There's never been a better time to pursue a graduate degree in Petroleum Engineering. No one reading this webpage needs to be reminded about the rising gas prices, increased political instability, and decreasing access to new oil reserves that plague the petroleum industry. What most people don't realize is that for every barrell of oil we take from the ground approximately three more remain, inaccessable to current technologies.
At the University of Kansas, our nationally recognized program focuses on extracting that remaining 75%.
Tertiary Oil Recovery Project (TORP)
The importance of petroleum to economic growth and improved living conditions has become widely recognized throughout the world. No other commodity has the impact on the worldwide economy as the availability of adequate supplies of petroleum. The Tertiary Oil Recovery Project conducts research, technology transfer and field demonstration projects to improve oil recovery from petroleum reservoirs.
Oil Recovery and CO2 Sequestration
The Tertiary Oil Recovery Project (TORP) is located in the Department and is directed by two PE faculty (Don Green and Paul Willhite). TORP represents a strategically important cornerstone of our petroleum engineering research effort. The project attracts a significant proportion of our graduate student cohort both at MS and PhD levels. The main research thrusts include: In Situ Combustion, Surfactant Flooding, Polymer Flooding, Gelled Polymer Technology, CO2 Miscible Flooding, Computer Modeling; Using Biosurfactants from agricultural waste streams for enhanced oil recovery(Jenn-Tai Liang); Modelling wax deposition in Alaska North Slope oil wells(Jenn-Tai Liang). Specific research interests include: Water Shutoff and Conformance Control, CO2 Sequestration in Geologic Formations, Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery (Jenn-Tai Liang), Oil and Gas Reservoir Simulation (Shapour Vossoughi).
Graduate Courses The research programs in the Petroleum Engineering Program is underpinned by a program of specialised post-graduate course which provide direct support for our post-graduate researchers. These aim to provide skills above and beyond those obtained in an undergraduate program and are targeted in the priority research areas defined above.
