2007-2008 Academic Catalog

Course descriptions


Course descriptions index


Petroleum Engineering

A $25 per semester student computing facility user fee is assessed for CEM engineering courses. This fee is in addition to any lab/materials fee. All graduate level PETE courses will be assessed a course fee of $45.


PETE 103      1 Credit
Survey of the Energy Industries
Overview of global energy supply and demand, alternate energy options, Alaska alternate energy resources and impact on the state economy. (1 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 104      1 Credit
Fundamentals of Petroleum
Fundamental principles on the origin, migration, accumulation and exploration of petroleum. Influence of rock and fluid properties on the principles of petroleum recovery. (1 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 205      1 Credit
Fundamentals of Drilling Practices
Fundamental principles of drilling, drilling practices, drilling fluids and drilling problems dependent on mud control. (Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.) (1 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 206      1 Credit
Introduction to Petroleum Production
Overview of production practices, surface production equipment, special production problems and workover, and petroleum transportation. (Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.) (1 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 211      1-2 Credits
Drilling Laboratory
Measurement of physical properties of drilling mud. Optional BOP certification and drilling rig operation experience during spring break. (Prerequisite: PETE 205 or permission of instructor.) (0 + 3 or 6) Offered Spring


PETE 301      4 Credits
Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties
Fundamental concepts of reservoir rock and fluid properties including porosity, permeability, fluid saturations, capillary pressure, relative permeabilities, classification of petroleum reservoirs by fluid phase contents, oil, gas and water properties, fluid sampling, and PVT analysis. (Prerequisites: MATH 201X, ES 346 and GEOS 101X or GE 261.) (4 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 302      3 Credits
Well Logging
Comprehensive treatment of modern well logging methods including formation and production logging tools, and techniques and basic concepts of log interpretation. (Prerequisite: Junior standing in engineering or geoscience.) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 303W     1 Credit
Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties Laboratory
Measurement of properties of reservoir rock and reservoir fluids. Determination of porosity, permeability, fluid saturations, capillary pressures, specific gravity density, viscosity, surface tension, PVT properties and interpretation of PVT reports for reservoir fluid samples. Course fee: $45. (Prerequisite: ENGL 111X; ENGL 211X or ENGL 213X or permission of instructor; PETE 301.) (0 + 3) Offered Spring


PETE 407      3 Credits
Petroleum Production Engineering
Production system analysis, inflow performance analysis, gas lift design, sucker rod pumping and production decline analysis. (Prerequisites: ES 341 and ES 346.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 411W     1 Credit
Drilling Fluids Laboratory
Design, composition and measurement of drilling fluid properties, evaluation of mud activities and chemical treatment of contaminated drilling fluid. Course fee: $45. (Prerequisites: ENGL 111X; ENGL 211X or ENGL 213X or permission of instructor; PETE 205; and concurrent enrollment in PETE 426.) (0 + 3) Offered Spring


PETE 421      3 Credits
Reservoir Characterization
(Stacked with PETE 621)
Reservoir rock properties and their spatial variations; estimation of reserves; introduction to theory and application of geostatistics to reservoir characterization; presentation of fundamental geostatistical concepts including: variogram analysis, estimation variance, kriging and stochastic simulations. Impact of geologic structure on oil recovery methods. (Prerequisites: PETE 301, 302, and GEOS 370) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 426      3 Credits
Drilling Engineering
Principles of drilling, drilling fluids and rheology, drilling problems, drilling hydraulics, well control techniques and casing seat selection. (Prerequisites: ES 331, 341.) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 431      2 Credits
Natural Gas Engineering
Natural gas production and condensate reservoirs. Design of processing, transportation, distribution and flow measurement systems. (Prerequisite: PETE 301.) (2 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 456      3 Credits
Petroleum Evaluation and Economic Decisions
Economic appraisal methods for oil field developmental project evaluations including risk analysis, probability and statistics in decision making and evaluations. Case studies. (Prerequisites: MATH 202X and PETE 476.) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 458      1 Credit
Petroleum Engineering Internship
Practical experience in a supervised petroleum engineering environment. Participation in professional petroleum operations including drilling, production, formation evaluation, reservoir engineering, petroleum property evaluation, management and economics. Written and oral presentation of technical report describing experience is required. Course may be repeated for up to 4 credits. (Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of instructor.) (0 + Var) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 466      3 Credits
Petroleum Recovery Methods
Flow and physicochemical principles of oil recovery by water, chemical, thermal and miscible floods. Prediction of recovery for each of these methods. (Prerequisites: PETE 301 and PETE 476.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


PETE 476      3 Credits
Petroleum Reservoir Engineering
Quantitative study and prediction of the behavior of oil and gas reservoirs under primary, secondary and tertiary recovery mechanisms. (Prerequisites: PETE 301, 405.) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 478      2 Credits
Well Test Analysis
Transient flow of fluids through porous media, application of solutions of the diffusivity equation to pressure buildup, drawdown, interference testing and log-log type curve analysis and effect of reservoir heterogeneities on pressure behavior. (Prerequisites: PETE 476 and MATH 302) (2 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 481W     3 Credits
Well Completions and Stimulation Design
Design of casing programs, cementing, open-hole and set-through completions, well stimulation; completion and workover fluids; and evaluation of sand control and workover operations. (Prerequisites: ENGL 111X; ENGL 211X or ENGL 213X; or permission of instructor; PETE 205; ES 341; and PETE 426.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall


PETE 487A     1 Credit
PETE 487BW, O    1 Credit
Petroleum Project Design
Two-semester course with emphasis on design and analysis of petroleum exploration, production and reservoir engineering systems by analytical, experimental and computer methods. Identification of requirements, conceptual and detailed project design and cost analysis. Completion of an engineering project. Course fee: $45. (Prerequisites: Senior standing. For PETE 487B: COMM 131X or 141X; ENGL 111X; ENGL 211X or ENGL 213X or permission of instructor. Note: Oral communication intensive and writing intensive credits are earned upon successful completion of PETE 487B.) (2 + 0) PETE 487A Offered Fall, PETE 487BW, O Offered Spring


PETE 489      2 Credits
Reservoir Simulation
The theory and use of computer reservoir simulation in petroleum reservoir and production engineering. Course fee: $45. (Prerequisites: MATH 310 and PETE 476.) (2 + 0) Offered Spring


PETE 607      3 Credits
Advanced Production Engineering
Production system analysis, production optimization, downhole equipment design, surface facilities design, oil and gas processing, gas and oil treating systems, disposal well systems, project organization and field development. (Prerequisites: Graduate standing, PETE 407 or equivalent, permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 610      3 Credits
Advanced Reservoir Engineering
Concepts and tools for solving petroleum reservoir engineering problems; advances in petroleum reservoir engineering. Emphasis on material balance methods and their application to estimate reserves and calculate water influx; diversity equations and solutions; gas and water coning; streamline tracking; and decline curve analysis; productivity index; and well performance models for vertical, horizontal and multilateral wells. (Prerequisite: PETE 476 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 621      3 Credits
Applied Reservoir Characterization
(Stacked with PETE 421)
Review of reservoir rock properties and their spatial variations; estimation of reserves; introduction to theory and application of geostatistics to reservoir characterization; presentation of fundamental geostatistical concepts including variogram analysis, estimation variance, kriging and stochastic simulations. Impact of geologic structure on oil recovery. Use of computer software for reservoir characterization and class project. (Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Petroleum Engineering) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 630      3 Credits
Water Flooding
Fundamental concepts and procedures for the design of water flooding processes in petroleum reservoirs. (Prerequisites: PETE 301 and PETE 476.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 656      3 Credits
Advanced Petroleum Economic Analysis
Economic analysis of petroleum production leading towards increasing cost efficiency in the petroleum and related industries. Qualitative and quantitative description of production forecasts and reserve estimation; oil and gas pricing; cash flow analysis; risk and uncertainty of operation of oil and gas production (financing, debt/equity ratio, depreciation and taxation). (Prerequisites: PETE 407, PETE 456; and/or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 661      3 Credits
Applied Well Testing
Equations for transient flow of single phase fluids through porous media, extension to sample multiphase flow, isolated and developed multi-well flow, conventional drawdown and buildup analysis, log-log type curve analysis, interference testing, fractured wells, pulse tests and drill stem tests. (Prerequisite: PETE 476 or PETE 610. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 662      3 Credits
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Secondary and tertiary oil recovery processes, including waterflooding and chemical and thermal recovery methods. (Prerequisite: PETE 476 or PETE 610. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 663      3 Credits
Applied Reservoir Simulation
Mathematical description of the reservoir, organization of reservoir simulation study, history matching and prediction for several published case studies of reservoir simulations, class project application to simulation of an Alaskan reservoir. (Prerequisites: PETE 476, PETE 610 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 665      3 Credits
Advanced Phase Behavior
The development and application of phase equilibrium simulators to predict fluid properties for reservoir fluids. (Prerequisites: PETE 321 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 666      3 Credits
Drilling Optimization
Principles of drilling optimization: drilling cost analysis and control; rheological properties of drilling fluid for optimum hole cleaning; planning an optimum mud program for vertical, directional and horizontal wellbores; optimizing bit hydraulics. Use of software packages in optimized hydraulics. (Prerequisite: Graduate standing in engineering discipline or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 670      3 Credits
Fluid Flow Through Porous Media
The study of transport phenomena in porous media and application to petroleum engineering. (Prerequisites: PETE 301 and PETE 476.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 680      3 Credits
Horizontal Well Technology
Review of the state of the art of horizontal well technology covering recent advances in drilling and completion of horizontal wells. Emphasis on field practices, reservoir engineering aspects including well testing and well performance estimation, application of horizontal wells to gas and water coning problems as well as enhanced oil recovery. (Prerequisites: PETE 426 and PETE 476 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 683      3 Credits
Natural Gas Processing and Engineering
Natural gas reservoir engineering and gas production practices; transient flow of real gases, gas field development, gas well testing, transportation and gas storage reservoirs. (Prerequisites: PETE 431 and PETE 476. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 685      3 Credits
Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
Characteristics of stress in fluids, flow models of non-Newtonian fluids (Bingham plastic fluids, fluids without yield stress), couette flow analysis of non-Newtonian fluids, surge and swab pressure models for plugged and open-end pipes. (Prerequisites: ES 341, PETE 426 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


PETE 689      3 Credits
Multiphase Fluid Flow in Pipes
Multiphase flow in pipes, modeling of fluid flow of complex mixtures in pipes, empirical correlations developed in the literature, and calculation of pressure gradients and flow rates during the flow of multiphase fluids through vertical, inclined and horizontal pipes. (Prerequisites: ES 341, MATH 310 or ES 301, and PETE 407, or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants