Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering (PNGE)

Dr. Russell T. JohnsProgram Chair (rjohns@psu.edu)

• Update on PNGE

• Peaks and Valleys – The Future of the Oil Industry

• Advising Issues and Suggestions

• Individual Advising Time

Update on Our PNGE Program

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SPE Reception 2017

PSU Nittany Lions “Take On” the World!• What is PNGE currently ranked in US News and World Report?

– 6th in graduate petroleum engineering in the US by petroleum engineering heads

• What is our PNGE program ranked worldwide? – 4th in the world for petroleum engineering programs by CEOWORLD

magazine (of course this is the most accurate and unbiased ranking)

• What award did the SPE student chapter receive for the second year in a row?

– Outstanding student chapter

• How many new faculty do we have this fall in petroleum engineering?

– Two tenured faculty…and one course assistant…– Amin Mehrabian (4 years with Halliburton in drilling engineering)– Arash Dahi Talegahni (8 years with LSU in production engineering)– Jon Benesch (35 years with Exxon as a drilling engineer)

• How many seniors are graduating this year? How many next year?– 122 current seniors– 50 seniors next year

• What is the current GPA average of our seniors?– 3.6

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Current PNGE Faculty and Skills

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Faculty Major Technical Skills

1 Meshal Algharaib EOR Processes (CO2,Chemical, Thermal), Reservoir Studies, Reservoir Simulation

2 Luis Ayala Natural gas engineering, Un-conventional reservoir analysis, numerical modeling

3 Derek Elsworth Rock mechanics, fracture generation, geothermal processes4 Hamid Emami-Meybodi Numerical modeling of fluid flow in the porous media, EOR processes, CO2 storage in

geological formations, Transport Phenomena in un-conventional gas reservoirs

5 Turgay Ertekin - Retired Reservoir modeling, Fluid flow dynamics in porous media, Flow of gas in tight formations, coal seam gasification, Well test analysis, EOR

6 Russ Johns Industry experience in petrophysics, Fluid and rock interactions, EOR, Thermodynamics and phase behavior, Unconventional gas engineering, Well testing, multi-phase flow in the porous media

7 Zuleima Karpyn Multi-phase flow and transport in the porous media, un-conventional resource characterization, reservoir engineering, Under-ground hydrology, Environmental remediation

8 Gregory King 30+ years of practical industry experience in reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation and modeling

9 Shimin Liu Coal-bed methane, mining, gas shale recovery10 Serguei Lvov Corrosion, low salinity waterflooding, thermodynamics11 Amin Mehrabian (NEW) Drilling and completions, SAGD12 Eugene Morgan Seismic methods for reservoir characterization13 Sanjay Srinivasan Reservoir characterization using seismic, IOR, CO2 sequestration14 Arash Dahi Taleghani (NEW) Drilling and completions, cement, production engineering15 John Wang Industry experience in evaluating and optimizing production, Reservoir evaluation,

Stimulation

*Jon Benesch, retired from Exxon, is assisting with drilling courses beginning this fall. Jon was a PSU graduate and a drilling engineer with Exxon.

Our PNGE Undergraduate Numbers

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3.0 GPA controlfirst approved forincoming freshman

3.0 GPAtakes affect

3.3 GPAtakes effect

3.3 GPA controlapproved

First oil pricedrop impact

3.0 GPAapproved

Projection

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BS Degrees Granted in the US

Peaks and Valleys –Future of the Petroleum

Industry

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Can We Predict the Future?

• No, but let’s try...

• Are we going to run out of petroleum? Are there jobs?

• How long do we have before renewables (wind, solar, bio, batteries…) replace petroleum?

• What are the environmental problems that could affect jobs?

• Are environmental “perceived” problems going to restrict petroleum growth? Any myths?

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Total Enrollment

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Huge Gas and Oil Tight Shale Reservoirs

JPT 2014 10

What is Hydraulic Fracturing?

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Types of Hydraulic Fracturing

• The goal of fracturing is to provide a conduit of flow of hydrocarbons to a well and to increase the area of contact

• Fracturing began in the 1940’s by injection of viscous water-based fluid to create one large fracture in conventional reservoirs.

• One large fracture is not create sufficient area for oil and gas shale reservoirs, so a process of fracturing using “slickwater” was developed in the 1990’s. This process relies on creating a “tree” of large and micro fractures by injection of less viscous fluid (using friction reducers) at high rates.

• Proppant (sand) is used to keep the fractures open after injection.

