PGE - Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering: PGE
Lower-Division Courses
PGE X01. Engineering, Energy, and the Environment.
Introduction to the field of petroleum engineering. Overview of energy supply and demand. Studies subsurface engineering and engineering problem-solving methods, with an emphasis on fossil energy exploitation and geologic CO2 storage. Includes aspects of basic petroleum geology.
PGE X09. Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
PGE X11. Numerical Methods and Programming.
Introduction to computer programming and mathematical equations typically encountered in petroleum and geosystems engineering; methods to visualize data and solve engineering and mathematical equations with numerical methods; and applications of computers to general problem solving.
PGE X12. Physical and Chemical Behavior of Fluids I.
Principles of organic chemistry; phase behavior; properties of hydrocarbon gases and liquids and oil field waters; overview of laboratory phase behavior measurements; material balance calculations.
PGE X19S. Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.
PGE X80. Advanced Petroleum Laboratory for Master's Degree Candidates.
PGE X90. Advanced Laboratory for Doctoral Candidates.
Upper-Division Courses
PGE X21K. Physical and Chemical Behavior of Fluids II.
Applications of thermodynamics and physical chemistry to petroleum and geosystems engineering.
PGE X22K. Transport Phenomena in Geosystems.
Applications of mass, heat, and momentum balances to fluid flow problems; shell balances; non-Newtonian fluids; transport processes through permeable media.
PGE X23K. Reservoir Engineering I: Primary Recovery.
Classification of subsurface reservoirs by type and recovery mechanism; reserve estimates based on material balance; steady-state and transient fluid flow in permeable reservoir rocks as applied to subsurface engineering problems.
PGE X23L. Reservoir Engineering II: Secondary and Tertiary Recovery.
Introduction to reservoir displacement processes; water and gas injection; enhanced recovery.
PGE X23M. Reservoir Engineering III: Numerical Simulation.
Mathematical equations governing fluid flow in reservoirs; numerical methods to solve the equations; numerical reservoir simulation; treatment of wells; history matching; a simulation project performed using a commercial simulator.
PGE X24. Petrophysics.
Properties of rocks; measurement and interpretation of petrophysical properties; application of petrophysics to subsurface engineering problems; interaction of resident fluids with rocks. Extensive written reporting.
PGE X26. Thermodynamics and Phase Behavior.
Basics of phase behavior, classical thermodynamics in terms of material and energy balances, and applications to changes of state of petroleum fluids.
PGE X27. Properties of Petroleum Fluids.
Principles of organic chemistry, phase behavior of multicomponent mixtures, properties of hydrocarbon gases and liquids and oil field waters, overview of laboratory phase behavior measurements, and material balance calculations.
PGE X29S. Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
This course is used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.
PGE X30. Drilling and Well Completions.
Elements of rock mechanics, drilling fluids, factors affecting rate of penetration, and well completions, including casing and tubing design.
PGE X33T. Engineering Communication.
Advanced technical communication skills, with emphasis on writing strategies for technical documents, oral presentations, and visual aids.
PGE X34. Reservoir Geomechanics.
Basic stress and strain analysis; pore pressure and in situ stress estimation and measurement; deformation mechanisms in rock; rock fracture description and analysis; wellbore stresses and failure; wellbore stability analysis; fault stability analysis; depletion-induced reservoir deformation; and hydraulic fracturing. Emphasis on applications to petroleum engineering.
PGE X38. Geostatistics and Data Analysis.
Explore basic frequentist and Bayesian probability and statistics, confidence and significance models, multivariate and spatial correlated features, feature engineering, spatial debiasing and estimation, stochastic simulation, uncertainty modeling, basic machine learning, and optimum decision making in the presence of uncertainty. Examine applications to spatial problems such as geology and subsurface resource development.
PGE X58. Principles of Formation Evaluation.
Integrated petrophysical interpretation of well logs, core laboratory measurements, and geological data for static, dynamic, and geophysical appraisal of subsurface rock formations.
