Petroleum engineering curriculum involves the application of basic sciences for the development, recovery and field processing of oil and gas resources. Due to the complex nature of petroleum reservoirs, various petroleum engineering specialties have emerged over time. Among these are drilling engineering, formation evaluation, completion and workover, surface processing, and reservoir engineering. It should be emphasized, however, that modern petroleum production operations require a team effort in which all specialties of petroleum engineering as well as geology, geophysics, and computer technologies are involved.
In the Petroleum Engineering program, the student is educated in the principles, procedures, and practices of drilling, formation evaluation, reservoir studies, production, environmental protection, and economic analysis. The aim of the first two years of the curriculum is to provide the student with the necessary background in physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, and engineering subjects such as fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, strength of materials and electric circuits. The curriculum introduces the students to basic petroleum engineering subjects too. The third and the fourth years are dedicated to petroleum engineering courses which cover the core areas of drilling engineering, production engineering, formation evaluation, and reservoir engineering.
The job of petroleum engineers starts after the discovery of a structure suitable for oil and gas accumulation. Exploration wells are first drilled and tested to evaluate the economic aspects of the discovery and to obtain the necessary data for the planning and development of the field. Petroleum reservoir engineers are normally responsible for determining the optimum number and locations of the wells and for establishing the production and recovery methods to achieve maximum recovery in the most economical manner. This involves the utilization of basic and advanced sciences and computer technology.
The role of petroleum production engineers comes next. These engineers, with the information provided by the reservoir engineers, are responsible for the design and implementation of well completions and subsurface and surface production facilities, which are needed to extract hydrocarbons and to treat the produced fluids to convert to oil and gas with the specifications needed for transportation and refining operations. Petroleum drilling engineers are responsible for the design, planning, and supervision of the well drilling activities.
The undergraduate program Bachelor of Science (BS) in “Petroleum Engineering” is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET (https://www.abet.org).
The undergraduate program of Bachelor of Science (BS) in Petroleum Engineering is designed to graduate students who are expected to attain (within a few years) of graduation the following PEOs:
The Petroleum Engineering (BS) students by the time of graduation will have the ability to:
Department Petroleum Engineering Department