GENERAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILL

1 2
Petroleum Industry and
No. MINIMUM COMPETENCE BREADTH/DEPTH engineering company design
terminology standards
1 Understand general terminology of all sub-disciplines.

2 Understand terminology specific to the sub-discipline.

3 Identify what design standards exist in all sub-disciplines.

4 Understand and use conventional design standards specific to the

subdiscipline.
5 Identify what regulatory bodies have jurisdiction and where to find
documentation of the applicable regulations. Understand the essential
rules relevant to the work project.
6 Complete necessary regulatory compliance permitting and reporting
specific to the sub-discipline.
7 Identify what technical software and informational databases exist in all
sub-disciplines.
8 Understand and use conventional technical software and informational
databases specific to the subdiscipline.
9 Understand the elements of project management (costing, scheduling,
contracting, logistics, etc.).
10 Apply project management skills to projects within sub-discipline.
11 Understand geoscience principles (e.g., fracture gradients, well bore
stability, pore pressure prediction).
12 Understand and apply geoscience principles within sub-discipline.
13 Understand decision and risk analysis concepts and the value of
contingency planning.
14 Conduct risk assessments within subdiscipline and prepare contingency
plans to manage risks.
15 Understand basic monitoring and optimization techniques. Carry out
directed well optimization plans or programs.
16 Perform conventional operations monitoring and engineering design
specific to a sub-discipline and make optimization recommendations.
17 Understand basic economic principles (PV analysis, lease vs. purchase,
etc.).
18 Perform economic evaluations of projects within the sub-discipline.
19 Understand the purposes and value of a multi-disciplinary/cultural
approach to a project.
20 Perform all the conventional duties of the sub-discipline team member.
21 Demonstrate the ethical code of behavior for the general practice of
engineering.
22 Demonstrate ethical behavior in subdiscipline.
23 Maintain membership in technical and professional societies and pursue
professional license and/or certification.
24 Participate actively in technical and professional societies and obtain
professional license and/or certification.
 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILL
1 2
Casing program
No. MINIMUM COMPETENCE BREADTH/DEPTH Well control (sizes, setting
depths)
1 Calculate mud weight necessary to maintain well control and volume of
mud required to fill the hole while tripping out.
2 Design and/or implement procedure to successfully circulate out an influx.
Determine fluid type of influx with data collected after influx. Understand
relationship between geologic depth reference and drilling depth
reference.
3 Develop a casing program based a provided pore pressure/frac gradient
plot. Understand relationship between desired production flow rates and
tubing/casing configuration.
4 Determine the surface casing setting depth required to protect fresh water
sands. Prepare pore pressure and frac pressure versus depth plots.

5 Understand basic design principles (burst, collapse, tension in the

pressure/ temperature environment that the casing will encounter).
6 Design surface, intermediate and production casing/liner to maintain well
integrity.
7 Understand requirement to protect fresh water with surface casing setting
depth/cement and requirements on directional programs to stay within
lease/block boundaries.
8 Understand the process required to comply with regulatory requirements.
(for example, design an abandonment procedure to isolate zones per
regulation or that may cross flow, know what regulatory applications to
prepare, and how to verify compliance).
9 Calculate the minimum mud weight required to balance formation pressure
for each hole interval.
10 Design mud program to maintain well control considering casing programs
and formation integrity. Select acceptable mud types. Specify mud
properties (e.g., density and fluid loss requirements).
11 Understand the relationship between difficulty and lateral displacement.

12 Select appropriate kickoff points, build rates, required hole angles and
bottom hole assemblies.
13 Recommend wellhead/BOP ratings to maintain well integrity. Understand
performance properties of drill string and BHA components.
14 Determine BOP stack arrangements, establish test requirements.
Calculate ton miles to slip and cut drill line. Calculate slip crushing forces
on a landing string.
15 Understand hole considerations for successful open hole logging.

16 Understand interaction between mud composition, hole integrity and types

of logs that can be run successfully
17 Understand basic principles of fluid mechanics and non-Newtonian fluids.

