Petroleum Engineering

Graduate student Mukul Chavan pours a sample of heavy crude oil from the Kaparuk field on Alaska's North Slope. Chavan and other students in UAF's petroleum engineering program are using the samples to experiment with ways to recover more oil from existing fields.

College of Engineering and Mines
Department of Petroleum Engineering
907-474-7734 

Department Overview

The mission of the petroleum engineering program is to provide its students with quality education and training in the field of petroleum engineering through effective teaching, research and public service, with emphasis on Alaska petroleum resources.

Petroleum engineering offers a unique look at the challenging problems confronting the petroleum industry. This program requires an understanding of many disciplines including mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology and engineering science. Courses in petroleum engineering deal with drilling, formation evaluation, production, reservoir engineering, computer simulation and enhanced oil recovery. The curriculum prepares graduates to meet the demands of modern technology while emphasizing, whenever possible, the special problems encountered in Alaska. Located in one of the largest oil-producing states in the nation, the UAF petroleum engineering department offers one of the most modern and challenging degree programs available.

Learn more about the petroleum engineering program's mission, goals and educational objectives.


B.S., Energy Resource Engineering

The mission of the energy resource engineering program is to graduate a versatile energy engineer who is prepared to practice the profession in any energy-producing industry.

Energy resource engineering provides the foundation for students for careers in diverse aspects of the energy sector, representing a rapidly changing landscape of the oil and gas industry and the significance of renewables and alternative energy sources. This program requires an understanding of many disciplines including mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering science. Courses in energy resource engineering deal with diverse energy production topics such as petroleum and geothermal drilling, reservoir and production engineering, carbon capture, electrical and power systems, energy and the environment, data analysis, and energy resource characterization and economics, culminating in a year-long senior capstone design on practical energy resource engineering systems and components.

The curriculum prepares graduates to develop and adopt energy-related technologies across a range of resource options and tailor well-balanced designs to the needs of Alaska’s disparate communities and industries.

Minimum Requirements for Energy Resource Engineering Bachelor's Degree: 132 credits


B.S., Petroleum Engineering

The petroleum engineering program educational objectives are:

  1. Our graduates will apply their technical knowledge and data analytics skills and have successful careers in the oil and gas industry analyzing real-world petroleum engineering problems, developing innovative solutions underpinned by data, and communicating these to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders within the global community.

  2. Our graduates will demonstrate professionalism, commitment to ethical standards, and lifelong learning through continuing professional development during their careers.
  3. Our graduates will contribute significantly to the global petroleum engineering profession and they will exemplify the behaviors, including integrity, empathy, tolerance and respect and fair dealing, necessary to become industry leaders within and beyond Alaska.

Learn more about the petroleum engineering program mission, goals and educational objectives.

Minimum Requirements for Petroleum Engineering Bachelor's Degree: 131 credits

Learn more about the bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering, including an overview of the program, career opportunities and more.


M.S., Petroleum Engineering

The curriculum prepares graduates to meet the demands of modern technology while emphasizing, whenever possible, the special problems encountered in Alaska. Located in one of the largest oil-producing states in the nation, the UAF petroleum engineering department offers modern and challenging degree programs.

The M.S. program is intended to provide students with an advanced treatment of petroleum engineering concepts. Students may choose either a thesis or non-thesis option. Research and teaching assistantships are available.

A doctoral degree program is offered with a concentration in petroleum engineering for qualified students. Contact the graduate program coordinator or the petroleum engineering department for more information.

Minimum Requirements for Petroleum Engineering Master's Degree: 30-36 credits

Learn more about the master’s degree in petroleum engineering, including an overview of the program, career opportunities and more.


Ph.D., Engineering

Engineers use knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences to develop economical uses of materials and forces of nature for human benefit. The professional practice of engineering requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment and the exercise of discretion. The basic education necessary for the professional practice of engineering is provided by the engineering bachelor's and master’s degrees. Doctoral-level education requires independent research that generates fundamental advances in technology and discovers new knowledge for the benefit of society. Engineering Ph.D. degrees provide leadership in scientific research, academia and industrial research and development. The Ph.D. degree in engineering draws on the combined strength of the College of Engineering and Mines and offers opportunities for engineers at other UA campuses to participate.

Minimum Requirements for Engineering Doctorate Degree: 36 credits


Courses

Energy Resource Engineering (ERE)

ERE F101      Introduction to Energy Resource Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Design, evaluation and implementation of conventional and alternative energy systems for heat and electric power applications. Focuses on developing the basic skills in approaching engineering problems and applying them towards the energy industry. Students will learn about the engineering skills required in mining, petroleum and renewable energy.

