Petroleum Engineering & Production Technology

Comprehensive question-and-answer study flashcards covering petroleum engineering topics including artificial lift systems, completion equipment, hydraulic fracturing, multiphase flow, and downhole tools.

What is used to prevent sand from filling the well during gravel packing?

Sand Control Screen

Who invented the earliest form of ESP?

Armais Arutunoff

What does the acronym ESP stand for?

Electrical Submersible Pumps

Where was the first successful ESP implementation?

Kansas

What is a cricondentherm?

Maximum temperature at which two phases can exist

What is the exact temperature where wax first starts to crystallize and the oil visually turns cloudy?

Cloud Point

What is the temperature where oil gets so thick with wax that it completely loses its ability to flow?

Pour Point

What is the name of the perforating gun with a recessed profile in the gun body adjacent to the shaped charge that reduces external burrs?

Scalloped perforating gun

What component in a standard ESP is located directly below the lower pump section and directly above the motor?

Seal section (or Protector)

What type of flowmeter has spinner blades that collapse to pass through tubing restrictions and open up below?

Full-bore spinner flowmeter

In a plunger lift operation, what device is affixed to the end of the tubing to minimize elongation and compression movement?

Bumper spring

What vessel separates well fluid into gas and total liquids?

Two-phase separator

What sampling technique collects a small side stream of two-phase well production for laboratory testing without disturbing the natural gas/liquid ratio?

Split-stream sampling (or Isokinetic sampling)

What is a column of high-pressure nitrogen applied to a tubing string in preparation for drill stem testing or perforation called?

Nitrogen cushion (or Gas cushion)

What scale numbered $1$ to $40$ was developed by Griffin to predict surfactant properties based on molecular structure?

Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) number

What is an operation where the well stream passes through two or more separators arranged in series called?

Stage separation

In relation to offshore structures, what does the acronym FMWR stand for?

Fast Moving Workover Rig

What phenomenon occurs when the in-situ volume fraction of the denser phase is greater than the input volume fraction of the denser phase?

Liquid holdup

In $1993$, which company installed the first subsea electrical submersible pump (ESP)?

Amoco (or Petrobras)

What is the most common base on which the gravel pack will rest in cased-hole completions?

Sump packer

What equipment is installed at the end of the tubing to ensure wireline tools re-enter safely without snagging?

Wireline entry guide (WEG)

Which company developed the first fully functional coiled tubing unit?

Bowen Tools

What thick-walled joints are installed above and below profile seating nipples and sliding sleeves to absorb wear?

Flow coupling

In production logging, what term refers to a two-dimensional color or grayscale display showing variations of bubble velocity?

Velocity profile map

In sucker rod pumping, what phenomenon occurs when the downhole pump rate exceeds the production rate of the formation?

Fluid pound

What is the treatment of a reservoir formation with a stimulation fluid containing a reactive acid called?

Matrix acidizing

What casing or tubing repair technique uses a packer at the top and bottom with a smaller diameter pipe in between?

Straddle packer

What completion component enables the downhole injection of treatment chemicals or inhibitors into the production conduit?

Chemical injection mandrel

What type of pump can handle the complete production stream, including solids, liquids, and gases?

Multiphase pump

What issue arises during low-pressure gas sampling from separators due to low gas density relative to atmospheric pressure?

Air contamination

In sand control, the collapse of the formation becomes particularly critical across which area?

Near-wellbore region (or Perforations)

What is the term for a short joint of tubing or casing included in the string at a known position to serve as a reference point?

Pup joint

Which company pioneered the first commercial hydraulic fracturing treatment in $1949$?

Halliburton (Howco)

What two-piece tool provides access to the reservoir below an electrical submersible pump (ESP) without pulling the pump?

Y-tool

In a gas lift gas rate versus GLR optimization curve, what does moving to the right of the optimum injection point infer?

Excessive gas injection (Decreased liquid production)

In $1961$, which two companies introduced guar as a thickening agent in fracturing fluids?

Halliburton and Dowell

What gas lift component assembled with the production tubing string provides a means of locating gas lift valves?

Side-pocket mandrel

What phenomenon can cause tubing to crush inward due to high external pressures?

Yielding / Collapse pressure

What production optimization system-analysis technique uses mathematical algorithms?

Nodal analysis / Optimization algorithms

What stimulation treatment pumps fluid at high pressure and rates into low permeability reservoirs to improve productivity?

Hydraulic fracturing

What chemical added to acid treatment forms a protective film on metal tubulars?

Corrosion inhibitor

What technique uses two logging runs (one up, one down) at matched speeds to isolate fluid movement from tool-speed artifacts?

Two-pass method

What condition in sucker rod pumping occurs when the stroke length at the subsurface pump is longer than the surface stroke length?

Overtravel

What specialty sucker rod pump design uses three tubes to route sand-laden fluid away from delicate wear surfaces?

Abrasive fluids / Sand (or Three-tube sucker rod pump)

What refers to the uppermost joint in the string of sucker rods exposed at the surface?

Polished rod

What large-diameter heavyweight bar placed directly above the downhole pump in sucker rod lifts helps open the traveling valve?

Sinker Bar

When the flow velocity through a choke equals or exceeds the speed of sound in the medium, this flow is known as what?

Critical Flow (or Sonic Flow)

In jet pump artificial lift, what pressure-drop phenomenon across a nozzle creates fluid lift?

Venturi effect (or Bernoulli's principle)

What hydraulic fracturing treatment is performed specifically in carbonate formations to bypass near-wellbore damage?

Acid fracturing

Which gas lift system recycles injected gas using compressors in a closed loop?

Continuous dosed-toe gas lift (or closed gas lift system)

What instrument records the variation between polished rod load and polished rod displacement in sucker rod pumping?

Dynamometer

In a subsurface sucker rod pump, what valve closes on the upstroke to lift trapped fluid?

Traveling valve

What electromechanical device connects an electrical toolstring to a logging cable, wireline, or coiled tubing string?

Cable head

A wellbore acid treatment designed to remove scale or similar deposits from the wellbore area is known as what?

Matrix acidizing (or scale wash/acid wash)

In $1962$, which company developed the first fully functional coiled tubing unit in collaboration with Bowen Tools?

California Oil Company (in collaboration with Bowen Tools)

What steel rod, usually $25\text{ to }30\text{ feet}$ long, connects surface and downhole components in a rod pumping system?

Sucker Rod

In hydrate inhibition, what does the acronym LDHI stand for?

Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitor

What flow control unit distributes high-pressure fluid from pump trucks to the wellhead during hydraulic fracturing?

Missile (or Frac Missile)

What geometric profile around a perforation enables the rock to withstand differential pressure without collapsing sand?

Stable Arch

In a low bottom-hole pressure and high gas-liquid ratio system, by how much should shut-in wellhead pressure exceed surface flowline pressure to cycle a plunger lift?

At least $1.5$ times

What component shields an electric submersible pump (ESP) housing from scoring or erosive sand wear?

Sand Separator (or Sand Screen / Intake Filter)

Which standard sucker rod pumping unit geometry is not recommended for high speeds, crooked trajectories, or deviated wells?

Mark II (or Lufkin Mark II)

What technology can be used by engineers to track fluid flow or proppant placement in a reservoir?

Radioactive Tracers (or Chemical Tracers)

What separation process flows gas through filter tubes to force small liquid droplets to collide and merge?

Coalescing Filtration (or Coalescer Separator)

Which screen signals that dehydrated gravel has reached its target location by showing an increase in pressure?

Upper Tell-Tale Screen

What downhole valve operates by fluid velocity and closes when reservoir fluid flow exceeds a predetermined limit?

Storm Choke (Velocity-type Subsurface Safety Valve - SSV)

What calculated perforation flow area across a specific zone of interest is used in pressure-drop calculations?

Area open to flow

What completion device opens or closes via wireline to establish communication between tubing and annulus?

Sliding sleeves

In multiphase flow, what term describes the phenomenon when one phase flows faster than another phase?

Slip

What is the term for simultaneous flow of both oil and free gas through common pore spaces into a wellbore?

Two-phase flow

What period of well testing occurs while drilling debris and fluids are still coming out of the formation and perforations?

Well clean-up

What are subsea Christmas trees placed on the seabed called?

Wet Trees

In what year did tubing conveyed perforation (TCP) appear in the oil industry?

$1982$ - Tubing conveyed perforation (TCP)

What metal filter assembly supports and retains sand placed during gravel pack operations?

gravel-pack screen

What base fluid is typically used in fracturing operations across most shale plays?

Water

What log-linear scale plot is used to plot polymer material service life against the inverse of temperature?

Arrhenius plot

In well completion, what does the acronym TAML stand for?

Technology Advancement for Multi Laterals

What wellhead component bears the weight of the tubing string and forms the transition to the surface tree?

Tubing Head

What completion design produces reservoir fluids through small-diameter casing without a separate tubing string?

Tubingless Completion

What is the topmost valve on a Christmas tree that provides vertical access to insert wireline tools into a live well?

Lubricator

What variable-sized opening valve allows mud flow out of the annulus while maintaining pressure on the annulus?

Choke Valve

In artificial lift systems, what motor or engine serves as the energy source driving the pumping unit?

Prime mover

What type of well intervention requires killing the well and removing the entire completion string?

Heavy intervention / Workover

What tree installed specifically for the fracturing process features large bores and high pressure ratings?

frac tree

What device with blades or brushes is pushed by fluid pressure through a pipeline to clean out rust, wax, scale, and debris?

pig/scraper

What casing string is set across the reservoir interval to house the tubing and packers?

Production casing

What formal system analysis combines production system components to estimate flow rates and optimize components?

Nodal Analysis

Which part of the ESP transmits rotary motion from the motor up through every pump stage impeller?

shaft

What flexible pipe is spooled on and off a large reel using an injector head?

Coiled tubing

What part of a progressing cavity pump (PCP) is a steel tubular housing with an internal bonded elastomeric helical sleeve?

Stator

What device creates a seal against irregular casing walls by employing expanding elastomer elements?

Packer

What crystalline solid consists of water molecules forming an ice-like cage around gas molecules?

Ga hydrate

What term refers to both a local drilling site and a proppant-free fluid stage used to initiate hydraulic fracturing?

Pad

What treatment targets the near-wellbore reservoir formation rather than production tubulars or casing?

Matrix stimulation

What subsea machine is used to view, monitor, and guide landing of intervention packages without human divers?

Remotely operated vehicle

To what state did Armais Arutunoff relocate his ESP development project after initial Kansas success?

Oklahoma

What are the five main types of secondary porosity developed in carbonate rocks?

Fenestral porosity (algal mats), Shelter porosity, intracrystalline porosity, moldic porosity, Vuggy or fracture porosity

Does cement fracture easier under tension or compression, and by what factor do these values differ?

Tension, factor of $10$

What are two common methods used for collecting well fluid samples?

Separator/surface sample, bottomhole/subsurface sample

What operating pressure parameter differentiates matrix acidizing from fracture acidizing?

Injection Pressure