Development status and trends of oil production engineering technology in the context of interdisciplinary integration

Abstract

This paper systematically reviews the development stages and current status of key oil production engineering domains, including injection-production engineering, artificial lift, reservoir stimulation, and workover operations. The major challenges for oil production engineering are identified in four aspects: intelligent terminal equipment and process integration, extreme-environment operations, and collaborative operational constraints; AI-driven data and modeling complexities, and advanced structural and functional materials requirements; and the need for geology-engineering integration in reservoir characterization, operational efficiency and green development. Centered on multidisciplinary integration, the concept of the Oil Production Engineering Agent is introduced as a miniaturized, intelligent, and integrated hardware-software system designed for extreme downhole environments and complex conditions, incorporating power supply, communication, sensing, computation, and actuation modules to enable environmental perception, autonomous decision-making and adaptive control. The characteristics of various agent types, including those for injection-production, lift, fracturing and workover, are analyzed, with key research directions identified in miniaturized self-powered energy management, reliable communication in high-interference environments, highly integrated multi-parameter sensing with long-term drift self-calibration, and high-reliability microsystem integration manufacturing. AI-driven decision optimization remains the core feature, requiring advances in data acquisition, governance, and fusion architectures, alongside algorithmic improvements in model performance and deployment compatibility. Additionally, advanced structural and functional materials support agent construction and extreme-environment adaptability, while geology-engineering integration continues to expand the functional scope of oil production engineering.