The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...

 (NTNU

NTNU

NTNU can refer to several universities.*Norwegian University of Science and Technology *National Taiwan Normal University*Nigerian Turkish Nile University...

) is the key university of science and technology in Norway. The Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics (IPT) was established in 1973, shortly after the start of production (Ekofisk field) from the Norwegian continental shelf

Norwegian continental shelf

The Norwegian continental shelf is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...

. The department came to include Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum engineering

Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...

 as well as Geophysics

Geophysics

Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...

, which is seen as a major strength of the petroleum education at NTNU. The department has elected chairman and vice chairman, and 4 informal groups of professors; geophysics

Geophysics

Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...

, drilling, production and reservoir engineering

Reservoir engineering

Reservoir engineering is a branch of petroleum engineering that applies scientific principles to the drainage problems arising during the development and production of oil and gas reservoirs so as to obtain a high economic recovery....

. The stated primary purpose of maintaining the informal groups is to take care of the teaching in their respective disciplines. Each group is responsible for offering a sufficient number of courses, semester projects and thesis projects at M.Sc. and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 levels in their discipline, and to make annual revisions of these in accordance with the needs of society and industry. The total number of professors, associate professors, assistant professors and adjunct professors

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 is 32. The administrative staff is led by a department administrator, and consists of a total of 6 secretaries. The technical support staff reports to the department head, and consists of 8 engineers and technicians. Until 2000, the department was part of the Applied Earth Sciences faculty, together with the Geology-department. After that, the department is part of the Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology (one of a total of 10 departments).

Brief historical statistics of the department:

• Established in 1973
• More than 2000 graduated M.Sc.´s
• More than 125 graduated Ph.D.´s
• Around 80 M.Sc.´s graduate every year
• Around 10 Ph.D.´s graduate every year
• Currently around 120 full-time teachers, researchers and staff
• Around 360 students enrolled at B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels
• Around 65 PhD students enrolled

Research

The department focus research within the following 5 areas: Petroleum geophysics, Reservoir engineering, Production engineering, Subsea engineering, Drilling engineering and Integrated operations

Integrated operations

In the Petroleum industry, Integrated operations refers to new work processes and ways of doing oil and gas exploration and production, which has been facilitated by new information and communication technology. Multi-discipline collaboration in plant operation is one example...

.

Petroleum Geophysics:

• Marine seismic source
  Seismic source
  A seismic source is a device that generates controlled seismic energy used to perform both reflection and refraction seismic surveys. A seismic source can be simple, such as dynamite, or it can use more sophisticated technology, such as a specialized air gun. Seismic sources can provide single...
  
  s
• Seismic
  Reflection seismology
  Reflection seismology is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismic source of energy, such as dynamite/Tovex, a specialized air gun or a...
  
   tomography
  Tomography
  Tomography refers to imaging by sections or sectioning, through the use of any kind of penetrating wave. A device used in tomography is called a tomograph, while the image produced is a tomogram. The method is used in radiology, archaeology, biology, geophysics, oceanography, materials science,...
  
   and imaging
• Inversion
  Inverse problem
  An inverse problem is a general framework that is used to convert observed measurements into information about a physical object or system that we are interested in...
  
   for elastic parameters (AVA) and reservoir parameters
• Reservoir seismic and rock physics
• Analysis of repeated seismic data (four-dimensional)
• Processing of marine controlled source electromagnetic
  Electromagnetism
  Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
  
   data
• Modelling and characterization of anisotropic
  Anisotropy
  Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which implies identical properties in all directions. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physical or mechanical properties An example of anisotropy is the light...
  
   layered media (seismic and EM
  Electromagnetism
  Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
  
  )

Reservoir Engineering:

• Experimental studies on novel methods for improved oil recovery, like chemical flooding, non-hydrocarbon gas flooding and microbial flooding
• Development of improved methods for numerical simulation of enhanced oil recovery processes in conventional, fractured and heterogeneous reservoirs
• Development of improved techniques for interpretation of well tests, specially related to compressible reservoirs
• Development of phase-behaviour software for non-hydrocarbon injection gases for enhanced oil recovery

Production Engineering

• Multiphase flow in wells and pipelines
• Pumping and artificial lift
• Flow assurance
  Flow assurance
  Flow assurance is a relatively new term in oil and gas industry. It refers to ensuring successful and economical flow of hydrocarbon stream from reservoir to the point of sale...
  
   and condition monitoring
• Hydrate for transport of natural gas
• Processing of oil and gas
• Field development

Subsea Engineering:

• All-electric subsea control systems including electrical connectors and valve actuators
• Experimental and numerical studies of near well bore formation damage related to balanced drilling

Drilling engineering:

• Horizontal drilling
• Electric pulse drilling
• Improved drilling fluid properties
• Managed pressure drilling

Integrated operations: The department hosts the Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry. Key research areas are drilling, reservoir management, production optimization, operation and maintenance.

