Petroleum & Geological Engineering

Organizing Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) student chapters: University of Houston, Pennsylvania State University, Rice University, and the University of Oklahoma host the 2020 Energy Focus Symposium. 

The 2020 Energy Focus Symposium was held on November 9th and 10th with speakers and panelists from across the world. Shell, Smart Tech Comphrehensice Solutions, Quantum New Energy, Enrich Africa, and Kongsberg were companies in attandence. 

Driving the Energy Transition- Technology , Business, and Policy.

Day 1 ( Technology) 

Josh Etkind - Deepwater GoM Digital Transformation Lead for Shell 

Brian Sidle - Global Director of Growth for Kongsberg Digital

Sarah Tamilarasan - CEO of Sotaog

Day 2 (Business and Policy)

Patricia Vega - CEO of Quantum New Energy 

Adegoke Ajisafe - Co-founder of Enrich Africa

                    Will Pettitt – Executive Director of Geotherm Rising                  

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) recently honored Dr. Rai and Dr. Shah with SPE Distinguished Membership at SPE’s Member Monday Awards Session held 26 October. Both Doctors are Professors at the University of Oklahoma in the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering.

Established in 1983, the Distinguished Member award recognizes SPE members who achieve distinction deemed worthy of special recognition. This award acknowledges members who have attained eminence in the petroleum industry or the academic community, or who have made significant contributions to SPE.

Chandra S. Rai is currently Martin Miller Chair Professor in Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He served as the director of Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering from 2007 to 2019. During his tenure he was responsible for modernization of all the undergraduate teaching laboratories, hiring 20 new faculty members, and managing six-fold increase in undergraduate enrollment and along with Prof. Sondergeld started two industrial consortia, Experimental Rock Physics and Characterization of Unconventional Reservoirs. Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma, he was with Amoco Production Company Research Center and with BPAmoco in various technical and management positions. At Amoco he was member and then team leader of the team responsible for doing R&D in the broad area of rock physics and petrophysics. He was associated with the development of rock properties database, on-site core characterization system, and rock modeling software. He obtained BS and MS in Applied Geophysics from the Indian School of Mines, and a PhD in 1977 from the University of Hawaii in Geology and Geophysics. 

Subhash Shah is Shell Chair Professor and Chief Mentor in the School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), India. He is also an Emeritus Professor in the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering (MPGE) at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He retired from OU after serving 22 years as Stephenson Chair Professor and MPGE Director (2000-2002). During his tenure at OU, he also served as the Director of OU’s Well Construction Technology Center. He has a distinguished career in the oil and gas industry that spans over 45 years: 18 years with Halliburton and 27 years in academics. Shah holds a B.E. from M.S. University of Baroda, India, and M.S. and Ph.D. from University of New Mexico, USA, all in chemical engineering. 

This program provides local Chapters a contact list of persons in high industry regard who are able and willing to speak on certain topic(s) of interest at local chapter meetings. The persons immediately below have been designated and have agreed to serve as SPWLA Distinguished Speakers for the year 2020-2021. The talks proposed here are all among the top papers presented at the 2020 International 61st Annual Logging Symposium. 

Dr. Tinni is a faculty in the Petroleum Engineering Department of the University of Oklahoma. His current research interests include fluid flow and storage as well as EOR in unconventional reservoirs. He holds Master’s and PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

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Congratulations to University of Oklahoma MPGE team for being selected as one of the SINTEFF Norway SWIPA project collaborators. The Board of the Research Council of Norway decided to grant SFI Swipa (Subsurface Well Integrity, Plugging and Abandonment) status as Center for Research-Driven Innovation for the next eight years. MPGE team will collaborate with SINTEFF, University of Stavanger, NORCE, IFE and NTNU on testing and verification of barrier materials. Several major oil and gas companies as wells universities globally will collaborate in this large scale project. 

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Ahmad Ghassemi, the McCasland Chair and professor of petroleum engineering at the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy at the University of Oklahoma, received $2.5 million of a $28 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy with an additional $700,000 in matching funds from Coso Operating Company for a study that aims to develop technologies to increase power production from geothermal wells while decreasing production costs.

“I am very proud to hear that the Department of Energy is equipping and empowering the University of Oklahoma to pursue a groundbreaking project to unleash safe and sustainable energy,” said Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04). “Widely recognized as a center for scientific excellence and innovation, OU’s contributions will indeed be critical in honing production and refining the use of geothermal energy.”

Thanks to this support from the DOE and Coso Operating Co., Ghassemi and his collaborators will first do extensive modeling around the geothermal wells that will be used in the research. In continuous operation since 1987, these wells sit on the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, which is in the heart of the Coso Volcanic Field in eastern California.
Among the members of the team are graduate students from the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy.

“Involvement of postdoctoral and graduate students from OU give the project a nice educational aspect as well,” said Ghassemi. “Not only will it contribute to their education, but it can potentially expand the geothermal workforce that is needed as the technology expands in the country.”

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