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PREFACE
This petroleum and natural gas engineering two-volume handbook is written in the spirit of the classic handbooks of other engineering disciplines. The two volumes reflect the importance of the industry its engineers serve (i.e., Standard and Poor’s shows that the fuels sector is the largest single entity in the gross domestic product) and the profession’s status as a mature engineering discipline.
The project to write these volumes began with an attempt to revise the old Practical Petroleum Engineer’s Handbook that Gulf Publishing had published since the 1940’s. Once the project was initiated, it became clear that any revision of the old handbook would be inadequate. Thus, the decision was made to write an entirely new handbook and to write this handbook in the classic style of the handbooks of the other major engineering disciplines. This meant giving the handbook initial chapters on mathematics and computer applications, the sciences, general engineering, and auxiliary equipment. These initial chapters set the tone of the handbook by using engineering language and notation common to all engineering disciplines. This common language and notation is used throughout the handbook (language and notation in nearly all cases is consistent with Society of Petroleum Engineers publication practices). The authors, of which there are 27, have tried (and we hope succeeded) in avoiding the jargon that had crept into petroleum engineering literature over the past few decades. Our objective was to create a handbook for the petroleum engineering discipline that could be read and understood by any up-to-date engineer.
The specific petroleum engineering discipline chapters cover drilling and well completions, reservoir engineering, production, and economics and valuation. These chapters contain information, data, and example calculations related to practical situations that petroleum engineers often encounter. Also, these chapters reflect the growing role of natural gas in industrial operations by integrating natural gas topics and related subjects throughout both volumes.
This has been a very long and often frustrating project. Throughout the entire project the authors have been steadfastly cooperative and supportive of their editor. In the preparation of the handbook the authors have used published information from both the American
Petroleum Institute and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The authors thank these two institutions for their cooperation in the preparation of the final manuscript. The authors would also like to thank the many petroleum production and service companies that have assisted in this project.
In the detailed preparation of this work, the authors would like to thank Jerry Hayes, Danette DeCristofaro, and the staff of ExecuStaff Composition Services for their very competent preparation of the final pages. In addition, the authors would like to thank Bill Lowe of Gulf Publishing Company for his vision and perseverance regarding this project; all those many individuals that assisted in the typing and other duties that are so necessary for the preparation of original manuscripts; and all the families of the authors that had to put up with weekends and weeknights of writing. The editor would especially like to thank the group of individuals that assisted through the years in the overall organization and preparation of the original written manuscripts and the accompanying graphics, namely; Ann Gardner, Britta Larrson, Linda Sperling, Ann Irby, Anne Cate, Rita Case, and Georgia Eaton.
All the authors and their editor know that this work is not perfect. But we also know that this handbook had to be written. Our greatest hope is that we have given those that will follow us, in future editions of this handbook, sound basic material to work with.
William C. Lyons, Ph.D., P.E.
Socorro, New Mexico