Prerequisites: (MATH F151X and MATH F152X) or MATH F156X (may be taken concurrently) or ES/MATH F186 (may be taken concurrently) or placement into MATH F251X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F301      Petroleum and Geothermal Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Overview of sedimentary, hot and igneous rocks including depositional environments. Rock and fluid properties including porosity, permeability, fluid saturations, capillary pressure, classification of reservoirs fluids, phase behavior of hydrocarbons, thermodynamics of steam and water, PVT analysis. Laboratory exercises on identification of energy bearing rocks, properties of hydrocarbons, steam, hot water.

Prerequisites: ES F346 (may be taken concurrently); MATH F252X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F303      Electric Power Systems and Machines
4 Credits

Offered Fall

Introduction to electromechanical energy conversion principles, phasors and complex power, characteristics and applications of power transformers, network equations, synchronous machines, induction machines, DC machines, symmetrical components and sequence networks.

Prerequisites: EE F203 or ES F307.

Cross-listed with EE F303.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F407      Petroleum and Geothermal Production Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Inflow and outflow performance. Single and multi-phase flow in wellbores. Design and analysis of production systems for oil, gas and geothermal reservoirs, artificial lift. Decline curve analysis. Surface processing of produced oil and gas. Geothermal plants.

Prerequisites: ERE F476; ES F341; ES F346.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F409      Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Study of renewable energy systems focusing on grid integration of wind turbine generators, solar photovoltaics, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric, hydrokinetics, and energy storage. Design and analysis for efficient, sustainable, reliable, and resilient grid operation with distributed renewable energy sources considering cogeneration, controls optimization, economic dispatch, emissions, interruptible loads, and waste-heat recovery.

Prerequisites: EE F303 or ERE F303.

Cross-listed with EE F409.

Stacked with EE F609.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F426      Energy Drilling Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Introduces a working knowledge of drilling engineering, using fundamental drilling engineering principles for drilling design, and evaluating drilling operations based on drilling engineering concepts. The course covers both conventional and geothermal well drilling.

Prerequisites: ES F331; ES F341.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F444      Data Analysis and Modeling for Energy Engineers
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Introduction to data analytics for energy resources; probability distributions; data collection methods; inferential statistics; least squares; optimization methods; clustering; regression and stochastic timeseries data modeling; Inverse methods; and risk analysis.

Prerequisites: ES F201; MATH F302; STAT F300.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F458      Energy and the Environment
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Overview of basic concepts of energy supply, demand, production of heat and power impacts of energy use on the environment. Extensive discussion of mitigation technologies and strategies for meeting energy needs while preserving environmental quality.

Prerequisites: CHEM F106X; ES F346 or equivalent; MATH F252X; PHYS F211X.

Cross-listed with ME F458.

Stacked with ERE F658; ME F658.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F469      Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration
3 Credits

Offered Spring

This course introduces carbon capture technologies, CO2 conversion and sequestration technologies. Technical foundations on the carbon cycle, thermodynamics, transport, absorption, sequestration, process control, mineralization and conversion. Analysis of cases in the technology, policy and regulatory framework context.

Prerequisites: ERE F476 (may be taken concurrently).

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F476      Petroleum and Geothermal Reservoir Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Similarities and differences in petroleum and geothermal reservoirs. Fluid/heat flow in porous media. Quantitative study and prediction of the behavior of oil and gas reservoirs under primary, secondary and tertiary recovery mechanisms. Thermal reserves of geothermal systems. Well test analysis to determine petroleum and geothermal reservoir characteristics.

Prerequisites: ERE F301; ES F346; MATH F253X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F486      Energy Resources Economics
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Economic appraisal methods for evaluating energy resource development projects, including risk analysis, probability and statistics in decision-making and evaluations. Case studies. Economics of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

Prerequisites: MATH F253X; STAT F300.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F490      Energy Resource Engineering Design I
1 Credit

Offered Fall

Team-oriented design project with emphasis on practical energy resource engineering systems and components, which integrates engineering knowledge and skills that students have acquired. Design process principles, including project management, economics and ethics, will be introduced in the lecture. Each design team will generate and present a proposal for their design.

Prerequisites: COM F121X, COM F131X or COM F141X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; ERE F426; ERE F469.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F491      Energy Resource Engineering Design II
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Design teams will continue to work towards completing their proposed design from the first semester using engineering design process techniques. Each design team will follow a design schedule to complete a simulation and/or prototype, including weekly meetings and progress reports, ending with a final design report and public presentation.

