Petroleum Engineering Handbook Revised, Subsequent Edition

awesome resource. wish it wasn't out of print. used it a lot on the PE exam as a reference

No, It's too big to be a space station. On my kitchen scale it came in at 8.9 lbs. And the pages are onion thin. There are 59 chapters. If you drop this tomb on your toe, it's a hospital trip.It is the only book that dared an all-in-one petroleum engineering reference (Mian's Handbook used two volumes). Published by SPE in 1987, it was the final attempt by SPE to make a single text. It has since been replaced by a 6 volume series.While this book has been "replaced", it really hasn't. The six volumes are completely different. This book? Concise, crisp, and tight editing. The new version? Sprawling, disjointed, and uneven. So in truth there really is no replacement for this book. It's the last of it's kind, and you can see that by the price tag. And it's now very dated.Positives:a) Crisp. The target was to simplify, not teach. It's a reference book, not a textbook. Less math, more "bullet points".b) Clear diagrams. One would think the pictures would suffer due to space limitations, but the printing is actually quite good.c) Fairly comprehensive (to 1987). It even has things the newer books don't: on metering, core sampling, and hydrate formation charts.d) Brilliant editing. Bradley knew exactly what to include and what to drop.Negatives:aa) Published in 1987. Dated! A part of the book is tables of numbers from the pre-desktop computer days, for goodness sake.bb) Much useful information was left out, simply because it had to be.cc) Both a strength and weakness, the book has very little "textbook" stuff one often needs from a reference.dd) Too big. Pages are too onion thin. No tabs.The largest negative for this book? The SPE is no longer using it as its official reference. Therefore if you are taking the Professional Petroleum Engineering Exam this book is probably not going to work out very well as your primary reference. When I took the exam recently I brought this book (with 50 others!) yet ever even opened it.I am very sorry SPE has not continued this style of book; I was given mine by an engineer who recently passed away. While I sure don't plan on selling it, I use it less and less each year...while I curse, yet grudgingly use, the new 6 volume series.

The Petroleum Engineering Handbook is an excellent general introduction to the engineering associated with oil and gas exploration and development, gathering together in one place most of the basic engineering issues, challenges and resolutions.