Field Petroleum Geology is concerned with the study of lithologies and structures in the field. The course addresses vertical and horizontal variability in depositional facies and physical characteristics in reservoirs in three dimensions, and shows how physical variability affects petroleum capacity, flow, and production. Attention is paid to post-depositional diagenetic processes and their effects on reservoir evolution.

The course includes four weeks of fieldwork in the Campo Felice and Maiella National Park regions of Italy where students visit well exposed sections of easily accessible time- and facies-equivalents to UAE carbonate reservoirs. During fieldwork students make geological and petrophysical measurements that are integrated to produce a final report upon return to The Petroleum Institute.