Petroleum Engineering  

What's New in the Petroleum Engineering Department?

Phi Kappa Phi honor society honors Nathalie Johnson as outstanding junior in engineering

The Texas A&M chapter of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP), the oldest and largest interdisciplinary honor society in the United States, has honored petroleum engineering's Nathalie Johnson as the Outstanding Junior in the Dwight Look College of Engineering. Johnson was honored April 13 at a ceremony in Rudder Theatre along with eight other students chosen as outstanding juniors for their respective colleges. The society also inducted more than 300 new members from Texas A&M during the ceremony, whose keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Holtzapple, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education. Membership is by invitation and is based upon academic achievement. The Texas A&M chapter of Phi Kappa Phi was founded 51 years ago.

US News Rankings

The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University continues to be recognized as one of the premier petroleum engineering programs of its kind in the nation according to U.S. News and World Report’s "America’s Best Graduate Schools 2009". The Department has moved up in its rankings to 2nd place (tied with Stanford University).

We have a reputation within industry for producing practical engineers with excellent problem-solving ability, grounded well in science, engineering, business and communications fundamentals, and able to "hit the ground running." Compared with peer institutions, our graduates are viewed as practical, but still able to use fundamentals and critical thinking to solve the numerous, difficult problems facing the upstream oil and gas global industry.

RPSEA Selects Projects for the Small Producer Program

Texas A&M University has been awarded one of seven projects from The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) for the Small Producer Program. Funding for the projects is provided through the “Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program” authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

    Field Site Testing of Low Impact Oil Field Access Roads: Reducing the Footprint in Desert Ecosystems (David Burnett-GPRI and Cindy Estakhri-TTI)

  • Project Leader: Texas A&M University
  • Additional Project Participants: Rio Vista Bluff Ranch and Halliburton

"The selected projects will provide the technology to enable small producers to extract the maximum amount of oil and natural gas out of their existing asset base and continue to make their important contribution to the nation’s energy needs," said RPSEA President C. Michael Ming. The Small Producer Program is designed to bring the resources of America’s leading universities, research institutions and technology innovators to bear on the problems facing small producers trying to enhance production from mature fields. In mature fields up to two thirds of the original oil in place is often left behind, making this program especially beneficial to extract additional resources from existing surface footprints.

All awards under the RPSEA Small Producer Program are made to consortia organized for the benefit of small producers, and each proposal must provide a minimum of 20% cost share, with up to 50% for field demonstration projects.

RPSEA Selects Projects for the Unconventional Resources Program

Texas A&M University will participate in five of nineteen projects from The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) under the Unconventional Resources Program focused on increasing the supply of domestic natural gas and other petroleum resources. Funding for the projects is provided through the “Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program” authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

    A Self-Teaching Expert System for the Analysis, Design and Prediction of Gas Production from Shales (Tom Blasingame)

  • Project Leader: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Additional Project Participants: Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Anadarko

    Advanced Hydraulic Fracturing Technology for Unconventional Tight Gas Reservoirs (Ding Zhu, Dan Hill, Steve Holditch)

  • Project Leader: Texas A&M University
  • Additional Project Participants: Carbo Ceramics, Schlumberger, Halliburton Energy Services, BJ Services

    New Albany Shale Gas (Ahmad Ghassemi, Christine Economides, Tom Blasingame)

  • Project Leader: Gas Technology Institute
  • Additional Project Participants: Amherst College, University of Massachusetts, ResTech, Texas A&M, Pinnacle Technologies, West Virginia University, Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Aurora Oil and Gas, CNX Gas, Diversified Operating Corporation, Noble Energy, Trendwell Energy Corporation

    Optimization of Infill Well Locations in Wamsutter Field (Akhil Datta-Gupta)

  • Project Leader: University of Tulsa
  • Additional Project Participants: Texas A&M University, Devon Energy

    Optimizing Development Strategies to Increase Reserves in Unconventional Gas Reservoirs (Duane McVay and J. Eric Bickel-ISE)

  • Project Leader: Texas A&M University
  • Additional Project Participants: Unconventional Gas Resources Canada Operating Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

"The selected projects will provide the technology to enable the substantial domestic resource base of clean-burning unconventional natural gas to make an increasingly important contribution to the nation’s energy needs," said RPSEA President C. Michael Ming. The 2007 Unconventional Resources Program is designed to bring the resources of America’s leading universities, research institutions and technology innovators to bear on the development of gas shales, tight gas sands and coalbed methane resources by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving safety, and minimizing environmental impacts.

