Oil & Gas Job Vacancy UK PhD studentship

Institite of Peroleum Engineering
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Phd Studentship in Reservoir Engineering

There is currently a vacancy for one PhD student to work within the industry-sponsored Edinburgh Time-Lapse Project based at the Heriot-Watt Institute of Petroleum Engineering in the UK. This consortium is now in its fourth three-year phase, which continues our research effort into the development of new techniques and understanding for the quantitative interpretation of 4D seismic data via integration with reservoir engineering principles. Details of our activities can be found on the project website www.pet.hw.ac.uk/research/etlp

Description of the project

Your research will investigate the possibility of using 4D seismic data acquired over short intervals to provide a simple fluid flow simulation for the purposes of short term forecasting of reservoir performance. It builds on past work by the group on the topics of pressure-saturation extraction, permeability estimation, and barrier identification from 4D seismic. Application to observed seismic and reservoir data donated by sponsoring companies will be an essential element of this research.

Qualifications*

You will require an excellent undergraduate degree and preferably a First Degree and/or Masters in Reservoir Engineering, Physics or Applied Mathematics. You should be self-motivated, enthusiastic and possess good written and oral communication skills. A solid underlying knowledge of reservoir engineering, particularly reservoir simulation, combined with some understanding of seismic will be required. We are particularly interested in candidates with strong computational skills, in particular competent programming skills in C, C++, or Fortran are necessary. Several years experience of working in a relevant area within the oil industry is desirable but not essential.

Our PhD degree

The PhD degree in the UK is normally of three years duration. In the ETLP group, students are expected to undertake an MPhil in year 1 and then progress onto their PhD in years 2 and 3 should their work be of satisfactory quality. The studentships currently on offer pay for all tuition fees and the living allowance for these three years. In addition, funding is available to cover travel and expenses to conferences and meetings with sponsoring companies. We aim to start this PhD project at a mutually agreeable date between May and August of 2009

Contact

Candidates should contact Prof. Colin MacBeth at the Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University (colin.macbeth@pet.hw.ac.uk), attaching a CV detailing experience and qualifications as indicated above.

*Applicants who clearly do not adhere to the specifications defined above will be rejected outright, without reply.