Multidisciplinary Petroleum Design at Colorado School of Mines: Applied Integrated Problem Solving

Abstract

Exploration geoscience hires in the petroleum industry are expected to work closely in teams with other geoscientists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers. Undergraduate and graduate students at Colorado School of Mines take courses in which faculty and students come from the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, the Department of Geophysics, and the Department of Petroleum Engineering. Student teams consisting of representatives of each department are assembled for studying practical problems and case studies in integrated subsurface exploration and development. Open-ended problems using real-world data are assigned including the development of a prospect in an exploration play and a detailed engineering field study. Detailed reports and presentations are required for the prospect evaluation and engineering field study. This presentation will also report on an integrated geological and engineering field-based course with faculty and students from Colorado School of Mines and the Kazakh National Technical University. Again, students and faculty from both institutions represented geology, geophysics, and petroleum engineering. Field courses were conducted in the Malyi Karatau region of southern Kazakhstan in Summer 2009 and in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado USA in Summer 2010.