PGE X61. Advanced Reservoir Engineering.
Secondary recovery methods; computer simulation of reservoir performance; applications to field problems.
PGE X62. Production Technology and Design.
Analysis, specification, and characteristics of production systems; inflow performance; wellbore and tubing hydraulics; and artificial lift.
PGE X63. Petroleum Leasing Regulations and Practices.
Domestic and worldwide regulations associated with petroleum leasing, including offshore areas, and environmental provisions concerning petroleum exploration and production.
PGE X64. Natural Gas Engineering.
Production, transportation, and storage of gas; metering and gauging; performance of wells; estimation of gas reserves; prevention of waste and utilization of natural gas.
PGE X65. Resource Economics and Valuation.
Derivation of profitability criteria for earth resource investments, project analysis in terms of the interrelation of technical and economic factors, investment analysis in the presence of uncertainty, and project planning.
PGE X68. Fundamentals of Well Logging.
Principles, applications, and interpretation of well logs as used in exploration and evaluation of subsurface formations.
PGE X71. Energy Finance.
Fundamentals of finance as applied to the petroleum industry, including petroleum project financing techniques, investigating sources of capital, and methods used to evaluate an oil company's financial performance.
PGE X72. Advanced Drilling and Well Completions.
Applications of geomechanics in wellbore and near-wellbore problems encountered in drilling and completing high-pressure, high-temperature wells on land and water locations.
PGE X73L. Geosystems Engineering Design and Analysis.
Team-oriented design projects involving the application of geologic and engineering methods to the solution of subsurface problems, using field case histories. Projects are selected for each student based on his or her petroleum engineering technical area option.
PGE X75. Special Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Explore recent developments in engineering.
PGE X76. Special Problems in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Independent investigation of an advanced subject in petroleum and geosystems engineering, for superior students only.
PGE X77. Deepwater Operations.
Overview of various technical, logistical, and managerial elements that are functionally integrated in deepwater operations, with emphasis on applications in the Gulf of Mexico.
PGE X78. Applied Reservoir Characterization.
Reservoir modeling using software tools for statistical analysis of reservoir data; variogram analysis and modeling; spatial interpolation (kriging); tools for data integration in kriging; stochastic simulation of rock-types (lithology), pay thickness/porosity, and permeability; inputting geological models into flow simulation; uncertainty assessment.
PGE X79. Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Special courses or seminars on recent developments in engineering.
PGE X79.10. Artificial Lift.
Life of a well, well testing, gas and plunger lift, progressive cavity pumps, electric submersible pumps, and beam lift.
PGE X79.11. Facilities Management.
Petroleum fluid characteristics, process control, separators, metering, produced water, tanks, gas processing, gas compression, and liquid pumps.
PGE X79.12. Blowout Prevention and Control.
Background in hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, geomechanics, mechanical systems, and procedures as they apply to well control.
PGE X79.13. Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques.
Overview of the fundamental displacement concepts of chemical, miscible, and thermal enhanced oil recovery methods. Also includes the concept of phase behavior in each process.
PGE X79.14. High Performance Computational Engineering.
An introduction to the UNIX environment in a scientific computing context, including instruction in several import UNIX applications to improve user productivity. Examine the differences between various parallelization styles of computing and develop a basic working understanding of how to utilize the application programming interfaces (APIs) in scientific applications.
PGE X79.15. E4: The Earth, Natural Resources, and Sustainability.
Application of logic, common sense, the fundamental laws of mass and energy conservation, as well as more advanced thermodynamics to evaluate overall efficencies of major human energy supply schemes such as fossil, nuclear, solar, wind, and biomass to define and quantify the irreversible linear processes and sustainable/unsustainable cycles.
PGE X79.16. Hydraulic Fracture Design and Evaluation.
Overview of Formation evaluation; elasticity; in situ stress calculation and measurement; fracture initiation; basic equations of fracture mechanics; 2-and-3-dimensional fracture models; fluid rheology; proppant settling; pipe friction/surface pressure calculations; treatment pressure analysis; fracture diagnostics; fracturing from horizontal and deviated wells; and treatment design and completions.
PGE X79.17. Applied Subsurface Geology.
Principles and techniques for subsurface geologic interpretation, including subsurface mapping; construction of cross-sections; core description and analysis; stratigraphic interpretation of well logs; and stratigraphic and facies interpretation of seismic data.
PGE X79.18. Wellbore Mechanics and Managed Pressure Drilling.
Operational topics will draw from drilling fluids engineering; drilling system engineering; rig and wellbore hydraulics; ROP parameters and drilling optimizations; wellbore stability; fracture and pore pressure gradients; mud weight windows; in-situ and near-wellbore stress states; lost circulation; pressure control; pipe sticking; and other situations common to drilling operations.
PGE X79.19. Advanced Well Construction.
Focus on advanced topics in drilling fluids, cementing, hydraulics, managed pressure and dual gradient drilling, advanced well control and casing design, complex well design (DW, HPHT, Arctic), and well completions.
PGE X79.20. Drilling Engineering and Operations Management.
A broad overview of the key elements of today's drilling engineering discipline, including an understanding of rigs and rig equipment, familiarity with drilling fluids, cementing, directional drilling techniques etc., up to understanding of casing design, well control and the application of new & emerging drilling and completion technologies.
PGE X79.21. Wellbore to Reservoir Geomechanics.
Applications from offshore to unconventionals. Applications of fluid flow/geomechanics concepts at wellbore, near-wellbore and reservoir scales; vertical, inclined, and horizontal wells; drilling, completion, production and reservoir applications; sandstones, shales, carbonates
PGE X79.22. Global Carbon Monitoring Systems.
Review technologies that help us monitor the pulse of the planet. Learn about systems that directly measure carbon dioxide and methane emissions from both natural sources like wetlands and permafrost and human-made sources like agriculture and fossil fuels. Study how modern technologies - drones, satellites, aerial systems - are revolutionizing the way we measure carbon emission from energy production and use.
PGE X79.23. Subsurface Energy Storage.
Explore hydrogen, compressed air, and carbon storage in geological formations. Review ongoing projects and their relations to net-zero greenhouse emission targets. Discuss flow, transport, and geochemical interactions of different gases with site minerals.
PGE X79.3. Geothermal and Sustainable Energy Resources.
Explore energy resources including geothermal, solar thermal, and biomass. Examine the foundations of these energy resources and the engineering approaches to recovering them. Build on basic knowledge in thermodynamics, flow through porous media, and chemistry.
PGE X79.4. Carbon Capture and Storage.
Explore carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere; carbon dioxide capture from industrial sources; and the utilization, underground storage, and monitoring of carbon dioxide.
PGE X79.5. Energy and the Environment.
Examine current and potential energy sources and how these might impact the earth's environment. Explore the consequences of energy production in terms of the environmental impact. Discuss carbon, water, and land footprints.
PGE X79.7. Small Scale Fluid Flow.
Examine the physics of fluid flow at the microscale in the context of pore-scale transport in subsurface systems and microfluidic models of subsurface systems. Review geological sediment deposition and how that motivates the appropriate microscopic length-scales. Explore equations of mass and momentum conservation for incompressible fluids. Develop simplifications towards the small-scale slow-flow limit to describe transport through pores and cover techniques in microfluidics and micromodels development.
PGE X79.8. Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law.
Explore basic oil and gas law concepts, the forms generally used in oil and gas transactions and the type of regulation commonly applied to the oil and gas industry with a focus on Texas oil and gas law and regulation.
PGE X79.9. Subsurface Machine Learning.
Explore fundamental probability and statistics; inference and prediction; and model training, testing, tuning, and validation. Examine workflows for integrating many features; workflows for anomaly detection, spatiotemporal prediction, and uncertainty integration. Communicate results within a project team to impact subsurface decision making.
PGE X79H. Undergraduate Honors Thesis.
Research performed during two consecutive semesters under the supervision of an engineering faculty member; topics are selected jointly by the student and the faculty member with approval by the director of the Engineering Honors Program. The student makes an oral presentation and writes a thesis.
PGE X80. Advanced Petroleum Laboratory for Master's Degree Candidates.
PGE X90. Advanced Laboratory for Doctoral Candidates.
Graduate Courses
PGE X80. Advanced Petroleum Laboratory for Master's Degree Candidates.
PGE X81. Drilling Engineering.
Basic drilling terminology and advanced drilling engineering topics.
PGE X81K. Engineering Analysis.
Application of classical methods of mathematical analysis to problems frequently encountered in engineering applications.
PGE X81L. Advanced Petrophysics.
Measurement, interpretation, and analysis of petrophysical properties of petroleum reservoir rocks.
PGE X81M. Transport Phenomena.
PGE X82. Basic Geological Concepts for Engineers.
Basic geological principles for students with little or no geological background.
PGE X82K. Theory and Application of Reservoir Transients.
Mathematical development and application of multiple pressure transients in well and reservoir systems.
PGE X82L. Numerical Methods in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
The use of numerical methods and computers in the solution of petroleum and geosystems engineering problems.
PGE X83. Special Topics in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Recent literature on petroleum production practice and petroleum and geosystems engineering problems.
PGE X83.10. Numerical Solution of Time-Dependent Problems.
PGE X83.12. Near Wellbore Problems.
PGE X83.16. Topics in Computational Methods.
PGE X83.17. Naturally Fractured Reservoirs.
PGE X83.2. Advanced Drilling Fluids.
PGE X83.20. Geostatistics.
PGE X83.24. Natural Gas Engineering.
PGE X83.27. Rock Mechanics: Drilling, Completing, and Producing Applications.
PGE X83.28. Macroeconomics of Petroleum.
PGE X83.30. Fundamentals of Subsurface Environmental Engineering.
PGE X83.32. Hydraulic Fracture Design and Evaluation.
PGE X83.33. Advanced Drilling and Well Completion.
PGE X83.35. Advanced Production Engineering.
PGE X83.36. Advanced Numerical Methods.
PGE X83.38. Chromatographic Transport and Geochemical Modeling.
PGE X83.39. Design and Analysis of Pumping Systems.
PGE X83.41. Energy Finance.
PGE X83.46. International Petroleum Concessions and Agreements.
PGE X83.5. Thermal Recovery.
PGE X83.50. Reservoir Applications of Foam.
PGE X83.55. Pore-Level Petrophysics.
Geological and mathematical investigation of pore-scale basis for transport phenomena and petrophysical properties of sedimentary rocks.
PGE X83.56. Stochastic Methods for Reservoir Modeling.
Spatial interpolation and stochastic simulation techniques for reservoir characterization.
PGE X83.57. Deepwater Operations.
Overview of various technical, logistical, and managerial elements that are functionally integrated in deepwater operations, with emphasis on applications in the Gulf of Mexico.
PGE X83.58. Applied Reservoir Characterization.
Reservoir modeling using software tools for statistical analysis of reservoir data; variogram analysis and modeling; spatial interpolation (kriging); tools for data integration in kriging; stochastic simulation of rock types (lithology), pay thickness/porosity, and permeability; inputting geological models into flow simulation; uncertainty assessment.
PGE X83.59. Oil and Gas Production Facilities Design.
Applied theory relating to field processing of hydrocarbons and water, including hydrocarbon and gas separation, gas sweetening and dehydration, gas compression, fluid metering, process control, corrosion, and safety systems.
PGE X83.60. Energy and Earth Resource Economics.
Theoretical and applied topics in natural resource economics, including project analysis, production theory, industrial organization, markets and regulation, and environmental economics.
PGE X83.61. Project Management.
Overview of project management theory and practice in the natural resource sector, with a focus on exploration and production of energy resources.
PGE X83.62. Energy and the Environment.
