Reservoir Engineering, Simulation and Rock Mechanics

During the past decade, reservoir engineering has progressed considerably. The oil and gas sector are spacing wells wider, unitizing wells early, and recovering a higher percentage of the oil in place. Reservoir engineering's goal is to give the facts, information, and expertise needed to govern operations and get the most out of a reservoir for the least amount of money. The physics of oil and gas distribution and flow through porous rocks—the numerous hydrodynamic, gravitational, thermodynamic, and other forces involved in the rock-fluid system is of concern to reservoir engineers.

Reservoir simulation is a useful tool for efficiently solving difficult reservoir engineering problems. Reservoir Simulation is a branch of petroleum engineering that employs porous medium in computer modelling to estimate fluid dynamics with the purpose of predicting field performance under various production strategies.

Geomechanics is a broader scientific area that examines the mechanical behavior of all earth materials, including soils. Rock mechanics is a subset of geomechanics. Rock mechanics is the study of the mechanical behavior of rocks, both theoretically and practically. It's the branch of mechanics that studies how rock responds to the force fields in its physical environment.