PennWell Books Oil & Gas Production in Nontechnical Language

Background: I am an engineer, but my major is computer science, not petroleum. Before starting a project at a E&P (exploration and production, for the uninitiated) company, I wanted to learn more about the business.Leffler's style is clear, the illustrations useful. The depth of information is exactly right for anyone who needs to get to grips with where oil comes from, how it's found and produced but who has no background in geology or petroleum engineering.If you are selling products or services to the industry or are going to work in the industry's ancillary disciplines (like control systems, logistics, maintenance, finance or all the myriad of jobs that require a common language with the masters of the trade), this book is for you.For comparison, I have also used Vaclav Smil's Oil: A Beginner's Guide and Håvard Devold's Oil and gas production handbook and found Lefföer's book the most comprehensive.

anyone not yet familiar to O/G industry must read (and much shorter than The Prize)

Explains O&G production in simple, understandable terms. Critical reading for anyone working with the oil & gas industry in a support role. Begins with a history of exploration and production, and moves on to basic geology (actually inportant to understanding the O&G indutsry) and to some light chemistry, and finally production processes. Great book.

This is definitely a must have for anyone who wants to know how oil reservoirs are discovered, processed, and sent into production. There's also a great opening chapter on the evolution of oil drilling, stating the very beginnings of the idea.One thing that struck me as odd as I read through the book was the fact that key words in the chapters weren't defined properly enough to give the reader a full understanding of its meaning. I simply didn't expect this in a book that declares itself 'in Nontechnical Language'. The quick example I can think of is in the first chapter when they introduce the notion "perforating the casing," I had two separate ideas about what this could mean.These downfalls are rare, so it's easy to ignore them and enjoy the book for what it really is: a great compilation of information about oil production.

I have been selling in the oilfield for 30 years and am learning new things with each chapter of this book that will help me not only understand the use of my products better, but the overall industry better. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good overview of the oil and gas industry from how the oil and gas is formed to how it is pulled out of the ground and produced.