Education

Petroleum Geoscience and Engineering Studies

Directions of study

• Petroleum Geoscience
  • Petroleum Gophysics.
  • Petroleum Geology.
  • Resource Geology.

• Petroleum Engineering
  • Drilling Engineering
  • Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics
  • Petroleum Production.

MSc in Petroleum Engineering/ Petroleum Geosciences

Two years M.Sc. studies – in Petroleum Engineering or Petroleum Geoscience taught in English. Each year, around 80 student projects and 80 master theses are written in the department. Most of the student works are industry related.

PhD in Petroleum Engineering/ Petroleum Geosciences

Three-four years PhD studies – in Petroleum Engineering or Petroleum Geoscience taught in English. Each year, 5-10 doctoral theses are completed.

Field Courses

• Svalex (Svalbard, Norwegian Arctics)
• Pyrex (Pyrenees, Spain)
• Omanex (Oman)
• Petrox (England)

International

The department states that it intends to be strongly focused on the international profile with a friendly multi-cultural atmosphere. From the very beginning the international atmosphere existed at IPT in the form of teachers, researchers and students from various countries. IPT has been actively cooperating with countries like Angola, Aserbadjan, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mozambique, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, USA, Venezuela; altogether more than 50 countries. There are two 2-years international programs leading to Master Degrees, one in Petroleum Engineering and one in Petroleum Geoscience. Exchange students may take shorter term education within this program. In addition Ph.D-positions are open to qualified international candidates. These positions also constitute the basis for international research cooperation. Professors have individual scientific cooperation with various foreign institutions. The funding comes from Norwegian agencies SIU (NORAD, QUOTA), EnPe (NORAD, QUOTA), The Research Council of Norway, oil companies Statoil, Total

Total S.A.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and...

, BP

BP

BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...

, and NTNU Scholarships; also from European Programs (Erasmus

Erasmus programme

The Erasmus Programme , a.k.a. Erasmus Project is a European Union student exchange programme established in 1987...

, Marie Curie, TIME, Socrates

Socrates programme

The SOCRATES programme was an educational initiative of the European Commission; 31 countries took part. The initial Socrates programme ran from 1994 until 31 December 1999 when it was replaced by the Socrates II programme on 24 January 2000, which ran until 2006...

) and others. IPT cultivates personal international contacts as originators of new collaboration. Graduated Ph.D.s represent a particular bridging potential for new joint research.

Innovation

New companies, on average one new company each year, are founded by professors and/or students, including: Agir Boosting Technology, Geoprobing Technology, DeepSeaAnchors, Markland Technology, Natural Gas Hydrate, Pera, Petreco, ResLab, Corrocean,Sensorlink, Seres, Technoguide, Verande, Voxelvision, Waptheweb.

New courses and teaching methods are introduced and new groups of students recruited, increasingly from developing countries with a virgin petroleum industry. In addition to continuous development in the content of the main courses, the emphasis of the teaching has moved in the direction of more group work. Examples are the cross disciplinary student projects “The Virtual Reality Village”, "The Gullfaks Village" and "The Norne Village". The department is one of the largest users of computers at the university – the use of computers ranges from reservoir and production simulation to 3D representation of seismic and geological data.

The department has close relations to the petroleum industry. Research and development results obtained in the department are readily disseminated to the industry, leading to new technology and practices. The department collaborate with a multitude of oil companies and service suppliers through research based innovation centres, research programs and student projects.

The premier center-based innovation in the department takes place in the Centre for Integrated Operations where 11 oil companies and service suppliers are collaborating on an 8 years program.

Innovation programs in the department includes the ROSE-program (ROck SEismic) carrying out R&D on rock properties for seismic and other petroleum related applications.

Trivia

• The department is located 200 meters from Lerkendal Stadium
  Lerkendal stadion
  Lerkendal Stadion is an all-seater football stadium located at Lerkendal in Trondheim, Norway. The home ground of the Tippeligaen side Rosenborg BK, it has a capacity for 21,116 spectators, making it the second-largest football stadium in the country....
  
  , home of Rosenborg, one of Scandinavia's most successful football teams.

• His Royal Majesty, King Harald V
  Harald V of Norway
  Harald V is the king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991...
  
   visited the department at its opening in 1984.

• 50.6% of the new students in 2006 were females, being the first time the number of females was greater than the number of men.

• 40% of the master students are from abroad.

• The department has a very high number of PhD students, of which a great portion is from foreign countries.

• The Norwegian tycoon Øystein Stray Spetalen graduated from IPT with a degree in petroleum Engineering in 1986.

• The department building is shared with SINTEF Petroleumsforskning .

• The department hosts a center for research driven innovation (SFI) within integrated operations.

• The department participates in the research activities of the FME center for CO2 capture and storage, BIGCCS.

Facilities

• Research laboratories
• Student laboratories
• Lecture rooms
• Library
• Servers & computer halls
• Reservoir laboratory
• Mud laboratory
• Pipe flow laboratory
• CT
  Computed tomography
  X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...
  
  -laboratory
• Hydrate - laboratory /calorimeter laboratory
• 3 Control rooms/Integrated Operations rooms
• Mechanical workshop
• Electronics workshop
• Conference & meeting rooms
• Canteen/coffee bar

Staff

Current faculty members:

• Adjunct Professor Lasse Amundsen, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Børge Arntsen, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Harald Asheim, Petroleum Production
• Adjunct Professor Per Avseth, Applied Geophysics
• Adjunct Professor Reidar B. Bratvold, Reservoir Engineering/Decision Analysis
• Adjunct Associate Professor Stein Dale, Reservoir Engineering/Visualization
• Adjunct Professor Jörg Ebbing, Applied Geophysics
• Industrial Lecturer Johan Eck-Olsen, Drilling Engineering
• Adjunct Professor Erling Fjær, Rock Mechanics
• Adjunct Professor John-Morten Godhavn, Drilling Engineering
• Professor Michael Golan, Petroleum Production
• Professor Emeritus Teodor van Golf-Racht, Reservoir Engineering
• Professor Jon Steinar Gudmundsson, Petroleum Production
• Associate Professor Emeritus Hans Herfjord, Petroleum Production
• Adjunct Professor Vidar Hepsø, Reservoir Engineering/Integrated Operations
• Adjunct Professor Ketil Hokstad, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Rune Holt, Rock Mechanics
• Adjunct Professor Odd Steve Hustad, Reservoir Engineering
• Adjunct Professor Lars Høier, Reservoir Engineering
• Professor Tom Jelmert, Reservoir Engineering
• Lecturer Jan Ivar Jensen, Petroleum Engineering
• Adjunct Professor Cor Kenter, Rock Mechanics
• Professor Jon Kleppe, Reservoir Engineering
• Professor Martin Landrø, Applied Geophysics
• Assistant Professor Helge Langeland, Reservoir Engineering/Petrophysics
• Professor Emeritus Ole Bernt Lile, Applied Geophysics
• Operational Center Manager Jon Lippe, Center for Integrated Operations
• Adjunct Professor Cai Puigdefabregas, Applied Geophysics
• Adjunct Professor Phil Ringrose, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Arild Rødland, Drilling Engineering
• Adjunct Professor Jan Steinar Rønning, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Sigbjørn Sangesland, Subsea Technology
• Associate Professor Pål Skalle, Drilling Engineering
• Adjunct Professor Jan Åge Stensen, Reservoir Engineering
• Professor Alexey Stovas, Applied Geophysics
• Associate Professor Egil Tjåland, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Ole Torsæter, Reservoir Engineering
• Professor Bjørn Ursin, Applied Geophysics
• Professor Curtis H. Whitson, Reservoir Engineering

Current administrative staff:

• Anne Lise Brekken, Executive Officer
• Solveig Johnsen, Executive Officer
• Tone Sanne, Executive Officer
• Marit Raaness, Office Manager
• Turid Uvsløkk, Secretary
• Sylvi Vefsnmo, Administrative Director
• Madelein Wold, Executive Officer

Current technical staff:

• Knut Backe, Computing Specialist
• Gunnar Bjerkan, Chief Engineer
• Terje Bjerkan, Engineer
• Håkon Myhren, Engineer
• Lars Sandvik, Dept. Engineer
• Åge Sivertsen, Chief Engineer
• Roger Overå, Dept. Engineer
• Erlend Våtevik, Chief Engineer