Why Petroleum Engineering and Gas Technology?

Petroleum engineering is Science, Technology, Engineering, and mathematics. It could also be under Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources because you dig oil from the ground. To be a petroleum engineer is a choice you should take by your own, it exposes you to different conditions that could be harsh for you to live with. However, it allows you to interact with different cultures as you will be able to travel around the world searching for the oil & gas. Petroleum Engineers must be able to communicate because they have to write draft proposals, and writing reports and you have to work in a team of people. Moreover, petroleum engineers earn lots of money and gain a lot of experience. There are very few petroleum engineers left as more retire and not as many graduate. Big oil companies are looking for more of them so I think it would be a great career.

Topics For projects

• 1- ENHANCED RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION.

  Ayman El-Gazzar & Prof. Dr. Attia.Attia (Supervisor)
  Characterization of the reservoir both insufficiently and inadequately will lead to the failure of most of the field development plans in terms of determining how to deal with a particular field and will also affect the effectiveness of secondary and enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. The following research’s main objective is to perform characterization for a reservoir using the available data on already existing and performing modifications on the existing techniques in order to define the different rock types, hydraulic flow units, productive zones and barriers. In other words in order to achieve the following research’s objective certain procedures will be followed which will start with identifying the heterogeneity degree using Dykstra-Parson coefficient and Lorenz Coefficient, second different techniques will be applied such as the hydraulic flow unit, flow zone indicators, discrete rock types, permeability groups in order to estimate the several flow units present and then petrophysically classifying the rocks with a technique called rock typing using several approaches such as FZI, DRT, RQI, Winland R35 and each rock type derived will allocate different properties in order to help in estimating uncored wells permeability. Enhancement will be performed through inserting parameters that are of large importance but were neglected in the development of the technique by Shedid & Reyadh (2002)such as the porosity in the capillary number, tortuioisty and the hydrocarbon saturation. Capillary pressure modification will also involve inserting the tortuosity and hydrocarbon saturation into the capillary pressure equation developed by Desouky (2003).

  2- WIRE LINE VS WHILE DRILLING WELL LOGS RELIABILITY,CALIBRATION AND INTERPRETATION.

  Hazem Mohamed & Prof. Abdullah Mahmoud (Supervisor)
  Well logging is a technique of recording the characteristics of the rock formation by a specific tool or device through the well bore with respect to depth.According to geologist point of view, it is firstly mapping scheme to explore the underground. As For the petrophysicists perspective it means to predict and evaluate the hydrocarbon potentiality of the production for a given reservoir. On the other hand, as for the geophysicist perspective it means that it is source of helpful data for them such as seismic analysis. As For the reservoir engineers perspective it means that is complementary data supply results for using it in a programs of simulator such as Petrel, Eclipse and Techlog. logging tools is considered as interpretive technique are used in developing,complicated and accuracy job, these are very helpful and complimentary data for taking the optimum decision making for the geologist and petrophysicist. Petrophysical interpretation logs are the most important and useful logs and tools for each of the geologist and the petroleum engineer. In addition of their traditional techniques in exploration to correlate and making interpretation zones and to construct with structure contour map and isopach map, logs helps in defining the advantages that is related to the rock formation properties like permeability, porosity, pore geometry, lithology. Logging tools output data used in identifying the productive and pay zones throughout the permeable zones formation underground, used to differentiate between gas, oil, water, in the reservoir, also used top redict the area of the well that can produce from it, the volume of the hydrocarbon and the amount hydrocarbon reserves. On the other hand geological maps established from the interpretation of the logs that facilitates in identifying the drilling locations.

  3- CHEMICAL ADSORPTION IN ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY.

  George Emad & Prof. Attia Attia (Supervisor)
  One of the main setbacks of chemical injection technique is the chemical adsorption on the rock surface as it affects the reservoir permeability and may cause reduction in recovery as well as affecting the project economics as a large amount of chemical is lost into the formation. Thus, the chemical adsorption is the main controlling factor of the enhanced oil recovery project success or failure. The objective of this research is to investigate the factors affecting the rheology of Xanthan gum polymer and Sodium dodycyl benzene sulphonate surfactant, establish a new correlation to predict the amount of polymer and surfactant adsorption in the reservoir based on the initial chemical concentration, and finally to study the factors affecting the chemical adsorption as salinity, concentration, nano-Silica addition, and rheology in order to control these factors to minimize the chemical adsorption. The results showed that by relating the amount of adsorption obtained experimentally and the initial chemical concentration, a new empirical correlation was developed. The amount of chemical adsorption can be minimized by decreasing the solution salinity, decreasing the chemical concentration, and in case of nano-Silica application, the nano-Silica concentration should be low to avoid high adsorption, finally the amount of polymer adsorption in the limestone formation was significant, while the amount of surfactant adsorption on limestone was lower, thus the surfactant flooding appears to be more promising for application in limestone formation, however further research is required to determine the economic and technically viability of the project.

  4- NEW APPROACH FOR SELECTING THE OPTIMUM POLYMER CONCENTRATION IN EOR.

