Customer Reviews

Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production (2nd Edition)

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In attempting to get quickly up to speed on the oil business for the purpose of participating in a few wells as a (very) small investor, I bought about ten books of various sorts. This is one of them, and has turned out to be the one I refer to the most.

First, let me say that there are two different types of books on drilling for oil/gas. Broadly, they are books that concentrate mainly on the financial and legal structure of oil deals and books that concentrate on where it is and how to get it out of the ground. This book is of the second sort.

The "nontechnical" part of the title is only partly true. Some of the descriptions are sufficiently technical to impart a working understanding of the operations in the field. I, for instance, have been going to our rig (now drilling) and asking questions ("What's that blue thing?"), then coming home and reading about what I was told ("The jar is a section of pipe that either mechanically....").

Same with the drilling reports I receive.... I can look up that part of the drilling operation (ie, "sliding") and get a much better understanding of what's happening. A book comes in handy, after all, the tool pushers out on the rigs seem to be men of few words.

There is also a pretty good basic course in petroleum geology in the first thirteen chapters. And, the science (art?) of geophysics gets a good once-over, too, though I confess I've not paid much attention to it yet.

There are chapters on reservoirs, completion, offshore, production, workover, and more, all of which is written at the same level, and much of which I've not read in depth, only scanned. I'll read it as we get there out in the field.

This is a sufficiently information-dense book that actually sitting and reading it from cover to cover won't realistically happen for most folks, no matter how involved. It's more of a textbook and reference resource.

There are lots of diagrams and drawings and pictures (probably three hundred) and they help a lot. The lengthy glossary is OK, though I've not found a petroleum business glossary that seems to be truly comprehensive. (That was written before I found, and ordered, the comprehensive "Dictionary of Petroleum Exploration, Drilling & Production" by who else but Norman J. Hyne, Ph.D.,.... and nope, I have no axe to grind here; and yes, I have noticed that Norman seems to favor long titles). The folks in the oil business rely very heavily on their own language that is a combination of truly technical terminology, oilman slang and everything in between. A glossary is handy. Also be forewarned that the business uses lots of abbreviations, and they seem to change somewhat from company to company, so that a glossary won't ever have all of the abbreviations in use in the field.

There are some other books that do a pretty good job on a more basic level, including "Money In The Ground" by John Orban, III (which also includes deal structure), but, if you are looking for a book that is deep enough to give you a good understanding of the many various aspects of drilling for oil, this is the book.

This book is exactly what I was looking for. The only thing it could have done better is spend more detail on the different parts of a well and deep sea platforms. The pictures are good; sufficient for the visual learner. I would recommend this book as a class text for an introductory class on petroleum geology. It touches on everything, including how to read a well log. I strongly recommend buying this book over "The Petroleum Industry: A Non-Technical Guide" by Conway.

We purchased this book to supplement some internal training for our company. It is the most comprehensive book on the subject that I have found, and we did a lot of research. We will be using it for a pre-requisite to a geology course for all of our new employees.

Great book!

I work for a MAJOR oil company, but in Government Relations, not on the technical side of the house. Our company has courses such as "Refining for non refiners" and "Drilling for non drillers" meant to give an overview of the operations to people that need to be able to talk intelligently about the industry. This book gives among the finest overviews of the industry that I have seen and makes it easier to do my job. When I first joined I didn't know the difference between upstream and downstream, and the overviews offered in Mr. Hyne's book make me more able to speak intelligently to colleagues, management, customers and partners about our stake in this industry. A must read for anyone who works on the fringes of of oil production. After reading this book, I am somewhat amazed that gasoline does not cost three times its' current price considering all the work it takes to find it, drill for it, extract the stuff from rocks, and get it through a pipeline to a ship to a refinery and then to our gas tanks. This from a guy that gets dirty looks as I drive my Hybrid car into the parking lot of an oil company every morning.

The nontechnical guide arrived in the mail in the speedy fashion typical of Amazon. I ripped into the packaging, withdrawing my hardbound book on Petroleum knowledge. I quickly flew threw the pages of the book, noting how the information was presented. Well organized according to subject, ie Geology, exploration, Drilling and Production, each one of these areas of the oil industry was explained in simple, easy to understand language, and would allow this book to be used as a class room text. There were many pictures, diagrams and drawn out explanations about the subject being explained. The material presented information in a specific area and in a manner that was easy to absorb, find again and use.

The book would allow me to become the oilman of my dreams, at least in my head. I have just finished reading the book, taking about a week or two to do so, and inclulded many margin comments in my book. This item was a good purchase, in that it provided the information I needed in a manner that I could use. There were many recommended readings in other publications. I would recommend this book for all readers, except the hardened oil man with years of experience. For him I am sure there is another source of information.

I am a professor in atmospheric sciences and my specialty is climate science. I do not know the author. I often speak before geologists, petroleum engineers, agricultural specialists, etc. I have of necessity had to learn more about energy and water resources. This means I needed to know more about petroleum. This is one of many books I have read about energy resources. I found this book to be an excellent introduction for the nonspecialist. I know some geology, but this book was one of the clearest and most concise introduction that is especially focused on petroleum recovery. The author's style is good, but the most impressive are the figures. These are of a uniformly high quality in production and they are very clear showing exactly what the author is referring to. I enjoyed this book immensely. G. North, Texas A&M

I am a graduate geologist and I found this book ideal in my circumstances as an introduction before I got some petroleum work experience.It is very well written ,even a layperson could get a good appreciation for the wide encompassing subject matter.It is not aimed at specialists or those with a lot of experience in the petroleum geoscience.However, it is one of the best text books I have read.

I am a new Environmental Planner to the oil and gas industry, this book has been an integral part of my learning process. Easy to read and quite thorough- I am very satisfied and haven't found the need for another book.

An outstanding , very lucid, overview of the petroleum sciences ranging from petroleum generation, migration ,and entrapment , exploration technology ,land leasing , drilling and development , to reservoir estimation and enhancement technology . This book is highly recomended for those who have little or no understanding of the field ,for students and ,perhaps ,for some non geologist ie. geophysicists .

This books is thick and takes a while to read and absorb, but it's well worth the time. It covers virtually every aspect of the upstream oil business, from evaluating the geology of a region, producting seismic results, evaluating logs, drilling vertical, deviated and horizontal wells, drilling deepwater wells, and well completions and production. No subject is covered very deeply (this is, after all, a non-technical introduction), but it covers the range of upstream activities quite well. Great intro for people who are new to the oil and gas industry!