For More Information on Small Producer: http://www.rpsea.org/en/art/?61

For More Information on Unconventional: http://www.rpsea.org/en/art/?68

St. Mary Land & Exploration visits Texas A&M Engineering

St. Mary's Check Presentation on March 26, 2008Tony Best (right), president and CEO of St. Mary Land & Exploration Co., visited Texas A&M University March 26 to deliver a donation for the company's $60,000 scholarship endowment.

The St. Mary Land & Exploration Company Scholarship is part of the Nelson Scholars Program in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering. The program was established in 1987 to attract exceptional freshmen students to the petroleum engineering profession.

Representing Texas A&M were Maria Barrufet (left), assistant department head and holder of the Baker Hughes Chair in Petroleum Engineering; Aizhana Jussupbekova, graduate officer with the Society of Petroleum Engineers student chapter; and Brady Bullard, director of development with the Texas A&M Foundation.

 

Student Paper Finals Winners - February 9, 2008

Juniors

  1. Kelly Alger - Incorporating Monte Carlo Simulation into Coalbed Methane Software
  2. Dustin Claiborne - Determination of the Benefits of Expandable Sand Screens Over Other Sand Control Techniques
  3. Nicholas Schilling - Investigate Effects Foamer Has on Alleviating Liquid Loading in Gas Wells and Provide Visualization of Downhole Activity

Seniors

  1. Steven Clary - Drill-and-Stress Fluid: Increasing Wellbore Integrity to Eliminate Lost Returns
  2. Christopher Liles - Tier 2 Barnett Shale - How to Make a BCF Well
  3. Gary Oxner - Hydrate Inhibitors

Masters

  1. Andres Suarez Lopez - Technical and Economical Viability for a Pilot Project applying "Alkaline–Surfactant–Polymer Flooding" San Francisco Field
  2. Sarwesh Kumar - Streamline Tracing Involving Individual Fluid Phases and its Applications
  3. Mark Dickins - Hydraulic Fracture flow: Is gravity important?

Doctoral

  1. Omer Izgec - Effect of Multi-Scale Heterogeneities in Carbonate Acidization: Theory and Application
  2. Javier Rondon Alfonzo - Determination of Fluid Viscosities from Biconical-Annular Geometries: Experimental and Modeling Studies
  3. Ahmed Al-Huthali - Optimal Waterfront Management Under Geologic Uncertainty Using Rate Control

