Laboratories
The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering has several laboratories set up to do research. Current laboratories can be found here.
Crisman Institute
Director: Jeff Spath
The Crisman Institute is essentially a liaison among researchers and the industry centralizing departmental efforts to develop proposals and explore new avenues to fund projects. The Institute encompasses the existing centers, laboratories and research projects within the department but does not exert control over any of them. Instead, it provides opportunities for researchers to coordinate and collaborate, while still conducting their research independently.
Visit the Crisman Institute Website
Heavy Oil, Oil Shales, Oil Sands, and Carbonate Analysis and Recovery Methods (HOCAM)
Director: Berna Hascakir
HOCAM is a research group focused on education and research for the recovery of unconventional oil resources with very low API gravity. The main objective of HOCAM is to find environmentally friendly and economic production solutions for challenging reservoirs including heavy oil, oil shale, oil sand, and carbonate host-rock environments. Our ultimate goal is to educate and train engineers on finding practical solutions for the recovery of these unconventional oil resources using thermal enhanced oil recovery (thermal-EOR) methods.
Killough Research Group
Director: John Killough
In our research group, we investigate different aspects of reservoir simulation in various scales, from advanced high performance computing methods in gigantic reservoirs, to challenging micro scale storage and flow mechanisms in ultra-low permeability shale and fractured carbonate reservoirs.
Visit the Killough Research Group Website
Model Calibration and Efficient Reservoir Imaging (MCERI)
Directors: Akhil Datta-Gupta and Michael King
Reconciling geologic models to dynamic data such as transient pressure, tracer and multiphase production history or time-lapse seismic data is by far the most time-consuming aspect of the workflow for both geoscientists and engineers. The primary focus of this consortium is to develop theoretically sound but practical approaches to data assimilation and model calibration (history matching) during reservoir modeling and forecasting.
Modeling and Improved Oil Recovery from Fractured Reservoirs (MIOR-FR)
Director: David Schechter
Major focus areas of the group include experimental evaluation and modeling of improved oil recovery methods such as carbon dioxide injection and chemical treatments in conventional and unconventional liquid reservoirs. Studies within the group focus on characterizing pore scale rock/fluid interactions, measuring oil volumes from core flooding and imbibition studies and finally modeling lab results to field scale and provide insights on strategies for maximizing output from assets.