Department of Petroleum Engineering

Roy S. Butler Professor John J. Day, Chairperson.

George P. Livermore Professor and Texaco Fellow Director Davis; George F. and Joan M. Watford Associate Professor Heinze; Professor Arnold; Associate Professor Frailey; Emeritus Faculty: Crawford, Land, and Winkler.

This department supervises the following degree programs: PETROLEUM ENGINEERING, Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering; Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering.

The department is uniquely located in the Permian Basin, where approximately 20 percent of the nation's petroleum resources and 62.4 percent of Texas' petroleum resources lie within a 175-mile radius. The department fulfills an obligation to the people of the State of Texas and the nation in making available the technical expertise for the safe and efficient development, production, and management of petroleum resources.

Petroleum engineering is the practical application of the basic and physical sciences of mathematics, geology, physics, and chemistry and all of the engineering sciences to the discovery, development, production, and transportation of petroleum. Petroleum is the most widely used form of mobile energy and now supplies approximately three-fourths of the total energy used in the United States. It is also a major raw material from which a wide variety of products are manufactured.

Students applying for transfer into this program from another institution or from another department at Texas Tech must have a minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA. Transfer applicants must also have minimum GPAs of 2.00 for all credits attempted in mathematics, science, and engineering courses.

Petroleum engineering applies the curriculum management of the college. Phase I includes the first three semesters; Phase II the fourth semester; and Phase III includes the final two years of study. Progress from one phase to the next requires a satisfactory GPA, designated course completion, and departmental consent. To graduate, the student must complete the specified minimum number of hours in each area of the curriculum and have a minimum overall GPA of 2.00. Changes in the degree plan or exceptions to the above stated conditions require written approval of the chairperson of the Petroleum Engineering Department.

The department has observed that students with access to a personal computer at home are more successful in their college endeavors. At a minimum, the computer should support high level programming languages such as Basic, C, Fortran, and application packages such as e-mail, Internet access, presentations, spreadsheets, and word processors.

The Petroleum Engineering curriculum is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Planning and Assessment. The department strongly encourages students to experience at least one summer interning for professional growth. Intern students will be assessed externally. The department has conferred over sixteen hundred B.S. degrees since the program's inception in 1948. A high priority goal is to produce quality B.S. graduates measured by:

a) One hundred percent placement of graduates each year,

b) student average starting salaries higher than the national average in accredited U.S. petroleum engineering departments,

c) provide summer intern opportunities and experiences within the industry for one hundred percent of students desiring positions,

d) ninety percent FE pass fate of graduating seniors,

e) recruiting quality undergraduates,

f) ABET accreditation,

g) Petroleum Industry Advisory Board recommendations on curriculum and graduates,

h) an independent assessment of capstone senior course.

The department is heavily involved in assisting our students to find jobs, both summer internships and full-time positions, upon graduation. Approximately fifty companies have recruited our students and one hundred percent of them have been placed upon graduation for the last nine years. The department began an active and aggressive recruiting effort in 1992 and enrollments were increased. A full-time Student Recruiting Coordinator was hired in 1993 to help attract and recruit outstanding students. In addition, the scholarship program was expanded such that approximately seventy percent of our undergraduate body is now on scholarship. An interview and resume workshop for the fall and spring semesters was begun in 1994 to help students with interviewing and resume writing skills as an additional effort to maintain our outstanding placement rate. The curriculum is under continuous review, and revisions are made, where necessary, to maintain our accreditation and to ensure employability and attraction of our students to the recruiters. One faculty member's participation with ABET and the SPE Education and Accreditation Committee ensures the department is current on engineering education. In addition, faculty have attended and been principal planners in all four of the Colloquiums on Petroleum Engineering Education (1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997). All changes in the petroleum engineering curriculum since 1991 have been the direct result of Petroleum Industry Advisory Board and ABET recommendations.

Providing a leading program to the over fifty M.S. petroleum engineering graduates since January 1986 is a vital goal. Monitoring enrollment, M.S. graduates, their retention and placement rates ensure a viable program. More aggressive on and off-campus recruiting in 1992, expanded in 1994 have attracted additional candidates. Fellowships were increased in 1996 and 1997, providing research funding for all students pursuing a thesis option. Recently received gifts of MRI equipment and other donations from Texaco, Inc. (totaling $3.6 million) have set up a MRI Petrophysical Applications Center and twenty SUN Solaris UNIX workstations to conduct graduate research. This and other current research activities will increase and stabilize graduate enrollment and increase research opportunities. The department will continue to assist students to obtain summer internships when desired to provide industry experience.

