ABSTRACT
Petroleum technology and drilling and well are two central professional communities in oil and gas companies that participate in different phases of a well construction process. The petroleum technology department is staffed by geophysicists, geologists, petrophysicists, reservoir engineers and production engineers. The geophysicists are central in interpreting the seismic data, and with the additional use of production data they refine the interpretations of the seismic data and produce cross-sections of the formations with stratification and faults. The drilling and well department is responsible for the detailed planning and execution of the well construction, and the main staff consists of drilling engineers and well engineers. As an operating regime, Integrated Operations are expected to pervade the whole field of the upstream oil and gas industry. What is often simply referred to as ‘oil and gas exploration and production’ represents an extremely heterogeneous domain with respect to the types of work and the professions involved.