Student Paper Contest Winners - February 2, 2008

Juniors

    Session One - Jafarpour

  1. Robert Tanner
  2. Samuel Chio
  3. John Meehan

    Session Two - Maggard

  1. Dustin Claiborne
  2. Nicholas Schilling
  3. Andres Tovar

    Session Three - Lane

  1. Kelly Alger
  2. Daniel Browning
  3. Aaron Clark

    Session Four - Burnett

  1. Michael Elliott
  2. Rebekah Hamrick
  3. Grant Pribilski

    Session Five - Nasr-El-Din

  1. Hilaire Yemeli-Gozon
  2. Eric Calderon
  3. Kaleb Smith

    Session Six - Piper

  1. Yini He
  2. Fred McDougal
  3. Guillermo Aguilarte

Seniors

    Session One - Falcone

  1. Steven Clary
  2. Gary Oxner
  3. Bradley Young

    Session Two - Weatherford

  1. Scott Nelson
  2. Bryan Ball
  3. Kimberly Mitchell

    Session Three - Teodoriu

  1. Christopher Liles
  2. Jon Wagner
  3. Peter Bazin

    Session Four - Voneiff

  1. Stephanie Currie
  2. Bryan Knopp
  3. Jacob Bennett

Masters

    Session One - Ayers

  1. Sarwesh Kumar
  2. Afolabi Amodu
  3. Waqar Khan

    Session Two - Schechter

  1. Damola Okunola
  2. Mark Dickins
  3. Shashank Shukla

    Session Three - Zhu

  1. Andres Suarez Lopez
  2. Matthew Talbert
  3. Jiang Xie

Doctoral

    Session One - Akella

  1. Weibo Sui
  2. Javier Rondon Alfonzo
  3. Weiqiang Li

    Session Two - Mamora

  1. Deepak Devegowda
  2. Ahmed Al-Huthali
  3. He Zhang

    Session Three - Barrufet

  1. Arash Haghshenas
  2. Omer Izgec
  3. Abdullah Sultan

Lee designated Regents Professor for 2006-2007

Dr. W. John Lee, professor and holder of the L.F. Peterson Endowed Chair in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, received the designation of Regents Professor for 2006-2007 during a recent meeting of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. Lee, who holds a joint appointment with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), was one of five Texas A&M professors who were named Regents Professors. The Board established the Regents Professor Award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to the university or agency and to the people of Texas. To date, 106 faculty members have been named Regents Professors. Recipients received a $9,000 stipend, a commemorative medallion and a certificate during a dinner Thursday (Dec. 6) that was held in their honor. Lee came to Texas A&M in 1977 and was the initial director of the Petroleum Engineering Department’s distance learning program. He received the Distinguished Achievement in Continuing Education Award in 2001 from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students, and was recently appointed Academic Engineering Fellow by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance.

Process Safety Engineering Course

The distance learning program of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering will be offering a Special Topics course in Process Safety Engineering this fall. The course will be taught by specialists in process safety engineering (Mary Kay’Connor Process Safety Center), Dr. Sam Mannam and Dr. William Rogers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

The course will cover applications of engineering principles to process safety and hazards analysis, mitigation, and prevention, with special emphasis on the chemical process industries. It includes source modeling for leakage rates, dispersion analysis, relief-valve sizing, fire and explosion damage analysis, hazards identification, risk analysis, and accident investigations.

We can accept students for either course credit or continuing education hours. Those who qualify for graduate admission may take the course for credit if we receive their application materials (application form, transcripts, and references) before 24 August 2007. We can accept students who do not qualify for graduate admission or who are not interested in taking the course for credit as late as 7 September 2007. Students who receive credit on this course can count it toward their graduate degrees with us or may be able to transfer the credit to other universities.

Please let personnel in your offices know of this opportunity. You can get more information about the online degree program from our web site at http://www.pe.tamu.edu/DL_Program/index.html; the course syllabus is available at http://www.pe.tamu.edu/DL_Program/syllabi/689-3_syllabus_07C.pdf. We plan to offer additional courses of this nature in the future.

Gregory A. Bird Endows Texas A&M Petroleum Engineering Scholarship

Gregory A. Bird, president and owner of Jetta Operating Co. Inc. in Fort Worth, has endowed a $60,000 scholarship for petroleum engineering students at Texas A&M University.

His gift creates the Gregory A. Bird '82 Scholarship, funded through the Texas A&M Foundation, in the Nelson Scholars Program. Named for oilman James K.B. Nelson, the program was established in 1987 to attract exceptional freshmen to the petroleum engineering profession. More...

Ginnings-Whiting Scholarship Honors Famed Educator

Jim and Ann Ginnings of Wichita Falls have endowed a Texas A&M petroleum engineering scholarship in memory of professor emeritus Robert L. Whiting. Their $60,000 gift creates the Ginnings-Whiting Scholarship in Petroleum Engineering, funded through the Texas A&M Foundation, for undergraduate students who will pursue careers in the petroleum industry. Recipients will be selected on the basis of leadership, strong work ethic and desire to succeed. "There are several reasons why I decided to make this gift," said Ginnings, an independent oil operator and owner of Ginnings Co. "When I was at A&M, the petroleum engineering department gave a Senior Scholarship to the student who made the most progress — not the one who 'aced' everything. This impressed me greatly. In addition, Mr. Whiting personally helped me get through some curriculum substitutions without which I would not have graduated when I did. Finally, my education at A&M served me well, and we are blessed to make this gift," he said. More...

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