2013 Statoil Graduate Fellows Honored
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May 08, 2013
Statoil Gulf Services, LLC, a leading energy company in oil and gas production, partnered with The University of Texas at Austin, specifically the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE) Department and the Jackson School of Geosciences, early in 2012, on an interdisciplinary project that funds $5 million over five years for graduate student fellowships. Graduate fellows exchange data and their research experiences with Statoil as each fellow teams up with a subject appropriate research partner in Houston.
All 13 Statoil Fellows pose for a photo
On May 1, a reception was held at the UT Club to recognize the successes accomplished in the first year of the partnership and honor the talented group of 13 fellows with an award. The event also highlighted Statoil’s generous and important contributions to the university .
“This agreement has been an important step for Statoil in the US,” said Karl Johnny Hersvik, senior vice president of research and development at Statoil. “We plan to grow our activities; talented men and women are important for further growth.
The fellows are selected in a competitive process that considers four different areas of research interest: integration of geological, geophysical and petrophysical data in earth models; trap integrity in salt basins and sub-salt imaging and seal versus pore pressure challenges; drainage of deep marine reservoirs and static and dynamic reservoir models and drainage; and improved development of shale play drainage.
“It’s nice to be connected to a cutting edge company - it’s been a great collaboration,” said Ayaz Mehmani, a PhD student in UT PGE. “We are working on some of the biggest energy challenges to understand the proper strategies to make production of reservoirs possible and economically feasible.”
Both Dr. Sharon Mosher, Dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences, and UT PGE Chair Dr. Tad Patzek spoke about the exceptional partnership between Statoil and UT since the beginning of the project. “Here at UT,” said Patzek, “we are very fortunate to partner with a technologically sophisticated company, enhancing our research with their insights.”