A survey course covering current and potential energy sources, what the energy supply mix will be in the future, and how this might impact the environment.
PGE X83.63. Subsurface Machine Learning.
Explore the theory and practice of data analytics and machine learning for subsurface resource modeling. Examine fundamental probability and statistics; data preparation and feature engineering, inference (clustering, multidimensional scaling) and prediction (regression, naive Bayes, decision trees, random forest, support vector machines and artificial neural nets); and model selection, training, testing, tuning, and validation.
PGE X83.64. High Performance Computing for Engineers.
Explore an introduction to the UNIX environment in a high-performance scientific computing context. Examine several import UNIX applications that can help users be more productive. Discuss the basic differences between various parallelization styles of computing, as well as how to utilize the application programming interfaces (APIs) in scientific applications.
PGE X83.65. Formation Evaluation of Unconventional Reservoirs.
Explore advanced formation evaluation of unconventional reservoirs through experimental and computational/analytical methods and workflows. Discuss the rock physics of unconventional reservoirs. Examine multi-physics and multi-scale formation data (well logs, core data, and geological information) to construct hydrocarbon reservoir models amenable to production forecast and improved development of available reserves in unconventional reservoirs.
PGE X83.66. Data Analytics and Geostatistics.
Explore subsurface data analytics and geostatistics, from fundamental probability and statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis, representative sampling, spatial characterization and modeling, and uncertainty management to decision-making in the presence of uncertainty.
PGE X83.67. Applied Subsurface Geology.
Explore subsurface geology as a window into stratigraphy, depositional environments, depositional processes, tectonic influences, and other knowledge that can be applied to petroleum systems. Examine principles and techniques for subsurface geologic interpretation through inquiry-based, hands-on activities using petroleum-industry datasets.
PGE X83.68. Digital Rock Physics.
Examine current modalities used in imaging porous medium structure, transport within, or its deformation. Discuss the analysis and visualization of 2D or 3D images, quantifying properties of interest (such as porosity, tortuosity, areas or permeability) as well as the associated uncertainty. Delve into a combination of advanced image analysis algorithms, scientific visualization, and computation (based on the images). Explore digital rock physics: the images, their analysis, and using them in simulation of petrophysical properties of interest.
PGE X83.69. Geothermal and Sustainable Energy Resources.
Explore energy resources including geothermal, solar thermal, and biomass. Examine the foundations of these energy resources and the engineering approaches to recovering them. Build on basic knowledge in thermodynamics, flow through porous media, and chemistry.
PGE X83.70. Advanced Geomechanics.
Examine the fundamentals of theoretical geomechanics and its application to problems in petroleum engineering. Explore the mechanics of porous solids and saturated porous solids, mechanical properties of real reservoir geomaterials, plane strain solutions for typical applications and numerical solutions for particular problems, and thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled processes. Apply this knowledge to understand the deformational behavior of various geomaterials found in petroleum engineering, to recognize situations in which geomechanical effects are important, and to choose the proper tools to solve geomechanical problems.
PGE X83.71. Artificial Lift.
Explore the life of a well, well testing, gas and plunger lift, progressive cavity pumps, electric submersible pumps, and beam lift.
PGE X83.72. Carbon Capture and Storage.
Explore carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere; carbon dioxide capture from industrial sources; and the utilization, underground storage, and monitoring of carbon dioxide.
PGE X83.73. Finite Element Methods.
Explore the basic concepts of the finite element method for two-point boundary value problems, elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations, and linear and nonlinear solvers. Examine the development of the method: weak formulations, approximating spaces, and construction and solution of linear systems.
PGE X83.74. Writing Technical Papers.
Explore how to write technical papers, theses, and dissertations. Practice writing and editing technical works.
PGE X83.75. Inverse Problems in Geophysics and Petroleum Engineering.
Explore the basics of multi-parameter linear and nonlinear inversion of noisy measurements. Discuss inversion methods including deterministic, stochastic approaches, and machine-learning approaches. Examine examples of application from the fields of subsurface geophysics and petroleum engineering.
