Technology Partners Program
The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering invites you and your company to become key partners in an initiative to strengthen hands-on instruction in drilling, completions, and production education at Texas A&M University. The Technology Partners Program links students with technology and service providers in a highly interactive learning experience. Your participation will give students exciting new opportunities to experience hands-on activities in drilling and production and will give your company an opportunity to be a part of the nation's leading petroleum engineering degree program.

Why do we need this partnership?

It's no secret that even as college expenses are climbing, state support for education is dwindling. On campuses across the nation, class sizes are growing while the emphasis on equipment and hands-on laboratories is shrinking. We believe that to be truly effective, petroleum engineers must have a sound basis in oilfield equipment and procedures. This is especially true for Texas A&M where much of our reputation is built on the hands-on ability of our graduates. Through the Technology Partners Program, we believe we have defined a new path that will better prepare our students to become truly effective petroleum engineers. The key new element is increased exposure and emphasis on oilfield equipment and procedures.

How does it work?

The focuses of this partnership are the junior level drilling and production classes entitled PETE 225 (Drilling) and PETE 325 (Well Completion and Production). These classes provide the critical foundation for two of our senior-level courses, well completion/ stimulation and well drilling. We believe that giving the students a closer look at real industry practices at this level will remarkably increase their readiness for the more theoretical senior-level courses.

Through this partnership, we will provide students opportunities to visit professional laboratories and well sites, visit with working professionals on campus and off, and develop a working vocabulary of the industry that is founded as much in practical experience as in classroom lecture and textbook theory. The program will function similar to a research consortium or JIP, but with a focus on education and technology rather than research.

Topics:

The Drilling and Productions Systems class introduces the nomenclature and methods used in drilling, completing, and producing oil and gas wells, ranging from theoretical and laboratory prediction of pressure drop, through conventional petroleum production networks, to well completion procedures and hydraulic fracturing.

Your company could provide learning opportunities in any of the following topics:

• Drilling mud (types, additives, testing and procedures)
• Drilling solids control
• Bits and bottom hole assemblies (BHA's)
• Wellheads, BOP's and well control methods
• Cementing (cement types, cementing tools and procedures)
• Oil field tubulars (Drill pipe, casing/ tubing, coiled tubing, expendable products)
• Completion equipment (packers, nipples, thru-tubing tools)
• Fracturing (fluids, proppants, equipment, quality control)
• Artificial lift equipment (GL valves, ESP's, rod pumping, etc)
• Multiphase flow in pipes (flow patterns, modeling)
• Metering (orifice, turbine, coriolis and other single-phase meters)
• Surface facilities (separators, cyclones, hydrocyclones)
• Offshore safety systems (surface pilots and subsurface systems)
• Modern production equipment (multiphase pumps & meters)