Runar Nygaard

Runar Nygaard, Ph.D.

DIRECTOR AND EBERLY FAMILY CHAIR IN PETROLEUM AND GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR OF PETROLEUM AND GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

Email: runar.nygaard@ou.edu
Office: SEC 1264

Education

Ph.D., Geomechanics, University of Oslo
M.S., Geotechnics, University of Oslo
B.Sc., Geology, University of Oslo

Runar Nygaard is the director of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering and the Eberly Family Chair and Professor of Petroleum Engineering. He originally hails from Norway and completed his education at the University of Oslo, earning a doctorate degree in Geomechanics in 2004. He worked in the oil and gas industry and McKinsey & Company before starting his academic career, first at University of Calgary in Canada, then at Missouri University of Science and Technology and, before coming to OU, he was the Program Director and Courson Chair in petroleum engineering at Oklahoma State University. His research centers around the construction of safe and efficient wells. More specifically, Dr. Nygaard’s research in geomechanics, drilling engineering and well design, addresses the technical, economical and environmental challenges that arise around the man made well and the subsurface environment for oil and gas, geothermal and CO₂ storage sites. Ongoing projects are addressing drilling efficiency in hard rock for geothermal energy, sensor deployment in wells, and plug and abandonment of offshore wells.

Research Interests

Wellbore integrity
Geomechanics
Drilling engineering

Selected Publications

Cedola, A.; Nygaard, R. 2023. Shale Cuttings Addition to Wellbore Cement and Their Effect on Unconfined Compressive Strength. Energies, 16, 4727.
Zhu, X. and Tang, J. and Wu, Y. and Jiao, X. and Nygaard, R., Cercone, D. and Xiao, H., 2023. Glass Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing of a Fiber Optic Rotary Encoder for Downhole Pressure Sensing. IEEE Sensors Journal, 23(7), 6969-6975.
Wise, J., and Nygaard, R. 2023. Comparison of Numerical Methods That Predict Wellbore Cement Sheath Integrity. ASME Open J. Engineering ASME.
Meng, J., Pashin, J. C., Nygaard, R. 2020. Geomechanical characteristics of potential carbon dioxide sinks and seals in the DeSoto Canyon Salt Basin, eastern Gulf of Mexico. Environmental Geosciences, 27(2), 87--101.
Wise, J., Cedola, A., Nygaard, R., Hareland, G., Arild, Oystein, Lohne, H. P., Ford, E. P. 2020. Wellbore characteristics that control debonding initiation and microannuli width in finite element simulations. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 191, 107157.
Alsaba, M., Aldushaishi, M., Nygaard, R., Nes, O-M. and Saasen, A. 2017. Updated Criterion to Select Particle Size Distribution of Lost Circulation Materials for an Effective Fracture Sealing. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 149, 641-648.