related to petroleum engineering, its importance, partial specializations, years of study, fields of work, financial return, and understanding the future of studying this specialization as much as possible.
List of Topics
1 What is Petroleum Engineering?

Petroleum Engineering: It is an engineering discipline concerned with the study and production of geological hydrocarbons and extracting them from the ground, whether crude oil or natural gas, and studying all the concepts used in exploration and search for oil fields and separating raw materials from them, which are considered one of the most important materials used in our daily lives.
Petroleum Engineering: It is the science that is concerned with identifying the geological layers of the earth to determine the carrier of oil or gas stores, And what are the mechanisms that should be used to determine their depths and sizes through seismic vibration scanning carried out by companies specialized in this field.
This means that it is a specialization that focuses on the study of methods of exploration, drilling, production, refining and mechanisms of oil extraction reservoirs, and the study of parts of mechanisms and mechanisms of drilling wells or production rigs, whether they are on offshore drilling platforms, or onshore drilling platforms, understanding and studying oil transport lines, stations, estuaries, sewers, and, and…..
Another definition of petroleum engineering also comes as an engineering specialization that is concerned with exploring oil and gas fields in the ground before extracting them and identifying the proportion of both petroleum materials and the amount of usable materials from these underground fields.
2 What is the importance of petroleum engineering?
Petroleum engineering is one of the most important engineering disciplines that are interested in exploring the black treasure, This is due to the strong economic impact resulting from it, which is an economic treasure on which all countries of the world depend and its profits are reflected on the state very significantly.
Therefore, you find the study of petroleum engineering very important in many countries worldwide, to provide and train engineers specialized in exploring oil fields and understanding how to extract oil and study all concepts related to it, such as the study of geology (earth sciences), Which helps specialists to understand the conditions and nature of the geology suitable for oil fields in the ground to extract and understand the percentage of the presence of oil and its sediments.
Due to the details and accuracy of these works, this engineering has been divided into sub-disciplines, each of which focuses on a specific aspect of the above-mentioned works.
3 Does the Petroleum Engineering major have a future?
Certainly, the future of studying petroleum engineering is wonderful and has a bright future, not only for the student of this specialization, the future that produces this specialization lies in the benefit of the country or the state from exploring the oil fields that it owns and extracting them for what returns to the state with a very large economic return.
Also, the future of the petroleum engineering specialization lies in the urgent need for experts specialized in this field to explore oil, oil fields and fossil fuels, Which is one of the most important sources of energy, if not the most important at all.
The oil engineer can work in any of the oil or biological fields, and this explains to us the wonderful future that awaits the student of this specialization and work in many fields and research and exploration operations to extract oil or work in international oil institutions or any of the oil fields.
4 Is petroleum engineering difficult?
Petroleum engineering is one of the engineering disciplines, meaning that the difficulty of studying it is similar to the difficulty of studying any of the other engineering disciplines, but if your motivation to study this specialization is from a desire and love for the field, it will certainly be easy and you will not face difficulty in studying it.
Also, the difficulty of studying a petroleum engineering major varies according to the educational curriculum and study plan that the university provides, and we can say that studying petroleum engineering is not an easy study and that students who want to study this major will find many difficulties. But these reasons will not stop you from achieving your goal and ambition if you like to study this field.
5 What are the admission requirements to study Petroleum Engineering?

If you want to know what are the conditions required by oil colleges in order to be able to enroll and admit, they are the following:
- The average of the general diploma must be greater than 95%, and the rate of the rate varies from one university to another and from one country to another.
- To be able to pass the admission test in the College of Oil and Gas.
- The student’s level of English must be advanced and have a TOEFL certificate.
Personal Requirements to Study Petroleum Engineering
But if you want to know what are the requirements or personal qualities that you must be characterized by in order to be a successful oil engineer, they are the following:
- Be skilled in scientific subjects, such as calculus, trigonometry, and knowledge of the basics of algebra and geometry.
- Have a broad background in physics and biology, and chemistry.
- Dealing with technical and computer programs.
- Have leadership skills.
- Ability to solve problems.
- Flexibility in work and withstand pressure.
- Meet business challenges.
6 What are the departments of petroleum engineering?
- Department of Basic Petroleum Engineering.
- Department of Mining Engineering.
- Department of Refining and Petrochemical Engineering.
- Department of Metallurgical and Metallurgical Engineering.
- Petroleum Exploration and Production Section.
- Department of Geological and Geophysical Engineering.
7 What are the majors of Petroleum Engineering?
There are many specializations in the field of petroleum engineering, the most important of which are the following:
- Well Drilling Specialization: It studies the problems of drilling, impulse control, and wellhead equipment such as impulse barriers, Christmas trees, horizontal drilling and tilting.
- Specialization of well revival and improvement: the study of production improvement processes and treatment of wells with acids and others.
- Production stimulation specialization: studies polymer curing processes and thermoelectric processes, and others.
- Advanced nature gas technology specialization: such as compression gas pumping processes.
- Drilling Fluids Specialization: It studies everything related to the preparation of drilling fluids on rigs during well drilling operations in proportion to the layers that are penetrated.
- Advanced Petroleum Economics: Studies the role of strategic stores, crude oil and gas prices, supply and demand, and others.
- Production Engineering Specialization: Studying the selection of the best production system and surface equipment for the separation of oil, gas and water.
- Oil Exploration Specialization: It is concerned with the study of planning well drilling projects, geophysical surveying and drilling exploration wells.
- Oil Refining Engineering Specialization: The study of everything related to the technological processes of refining oil and obtaining various types of its derivatives.
8 Petroleum Engineering How many years of study?
The number of years of studying petroleum engineering varies from one university to another, depending on the curriculum provided by the university, but the number of academic years in most universities is 5 years and can be reduced to four years depending on the number of hours specified and the semesters at the university you will join.
The above courses are distributed over 5 academic years.
9 What is a Petroleum Engineering Study Plan?

The study plan and courses vary from one university to another, so the person must review the university he wishes to join.
To help you get a general idea of the study plan for this specialization, I will explain to you the study plan for the study of petroleum engineering used by most universities and what are the specialization subjects that you teach during the 5 years.
The study plan adopted in most universities uses the tram system, i.e. it divides the year into two terms, and each term contains 6 subjects, i.e. in the year, it studies 12 subjects, which are as follows:
- First Year:
The student is taught 12 subjects, these subjects focus on teaching the student the following basics of oil, oil structures, English language, mathematics, physics, Computer and Engineering Technology.
- Second Year:
In the second year, the student is taught 12 subjects, these subjects focus on chemical sciences, and the basics of geophysics, calculus, and principles of geology.
- Third Year:
In the third year, the student is taught 12 subjects, each of which focuses on teaching the student computer programming, understand transport phenomena, Academic and professional communication, Properties of rocks and fluids.
- Fourth Year:
In the fourth year, the student is taught 11 subjects, each of which focuses on teaching the student petroleum geology, Structural Geology, reservoir engineering, Drilling engineering.
- Fifth Year:
As for the subjects taught in the fifth year, they focus on teaching the student the economics of petroleum, tank simulation, Petroleum Production Engineering This year is called the application of any exit to oil institutions and teaching and training the student on oil extraction and how to explore it in a real way and apply all the concepts he learned.
10 What are the subjects of studying petroleum engineering?
Among the basic subjects for the study of petroleum engineering are the following:
- Introduction to Petroleum Engineering.
- Control of wells.
- Activation of wells.
- Properties of reservoir rocks.
- Geological principles of exploration.
- Gas and oil reservoir engineering.
- Engineering Project Management.
- Drilling engineering.
- Improved output.
- Production of natural-flowing wells.
- Inclined and horizontal drilling.
- Oil and gas economics.
In addition to many other courses related to physics, mathematics, metallurgy, languages and other courses.
11 What are the jobs of the oil engineer?