  Esraa Osama Ibrahim & Prof. Dr. Attia.Attia (Supervisor)
  Polymer Flooding is one of the most economic attractive EOR techniques which are used to improve the sweep efficiency, and in turn extract large fraction of the residual oil after primary recovery. The selection of the optimum polymer concentration should be considered as a main step in designing a polymer flooding project since it affects both the technical and economic feasibility of the project. There are several factors such as shearing, temperature, salinity and adsorption influencing the polymer concentration and viscosity required for achieving favorable mobility ratio. Thus, the impact of these factors should be considered while selecting the optimum concentration.

  5- AMODIFIED VISCOELASTIC SURFACTANT AS A NOVEL TREND IN ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY.

  Ibrahim Hassan Gomaa & Prof. Dr. Attia Attia (Supervisor)
  One of the promising techniques in EOR field is the use of viscoelastic surfactants to facilitate the oil extraction. Viscoelastic surfactants have a desired influence on all the elements of the interfacial phenomena. They can effectively achieve ultralow interfacial tension enough to displace the residual oil and turn it to a moveable continuous phase. In addition, they positively affect the interfacial charge and decrease the interfacial viscosity. Various factors can affect the phase behavior of the surfactants such as salinity, cosurfactant types, surfactant concentration, surfactant structure and chemical additives such as polymers. Studying all these factors leads to a successful design for the EOR operation. A special modified viscoelastic surfactant was created with an enhanced capability to endure reservoir harsh conditions. Intensive experimental studies were conducted to address the optimum conditions to which the surfactant system is induced. The modified chemical was proved to achieve minimum interfacial tension in high salinity conditions. The modified chemical has the ability to act like “living polymers” that can deform and self-reassemble in a fast rate. Core flooding tests come to confirm the ability of the modified viscoelastic surfactant to reduce the mobility ratio between the displacing fluid and the displaced hydrocarbons. Hence, it can also work as mobility control agent. Having those privileges, along with its economic cost when compared to the currently used viscoelastic surfactants, accounts for the great feasibility of this modified viscoelastic surfactant to be a novel trend in EOR field.

  6- ADVANCED TECHNIQUE FOR ANTI-COLLISION PLANNING OPTIMIZATION IN DIRECTIONAL WELLS.

  Abdulrahman Mohamed & Dr. Ahmed Noah (Supervisor)
  One of the most applications of the directional drilling is drilling multiple wells from on location or platform. In drilling, multiple wells from one location the major problem that faced is avoiding the collision with the offset wells that drilled near the proposed well in the same region. Therefore, the Potential of Collision between the wells can cause severe catastrophic accidents such as explosion or oil spill. Several measurements or methods should be adopted to control the distance between the wells and avoid the Collision. As result these measurements should ensure safe and economical drilling plan.

  7- APPLICATION OF NANOPARTICLES IN ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY.

  Mohamed Hassan & Dr. Sayed Gomaa (Supervisor)
  Lately Nanotechnology has been found to be one of the most promising techniques in the field of Enhanced Oil Recovery. Numerous types of nanoparticles have been used for different applications in the EOR field. One of the main fields of EOR, where the nanoparticles have proved their high capabilities, is the wettability alteration. Nano-alumina and Nano-silica have proved their ability to change the rock wettability from oil wet to water wet. This would lead to a significant increase in the amount of oil produced leading to a higher ultimate oil recovery. Literature has showed that there are numerous factors that affect the use of these nanoparticles such as the size of the nanoparticles, the concentration of the nanoparticles inside the solution injected and the solution to which the nanoparticles are added. Consequently, it is very important to study the effect of these factors on the incremental oil recovery to create a successful EOR operation.

  8- ENHANCEMENT MUD VISCOSITY AT HPHT WELLS USING NANO-MATERIALS THROUGHOUT EXPERIMENTAL WORK.

  Ibrahim Nour & Dr. Ahmed Nouh (Supervisor)
  Important amounts of hydrocarbon reserves included in HPHT reservoirs. For withstanding the previous conditions, drilling fluids with high heat capacities will be needed to develop the HPHT reservoirs. Nano structured materials show a lot of special properties because of their big particular surface and small size of grains. Experimental measurements of heating capacity at fixed pressure point that the values of heating capacity of these materials are extremely higher more than these materials of rough grained. Subsequently, in this paper using of nanocomposites as additives with drilling fluids will be suggested for optimizing its yield point. Also, the authors suggested a solution for carrying the cuttings of drilling back to the surface for continuous circulation as considered as one of the most significant challenges of the drilling fluids in HPHT wells. It has to be known that this research shows the functions, classification, types, composition, properties, selection and hazards of drilling fluids. Also, it shows classification, challenges and problems of high pressure high temperature wells. Furthermore, it shows the meaning of nanotechnology, nanoparticles, Nano fluids with its economics, environmental considerations and carbon nanotubes. Finally, it shows the positive effects of adding multiwall carbon nanotubes nanoparticles to oil based muds by experimental work. Finally, MWCNTs was functionalized and then added to the polymer which called (polystyrene butadiene rubber copolymer matrix). Moreover, the prepared MWCNTs/polymer nanocomposites were used for drilling at HPHT of prepared oil based muds. The results of using the previous nanocomposites with different amounts (2 and 4 gm) on the rheological properties of oil based muds are very good which means that the raise of nanocomposite (MWCNTs+polymer) is reasonable for the raise of plastic viscosity, apparent viscosity and yield point at HPHT conditions.