Sales and marketing professionals in the upstream oil and gas sector want to know their customer, but in an industry so complicated, that is not always easy. J. Denver Smart, who has worked in the upstream oil and gas sector for a leading global automation solutions provider, provides a consolidated overview of upstream processing, key operations, and business drivers that are relevant to day-to-day operator challenges in this reference guide. Topics covered include: - the primary market drivers and business parameters that affect the short- and long-term economic viability of upstream operators; - market indicators used to assess current and regional industry trends; - various lifecycle stages of an oilfield and how they influence primary business objectives; and - basic elements, principles, operations, and procedures to understand the diverse concepts associated with finding, extracting, and producing oil and gas reserves.