News

During the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (SPE ATCE), Sept. 26-28, in Dubai, UT PGE students and faculty received several prestigious awards.

During the conference’s annual paper competition, Pengpeng Qi (MS student) and Yifei Xu (PhD student) placed second in the SPE International Student Paper Contest. Both students qualified for the competition at the SPE Regional Paper Contest held at UT PGE in April 2015.

Competing against 14 other students from around the globe, Qi presented on "Determining the Effect of Polymer Elasticity on Residual Oil Saturation from Core Floods" and Xu on “Discrete Fracture Modeling of Complex Hydraulic Fracture Geometries in Reservoir Simulators." This marks the fifth straight year a UT PGE student has placed in the international contest in at least one of the divisions (BS, MS, or PhD).

“It was truly an honor and privilege to represent UT PGE,” said Qi. “I received so much support and guidance from the professors in our department, which allowed me to place in the final paper contest. Through the preparation process, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of my project.”

 Dr. Kishore Mohanty accepting his award from the SPE president

Three professors from UT PGE also received awards, recognizing their contributions to the industry in cutting-edge research and education for the next generation of energy professionals. The faculty honored includes Kishore Mohanty (Distinguished Achievement for PE Faculty), Eric van Oort (Distinguished Member), and Jon Olson (Distinguished Member). UT Austin had more award winners than any other petroleum engineering program.

The UT PetroBowl team lost in the first round to Rio de Janeiro, who won the entire 32 team tournament.

Petroleum and geosystems engineering sophomore Karan Jerath was chosen as one of 17 United Nations Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Young Leaders, a group of students, authors and startup founders from around the world, were recognized for their leadership and contribution to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 goals to end poverty, fight injustice and tackle climate change by 2030.

Jerath in New York City at the UN General Assembly meeting

“The UN Young Leader recognition is a huge honor for me,” Jerath said. “I am very humbled. It strengthens what I have been learning — good ideas are encouraged no matter how old you are. It gives me the confidence to continue working hard and making an impact.”

The Young Leaders are active for two years and will advocate for the sustainable development goals to their peers and audiences. Each year, a new class of Young Leaders will be selected through an open call for nominations.

Jerath, who is the youngest member of the inaugural class of Young Leaders, was selected from a pool of more than 18,000 nominations from 186 countries. He hopes to spend his time as a Young Leader promoting STEM education and demonstrating sustainability efforts through an engineering lens.

UT PGE jumps to the No. 1 undergraduate program in petroleum engineering.

The Hildebrand Department is the No. 1 undergraduate program in petroleum engineering, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

The Croatians have a phrase “tko ne riskira, ne profitira,” which translates in English to “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” This past summer 13 UT Austin students and a UT PGE faculty member embarked on the first UT PGE-sponsored study abroad program in Croatia.

After receiving her diploma, recent UT PGE graduate Katy Hanson went to work side-by-side with the world’s most recognized technology platform.

Three UT PGE faculty members have been selected as recipients of the 2016 International Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) awards.

Professor Jon Olson, who is a leader in hydraulic fracturing research, and Professor Eric van Oort, who has established a global reputation for his ideas on revolutionizing the drilling process using the latest technology, have been awarded the SPE Distinguished Member award.

Established in 1983, the Distinguished Member award recognizes SPE members who achieve distinction deemed worthy of special recognition. Distinguished Membership is limited to one percent of SPE professional members and acknowledges members who have attained eminence in the petroleum industry or the academic community, and/or who have made unusually significant contributions to SPE. 

Professor Kishore Mohanty has been awarded the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. It recognizes superiority in classroom teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession and/or special effectiveness in advising and guiding students. As the recently appointed CPGE Director, Mohanty is leading a strong research program while continuing to educate the industry’s future leaders.

All three faculty members will receive their awards at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, September 26-28, at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE.

Professor Mary Wheeler has been selected to receive the 2016 Institute for Computational Engineering Sciences (ICES) Grand Challenges Award. Selection for these awards is based on highly compelling research proposals related to the Grand Challenges in computational engineering and sciences that affect the competitiveness and international standing of the nation.

The project will develop a simulation to identify the likelihood of sinkholes developing from injection of wastewater and carbon sequestration in the subsurface. Research has already established that the formation of sinkholes requires three conditions: (1) presence of a thick dissolvable rock formation (like salt caverns); (2) large, higher temperature, fluid flow rates of unsaturated fluid, and (3) conditions for mechanical destabilization and rock failure.

Wheeler’s group will conduct computational studies of the microscopic degree to which each of these conditions must exist for the sinkhole to occur. This includes taking into account common rock and cavern environments, paired with the components of the wastewater or rate of carbon sequestration.

Researchers at UT Austin have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

UT PGE graduate student Nkem Egboga won the 2016 SPE Gulf Coast Reservoir Technology Forum poster contest held May 19 in The Woodlands at the Anadarko Conference Center. 

The Reservoir Technology Forum is an annual event designed to disseminate knowledge and technology needed to achieve the many objectives of reservoir management, including understanding risk, increasing production and reserves, and maximizing recovery.

This year’s theme focused on technical and practical aspects related to technology and innovation, unconventional resources, integrated reservoir characterization studies as well as challenges and opportunities of the low oil price environment.

During the paper contest, Egboga competed against eight students from leading Texas academic institutions, including UT Austin, Texas A&M, Rice University and the University of Houston. His poster, titled “thermal stimulation of kerogen containing shale oil reservoirs”, focuses on determining how kerogen conversion to oil and the subsequent change in permeability affect oil recovery. 

In addition to excelling in his research, Egboga is also a distinguished teaching assistant. He was recognized by The University of Texas at Austin in May 2016 as the William S. Livingston Outstanding Graduate Student Academic Employee.

Egboga will spend the summer furthering his research expertise in Houston while serving as a reservoir engineering intern with Statoil, before returning to UT Austin in the fall to work with his co-supervisors Drs. Matt Balhoff and Kishore Mohanty.