PE spans exploration, drilling, reservoir engineering, production, offshore practices, formation evaluation, well testing, safety, enhanced recovery and newer petroleum technologies.

Petroleum Engineering is tested within a 100-mark paper. The paper also includes General Aptitude. The sections below show the complete subject syllabus.

GATE PE Syllabus and Marks Distribution

There is no optional subject block in this paper. All listed sections are part of the syllabus.

Petroleum Engineering Unit-wise Syllabus

Engineering Mathematics

• Linear Algebra: Matrix algebra; Systems of linear equations; Eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Calculus: Functions of single variable; Limit, continuity and differentiability; Taylor series; Mean value theorems; Evaluation of definite and improper integrals; Partial derivative, Total derivative; Maxima and minima; Gradient, divergence and curl; Vector identities; Directional derivatives; Line, surface and volume integrals; Stokes, Gauss and Green’s theorems. Differential Equations: First order equations: linear and nonlinear; Higher order linear differential equations with constant coefficients; Cauchy’s and Euler’s equations; Initial and boundary value problems ; Laplace transform; Solution of one-dimensional diffusivity equation and Laplace equation. Complex Variables: Complex number; Polar form of complex number; Triangle inequality. Probability and Statistics: Definitions of pr obability and sampling theorems; Conditional probability; Mean, median, mode and standard deviation; Random variables; Poisson, normal and binomial distributions; Linear regression analysis. Numerical Methods: Numerical solutions of linear and non-linear algebraic equations; Integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rule; Single and multi-step methods for numerical solution of differential equations.

Petroleum Exploration

• Classification and description of some common rocks with special reference to clastic and non -clastic reservoir rocks; Origin, migration and accumulation of petroleum; Petroleum exploration methods; Petroleum resource classification and evaluation.

Oil and Gas Well Drilling Technology

• Well planning; Drilling methods; Drilling rigs; Rig operating systems ; Drilling fluids, function and properties ; Drilling fluid maintenance equipment ; Oil and gas well cementing operations ; Drill bit types and their applications; Drill string and casing string function, operation, selection and design; Drilling problems, their control and remedies; Directional drilling tools ; Directional survey ; Application of horizontal, multilateral, extended reach ; Slim wells ; Intelligent drilling and completion techniques: image assisted drilling, managed pressure drilling, underbalanced drilling.

Reservoir Engineering

• Petrophysical properties of reservoir rocks; Coring and core analysis; Reservoir fluid properties; Phase behaviour of a hydrocarbon system; Single phase and multiphase flow through porous media; Water and gas coning; Reservoir pressure measurement; Reservoir drives, drive mechanisms and recovery factors ; Theory of material balance ; Reserve estimation and techniques; Field development and reservoir management ; Reservoir geomechanics: Stress analysis and fracturing ; Basics of reservoir simulation: mathematical models, finite difference discretization, Cartesian and radial grid systems, black oil reservoir simulation, history matching.

Petroleum Production Operations

• Well equipment; Well completion techniques; Well production problems and mitigation; Well servicing and Workover operations; Workover and completion fluids; Formation damage; Well stimulation techniques; Artificial lift techniques; Field processing of oil and gas; Storage and transportation of petroleum and petroleum products; Metering and measurements of oil and gas; Production system analysis and optimization including inflow performance, tubing performance, and nodal analysis ; Production testing; Multiphase flow in tubing and flow-
• lines; Flow assurance: Problems and remedies ; Pressure vessels, storage tanks, shell and tube heat exchangers, pumps and compressors.

Offshore Drilling and Production Practices

• Offshore oil and gas operations and ocean environment ; Buoyancy and stability ; Offshore fixed platforms, Offshore mobile units, station keeping methods like mooring and dynamic positioning system; Offshore drilling from fixed platform, jack -up, ships and semi submersibles ; Use of conductors, risers and umbilicals ; Offshore well completion; Deep water applications of subsea technology; Offshore production: Oil processing platforms, water injection platforms, storage, Single Point Mooring (SPM) and Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), transportation and utilities; Deep water drilling and production system.

Petroleum Formation Evaluation

• Petrophysical evaluation of sub -surface formations: principles, applications, advantages and disadvantages of Spontaneous Potential (SP) , resistivity, radioactive, acoustic logs, gamma ray logs and types of tools used ; Logging While Drilling (LWD) ; Evaluation of Cement Bond Long ( CBL)/ Variable Density Log ( VDL), Ultrasonic Imager Tool (USIT), Segmented Frequency Tool (SFT), Repeat Formation Tester (RFT); Production logging tools, principles, limitations and applications ; Special types of logging tools ; Casing inspection tools : principles, applications and limitations; Formations micro scanner (FMS), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) logging principles; Standard log interpretation methods; Cross-plotting methods.

Oil and Gas Well Testing

• Diffusivity equation and its solutions ; Radius of investigation ; Principle of superposition; Horner’s approximation; Drill stem testing; Pressure transient tests: drawdown and build up -test analysis ; Pressure derivative analysis ; Wellbore effects ; Multilayer reservoirs ; Injection well testing ; Multiple well testing ; Interference testing; Pulse testing; Well-test analysis by use of type curves; Gas well testing; Inflow testing.

Health Safety and Environment in Petroleum Industry

• Health hazards in Petroleum Industry: toxicity, physiological, asphyxiation, respiratory and skin effect of petroleum hydrocarbons, sour gases; Safety System: manual and automatic shutdown system, blow down systems; Gas detection system; Fire detection and suppression systems; Personal protection system and measures; Health, Safety and Environment ( HSE) policies; Disaster and crisis management in petroleum industry; Environment: Environment concepts, impact on ecosystem, air, water and soil; The impact of drilling and production operations on environment; Environmental transport of petroleum wastes; Offshore environmental studies; Offshore oil-spill and oil-spill control; Environmental regulations and compliance.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques

• Basic principles and mechanism of Enhanced Oil Recovery ( EOR); Screening of EOR process es; Concept of pattern flooding, recovery efficiency, permeability heterogeneity ; Macroscopic and microscopic displacement efficiency; EOR methods: chemical flooding, miscible flooding, thermal recoveries (steam stimulation, hot water and steam flooding, in-situ combustion), microbial EOR, low salinity water flooding.

Latest Trends in Petroleum Engineering

• Coal bed methane, shale gas, oil shale, gas hydrate, heavy oil, physical and chemical trapping of CO 2 in underground reservoirs.

General Aptitude Syllabus

General Aptitude contributes 15 marks within the 100-mark paper. It is not an additional paper that can be left out when choosing the technical sections.

Chapter-wise Weightage and Important Topics

Only the section-wise marks are fixed. IIT Madras has not assigned a guaranteed number of marks to each chapter of Petroleum Engineering. A topic may appear in one year and receive fewer questions in another; a past-paper count is not an official 2027 weightage.

For a chapter-weightage comparison, record the year, paper code, session, question number and marks of each matching question. Keep a combined question under one main topic or label the overlap explicitly; counting it twice inflates the total. GATE previous-year question papers can be used for this topic-by-topic practice.

Question Types and Negative Marking

The paper uses one-mark and two-mark questions. The number of MCQ, MSQ and NAT questions is not a fixed chapter-wise quota. In an MSQ, selecting one correct option is not enough when the correct answer contains two options.