An expanded national and international recognition of the departmental faculty is a third goal. Important tools to this end are:

a) maintain maximum enrollment in the SWPSC, now in its forty-fifth year, fulfills a commitment to continuing education,

b) attract external donation and funding of major investment-type research tools,

c) increase the amount of externally funded research and contract consulting work that involves students,

d) cultivate an atmosphere that supports faculty success in obtaining external project funding and publication,

e) and solicit mission and goal assessment from top-level petroleum industry people on the departmental advisory board.

Enrollment figures and demographics will be used to adapt mail-outs and industry contacts. This will maintain and strengthen ties and contacts for long term research and development funding. Funding successes orient the research and development activities toward successful applications and awards. Working with college administration to adjust teaching load for faculty to meeting college-wide course load criteria that are conducive to success in continued research funding and publication. Choosing suggested industry research topics and evolving the curriculum to meeting industry needs are proving to be very successful in attracting external recognition and support.

Petroleum Engineering Curriculum.

Unless the second year of credit in a single foreign language has been received before entrance in the University, one year (two semesters) of a single language must be taken at the college level.

FIRST YEAR
Fall Spring
MATH 1351, Calculus I 3 MATH 1352, Calc. II 3
ENGL 1301, Ess. Coll. Rhetoric 3 ENGL 1302, Adv. Coll. Rhetoric 3
CHEM 1307, Prin. Chem. I 3 CHEM 1308, Prin. Chem. II 3
CHEM 1107, Prin. Chem. I (Lab.) 1 CHEM 1108, Prin. Chem. II (Lab.) 1
GEOL 1303, Phys. Geology 3 PETR 1305, Engr. Anal. 3
GEOL 1101, Phys. Geology Lab. 1 POLS 1301, Amer. Govt., Org. 3
PETR 1101, Intro. to Petroleum Engr. 1 16
15
SECOND YEAR
Fall Spring
MATH 2350, Calc. III 3 PHYS 2301, Prin. of Phys. II 3
PHYS 1308, Prin. of Phys. I 3 PHYS 1106, Prin. of Phys. II (Lab.) 1
PHYS 1105, Prin. of Phys. I (Lab.) 1 MATH 3350, Math. Engrs. I 3
POLS 2302, Amer. Pub. Pol. 3 PETR 2302, Res. Fluid Prop. 3
PETR 2301, Petr. Develop. 3 CE 3305, Mech. of Fluids 3
CE 2301, Statics 3 E E 2304, Fund. of Elec. Eng. 3
16 GEOL 3302, Struct. Geology 3
19
THIRD YEAR
Fall Spring
Statistics elective 3 C E 3303, Mech. of Solids 3
PETR 3303, Petr. Prod. Meth. 3 PETR 3304, Formation Eval. 3
PETR 3302, Res. Rock Prop. 3 PETR 3306, Reservoir Engr. 3
PETR 3113, Core Anal. Lab. 1 HIST 2300, Hist of U.S. to 1877 3
ME 3321, Engr. Thermo. 3 GEOL 4324, Geol. of Petroleum 3
CE 3302, Dynamics 3 PETR 3307, Drilling Engr. 3
PETR 3308, Engr. Comm. 3 PETR 3107, Drilling Fluids Laboratory 1
19 19
FOURTH YEAR
Fall Spring
PETR 4306, Adv. Res. Engr. 3 PETR 4309, Adv. Prod. Engr. 3
PETR 4305, Nat. Gas. Engr. 3 PETR 4308, Well Test. Anal. 3
PETR 4121, Petro. Eng. Sem. 1 PETR 4300, Petr. Prop. Eval. 3
HIST 2301, Hist. of U.S. since 1877 3 *PETR elective 3
IE 3301, Engr. Eco. Anal. 3 Humanities Elective 3
PETR 4105, Gas & Prod. Lab. 1 15
Humanities Elective 3
17

Minimum hours required for graduation­136.

*Select from PETR 4000 or 4331.

Statistics elective from the following: MATH 2300, 4342, 4343.

Select from departmentally approved list, select one course from the departmentally approved multicultural list.