The petroleum engineer works in many oil fields such as oil fields or any of the oil facilities and performs the following tasks:
- Manage research and exploration operations.
- In supervising drilling and extraction operations.
- Work in the field of oilfields.
- Managing oil exploration and search operations.
- Managing oil companies or managing departments in petroleum companies.
- Supervisor of oil tanks.
- Conduct exploratory surveys.
- Supervision of petroleum tanks.
- Cooperation with the Department of Geology to study the nature of rocks.
- Carry out the design and development of machines used in exploration and ensure their effectiveness.
12 What are Petroleum Engineering Simulation Programs?
- EClIPSE tank simulation software.
- SIMULATING THE ECLIPSE TANK. ECLIPS Reservoir Simulator is a comprehensive and complete program to simulate reservoir types of any degree of structural, geological or liquid complexity. …
- PIPESIM simulation software. …
- PETREL simulation software. …
- Olga simulation software. …
- IPM emulators. …
13 What is the difference between petroleum engineering and oil and gas engineering?
As we previously learned about Petroleum Engineering: it focuses on geological processes and their use in extracting oil and raw materials and understanding how to store, transport and convert them into useful usable materials.
Where the work of the petroleum or petroleum engineer focuses on operating oil refineries that convert crude oil into usable products and deciphering various materials from crude oil using specific processes with high accuracy such as converting or dismantling oil components.
Oil & Gas Engineering (Oil & Gas Engineering): It focuses on the study of the four natural gases of ordinary substances such as (solid, liquid and plasma).
The oil and gas engineer works on the analysis and dismantling of natural gases extracted from the well, as you notice when extracting gaseous materials from the well, they are mixed together hydrocarbons, Such as methane gas (CH4) but when extracted it is mixed together water, sand and other minerals, helium, “gas oil” and a lot of gases, The engineer dismantles the gases and extracts all gases separately.
I hope that I was able to explain the difference between them, as the difference between them is difficult to determine.
14 What are the pros and cons of studying petroleum engineering?
Each profession has many pros and cons, and the field of work in petroleum engineering contains many pros and cons, the most important of which are the following:
Pros of working in petroleum engineering
It allows the engineer to move permanently and discover new areas in his home country or move between different countries of the world if the company the engineer works for is international in services.
There are multiple opportunities and fields to work in a petroleum engineer.
Cons of working in petroleum engineering
The nature of the work of an oil engineer requires long and exhausting working hours.
Drilling rigs and wells are often far from populated and serviced areas.
15 What are the degrees to study Petroleum Engineering?
Bachelor:
The student obtains it after completing the first five-year academic stage.
Master:
The engineer obtains it after studying two new years after the bachelor’s degree and specialization more broadly in one of the sub-disciplines, which are as follows:
- Master of Petroleum Engineering.
- Master in Petroleum Engineering Technology.
- Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering.
- Master in Petroleum and Natural Gas Process Engineering.
- Master in Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering.
- Master in Petroleum Geosciences.
- Master in Advanced Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.
Phd:
The student also needs to study engineering for two years after obtaining a master’s degree in one of the above specializations.
Professor:
Dr. Al-Doctor obtains this degree after doing many researches in his field of specialization and his contribution to enriching his field and presenting it to those who preceded him in obtaining this degree.
16 What are the best universities to study a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering?

There are many universities in the world that provide the study of petroleum engineering, but I will mention to you the best prominent universities in the study of petroleum engineering, which are the following:
- Russian University.
- National University of Singapore (NUS) in Singapore.
- Texas and Stanford Universities in America.
- Imperial University of London and Manchester in the United Kingdom.
- King Fahd University of Petroleum.
- Sharif Technological University in Iran.
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates.
17 Who are the leading companies in oil exploration?
There are many international companies specialized in oil exploration, analysis and extraction, the most important of which are the following:
- Saudi Aramco.
- French Schlumberger.
- Lukoil Russia.
- Total French.
- Russian Gazprom.
- Dutch shell.
- Exo Mobile American.
- Chinese PetroChina.
18 Conclusion
Thus, we have taken a comprehensive overview of the field of petroleum engineering and its development over the years, He took an overview of the various fields of study related to petroleum engineering, what are the current challenges in this field and the potential opportunities that exist for those who wish to study this major.
We have also learned about its main fields of study in petroleum engineering and the important skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in this field.
At last We have provided a summary of the various organizations and companies that are involved in research and development in petroleum engineering.
I hope that this research has shed some light on the most important engineering in the world, which is petroleum engineering, And understand the future of studying this important specialization and understand the conditions and requirements that must be met by the student to study this specialization according to the guidelines for coordinating admission to universities.
In the event that there is a question or inquiry in any of the paragraphs explained, you can leave a comment below the article and I will reply to you as soon as possible. Thank you.
19 -References
List of largest oil and gas companies by revenue | wikipedia
Society of Petroleum Engineers | The Place for Oil and Gas Professionals