Petroleum Engineering was introduced in GATE as a new paper in the year 2016. Petroleum Engineering (PE) is a multidisciplinary engineering covering exploration and production of hydrocarbon – oil and gas. Introduced in the late nineties, a relatively new branch is slowly gaining interest from a lot of engineering aspirants.
Petroleum Engineering is being offered in around 20 institutes in India- some of them well known like University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) Dehradun, Dibrugarh University : Institute of Engineering and Technology (DUIET)-Dibrugarh (Assam), Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology – Raebareli, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University – Gandhinagar, and ISM Dhanbad – Dhanbad in addition to some of the IITs and other institutes.
As far as guidance concerned, AfterGraduation can share the basic mantras to prepare and score well in GATE 2018 exam on February 3, 4, 10 & 11, 2018. The candidates of GATE 2018 for Petroleum Engineering are required to check the eligibility criteria and then fill the application form of GATE 2018 from September 1, 2017, onwards.
AfterGraduation brings the Syllabus, books to be referred for Petroleum Engineering GATE preparation, understanding the GATE pattern and Guidance for preparing and scoring well.
About Petroleum Engineering
- UPSTREAM Sector: Relates to surveys of geological structures that may form oil reservoirs, explore the location of the reservoir, plan the technique to extract the oil. This sector covers Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry, Reservoir characterization, Formation evaluation, Reserve accretion/estimation, Delineation, Development and Well Completion Techniques to safeguard the environment and lives.
- DOWNSTREAM Sector: Relates to execution of the oil extraction and recovery. This sector covers Drilling, Production, EOR, IOR, Transportation, Processing and Refining, Marketing and HSE issues to prevent untoward incidents/hazards to safeguard the environments, fauna, flora and human lives.
READ Too: GATE Exam Key Statistics Of Candidate Registration, Qualified And Subject Chosen
Know the GATE 2018 Petroleum Engineering (PE) Syllabus
The first step the students need to take is to collect the correct syllabus. This requires a good checking of the GATE 2018 Syllabus for Petroleum Engineering to know in detail the topics that need to be covered. You can plan your preparation after segregation of the topics into difficult, easy and to be learned. The topics you are strong in need to be revised while the others require a good effort.
Petroleum Engineering is a relatively new paper in GATE, so there are no topics that can be actually segregated as very important and must read. It is highly recommended that for Petroleum Engineering aspirants should study the complete prescribed GATE Syllabus.
Understand the GATE Pattern
First of all, make a clear understanding about GATE exam. GATE exam is online and the questions asked are objective type. There are two types of questions: multiple choice and numerical answer type. There are 3 sections.
1) Petroleum Engineering (70%)
2) Aptitude (15%)
3) Engineering Mathematics (15%)
The aptitude problems are based on basic math and English skills and are very easy. Concentrate more on general aptitude, this will be quite easy to score more. The course for the Mathematics portion is vast but the questions asked are relatively easy. It would be better to cover all the topics as it is the high scoring portion. Most questions are short and based on direct application of formulae.
The most important part is Petroleum Engineering. This section is comparatively difficult and requires sincere effort. GATE Petroleum Engineering syllabus consists special, and core topics. Both core and special topics are taken from your 4 years engineering course.
ALSO READ: How Scores Are Calculated In GATE Normalization Process?
Books to be Referred for GATE Petroleum Engineering
GATE Petroleum Engineering aspirants must be prepared for the fact there is no general book for preparation and that each topic will have to be studied from individual books authored by domain experts under multinational publishing houses.