Prerequisites: ERE F490.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

ERE F658      Energy and the Environment
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Overview of basic concepts of energy supply, demand, production of heat and power impacts of energy use on the environment. Extensive discussion of mitigation technologies and strategies for meeting energy needs while preserving environmental quality.

Recommended: CHEM F106X; ES F346; MATH F252X; PHYS F211X; graduate standing.

Cross-listed with ME F658.

Stacked with ERE F458; ME F458.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

Petroleum Engineering (PETE)

PETE F101      Fundamentals of Petroleum, Drilling and Production
2 Credits

Offered Fall

Fundamental principles of origin, migration, accumulation and exploration of petroleum. Principles of drilling, drilling practices, and drilling fluids. Overview of production practices, surface production equipment. Influence of rock and fluid properties on the principles of petroleum recovery, petroleum transportation.

Prerequisites: Freshman standing in Petroleum Engineering program.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F201      Future Trends in the Oil and Gas Industry
1 Credit

Offered Fall

Overview of the rapidly changing landscape of the oil and gas industry. Introduction to technically challenged resources with special emphasis on Alaska North Slope heavy oil and methane hydrates. Coexistence with renewables and alternative energy. Diversification of the petroleum industry, and emergence of data sciences, HSE, climate issues and sustainability.

Prerequisites: Sophomore Standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F301      Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties
4 Credits

Offered Fall

Fundamental concepts of reservoir rock and fluid properties including porosity, permeability, fluid saturations, capillary pressure, relative permeabilities, classification of petroleum reservoirs by fluid phase contents, oil, gas and water properties, fluid sampling, and PVT analysis.

Prerequisites: ES F346 (may be taken concurrently); MATH F252X; GEOS F101X or GE F261.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 4 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F302      Well Logging
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Comprehensive treatment of modern well logging methods including formation and production logging tools, and techniques and basic concepts of open hole log interpretation.

Prerequisites: PETE F301; PETE F101.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F303      Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties Laboratory
1 Credit

Offered Spring

Measurement of properties of reservoir rock and reservoir fluids. Determination of porosity, permeability, fluid saturations, capillary pressures, specific gravity density, viscosity, surface tension, PVT properties and interpretation of PVT reports for reservoir fluid samples.

Prerequisites: WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; PETE F301.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F370      Sedimentology and Structural Geology for Petroleum Engineers      (n)
4 Credits

Offered Fall

Origin and distribution of sedimentary rocks including depositional environments, stratigraphic relationships and structures. Emphasis on the relationship to petroleum occurrences and petroleum exploration. Laboratory exercises on mapping, structural problems and facies relationships in petroleum exploration.

Prerequisites: GEOS F101X or GE F261.

Cross-listed with GEOS F370.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F407      Petroleum Production Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Production system analysis, inflow performance analysis, gas lift design, sucker rod pumping and production decline analysis.

Prerequisites: PETE F476; ES F341 and ES F346.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F411      Drilling Fluids Laboratory
1 Credit

Offered Spring

Design, composition and measurement of drilling fluid properties, evaluation of mud activities and chemical treatment of contaminated drilling fluid.

Prerequisites: PETE F426 (may be taken concurrently); WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F421      Reservoir Characterization
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Review of reservoir rock properties and their spatial variations; estimation of reserves; introduction to theory and application of geostatistics to reservoir characterization; presentation of fundamental geostatistical concepts including: variogram analysis, estimation variance, kriging and stochastic simulations and some data analytics concepts. Impact of geologic structure on oil recovery. Use of computer software for reservoir characterization and class project.

Prerequisites: PETE F301; PETE F302; GEOS F370.

Stacked with PETE F621.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F426      Drilling Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Principles of drilling, drilling fluids and rheology, drilling problems, drilling hydraulics, well control techniques and casing seat selection.

Prerequisites: ES F331; ES F341.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F431      Natural Gas Engineering
2 Credits

Offered Spring

Natural gas production and condensate reservoirs. Design of processing, transportation, distribution and flow measurement systems.

Prerequisites: PETE F301.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F456      Petroleum Evaluation and Economic Decisions
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Economic appraisal methods for oil field developmental project evaluations including risk analysis, probability and statistics in decision making and evaluations. Case studies.

Prerequisites: MATH F253X; PETE F476; STAT F300 (may be taken concurrently).

