Faculty Research Interests

 

Walter P. Ayers
PhD/Visiting Professor

  • Petroleum Geology
  • Integrated studies of conventional and unconventional reservoirs
  • Basin analysis, clastic depositional systems, and related hydrology
  • Mixed carbonate and clastic systems
  • Tertiary depositional systems, onshore and offshore
  • Coal and coal bed methane exploration and development
  • Depositional framework of coal
  • Industry short courses in geosciences and coal bed methane

 

Maria A. Barrufet
PhD/Professor and Baker Hughes Endowed Chair

  • Phase Equilibria of Reservoir Fluids
  • Experimental and Theoretical Hydrocarbon Characterization
  • Separation Processes and Optimization of Production Techniques

 

Thomas A. Blasingame
PhD/Professor & Holder of the R.L. Whiting Professorship

  • Production and Well Test Data Analysis
  • Reservoir Engineering
  • Reservoir Description
  • Technical Mathematics

 

David B. Burnett
MS/MBA/Associate Research Scientist and Director of Technology - GPRI

  • Well Completion Technology
  • Drill-In fluids for Well Completions
  • Horizontal Well Stimulations
  • Zone Isolation Techniques
  • Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

 

Akhil Datta-Gupta
PhD/ Professor and LeSuer Chair in Reservoir Management

  • High Resolution Numerical Schemes for Reservoir Simulation
  • Geostatistics and Stochastic Reservoir Characterization
  • Modeling and Scale-Up of Enhanced Oil Recovery
  • Environmental Remediation and Contaminant Transport

 

Christine Ehlig-Economides
PhD/ Professor and A.B. Stevens Endowed Chair

  • Horizontal and Multibranch Wells
  • Layered Reservoir Testing 
  • Pressure Transient Testing
  • Reservoir Engineering
  • Energy Processes
  • Electrified transportation

 

Gioia Falcone
PhD/Assistant Professor and holder of Chevron Faculty Fellowship

  • Well Performance and Production Optimization
  • Production Allocation and Metering
  • Multiphase Flow Modelling
  • 4D History Matching
  • Dynamic Link Reservoir/Wellbore
  • Wellbore Phase Redistribution

 

Ahmad Ghassemi
PhD/Associate Professor and holder of George & Joan Voneiff Development Professorship

  • Geothermal Reservoir Development
  • Petroleum Reservoir Geomechanics
  • Borehole Stability Analysis
  • Hydraulic Fracture Modeling
  • Poroelasticity and Chemo-poroelasticity

 

A. Daniel Hill
PhD/Professor and R.L. Whiting Endowed Chair

  • Carbonate Acidizing
  • Sandstone Acidizing
  • Acid Fracture Conductivity
  • Ultrasonic Imaging and Velocimetry in Multiphase Flow

 

Stephen A. Holditch
PhD/Professor and Noble Endowed Chair

  • Formation Evaluation in Low Permeability Gas Reservoirs
  • Fracture Treatment Design, Evaluation, and Optimization
  • Computer Reservoir Simulation
  • Well Completions and Workovers

 

Behnam Jafarpour
PhD/Assistant Professor and holder of Mark Albers Faculty Fellowship

  • Geostatistical reservor modeling
  • Reservoir characterization and forecasting
  • Reservoir parameterization and model reduction
  • Inverse modeling and data assimilation
  • Closed-loop control and management of smart oilfields

 

Hans C. Juvkam-Wold
ScD/Professor & J.E. Holt Endowed Chair

  • Horizontal Drilling
  • Including Buckling of Tubulars
  • Well Control
  • Arctic and Offshore Drilling
  • Riserless Drilling

 

Robert H. Lane
PhD/Professor and holder of Aghorn Energy Development Professorship

  • Water and Gas Shutoff Technologies
  • Profile Modification/Conformance Improvement
  • Polymer Gel Applications
  • Produced Water Chemistry Issues

 

John Lee
PhD/Regents Professor & L.F. Peterson Endowed Chair

  • Reserves estimation procedures
  • Assesment of uncertainity in reserves estimation and production forecasts
  • Production of forecasting in unconventional reservoirs

 

J. Bryan Maggard
PhD/Senior Lecturer

  • Thermal Recovery Methods
  • Applied Reservoir Simulation
  • Numerical Methods and Application of Computing

 

Daulat D. Mamora
PhD/Professor & Holder of the Rob L. Adams Professorship

  • Waterflood and Thermal Oil Recovery in Horizontal Well Systems
  • Gas Injection and Recycling
  • Reservoir Development, Planning, and Management
  • Zone Isolation in Horizontal Wells