• Horizontal wells up to 8000 ft allow for say 10 to 20 “tree” fracture treatments to be done. Refracturing is likely in the future.

• Water-based fluids are used primarily today in deep high pressured reservoirs, but nitrogen/foam is used and CO2 “high energy” fluids are also being considered.

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Pennsylvania Gas Production

Pennsylvania produced over 4 Trillion cubic feet of gas in 2014, equivalent to 2 million barrels oil (BOE) per day or 1/4th of US daily oil rate13

Production from Oil/Gas Shale

• Today’s oversupply (and lower gasoline prices) are partially the result of oil companies doing a great job exploiting tight shale reservoirs on private and state-owned lands.

• There has been a rapid and unexpected gush of 4.0 million barrels of oil per day from American oil fields, with the majority in the last three years.

• If the US shale industry were a country, it would rank as the world’s fifth largest hydrocarbon producer!

• We are not running out, and have ample supply for generations! 14

Production of oil/gas is continued mainly by drilling new wells! Significant need exists to increase recovery %. 15

Shale Gas/Oil Wells Decline Fast

Renewables

• Nuclear power is the cleanest renewable with the best potential to replace petroleum. But…

• Wind and solar are great choices for particular locations. However, these sources require significant amounts of metals (copper, ….) and use significant amounts of petroleum to generate them.

• Wind and solar are sporadic (wind can decrease, sun may not shine) requiring another energy source. Petroleum and renewables can work together. What state leads the US in energy production from wind?

• Hydrocarbons still supply 85% of the world’s energy! (Forbes 2015)

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Environmental Myths About Natural Gas

• Hydraulic fractures in the Marcellus shale reach aquifers contaminating them. This is not possible from a volume balance…. Contamination behind casing is possible…

• Natural gas (methane) is not environmentally friendly…

Methane Combustion: (16 times less CO2 than octane)CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O

Octane Combusion (like gasoline): 2 C8H18 + 25 O2 = 16 CO2 + 18 H2O

• These new gas wells cause significant deforestation

• Fossil fuels have not improved the quality of life as air pollution is increasing

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Moral Element to Divesting from Fossil Fuels

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Fossil fuels have improved the quality of life, but cleaner fuels like natural gas combined with some renewables should add further to our quality of life.

Natural gas is environmentally friendlier…

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Air Pollution is Improving…

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More natural gas use will continue this trend since only CO2 and water are given off in combustion. Further, CO2 levels will decrease.

No matter wind, sun, nuclear… Fossil fuel consumption increases, although it

decreases as % of total energy needs

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Take Away Messages…• Student demand strongly depends on oil as a commodity (oil

price). Fossil fuel demand is increasing 3% per year worldwide.

• There will be future “peaks and valleys” and we are in a down environment now. We took steps to lower our graduating numbers…. 3.3 GPA then 3.0 GPA.

• There will be significantly less students graduating next year (122 vs. 50 at PSU, and at other schools similar decreases).

• Student demand for employment is likely to gain strength this year, but increase substantially next year (if the oil price remains firm).

• You have a great opportunity to earn a job in petroleum, but remember you must be GOOD at what you do. Keep learning and perform well! 22

Advising Issues and Suggestions

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Advising Suggestions (see handout)…• Join the student chapter of SPE and AADE. Attend as many

talks and presentations as you can.

• Get a summer internship in something every summer…

• Visit spe.org to learn about petroleum engineering. Make sure that you LOVE this field, as this field is not for the faint of heart.

• Attend SPE conferences near here (Pittsburgh, Morgantown) or at SPE ATCE. Bring your resume and find yourself a job. See the spe site for locations.

• Follow the course guidelines exactly. See http://www.eme.psu.edu/pnge. You will findo Approved technical electiveso Course recommended plan FOR YOUR YEAR!o Course substitutions allowed

• You must have the proper pre-requisites or co-requisites. See the handout. This means following the recommended plan! 24

Disciplines in Petroleum Engineering (see SPE.org

• Drilling Engineering – Plan and drill wells both onshore and offshore

• Reservoir Engineering – Design and simulate well locations and processes to optimize oil recovery

• Petrophysical Engineering –Evaluate rock physics using well logs and core data

• Production Engineering –Design surface equipment to maximize liquid recovery

• Facilities Engineering – Design complex facilities for further separation of oil/gas components

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• Other names include operations engineers, pipeline engineers, completions engineers. All PEs work with geologists, geophysicists, and paleontologists.

• Other possible jobs for PEs are in aquifer cleanup and geothermal energy

Individual Advising Time…

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We Are…. Penn State

Thank You!

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