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F458      Petroleum Engineering Internship
1 Credit

Offered As Demand Warrants

Practical experience in a supervised petroleum engineering environment. Participation in professional petroleum operations including drilling, production, formation evaluation, reservoir engineering, petroleum property evaluation, management and economics. Written and oral presentation of technical report describing experience is required.

Prerequisites: Junior standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 1

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 3 times for up to 3 credits

PETE F466      Petroleum Recovery Methods
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Flow and physicochemical principles of oil recovery by water, chemical, thermal and miscible floods. Prediction of recovery for each of these methods.

Prerequisites: PETE F301 and PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F469      Enhanced Oil Recovery and Reservoir Simulation
3 Credits

Offered Fall

This course will discuss the principles of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Enhanced recovery calculations for water flood using analytical and empirical methods will be covered. The principles and practice of reservoir simulation using numerical models will be discussed. Reservoir simulation will be used for EOR calculations.

Prerequisites: ES F301, MATH F426; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F476      Petroleum Reservoir Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Quantitative study and prediction of the behavior of oil and gas reservoirs under primary, secondary and tertiary recovery mechanisms.

Prerequisites: PETE F301; MATH F253X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F478      Well Test Analysis
2 Credits

Offered Spring

Transient flow of fluids through porous media, application of solutions of the diffusivity equation to pressure buildup, drawdown, interference testing and log-log type curve analysis and effect of reservoir heterogeneities on pressure behavior.

Prerequisites: PETE F407; PETE F476; MATH F302.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F481      Well Completions and Stimulation Design
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Design of casing programs, cementing, open-hole and set-through completions, well stimulation; completion and workover fluids; and evaluation of sand control and workover operations.

Prerequisites: WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; ES F341; PETE F426.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F487A      Petroleum Project Design
1 Credit

Offered Fall

Two-semester course with emphasis on design and analysis of petroleum exploration, production and reservoir engineering systems by analytical, experimental and computer methods. Identification of requirements, conceptual and detailed project design and cost analysis. Completion of an engineering project.

Prerequisites: Senior standing; PETE F407 or PETE F426; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F487B      Petroleum Project Design
1 Credit

Offered Spring

Two-semester course with emphasis on design and analysis of petroleum exploration, production and reservoir engineering systems by analytical, experimental and computer methods. Identification of requirements, conceptual and detailed project design and cost analysis. Completion of an engineering project.

Prerequisites: COM F131X or COM F141X; WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; senior standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F489      Reservoir Simulation
2 Credits

Offered Fall

The theory and application of computer reservoir simulation in petroleum reservoir and production engineering.

Prerequisites: PETE F476; MATH F426 or ES F301.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F607      Advanced Production Engineering
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Production system analysis, production optimization, downhole equipment design, surface facilities design, oil and gas processing, gas and oil treating systems, disposal well systems, project organization and field development.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing; PETE F407.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F608      Flow Assurance in the Petroleum Industry
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Study of the thermodynamics of gas hydrates; paraffin waxes; asphaltenes; scale and chemistry of corrosion and erosion processes. Study of chemical and physical methods used for mitigation of solid phase formation. Experimental analysis and modeling of solid phase formation envelopes. Analysis of flow regimes resulting from the presence of solid phases in oil and gas flow lines.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F610      Advanced Reservoir Engineering
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Concepts and tools for solving petroleum reservoir engineering problems; advances in petroleum reservoir engineering. Emphasis on material balance methods and their application to estimate reserves and calculate water influx; diversity equations and solutions; gas and water coning; streamline tracking; and decline curve analysis, productivity index and well performance models for vertical, horizontal and multilateral wells.

Prerequisites: PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F621      Applied Reservoir Characterization
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Review of reservoir rock properties and their spatial variations; estimation of reserves; introduction to theory and application of geostatistics to reservoir characterization; presentation of fundamental geostatistical concepts including: variogram analysis, estimation variance, kriging and stochastic simulations and some data analytics concepts. Impact of geologic structure on oil recovery. Use of computer software for reservoir characterization and class project.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Petroleum Engineering.

Stacked with PETE F421.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F630      Waterflooding
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

A study of the fundamental concepts and procedures for the design of waterflooding processes in petroleum reservoirs.

Prerequisites: PETE F301; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F656      Advanced Petroleum Economic Analysis
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Economic analysis of petroleum production leading towards increasing cost efficiency in the petroleum and related industries. Qualitative and quantitative description of production forecasts and reserve estimation; oil and gas pricing; cash flow analysis; risk and uncertainty of operation of oil and gas production (financing, debt/equity ratio, depreciation and taxation).

