Petroleum engineering is the application of basic sciences for the development, recovery and field processing of oil and gas resources. Due to the complex nature of petroleum reservoirs, various petroleum engineering specialties have emerged. Among these are drilling engineering, formation evaluation, completion and workover, surface processing, and reservoir engineering. It should be emphasized, however, that modern petroleum production operations require a team effort in which all specialties of petroleum engineering as well as geologists, geophysicists, and computer technologists are involved.

In the Petroleum Engineering program, the student is educated in the principles, procedures and practices of drilling, formation evaluation, reservoir studies, production, environmental protection, and economic analysis. The aim of the first two years of the curriculum is to provide the necessary background of physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, and engineering subjects such as fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, strength of materials and electric circuits. They also introduce the students to basic petroleum engineering subjects. The third and fourth years are dedicated to petroleum engineering courses which cover the core areas of drilling engineering, production engineering, formation evaluation and reservoir engineering.