Courses in Petroleum Engineering. (PETR)

1101. Introduction to Petroleum Engineering (1:1:0). Introduction to the petroleum engineering profession. Group discussions and selected readings on requirements, responsibilities, ethics, opportunities, and history of petroleum engineering.

1305. Engineering Analysis I (3:3:0). Introduction to engineering fundamentals, dimensions, units, and conversions. Synthesis and analysis of typical engineering problems. Introduction to the use of computers, word processing, spreadsheet and Fortran programming.

2301. Petroleum Development Methods (3:3:0). Introduction to petroleum engineering, rotary drilling, and well completion practices including casing, cementing, perforating, and workovers. Discussion of equipment design and use.

2302. Reservoir Fluid Properties (3:3:0). Study of reservoir fluid properties including PVT behavior of hydrocarbon systems. Investigation of the nature, methods of estimation, and use of reservoir fluid properties. Laboratory PVT demonstrations.

3107. Drilling Fluids Laboratory (1:0:3). Corequisite: PETR 3307. Experiments in the formulation, testing, and rheology of rotary drilling fluids.

3113. Core Analysis Laboratory (1:0:3). Corequisite: PETR 2302. Laboratory determination of reservoir rock properties to include porosity, permeability, saturations, compressibility, and resistivity with extensive written reports.

3302. Reservoir Rock Properties (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 2301 and CE 3305. A study of the physical properties of petroleum reservoir rocks as they relate to the production of oil and gas, including multiphase fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs.

3303. Petroleum Production Methods (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 2301 and CE 3305. Artificial lift practices including design of sucker rod pumping systems and gas lift installations. Well stimulation practices including acidizing and hydraulic fracturing. Application of inflow performance relationships.

3304. Formation Evaluation (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PHYS 2301, PETR 3302. Use of open-hole well logs including logging suites for the electric survey to the induction and laterlog suites to determine volume and relative producibility of hydrocarbon reserves. Analysis and design techniques of actual well logging packages are emphasized.

3306. Reservoir Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 2302 and 3302. Production performance predictions and estimation of hydrocarbons in place for gas, condensate, and oil reservoirs. Applications of material balance calculations for various reservoir types.

3307. Drilling Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 2302, 3302, and CE 3305; corequisite: PETR 3107. Rotary drilling systems, drilling fluids and rheology, drilling mechanism, well planning, blowout and well control, hole deviation, and directional drilling.

3308. Engineering Communications (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Junior standing or consent of instructor. Written and oral communication techniques for professional engineers including writing matrix, fog index, computer analysis, and visual aid production, proposal writing, and other tools.

4000. Special Studies in Petroleum Engineering (V1-6). Prerequisite: Departmental approval. Individual studies in petroleum engineering areas of special interest. May be repeated for credit.

4105. Natural Gas and Production Laboratory (1:0:3). Corequisite: PETR 4305. Experiments in production practices including gas and liquid measurement, fluid property determination, flow metering devices, pumping well characteristics and lease operations.

4121. Petroleum Engineering Seminar (1). Prerequisite: Advanced standing. Study of engineering problems of special interest and value to the student. Review for F E examination.

4300. Petroleum Property Evaluation and Management (3:2:3). Prerequisite: PETR 3304, 3306, I E 3301, GEOL 4324, statistics and communication elective; corequisite: PETR 4308.. Economic, physical, analytical, and statistical evaluation of hydrocarbon-producing properties, emphasizing relative worth of investments based on engineering judgment, business strategy, and risk analysis using actual oil properties in a final team project. Senior design project.

4305. Natural Gas Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 3303. The production of natural gas and condensate reservoirs; processing, transportation, distribution, and measurement of natural gas and its derivatives.

4306. Advanced Reservoir Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 3306. Frontal-advance theory and application, mechanisms of waterflooding processes, and application to reservoir performance prediction.

4308. Well Testing and Analysis (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 2302, 3302 Basic theory of transient flow in porous media and its application to the design and analysis of actual well tests using pressure-time relationships with emphasis on the pressure derivative. Buildup, drawdown, falloff, injectivity, pulse, interference, and drill stem tests are included for single or multiphase wells..

4309. Advanced Production Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisite: PETR 3303 and advanced standing. Problem course in analysis, design, and application of production and processing equipment, separator problems, emulsions, treating, and transmission systems.

4331. Special Problems in Petroleum Engineering (3). Prerequisite: Advanced standing. Individual studies in advanced engineering areas of special interests. May be repeated for credit.


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Jan 21, 2020