Students, faculty and researchers at the University of Wyoming now have access to the same exploration and production modeling software used by the oil and gas industry, thanks to a historic $26.6 million software gift from Schlumberger, the world's leading oilfield service company.
"We are tremendously grateful for this donation, the largest such gift
in the history of the university," says UW President Tom Buchanan. "It
gives our students a tool to use to gain invaluable experience and it
allows UW to expand its efforts as a national leader in energy research
and education."
The gift includes 30 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 licenses can be run simultaneously for big reservoir
projects, which will help the Wyoming Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute
(EORI) and graduate and undergraduate students in various disciplines
across campus -- including petroleum engineering, geology and
geophysics, and mathematics. Schlumberger donated the licenses to EORI.
EORI Director Jim Steidtmann says understanding oil and gas reservoirs
is a fundamental area of knowledge and research for students.
"Familiarizing them with industry tools and in the interdisciplinary way
that they are used better prepares them for careers," he says. "For
teaching and research, the faculty also must be familiar."
The ECLIPSE package allows the scientists and engineers at the EORI to
conduct studies of Wyoming oil fields that provide the necessary
information to produce a well-designed enhanced oil recovery project.
Efficient management of a reservoir is a team effort involving
engineers, geoscientists, and economic analysts, all of whom need to
view a simulation of how the reservoir might function under changing
conditions, Steidtmann says. The work forms the foundation for making
business decisions.
So far, 12 undergraduate students majoring in petroleum engineering have
used ECLIPSE in their senior design projects. Additionally,
undergraduate students in petroleum engineering have used PVTi, an
equation of state based pre-processing program for ECLIPSE, in their
rock and fluid properties class, and petroleum engineering graduate
students are using ECLIPSE for their thesis research.
"This gift is significant because UW students can have hands-on
knowledge of one of the best industrial standard reservoir simulators,"
says Shaochang Wo, a senior research scientist at the EORI. "It makes
the advanced parallel computing of reservoir simulation accessible to UW
students, faculty, and researchers."
Schlumberger donated the software to UW 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
geoscience and petroleum engineering graduates, making them more
attractive in the job market.
"Without this donation from Schlumberger, we could not simulate
full-field reservoir models or various enhanced oil recovery schemes,"
Wo says. "We are grateful because we could simply not afford this
software without Schlumberger's help."
Adds Ben Blalock, president of the UW Foundation, "Schlumberger's
generous support is allowing UW to take its energy teaching curriculum
and research to new levels. Indeed, this gift is historic. Even more
important is the partnership that UW is developing with Schlumberger.
Key Schlumberger executives, researchers and trainers are in direct
contact with UW. Schlumberger is building relationships with our faculty
and students. It is impossible to overstate the impact that
Schlumberger's partnership with UW will have on the university's energy
programs for years to come."
For more information, contact Steidtmann at (307) 766-2791 or e-mail steidt@uwyo.edu.