24-Pet-B3 Petroleum Geology · December 2015
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
National Exams, December 2015 — 98-Pet-B3, Oil and Gas Evaluation and Economics (3 hours, closed book, approved non-programmable calculator only). The exam's own cover page is titled "Oil and Gas Evaluation and Economics" and every question is property valuation / reserves & production economics / DCF-NPV screening content — no geology anywhere.
Reference texts: Thompson & Wright, Oil Property Evaluation; Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluation Handbook (COGEH), Vol. 1 (Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, Calgary Chapter); National Instrument 51-101, Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities (Canadian Securities Administrators); SPE/WPC/AAPG/SPEE Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS); Ahmed, Reservoir Engineering Handbook.
The exam's own instructions ask for only 7 of the 10 short-answer questions and note the Cash-Flow/Future-Value tables are graded by column; for "choose N of M" exams, every item below is answered in full as a study resource. Questions 1–10 correspond to the exam's printed Short-Answer items 1–10; Questions 11–20 correspond to the printed Multiple-Choice items 1–10; Question 21 is the Future Value table; Question 22 is the Cash Flow table.
Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.
(1) Steam-generation capacity. SOR (barrels of steam cold-water-equivalent injected per barrel of oil produced) directly sets the size of the boilers / once-through steam generators (OTSGs) needed for a given oil production target; a higher design SOR means larger, more numerous steam generators must be capitalized to hit the same oil rate.
(2) Water treatment and handling infrastructure. Every barrel of steam requires treated boiler feedwater and, after condensing back with the produced fluids, produced-water treatment/recycle capacity sized to that same steam volume — a higher SOR therefore scales up water-treatment train capital (de-oiling, softening, evaporators) roughly in proportion.
(3) Fuel-gas supply and (co)generation infrastructure. Steam generation is fuel-gas intensive; a higher SOR increases the fuel-gas volume that must be supplied (larger gas pipeline/metering capacity) and can push a project toward cogeneration facilities to capture power value from the extra fuel burned, both of which add capital that a lower-SOR design would not need.
