Computers And The Petroleum Engineer

What are some of the uses a petroleum engineer can make of electronic computers? How can he learn to use them? This paper answers these questions in terms to be understood by the reader who is not a computer expert. The computer expert may find here one or two ideas of how he may extend the use of computers in his company. How many times have you had to estimate an answer because there was neither time nor manpower to develop a more exact answer? If the answer is, "Too many times," then you can use a computer. For example, you, as petroleum engineers can use computers for calculation of design factors for process units, prediction of water flooding in a reservoir, or optimization and control of process units. What is a computer? A computer is a device capable of accepting data, performing prescribed operations on these data, and supplying the results. A computer is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Four sections [central processor, input, output and auxiliary memory] make up the total computer system. Data are moved between the section and within the central processor under control of the central processor control unit. In a stored program computer, the control unit interprets and executes a program stored in the internal memory. The input, output and auxiliary memory sections may consist of any one or all of the device listed in Fig. 1. The size and cost of a compute will depend upon the number and type of devices in the three sections and upon the speed with which operations are performed. There are many commercial computers available today. They range in size from the IBM 7090 to the Monrobot XI. For example, the Computer Characteristics Chart published by Adams Associates lists 61 computers. Comparison of computers is not within the scope of this paper; however, a few facts to illustrate the range of sizes should be of interest. [See Table 1.] Somewhere in the wide range of available computers, there is one, or perhaps several, to fit your needs. A word of caution — seek the advice of an expert before taking a selection. How do you make a computer perform a given job? Computers operate by executing a program. A program is a series of instructions detailing each step the computer is to perform. An instruction for a computer consists of a series of code digits which the control unit interprets and executes. For example, the instruction 60 1423 1527 would be interpreted by the IBM 650 to mean RESET and ADD to the accumulator [60], the number stored in the memory location with the address of 1423, and go to the memory location with the address of 1527 to find the next instruction. A series of such instructions is a machine language program.