Since the Earth was formed at least 4.5 billion years ago, gravity and heat worked together to form the planet and the structures in place today. Petroleum geologists are particularly interested in the interesting and revealing shapes that formed on Earth over time. In the past, exploring for petroleum was a matter of good luck and guesswork. Drilling near oil or natural gas seeps where hydrocarbons were present on the surface was the most successful hydrocarbon-finding method in the early days of oil exploration. The principles and technologies have morphed from symply looking for hydrocarbons on the surface to developing complex 3D Earth models involving geology, geophysics, reservoir egineering, petrophysics, paleontology and drilling techniques.

An explorationist is a person with extensive geological training whose job it is to search for new sources of hydrocarbons.

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Once the exploration geologist and geophysicists have obtained and analyzed data for the prospective site, the  landman has secured a lease, and drilling permits and other preliminary papers are in order, the company turns its attention to constructing a well . To understand the complex science an art of drilling for oil and gas, it is imporatnt to take a look back at the history of drilling for oil, beginning at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The first oil-well was drilled in the Baku region of Azerbaijan in 1846. Countries such as Romania, Burma, India and Venezuela also began drilling around this time. Once drilling begins, several steps are taken to drill to final depth. When final depth is reached, further test are performed to determine if the well will produce or should be abandoned.

After the drilling is finished, the site is cleaned and returned to its original conditions.

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In the petroleum industry, production is the phase of operation that deals with bringing well fluids to the surface and preparing them for transport to the refinery or processing plant. Production begins after drilling is finished and the borehole is carefully evaluated and determined to be economically  productive or unproductive. For economically productive reservoirs, the firts step is to complete the well, that is, to perform operations necesary to start the well fluids flowing to the surface. Well fluids, usually a mixture of oil, gas and water, must be separated when they reach the surface. When the pressure in the reservoir falls and the fluid can no longer flows to surface, an artifitial method of lifting the hydrocarbon is necessary.

Some reservoir rocks have low permeability and require application of stimulation techniques to enable the flow of hydrocarbons.

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