| Books | Authors |
| Oil Well Testing Handbook | Amanat Chaudhry |
| Drilling Engineering | By Dr. J. J. Azar And Dr. G. Robello Samuel |
| Elements of Petroleum Geology
Petroleum Geology Geology Of Petroleum Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production |
Richard C. Selley, Academic Press Second Edition
North, F.K., 1985, Springer Publication A.I. Leverson, 1954,; W. H. Freenan Company Norman J. Hyne |
| Modern Petroleum Technology | Volume-1, Upstream, Edited By Richard A, Dawe, John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2000 |
| Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering | Dake L P Dake |
| Applied Geophysics | Telford, W.M, Geldart, L.P, Shrieff, R.E, 1990, Cambridge University Press |
| Wellsite Geological Techniques for Petroleum Exploration: Methods and Systems of Formation Evaluation | Bhagwan Sahay, South Asia Books |
| Petroleum refining processes | Rakesh Rathi |
| Drilling Operation Practice Manual | ONGC’s Publication |
| Fundamentals of Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering | Ulag Mahadevan |
| Petroleum Formation Evaluation | Edward J.Lynch, The English Book Depot, Dehra Dun |
| Basic Concepts in Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes | M Baviere |
| Enhanced Oil Recovery | Latil M From Gulf Publishing C, |
| Environmental Technology in the Oil Industry | Stefan T. Orszulik |
| Health, Safety And Environmental Management In Offshore And Petroleum Engineering | Srinivasan Chandrasekaran |
I will suggest to following the text book that you are most comfortable. The main thing is to be clear your fundamentals before appearing for any exam.
ALSO READ: GATE 2017 Expert Tips For Last Minute Preparation
Study Plan and Preparation Strategy
- Take a print out of the syllabus and mark the details of your comfortability over the topic and weightage of the different topic in the exam.
- Whatever subjects that are common to your current semester and GATE exam, or some tough subjects you have already done in previous semesters, start doing them. Don’t follow the Rattafication but build your concepts.
- Note the important concept and formulae along side. Besides, whenever you find some important trick while solving problems, note it down in your handbook.This would be useful in revising in the last days of exam.
- Make small targets, daily targets, weekly targets. At this stage, completing 3-4 topics including the mock test every day would be okay. Revise each topic completed, after 7-15 days so that you don’t forget it.
- Keep targets of 2 or 3 subjects in a month along with practice questions.
- Take a break of a day in between subjects, if you feel things are getting hectic.
- Google good portals for GATE in Petroleum Engineering, join some facebook group.
- Have faith in yourself. Request your friends and parents to motivate you daily. The most difficult task would be to keep up your motivation high since the time is long.
- Don’t ever think about the results. Keep doing your share of efforts.
Practise GATE Sample Papers
Experts and Toppers firmly believe that one of the important exercises in GATE Preparation is practice with the help of previous year GATE papers. There are many advantages to this:
- GATE Question Paper Pattern becomes familiar and you can get comfortable knowing the pattern of questions to expect.
- The type of questions that may be asked in the actual exam can be generally gauged along with the difficulty levels of questions with constant practice.
- With more practice, you can improve your speed and hone your time management skills.
- You can plan your exam strategy by solving as many as possible sample papers.
The best preparation for Gate is solving last year papers. You get all of them on the GATE website.
GATE Mock Test
The mock test is the simulation of GATE exam and is online. Aspirants are advised to attempt it so that they get a fair idea of the actual entrance test. The GATE Mock Test will have an online calculator, timer and, will just be like the real GATE exam. So it is advantageous to attempt it in order to get a feel of the exam.
Some Important Guidelines
- Engineering Mathematics and General Aptitude constitute about 30 marks of the total marks in the GATE question paper. It is imperative that you place emphasis on the preparation of these sections. Preparing for them and doing them well will ensure a good score.
- Take help of your seniors and faculty while preparing for GATE Petroleum Engineering as they are far more experienced able to guide you in this regard.
- Make short notes while preparing for GATE Petroleum Engineering to revise in the last days before the exam.
- Study in the best manner that is suited to you. Scheduling and planning are very important.
After completing B.Tech or B.E, most of the students who want to make their career in research and development, they look forward to masters. Getting a master’s degree from reputed universities like IIT, IISC etc. increases the importance and knowledge of his field. When anyone qualifies GATE, it means he/she has good engineering knowledge. That’s why R&D companies, PSU and other organizations demand GATE qualified score.
Cracking GATE examination requires proper study strategy, determination and focus. It requires constant efforts towards each subject in clearing up the basic concepts to obtain good marks. Also, keep in mind that GATE exam is much easy than other exams. This is a single exam in India in which around 15 % students get success. Otherwise, in other exams like IES, IAS – success is not more than 2%. So don’t lose your confidence at the end of GATE exam.
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