18 Calculate pressure drop through the system and optimize bit hydraulics.
Understand principals of equivalent circulating density.
19 Understand operations of basic solids control
20 Size standard solids control equipment (shaker, desander, and desilter) for
mud and hydraulics programs.
21 Understand regulatory requirements (fresh water protection, zone
isolation, etc.). Understand application of basic cement additives.
22 Design cement slurries and procedures with sufficient pump time and
other characteristics to successfully complete a job. Understand
application of specialty cement additives.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILL
1 2
Formation properties Lithology from well
No. MINIMUM COMPETENCE BREADTH/DEPTH
from well logs logs

1 Determine properties from log readings in clean sands.

2 Determine properties from log readings in both clean and shaly sands.
State most common water saturation models.
3 Determine lithology from combination of porosity log reading in clean
sands.
4 Determine lithology from combination of porosity log readings in sands
with mixed lithology.
5 State what can be learned about a well and reservoir from conventional
well testing procedures.
6 Given a set of property values needed from a given reservoir, specify the
tests available to measure those properties.
7 Determine duration of well test required to measure specific near-well and
reservoir properties in homogeneous, isotropic reservoirs.
8 Determine duration of well test required to measure specific near-well and
reservoir properties in homogeneous, isotropic reservoirs.
9 Determine duration of well test required to measure specific near-well and
reservoir properties in homogeneous, isotropic reservoirs.
10 Determine duration of well test required to measure specific near-well and
reservoir properties in homogeneous, isotropic reservoirs.
11 Determine formation properties for single-phase flow of oil or water in
buildup or constant rate flow tests. Boundaries limited to single no-flow
boundaries. Formation homogeneous and isotropic.
12 Determine formation properties for single-phase flow of oil, gas, or water in
buildup or multirate flow tests. Boundaries include single, multiple, or
complete closure. Formation can be heterogeneous and anisotropic.
13 Specify objectives of wireline testing program.
14 Given a set of property values needed from a given reservoir, specify the
conventional tools available to measure these properties.
15 Determine gradients and thus densities and contact location from pressure
in wireline formation testers. Estimate productivity directly from test data.

16 Determine gradients and thus densities and contact location from pressure
in wireline formation testing. Estimate productivity using results of analysis
of transient test data.
17 State the procedures commonly used to sample black oil, volatile oil, dry
gas, wet gas, and gas condensate wells.
18 Specify bottomhole and surface sampling procedures to sample black oil,
volatile oil, dry gas, wet gas, and gas condensate wells.
19 State the properties obtained in routine and special laboratory procedures,
conventional laboratory procedures used in these tests, and their
limitations.
20 State the properties obtained in routine and special laboratory procedures,
conventional laboratory procedures used in these tests, and their
limitations. State the applications of this information to construct geological
and engineering models of a reservoir.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILL
1 2
Tubing design for
No. MINIMUM COMPETENCE BREADTH/DEPTH production/ P&A Procedure
stimulation
1 Awareness that tubing shortens or lengthens because of changes in
pressures and temperatures during the stimulation process and production
life
2 Can calculate the specific length changes or packer forces due to the
piston effect, ballooning, temperature, helical buckling.
3 Calculate proper kill fluid density, demonstrate general awareness of need
to conduct operations safely, following company and regulatory guidelines
and honor geometry of wellbore in recommended steps.
4 Possess specific knowledge of sequential steps, e.g. safely kill well and
R/U for initial operations; throughout all operations maintain prudent well
control; ability to properly sequence operations with several stages of
operations including equipment retrieval and zone isolation.
5 Aware of basic fracture-gradient models and key parameters. Calculate
basic system pressure drop due to friction given all parameters and bottom
hole treating pressures.
6 Calculate required flow rate accounting for pressure losses and velocity
constraints. Vary perforating density to direct fracture volume for a given
rate and fixed surface pressure to different zones along with size and
strength considerations in proppant selection. Also able to incorporate
desired P/I increases in job design and economics.
7 Awareness of use of cement bond log to define problem area, GR/cased
hole log to correlate zones, able to calculate hydrostatic pressure involving
two or more fluids of different density, simple cement yield volume, tubing
capacities, general awareness of need to conduct operations safely
following company and regulatory guidelines and honor geometry of
wellbore in recommended steps.
8 Possesses specific knowledge of sequential steps, e.g. pumping schedule
for a walking squeeze or a balanced plug. Ability to calculate appropriate
shot density/perforation size for desired production conditions.