Prerequisites: PETE F407, PETE F456.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F661      Applied Well Testing
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Equations for transient flow of single phase fluids through porous media, extension to sample multiphase flow, isolated and developed multi-well flow, conventional drawdown and buildup analysis, log-log type curve analysis, interference testing, fractured wells, pulse tests, and drill stem tests.

Prerequisites: PETE F476; PETE F610.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F662      Enhanced Oil Recovery
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Secondary and tertiary oil recovery processes, including waterflooding and chemical and thermal recovery methods.

Prerequisites: PETE F476 or PETE F610.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F663      Applied Reservoir Simulation
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Mathematical description of the reservoir, organization of reservoir simulation study, history matching and prediction for several published case studies of reservoir simulations.

Prerequisites: Reservoir Engineering course, such as PETE F476 or PETE F610.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F665      Advanced Phase Behavior
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

The development and application of phase equilibrium simulators to predict fluid properties for reservoir fluids.

Prerequisites: PETE F301.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F666      Drilling Optimization
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Principles of drilling optimization: drilling cost analysis and control; rheological properties of drilling fluid for optimum hole cleaning; planning an optimum mud program for vertical, directional and horizontal wellbores; optimizing bit hydraulics. Use of software packages in optimized hydraulics.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in engineering discipline.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F670      Fluid Flow Through Porous Media
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

The study of transport phenomena in porous media and application to petroleum engineering.

Prerequisites: PETE F301; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F680      Horizontal Well Technology
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Review of the state of the art of horizontal well technology covering recent advances in drilling and completion of horizontal wells. Emphasis on field practices, reservoir engineering aspects including well testing and well performance estimation, application of horizontal wells to gas and water coning problems and enhanced oil recovery.

Prerequisites: PETE F426; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F683      Natural Gas Processing and Engineering
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Natural gas reservoir engineering and gas production practices. Transient flow of real gases, gas field development, gas well testing, transportation and gas storage reservoirs.

Prerequisites: PETE F431; PETE F476.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F685      Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Characteristics of stress in fluids, flow models of non-Newtonian fluids (Bingham plastic fluids, fluids without yield stress), couette flow analysis of non-Newtonian fluids, surge and swab pressure models for plugged and open-end pipes.

Prerequisites: ES F341; PETE F426.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F687      Experimental and Data Analytics Methods in Petroleum Engineering
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Application of statistical methods to develop empirical models in petroleum engineering. Topics covered include dimensional analysis, fundamental statistical concepts, regression analysis, neural networks, time series analysis and analysis of factorial and fractional factorial designed experiments.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F689      Multiphase Fluid Flow in Pipes
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Multiphase flow in pipes, modeling of fluid flow of complex mixtures in pipes, empirical correlations developed in the literature, and calculation of pressure gradients and flow rates during the flow of multiphase fluids through vertical, inclined and horizontal pipes.

Prerequisites: ES F341; MATH F426 or ES F301; PETE F407.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

PETE F692      Seminar
1-3 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

PETE F692P      Seminar
1-3 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

PETE F698      Non-thesis Research/Project
1-9 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

PETE F699      Thesis
1-9 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

Faculty

Obadare Awoleke

Associate Professor
Petroleum Engineering

Experimental and theoretical investigation into propped fracture conductivity in low and high permeability environments, heavy oil reservoirs (production, completion and stimulation related challenges), data analysis using statistical and virtual intelligence techniques, the incorporation of uncertainty into the models used by petroleum engineers to predict oil and gas well productivity using time series analysis methods, application of Monte Carlo techniques and stochastic differential equations to modeling uncertainty in petroleum production or reservoir engineering

ooawoleke@alaska.edu
907-474-7574
Duck 407
Troth Yeddha' Campus


Abhijit Dandekar

Department Chair | Professor
Petroleum Engineering

Viscous and heavy oil EOR, gas-to-liquids, gas hydrates, CO2 sequestration, effect of wettability on oil recovery

adandekar@alaska.edu
907-474-6427
Duck 419
Troth Yeddha' Campus


Brent Sheets

PDL Director
Petroleum Development Laboratory

Unconventional reservoirs development, reservoir simulation and optimization, enhanced oil recovery, application of nanotechnology in petroleum engineering

brent.sheets@alaska.edu
907-750-0650


Yin Zhang

Professor
Petroleum Engineering

CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, H2 storage

yzhang35@alaska.edu
907-474-7877
Duck 413
Troth Yeddha' Campus