PGE X83.76. Decision Analysis.
Explore the principles and application of techniques for the logical illumination of complex decision problems within any context. Examine utility theory, probability as a statement of belief, risk preference, value of information and control, probability assessment, influence diagrams, risk sharing and scaling, and life and death decision making. Discuss the principles and fundamental concepts for the normative theory of decision making under uncertainty. Develop a language, set of theories, and tools to transform complex decisions into ones where the course of action is clear.
PGE X83.77. Small-Scale Fluid Flow.
Examine the physics of fluid flow at the microscale in the context of pore-scale transport in subsurface systems and microfluidic models of subsurface systems. Review geological sediment deposition and how that motivates the appropriate microscopic length-scales. Explore equations of mass and momentum conservation for incompressible fluids. Develop simplifications towards the small-scale slow-flow limit to describe transport through pores and cover techniques in microfluidics and micromodels development.
PGE X83.78. Subsurface Energy Storage.
Explore hydrogen, compressed air, and carbon storage in geological formations. Review ongoing projects and their relations to net-zero greenhouse emission targets. Discuss flow, transport, and geochemical interactions of different gases with site minerals.
PGE X83.79. Global Carbon Monitoring Systems.
Review technologies that help us monitor the pulse of the planet. Learn about systems that directly measure carbon dioxide and methane emissions from both natural sources like wetlands and permafrost and human-made sources like agriculture and fossil fuels. Study how modern technologies - drones, satellites, aerial systems - are revolutionizing the way we measure carbon emission from energy production and use.
PGE X84. Advanced Thermodynamics and Phase Behavior.
Thermodynamic study of pressure/volume/temperature/composition relationships in oil and gas mixtures.
PGE X85K. Advanced Multi-Well Formation Evaluation.
Advanced concepts in formation evaluation for the estimation of static and dynamic petrophysical properties of rocks from well logs, core data, and geological information. Multi-well data sets, seismic amplitude data, and regional geological studies are used to construct hydrocarbon reservoir models amenable to production forecast and improved development of available reserves.
PGE X85M. Advanced Well-Logging and Correlation.
Advanced well-logging for the geologist and engineer, involving working problems with suites of well logs to cover advanced mapping and logging techniques.
PGE X86K. Advanced Fluid Flow in Porous Media.
The hydrodynamic equations governing the steady state flow of homogeneous fluids in porous media and their application to petroleum and geosystems engineering problems.
PGE X87. Secondary Recovery of Petroleum.
Recovery by gas injection and water flooding.
PGE X87K. Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery I.
Recent innovations in the recovery of petroleum by injecting fluids miscible with the oil or by application of heat to the reservoir.
PGE X87L. Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery II.
Basic concepts and principles of chemical flooding methods of enhanced oil recovery, which include polymer flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding (SP), alkaline-sufactant-polymer flooding (ASP), chemical imbibitions by wettability alteration methods and surfactant-gas (SG) methods, and also some comparisons with other EOR methods such as miscible gas flooding when appropriate and as time permits.
PGE X88. Advanced Reservoir Engineering.
Basic concepts of reservoir engineering, with applications to the production of hydrocarbons from both gas and oil reservoirs. Examines the governing equations for flow in permeable media, as well as concepts such as streamline flow; pseudo-steady-state flow, fractional flow, and both immiscible and miscible flow. Uses black oil and compositional reservoir simulators.
PGE X89. Economic Analysis in the Petroleum Industry.
Engineering justification for capital outlay in the petroleum industry.
PGE X90. Advanced Laboratory for Doctoral Candidates.
PGE X92K. Numerical Simulation of Reservoirs.
Development and application of reservoir simulator models to primary and secondary recovery processes in reservoir engineering.
PGE X97M. Graduate Research Internship.
PGE X97R. Research in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
PGE X98. Thesis.
PGE X98R. Master's Report.
Preparation of a report to fulfill the requirement for the master's degree under the report option.