Petroleum & Geological Engineering

Ashley Zumwalt-Frobes (OU '12), Petroleum Engineering at the University of Oklahoma alumna and founder of Black Mountain Metals was named Forbes 30 Under 30 for her company's efforts to sustainably and ethically mine battery metals.

MPGE Associate Professor Dr. Xingru Wu has been invited and accepted as a Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Distinguished Lecturer for the 2020-21 lecture season.

Established in 1961 and primarily funded by the SPE Foundation through member donations, as well as a contribution from Offshore Europe, the SPE Distinguished Lecturer Program is one of the SPE’s most popular programs. “The purpose of the program is to provide SPE sections with outstanding speakers for section meetings, and to recognize the professional contributions of the selected Distinguished Lecturers.” More information about this program is available at https://www.spe.org/en/dl/.

During the tour, Wu’s talk will focus on using real-time pressure and temperature data for better control of production and to minimize production surprises, particularly for wells in frontier developments such as deepwater and unconventional resources. Wu wants to convey the message that the knowledge obtained from the real-time data enables the optimization of well and reservoir performance through surveillance programs. The surveillance involves capable people, managed processes, and cutting-edge technology balanced with cost and reliability. In addition to classical applications of real-time data, this talk focuses on how to add values to asset management via discussing the cutting edge processing subtle signals of pressure and temperature data.

At MPGE, Wu teaches classes on Integrated Reservoir Management, Improved Oil Recovery, Production Engineering, and Mathematical Simulation Models. His research interest includes data analytics, production engineering, surveillance techniques, and reservoir mechanism modeling. He has published 80+ papers in journals and conferences in these areas. Prior to joining OU, Wu worked in E&P companies for more than 10 years. He obtained Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006, M.Sc. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2002, and B.Sc. from China University of Petroleum in 1997, and all degrees are in petroleum engineering.

MPGE Seniors and Graduate students participated in a software training which included three commonly used oil and gas industry softwares: Aries, Spotfire, and Enverus Drillinginfo.

Aries Petroleum Economics and Reserves Software provides comprehensive property and data management, production and reserve forecasting, and proven economic evaluations for operations, engineering and business teams.

Spotfire is a business intelligence software solution that provides users with all the tools they need to collect, analyze, and visualize their data.

Enverus Drillinginfo software offers solutions that deliver value across exploration and production, oilfield services, midstream, and financial areas to be more proactive, efficient, and competitive.

The training was conducted by professionals from industry:

-John Argo: Vice President, Business Development, Continental Resources, Inc.; Alumni MPGE, Member MPGE Industry Advisory Board

–Kenah Nyanat: Staff Engineer, Business Development, Continental Resources, Inc.; Alumni MPGE

-Tiffany LaCount: Senior Account Manager, Team Lead, Enverus Drillinginfo; Alumni University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is being awarded with the Platinum Corporate Support Award from Society Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oklahoma City section. 

Other companies receiving this prestigious award are Schlumberger , Halliburton, Chesapeake, and Reservoir Data Systems. This award is a token of appreciation for all the support OU, especially MPGE, has given to the local SPE section. Many of the OU faculties have contributed in writing and presenting SPE papers in the past few years. In addition, MPGE faculties (Drs. Sondergeld, Mohganloo, Teodoriu, and Salehi) have received SPE regional awards in 2018. Two of the faculties have served on SPE officers board since 2016. Dr. Salehi served as SPE officer and chairman. Recently, Dr. Karami is serving in the SPE OKC officers board.  Needless to mention the support that OU SPE student section and all student officers have provided by serving as volunteers in different SPE OKC venues. Special thanks to Francey Freeman, Sonya Grant and past director, Dr. Rai  for all the support they have provided for SPE student section through the years.

• Carl Sondergeld: Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, Society of Petroluem Engineers

• Catalin Teodoriu: Regional Drilling Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers

• Deepak Dewvegowda: Graduate Award for Outstanding Service to Graduate Students, OU Graduate College

• Danika Hines-Barnett: Graduate Award for Outstanding Support to Graduate  Education, OU Graduate College

• Ahmad Ghassemi - Recognition of Excellence, Department of Energy

• Chandra Rai – Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, Society of Petrophysicistsand Well Log Analysts

• Rouzbeh Moghanloo  Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers

• Saeed Salehi – Regional Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers