Students and researchers at the University of Louisiana Lafayette now have access to the same exploration and production modeling software used by the oil and gas industry thanks to an historic $17.5 million software gift from Schlumberger, the world’s leading oilfield Service Company.
The gift to the Petroleum Engineering Department includes 17 licenses of ECLIPSE* Parallel, a leading-edge software product created by Schlumberger to help simplify oil and gas reservoir simulation – a mathematically complex and computationally intensive enterprise.
The software also includes a license of Merak PEEP, a leading-edge software product also from Schlumberger to simplify oil and gas economic analysis. The UL Lafayette Petroleum Engineering advisory council recommended it for the new Petroleum Property Valuation and Risk Analysis course.
A license for Petrel, seismic interpretation and geologic modeling software, is included. The Petrel software is an integrated workflow from seismic to simulation that provides seamless integration with the ECLIPSE reservoir simulation software and rapid production history matching workflows.
“ This gift will provide petroleum engineering students the exciting educational experience of being exposed to world-class software that many oil and gas companies use,” said Dr. Mark Zappi, dean of UL Lafayette’s College of Engineering. “It will add greatly to ensuring that our petroleum engineering program remains one of the best.”
The software will be used to train students on how to model complex subsurface oil and gas reservoirs and to simulate fluid flow in the reservoirs. Modeling and simulation are a critical step in determining optimal drilling locations when exploring and developing oil and gas fields.
“ We provide cutting-edge technology to the E&P industry that transforms the way oil fields are discovered, developed and produced,” said Slavo Pastor, North America vice president for Schlumberger Information Solutions. “We believe students can make valuable contributions to our industry if they have access to leading software technology. Our software will allow them to gain new insights into reservoir science and prepare them for fulfilling careers in the dynamic oil and gas industry.”
The software licenses can run simultaneously for big reservoir projects, which will help the UL Lafayette Energy Institute along with graduate and undergraduate students in petroleum engineering, mathematics, geology and geophysics.
“ The software will immensely enhance the Energy Institute and petroleum engineering capabilities in training students in reservoir engineering and enhanced oil recovery,” said Dr. Ali Ghalambor, director of the Energy Institute. “As the reservoirs in the U.S. and other areas of the world mature, we need to have additional sophisticated tools to look into reservoir potentials and explore the possibility of finding new petroleum resources as well as getting more out of the existing reserves.”
The ECLIPSE package allows the scientists and engineers at UL Lafayette to conduct studies of Louisiana oil fields that provide the necessary information to produce a well-designed reservoir study and enhanced oil recovery project.
So far, 30 undergraduate students majoring in petroleum engineering have used ECLIPSE in their senior design projects. Additionally, students have used supporting software applications with the ECLIPSE program for various courses include Computer Applications, Gas Reservoir Engineering, Secondary Recovery Processes and Advanced Principles of Natural Gas.
“ This gift is significant because UL Lafayette students can have hands-on knowledge on one of the best industrial standard reservoir simulators,” said Dr. Fathi H. Boukadi, LAGCOE Endowed Professor in petroleum engineering and the gift receiver. “Without it, we could not evaluate reserves, examine phase behavior of reservoir fluids, review and analyze well testing data and maximize production through the simulation of full-field reservoir models for oil, gas and enhanced oil recovery.”
Schlumberger donated the software to UL Lafayette as part of an effort to increase industry-standard geology and geophysics software knowledge for students. This preparation will broaden the skill sets of university geosciences and petroleum engineering graduates, making them more attractive in the job market.