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Assistant Professor Zoya Heidari and Associate Professor Quoc Nguyen received 2016 SPE Southwest North American Region Awards for their significant contributions to the oil and gas industry. Heidari received the Formation Evaluation award and Nguyen won the Reservoir Description and Dynamics award.

Since 2011, Zoya has been leading a successful research group in the field of formation evaluation. Zoya’s team conducts fundamental and applied research in the fields of multi-scale formation evaluation, rock physics, and petrophysics for novel developments in the characterization of carbonate and unconventional reservoirs. She has mentored 18 graduate and four undergraduate students and written more than 75 technical papers.

Upon the start of her academic career, Zoya established a Joint Industry Program (JIP) on “Multi-Scale Formation Evaluation of Unconventional and Carbonate Reservoirs.” Zoya’s research activities in formation evaluation have a significant impact on improved characterization of complex reservoirs, such as carbonates and organic-rich mudrocks, which leads to enhanced production in reservoirs.

Since 2005, Nguyen’s research program, with elements of experimentation and modeling, has resulted in significant advances in petroleum engineering technology and science. This includes new non-destructive methods for more accurate characterization of reservoir rock wettability, important minerals in oil-shale formation and in-situ conversion, as well as colloid transport in porous media. He is also recognized for his unconventional foam process with gas-soluble and “smart” surfactants for improved conformance control and sweep efficiency in gas EOR.

In just over decade, Nguyen has supervised almost 25 Ph.D. students and 15 M.S. students. He has also been awarded millions of dollars in research support from industry and government organizations, resulting in six patents. Nguyen has published more than 50 journal articles and 61 conference papers.

In addition, the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Senior Research Scientist Richard Schultz won the Completions Optimization and Technology Award for the Gulf Coast Region.

Heidari and Nguyen were recognized in a ceremony on May 19, 2016 at the Petroleum Club of Midland, Texas.

UT PGE master’s student Chiranth Hegde won the Sandy Purdy Award at the 2016 American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) Fluids Technical Conference and Exhibition held April 12-13 in Houston at the Hilton North hotel.

The award, named after the founder of AADE, is given to the top student paper at the conference. This marks the first time a UT Austin student took home the award.

Chiranth Hegde

The conference, which attracts industry and academia experts from around the globe, covers improvements and innovations in drilling, completion, cementing and fracturing fluids. Hegde’s paper explores the use of machine learning to predict and optimize the rate of penetration during drilling.

“Drilling accounts for the majority of production costs in oil and gas, especially in this environment, so it is important to keep costs low,” says Hegde. “The machine I work with is learning models, which optimizes drilling by setting constraints on parameters such as RPM of the bit and weight on the bit. This concept can be applied in real-time ensuring drilling efficiency.”

In terms of next steps, Hedge plans to continue working on the implementation of machine learning and hopes to submit his paper to a couple of established journal publications.

UT PGE hosted the 2016 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Southwest Regional Paper Contest and PetroBowl Regional Qualifier on April 2. More than 15 undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students from six universities in the Southwest region participated in the paper contest and over 130 students from 27 universities competed in PetroBowl.

Paper contest participants presented their innovative findings from a research project or internship to judges, who are experts in the field. The students were critiqued on the following three areas: subject matter, delivery and clarity of communication.

UT PGE swept the top spot in all three divisions (B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.) and five UT PGE students placed in the top three:

Undergraduate Division

• 1st – Karan Jerath, The University of Texas Austin  
• 2nd – Simon Bainbridge, Texas Tech University
• 3rd – Taylor Lopez-Huebner, The University of Texas at Austin

Master’s Division

• 1st – Pengpeng Qi, The University of Texas at Austin
• 2nd – Nirbendra KC, New Mexico Tech University

Ph.D. Division

• 1st – Morteza Elahi Naraghi, The University of Texas at Austin
• 2nd – Yifei Xu, The University of Texas at Austin

Morteza Elahi Naraghi (Ph.D. winner) and Pengpeng Qi (M.S. winner)

“It is rewarding for me to present my research to respected leaders in industry and academia and then to receive such positive feedback from them,” says Naraghi, who placed first in the Ph.D. division. “I look forward to the next contest and hope to impress the judges at the international level."

The top place finisher in each category will travel to Dubai, UAE, this fall to compete in the international paper contest at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. UT PGE students will go up against the impressive qualifiers from the other 13 regional divisions. This is the fifth consecutive year at least one UT PGE student won the regional competition and went to the international contest.

The University of Tulsa won the regional PetroBowl, a fast-paced quiz competition, qualifying them for Dubai to go head-to-head against schools from around the globe. The UT PGE PetroBowl team will also travel to Dubai for the international competition on the strength of the team’s second place win at the 2015 SPE ATCE. They suffered a close loss to Tulsa in the second round of the 2016 regional contest. 

Views photos from the 2016 regional paper contest

In an industry downturn, it is especially important to discover innovations that enhance oil and gas operations’ efficiency and minimize costs.

UT PGE remains the No. 1 graduate program in petroleum engineering.

The UT Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Student Chapter co-hosted the largest-ever fifth annual SPE North American Student Symposium Feb. 4-6 in Houston at the downtown Chevron offices.

The University of Texas at Austin, along with its partners in TOPCORP, The Pennsylvania State University and Colorado School of Mines, has been chosen to provide oil and gas inspector training for the state of California. The training will take place in the Bakersfield area during the months of February, April and June and will be made available to 60 oil and gas inspectors from the California Conservation Commission, Division of Oil and Gas. The contract is valued at around $400,000.

In only his first year as a University of Texas at Austin petroleum engineering student, Karan Jerath has already created a potentially game-changing device for offshore oil spills.

The 2016 UT Energy Week will feature experts in academia, industry, government and the non-profit world for a fresh look at some of the most vital energy issues facing society during the second annual event, organized by The University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute, student-led Longhorn Energy Club, and KBH Center for Energy, Law & Business. UT Energy Week will be held Feb. 16 – 19, 2016 in the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on the UT Austin campus.

The program will feature a series of insightful panel discussions, prominent keynote speakers, and the latest in energy research findings from some of the world’s leading energy experts, including UT PGE's professor Mukul Sharma and alumnus Helge Haldorsen. Sharma is moderating a session on Friday, "Improvements in Oil & Gas Operations and Technology," and Haldorsen is giving a keynote speech on the same day.

Panel topics will run the gamut of topical energy issues, including:

• The role of natural gas and renewables in Mexico’s electric power sector reform
• The science and regulatory response to hydraulic fracturing
• Energy storage, renewables, and grid management
• De-carbonizing the electric grid
• The energy, food and water nexus
• The future of nuclear power
• Powering cities of the future

Conference supporters include the Cockrell School of Engineering, the Jackson School of Geosciences, CleanTX, and Texas Exes, along with academic units engaged in energy related research across the UT Austin campus.

UT Energy Week 2016 will also feature a Student Research Poster Competition, in which students will compete for $6,500 in prizes; and an Energy Technology Competition for start-ups, which offers cash and prizes in four categories: Oil & Gas, CleanTech, Energy and Water Efficiency, and Software.

For more about UT Energy Week 2016, check out the conference program. In addition, all UT faculty, students and staff will receive free admission to the week long program through registration on the UT Energy Week website. 

UT PGE Professor Mary Wheeler, with her collaborators, received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).