9 Awareness that the optimum producing configuration is a function of initial

reservoir inflow performance, wellbore pressure drops, surface conditions
and the wellbore configuration will need to accommodate changes in
reservoir performance and changes in produced fluid constituents over the
full life cycle of production.
10 Able to design the appropriate wellbore configuration given initial and
projected reservoir inflow performance, surface conditions an produced
fluid constituents.
11 Awareness of the impact of pressure and temperature changes on the
produced fluid constituents and basic equipment to separate and provide
saleable quality hydrocarbons.
12 Ability to design surface equipment to segregate produced fluids, treat the
fluids to saleable quality and/or deliver those sales.
13 Awareness of the various options to assist in lifting produced fluids; the
basic ranges of pressure and fluid volumes for each lift option; and the
hydraulic and mechanical forces associated with each option.
14 Able to select and design the appropriate artificial lift system for the typical
range of pressure and fluid volumes for conventional operations including
the use of various downhole pumps with associated surface equipment.
Incorporate P/I performance in design and economic evaluation of
completion/lift options.
15 Awareness of the basic suit of cased hole logs to assure mechanical
integrity, measure downhole conditions, assess hydrocarbon potential and
support downhole operations including completion, remediation and P&A.

16 Able to interpret and incorporate data from production logging operations

into the design and implementation of completion, remediation and P&A
operations for conventional oil and gas completions.
17 Awareness of the basics of field production surveillance. Able to access
essential data and provide ideas for improvements.
18 Able to provide specific performance improvement recommendations.
Establish plans and procedures to effect same.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILL
1 2

Basic and special Reservoir

No. MINIMUM COMPETENCE BREADTH/DEPTH
core analysis characterization

1 Understand the conventional lab techniques for determining Ø,

permeability and fluid saturations and know how to interpret the data.
2 Use routine core analysis data to group/correlate core data and determine
permeability variation and heterogeneity.
3 Understand how routine core analysis is used to identify net pay and fluid
contacts.
4 Understand how routine core analysis is used to identify net pay and fluid
contacts.
5 Understand the importance of various well logs to well correlation of
petrophysical data.
6 Apply well log results (resistivity, FDC/CNL, gamma ray and sonic logs in
open hole completions; and CBL, TDT, diplog, carbon oxygen and
production logs in cased holes) to correlate porous and non-porous
lithologic members from logs and cores. Interpret a production logging
survey.
7 Understand the significance of oil, gas and water PVT data and
measurement, and application techniques.
8 Assess validity of PVT data, and adjust results to correct errors. Estimate
PVT data from oil and gas properties and correlations.
9 Understand the principles of phase behavior to distinguish the general
properties and behavior of black oil, volatile oil, gas condensate and dry
gas reservoir fluids.
10 Understand the principles of Equation of State and its use in fluid
characterization.
11 Calculate Bo above bubble point using oil compressibility.

