Colorado school of mines petroleum engineering department

Department News & Events

Marquez Hall – A vision for the Future!! This – state-of-the-art $25 million facility for pioneering teaching, research and service – promises to further Colorado School of Mines’ position as a global leader with a unique breadth of industry expertise. With the construction of this cutting-edge building, Mines’ Department of Petroleum Engineering will push the forefront of new technology and remain at the top of its class in recruiting and training new petroleum engineers. The support of corporate partners, alumni and friends for the Marquez Hall project will ensure that Mines is poised to help industry meet the challenge of increased worldwide energy demand and the need for innovative approaches to resource recovery. Lead contributing partners are:

Marathon Oil Corporation donates $1 million to support Marathon Center of Excellence for Reservoir Studies and the new petroleum engineering building.
Ward Petroleum - $100,000
Whiting Petroleum - $100,000
St. Mary Land & Exploration - $125,000
Questar - $400,000
BHP Billiton Petroleum - $500,000
Devon Energy - $500,000
Noble Energy - $500,000
Anadarko - $500,000
Hess - $1,000,000
ConocoPhillips - $1,000,000
Chevron – for Cheveron Center in Marquez Hall
EnCana Oil & Gas - $2,000,000
Timothy & Bernadette Marquez Foundation original donation of $10,000,000
Harold and Patricia Korell $1,250,000
Harry Campbell $700,000
Marshall and Jane Crouch $250,000
Bud and Kaye Isaacs $250,000
Buck and Rose Curtis $100,000
Southwestern Energy $1,250,000
Bonanza Creek Energy Company $100,000

2010 SPE Denver Section Scholarship Recipients

The following Colorado School of Mines Petroleum Engineering Students received scholarships from the Society of Petroleum Engineering Denver Section in January 2010.

Top left: Michael LeBaron, Ty Thompson, Siyamak Zohrabi Kalantary, Tucker Gordan, Brent Vangolen, Trevor McIntosh, Travis Ransom, and Barry Wilkinson. Middle Left: Jordan Robinson, Faizul Ahmad Pahmi, Jeevack Mattamana, Maxwell Berglund, Daniel Graeve, Michael Strabala. Bottom Left: Professor Linda Battalora, Aigerim Meimanova, Ultay Kadyrbayeva, Aizada Abdrakhmanova, Mohd Ishak, Ingkeith Cheong, Angel Forsling, Ryan Stef, Chad Wermager.

A Message from Dr. Ramona Graves 2009

Fall semester 2009 begins in less than a week! Where did the summer “break” go? I decided it is time for me to visit our field sessions, so in May I attended the PEGN 315 Sophomore Field Session Alumni Party in Bakersfield. Good food, good fun, great to see alums in that part of the world. Lonnie Kerley is a great chef, but not so good at giving me directions. I was only a little lost. I look forward to visiting other groups next summer.

In June the real travel began. First I attended the EAGE in Amsterdam where I presented a paper on “Compressed Air Energy Storage”.

One of my graduate students, Jessica Neumiller, now with Schlumberger, did a thesis on how using petroleum engi- neering technology we can store the energy generated by wind turbines and produce it when needed. See President/ Professor Scoggins’ article on CSM’s energy focus and Dr. Bourgoyne’s article on the new Energy Minor. The PE De- partment is making real strides in letting industry and the campus know how much of our technology can be used in renewable and alternative energy sources.

Next, after two days home, I was off to Arkansas to teach a week long integrated reservoir characterization class with Dr. Roger Slatt from the OU Geology Department. Some of you may remember him as the former Department Head of CSM’s Geology and Geological Engineering Department. Roger is great to work with and teaching integration in the field setting is just the best! There is a quarry outside of Little Rock where we saw 7 different reservoir types. The focus of the class is going from different scales of data (core, logs, outcrop) – to a static model (Petrel) – to a dynamic flow model (Eclipse). What a fun class to teach!

The final summer journey which lasted into mid-July was to Kazakhstan. After one day at home Dr. John Humphrey, cur- rent CSM Geology and Geological Engineering Department Head and I, left for what turned out to be the adventure of my life. Recall from last year’s newsletter that John and I were actively involved in Chevron’s University Partnership Program (UPP). We agreed to work with Kazakhstan Na- tional Technical University in Almaty to help some of their departments become ABET accredited. We also wanted to show them how we teach integration at Mines. When we were in Almaty in May discussing how best to integrate, not only knowledge and disciplines, but also people, John said .... with gusto .... GEOLOGY FIELD TRIP! During that visit we were able to work out the details for a week long field trip on the steppes of Kazakhstan, gain Chevron’s support (both monetary and logistics) and gain permission from the Kazak government to take 10 CSM students and us into the Kazakhstan outback. To cut to the end, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. We tent camped with 10 CSM students (5 GE, 3 PE, 2GP), 5 KazNTU profes- sors, 13 KazNTU students (8 GE, 5 PE), 5 security people provided by Chevron, 1 doctor, and 5 camp cooks. Regard- ing the food, it would be ok with me if I never ate buckwheat or goat’s head again. To put it into perspective, one of our PE students, Nikita Kazakov, who had just been TAing at Massadona, said “Massadona is Club Med!” Next year we plan on reciprocating with a field trip to show the geology of the west and various US oil and gas production operations.

Two days after I got home we started PE SuperSchool which lasted until the end of July. So finally during the first three weeks of August I stayed close to home and had a relatively normal, uneventful schedule.

Oh - except on August 17th the new Provost, Dr. Steve Castillo, an nounced that I had been selected and that I had accepted the position of Petroleum Engineering Department Head. Most of you are not in academics so it is difficult to understand what a serious, onerous process it is to select a new DH. It may have taken two years but the great candidates made the process interesting. All of us candidates have our strengths and weaknesses, but I am confident the correct decision was made. With the continued support of the PE faculty and staff, the administration, and our alums, I know the depart- ment will continue to prosper. Thanks to the many of you who offered your support.

As you read the newsletter you will see what exciting opportunities the faculty are pursuing. However, there were a few honors and awards this year that some of them forgot to mention. In October, Jennifer was awarded the ConocoPhillips Outstanding Faculty Award. There were only 16 awarded worldwide but what makes it really special is that ConocoPhillips employees (former students) voted on the award.

Both Jennifer and Hossein were selected as finalists for SPE Distinguished Lecturers for 2010-11. They will be on tour lecturing about the exciting research we are doing in the de- partment in stimulation and simulation (you decide which topic each will be talking about). According to Dr. Jim Craf- ton, Chair of the SPE Distinguished Lecture Series, we are the only PE department in the world to have two of our faculty selected. Thanks Jennifer and Hossein for being our ambassadors!! In June, both Erdal and I were selected as SPE Distinguished Members. What an honor! Distinguished Members are limited to 1% of the en- tire SPE membership. We are joining a truly distinguished group which already includes both Craig and Hossein.

I think I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our finances. Thanks largely due to the continued support of you and your companies; the PE Department is in relatively good shape to start the next fiscal year. Keep the donations coming so we can continue all the great programs you will read about in this newsletter!

And finally, an update on the status of Marquez Hall. I would like to quote President Scoggins because that is the most current and factual information I have:

“Thanks to your support for Colorado School of Mines’ new petroleum engineering building, Mar- quez Hall, we have raised $24.5 million in commit- ments for the facility. I am encouraged that we con- tinue to attract such strong support amid turbulent economic times. Mines remains a top philanthropic priority for both individuals and corporations be- cause of the essential contributions our graduates and faculty make to the world’s most critical indus- tries and initiatives......... Pledges with multi-year payment schedules make up a sizeable portion of the financial commitments our partners have made toward Marquez Hall. Initially we had planned for the Colorado School of Mines Foundation to finance the unpaid portion of the project cost to allow con- struction to begin this summer, prior to fulfillment of all pledges. Considering the current economic uncertainty and the constraints that this downturn has placed on the CSM Foundation, we have de- cided to postpone groundbreaking until a greater portion of pledge payments have been made.”

Marquez Hall continues to be a top priority and we in the PE department are looking forward to ground breaking on our new home.

I have now missed by own deadline to turn in our articles so I will stop. I am so looking forward to starting a new year as your Department Head. I encourage your comments, sug- gestion, or just an email update on your own adventures!

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