Petroleum engineering is key to the functioning of the modern world, providing both energy and materials for industry. Teesside is a major European centre for the chemical and petroleum processing sector, making it an ideal location for individuals seeking to study for an MSc with industrial relevance.
Course details
The programme of lectures and project work, encompasses a wide range of petroleum fundamentals, pertinent to the modern petroleum industry. Project work provides an opportunity for ideas and methods, assimilated through lectures and tutorials, to be applied to real field evaluation and development design problems. The course is applied in nature and has been designed so that on completion, you are technically well prepared for a career in industry.
Professional accreditation
Our MSc Petroleum Engineering is accredited by the Energy Institute, under licence from the Engineering Council. This means that it meets the requirements for further learning for Chartered Engineer (CEng) under the provisions of UK-SPEC.
By completing this professionally accredited MSc you could benefit from an easier route to professional membership or chartered status, and it can help improve your job prospects and enhance your career. Some companies show preference for graduates who have a professionally accredited qualification, and the earning potential of chartered petroleum engineers can exceed £100,000 a year.
Our Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE) student chapter is one of only nine in the UK. SPE is the largest individual member organisation serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals worldwide in the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry. Through our SPE chapter we can invite professional speakers from industry, and increase the industrial networking opportunities for students.
What you study
For the Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) award you must successfully complete 120 credits of taught modules. For an MSc award you must successfully complete 120 credits of taught modules and a 60-credit master's research project.
You select your master’s research projects from titles suggested by either industry or our academic staff, but you may also, with your supervisor’s agreement, suggest your own titles.
Core modules
-Drill Engineering and Well Completion
-Hydrocarbon Production Engineering
-Material Balance and Recovery Mechanisms
-Petroleum Chemistry
-Petroleum Economics and Simulation
-Petroleum Reservoir Engineering
-Practical Health and Safety Skills
-Research and Study Skills
MSc candidates
-Research Project
Modules offered may vary.
Teaching
The course is delivered using a series of lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions.
Our MSc Petroleum Engineering is supported by excellent laboratory and engineering machine workshop facilities including fluid flow measurement, computer modelling laboratories, other laboratories and workshops, an excellent library and computing facilities. We have invested around £150,000 in laboratory equipment particularly in within core analysis and enhanced oil recovery.
We have several computer laboratories equipped with specialised and general-purpose software. This generous computing provision gives you extended access to industry-standard software – it allows you to develop skills and techniques using important applications. For upstream processes, Teesside University has access to educational software packages like Petrel, Eclipse, CMG, PIPESIM and Ecrin to simulate the behaviour of oil reservoirs, calculating oil in situ, and oil and gas production optimisation. As for downstream processes, you can use HYSYS to test different scenarios to optimise plant designs.
Facilities include:
Enhanced oil recovery and core analysis laboratory
The flow through porous media, enhanced oil recovery techniques and core analysis is done in the core flooding lab. The lab is equipped with core plugging and trimming, core preparation and conventional core properties measurement equipment. At a higher level, the lab is also equipped to perform some special core analysis measurements such as fluid relative permeabilities as well as rock surface wetting quantification.
Petrophysics laboratory
The petrophysics lab allows you to study the properties of rocks, particularly the measurement of porosity and evaluation of permeability. The lab is equipped with sieve analysis equipment to investigate grain sorting and its effect on permeability and the porosity of rocks. You are able to gauge saturation and fluid flow through porous media.
Surface characterisation laboratory
The rock surface characterisation lab is equipped with a zeta analyser to measure the rock surface electric charge. You study the rock surface wetting state, adsorption and desorption potential using digitised contact angle apparatus and thermos-gravimetric apparatus respectively.
Drilling laboratory
The drilling lab is equipped with mud measurement equipment including mud density, mud rheology and mud filtration systems to enable you to measure mud cake and formation damage. The lab highlights the importance of oilfield drilling fluids.
Assessment varies from module to module. The assessment methodology could include in-course assignments, design exercises, technical reports, presentations or formal examinations. For your MSc project you prepare a dissertation.
Employability
These courses provide specialist education tailored to the requirements of both the upstream and downstream petroleum industry. The relevance of this education combined with careful selection of candidates has encouraged oil and gas companies to target our graduates for recruitment over the years.
The petroleum industry is subject to dramatic changes of fortune over time, with the oil price capable of very rapid rates of change in either direction. Petroleum, however, remains the dominant source of energy, with current world production of oil and gas at record rates. In this environment, companies face increasing technological and commercial challenges to keep their wells flowing and are increasingly dependent on input from petroleum engineers and geoscientists.
It is widely recognised that a steady influx of fresh people and ideas is vital for the longer-term success and stability of an organisation, and it is therefore expected that recruitment will continue, especially for those with motivation and the appropriate qualifications.
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