12 Estimate reservoir pressure from interpretation of RFT/MDT survey.

13 Calculate Bo above bubble point using oil compressibility.

14 Assess the productivity effects of relative permeability, imbibition,

heterogeneity and gravity/capillary/viscous forces, fluid flow calculations.
15 Calculate original oil or gas in placefrom rock and fluid properties and
geologic isopach maps. Understand material balance principles for
determining initial oil or gas in plac
16 Apply material balance techniques, including gas cap and water influx, for
determining initial oil and gas in place.
17 Understand the principles of well test design and analysis to evaluate well
performance and reservoir characteristics.
18 Apply conventional well test data (including pressure build-up, draw down,
fall-off/injection) to determine well performance and reservoir
characteristics. Calculate vertical/horizontal well productivity indices.
19 Understand the differences between different reserve categories, including
proved, probable and possible categories.
20 Understand the differences between different reserve categories, including
proved, probable and possible categories.
21 Understand appropriate ranges of recovery factors for given rock and fluid
properties and drive mechanisms.
22 Assess appropriate recovery factor ranges and calculate recoveries for
field or reservoir applying conventional (deterministic & performance)
methods and drive mechanisms.
23 Understand various methods of assessing reservoir performance from
production data.
24 Apply principles of drive mechanisms, material balance, pressure
maintenance, recovery estimating, decline analysis and volumetrics to
determine oil reservoir performance. Determine where to perforate
production and injection wells taking into account degree of pressure
communication and impermeable barriers.
25 Understand various methods of assessing reservoir performance from
production data.
26 Use drive mechanism, material balance (gas and condensate) for recovery
estimation, decline analysis and volumetrics to determine gas reservoir
performance.
27 Know the main enhanced recovery mechanisms and have an appreciation
of their application
28 Understand the principles of reservoir/fluid behavior and recovery
processes under miscible, chemical flooding, steam based thermal and
combustion processes.
29 Know the main recovery processes from non conventional gas reservoirs,
including shales and coal beds.
30 Calculate reserves and well/reservoir performance for tight, fractured;
understand the principles of production performance of coal-bed methane
gas reservoirs.
31 Understand and apply reservoir simulation to analyze reservoir
performance and optimize reservoir development.
32 Use basic reservoir engineering principles, including flow through porous
media, relative permeability, nodal analysis and multi-phase flow to
evaluate single well applications and black oil or gas reservoirs.
33 Understand the concepts of decision and risk analysis and have an
appreciation of the key factors that control uncertainty in recovery factor
and reservoir performance.
34 Can determine the key reservoir engineering and geoscience factors that
influence recovery factor, number of wells required and production profile.

35 Awareness of reservoir surveillance. Able to access essential data and

provide ideas for improvements.
36 Able to provide specific performance improvement recommendations
through recompletions, new drilling, injection pattern changes, etc.
Establish plans and procedures to effect same.
 General Petroleum Engineering
3 4 5 6 7
Technical software
Regulatory Geoscience Decision and risk
and informational Project management
compliance principles analysis
databases
 Drilling Engineering
3 4 5 6 7
Directional,
Regulatory
Casing design Mud program horizontal, and Specify equipment
compliance
multilaterals wells
 Formation Evaluation
3 4 5 6 7
Formation properties
Wireline testing
Well test program Well testing design Well testing design from well test
program
analysis
 Production Engineering
3 4 5 6 7
Workover, Squeeze
Fracture/Acidizing
Cementing and Nodal Analysis Surface Equipment Artificial Lift
Treatments
Recompletion
 Re
3 4 5 6 7

Initial reservoir Single/multi-phase

Log analysis and Oil and gas phase
PVT analysis conditions and fluid flow under reservoir
interpretation behavior
contacts conditions
neering
8 9 10 11 12
Operations and
Project economics Multidisciplinary/ Engineering
performance Ethical manner
evaluation cultural team professionalism
optimization
 8 9 10 11
Formation Solids control
Hydraulics program Cementing design
evaluation program program
 8 9 10
Properties from Coring programs
Bottomhole and
wireline formation and laboratory
surface sampling
test analysis requirements
 8 9
Production
Production Logging
Surveillance
 Reservoir Engineering
8 9 10 11 12

Initial oil and gas in Well test analysis for Oil and gas reserves Oil and gas recovery Flow characteristics
place determination reservoir analysis definitions estimation of oil in reservoirs
 13 14 15 16 17
Decision and risk
Secondary or
Flow characteristics Non-conventional analysis for
improved recovery Reservoir simulation
of gas in reservoirs gas reservoirs performance
mechanisms
prediction
 18

Reservoir
Surveillance