 

William D. McCain, Jr.
PhD/Visiting Professor

  • Reservoir Engineering and Reservoir Management
  • Reservoir Fluid Properties
  • Reservoir Rock Properties
  • Reservoir Simulation
  • Especially Volatile Oils and Retrograde Gases

 

Duane McVay
PhD/Associate Professor and holder of Mike and Heidi Gatens Development Professorship in Unconventional Resources

  • Applied Reservoir Simulation
  • Integrated Reservoir Studies
  • Reservoir Simulation Software Development
  • Characterization and Modeling of Unconventional Reservoirs
  • Assessment of uncertainity in reserves estimation and production forecasting
  • Real-time reservoir modeling

 

Hisham Nasr-El-Din
PhD/Professor and holder of Stephen A. Holditch Faculty Fellowship

  • Inorganic Scale: Formation, removal and Mitigation
  • Diversion in Extended Reach, Multi-lateral and Smart wells
  • Acid and hydraulic Frac of Tight Gas Reservoirs
  • Chemical Methods to remove Drilling Mud Filter Cake
  • Rheological Properties of Surfactant and Polymer Solutions
  • Surface Tension nd Dynamic Interfacial Tension of Acids and Completion Fluids
  • Matrix Simulation of Cabonate and Sandstone reservoirs
  • Gelling Polymors for improving Sweep Efficiency and Water Shut-Off Treatments
  • Fines Migration and Clay Stabilization in Sandstone reservoirs
  • Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery
  • Development of New Cementing and Drilling fluids
  • Sand consolidation
  • Corrosion during Acid treatments
  • Two-phase flow in Pipes
  • Processing of Oil Sands

 

Larry D. Piper
PhD/Senior Lecturer

  • Reservoir Engineering
  • Reservoir Simulation
  • Phase Behavior
  • Stochastic Models

 

David S. Schechter
PhD/Associate Professor and holder of George Hickox Development Professorship

  • Characterization and Fluid Flow in Naturally fractured reservoirs
  • Enhanced Oil Recovery with CO2 Injection
  • Sequestration of CO2 and Greenhouse Gasses
  • Enhanced Oil Recovery with Gas Injection
  • Petrophysics and Log Interpretation
  • Reservoir Characterization and Fluid Flow Utilizing CT Scanner
  • Unconventional reservoirs
  • Surface and Interfacial Chemistry
  • Surfactant Flooding

 

Jerome J. Schubert
PhD/Assistant Professor and holder of Larry Cress Faculty Fellowship

  • Drilling and Well Control
  • Ultra-Deepwater Blowout Containment
  • Dual Gradient Drilling
  • Underbalanced Drilling
  • HPHT Rheology
  • HPHT Cementing
  • Drilling Risk Assessment

 

Catalin Teodoriu
PhD/Assistant Professor and holder of CJ Craft Faculty Fellowship

  • Threaded connection optimization
  • OCTG design and well integrity
  • Deep-Well Casing Integrity
  • Cement behaviour under extreme conditions
  • HPHT Cementing for Deep Gas Wells
  • Intelligent completion
  • Non conventional drilling methods
  • Lubrication in oil industry (thread compounds, mud additives)
  • Finite Element Simulation

 

Peter P. Valkó
PhD/Professor and Holder of L.F. Peterson Endowed Professorship

  • Modeling, Identification and Optimization
  • Hydraulic Fracturing

 

Mr. George Voneiff
MS/Senior Lecturer

  • Tight gas
  • Coalbed methane (CBM)
  • Fractured shale technology development and exploitation

 

Robert A. Wattenbarger
PhD/Professor

  • Reservoir Simulation
  • Gas Engineering
  • Well Test Analysis
  • Thermal Recovery

 

Lilai Yan
PhD/Lecturer

 

Ding Zhu
PhD/Associate Professor and holder of W.D. Von Gonten Faculty Fellowship

  • Integrated Sandstone acidizing
  • Real-time evaluation of acidizing process
  • Modeling of acidizing process in naturally fractured carbonate reservoirs
  • Acid fracturing
  • High-concentration HF acidizing in sandstone reservoirs
  • Integrated production-log interpretation by statistical approach
  • Horizontal-well stimulation
  • Well performance of multilateral wells
  • Horizontal-well completion model
  • Economic model of intelligent wells
  • Intelligent-well model