Reassessment of petroleum engineering education: Is it the end of an era or a new start?
Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
Cited by 3 publications
References 42 publications
The failed merger attempt between SPE and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) in 2020-21 brought about nonsensical calls for rebranding the petroleum engineering (PE) discipline into something like "energy engineering" and by extension SPE into "Society of Professionals in Energy." This led to the writing of "Petroleum Engineers Need a Strong Professional Society" (SPE-210365). I felt a need to combat heavy-consequence-bearing misconceptions promulgated in the PE community, including a field of great importance: education. Someone had to set the record straight. PE academic programs interested in facilitating a smooth transition of their graduates into the industry should work in conjunction with the exploration and production (E&P) sector of the oil and gas (O&G) industry to provide the correct balance between theory and practice in their coursework, ensuring that relevant-E&P-job openings are filled with their graduates. The low PE-student enrollment levels frequently reported may be a manifestation of long-standing issues within the PE higher education. Decisions on things like curricula/syllabi design, along with faculty hiring should be governed by a desire to equip PE graduates with a competitive advantage over non-PE graduates vis-à-vis related-E&P domains.Integrating the many PE subdisciplines (drilling, reservoir, production, and other) in a manner efficient for learning is essential for producing competitive-and-market-attractive young professionals. PE graduates must be cognizant of the basics and fundamentals of their "trade," comfortable in assessing E&P problems efficiently through all their facets. While talks on the transferability of skills that PEs typically feature into peripheral disciplines mainstreams, strengthening the competitive advantage that PE graduates must hold over non-PE graduates is where the focus needs to be. Excellence in PE requires intra-disciplinarism – completeness on all fronts.This paper presents ten "truisms" (cold, hard realities of the modern-day world), providing explanations behind several status quos impacting the PE discipline, directly or indirectly.
The failed merger attempt between SPE and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) in 2020-21 brought about nonsensical calls for rebranding the petroleum engineering (PE) discipline into something like "energy engineering" and by extension SPE into "Society of Professionals in Energy." This led to the writing of "Petroleum Engineers Need a Strong Professional Society" (SPE-210365). I felt a need to combat heavy-consequence-bearing misconceptions promulgated in the PE community, including a field of great importance: education. Someone had to set the record straight. PE academic programs interested in facilitating a smooth transition of their graduates into the industry should work in conjunction with the exploration and production (E&P) sector of the oil and gas (O&G) industry to provide the correct balance between theory and practice in their coursework, ensuring that relevant-E&P-job openings are filled with their graduates. The low PE-student enrollment levels frequently reported may be a manifestation of long-standing issues within the PE higher education. Decisions on things like curricula/syllabi design, along with faculty hiring should be governed by a desire to equip PE graduates with a competitive advantage over non-PE graduates vis-à-vis related-E&P domains.Integrating the many PE subdisciplines (drilling, reservoir, production, and other) in a manner efficient for learning is essential for producing competitive-and-market-attractive young professionals. PE graduates must be cognizant of the basics and fundamentals of their "trade," comfortable in assessing E&P problems efficiently through all their facets. While talks on the transferability of skills that PEs typically feature into peripheral disciplines mainstreams, strengthening the competitive advantage that PE graduates must hold over non-PE graduates is where the focus needs to be. Excellence in PE requires intra-disciplinarism – completeness on all fronts.This paper presents ten "truisms" (cold, hard realities of the modern-day world), providing explanations behind several status quos impacting the PE discipline, directly or indirectly.
PE Programs Evolution Under Energy Expansion: Global Analysis of Current Status
With the ever-increasing concerns about global warming, traditional oil and gas companies started rebranding as energy companies, diversifying and expanding their energy portfolio beyond fossil fuel. This has steered job market opportunities and encouraged Petroleum Engineering (PE) programs in different universities to diversify their programs and direct them towards energy rather than traditional PE. This study investigates the recent impact of this energy expansion on PE BSc, MSc, and PhD programs worldwide. This paper is an extension of our previous work (SPE-216532-MS) that discussed the courses and skills needed for the undergraduate PE curriculum to meet future energy requirements. Nevertheless, the current study covers the changes (if any) in BSc, MSc, and PhD degree programs related to PE or Energy Systems, as well as offered minors, concentrations, and professional degrees toward better preparation of future engineers for the energy market. The analysis was conducted on PE programs of top universities in different regions worldwide. These programs were selected based on different 2024 world university rankings, including Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), US News and World Report, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The data collection was mainly based on a survey shared with department chairs at different PE universities, supported by the public domain of available data on university web pages. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the data collected, where very interesting trends were observed. The results obtained from this study showed clear differences in PE education at the three different levels of BSc, MSc, and PhD of the seven different regions investigated, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. The study showed that most of the surveyed PE-related universities around the globe (82%) have been affected by energy expansion. While this energy expansion effect has been mainly limited to the content of the program (59%), some cases showed changes in department/program name, and in very few cases, the program has been closed. However, the percentage of major disruption (41%) is expected to grow within the coming years. The changes in PE-related programs have been mainly concentrated at the BSc level (27%). Furthermore, CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) is the most important and incorporated topic in PE-related programs at three levels, followed by hydrogen, geothermal, and AI/ML, particularly for the graduate MSc and PhD levels. A considerable percentage (39%) of the surveyed universities/departments offers energy-related certifications in minors, concentrations, professional degrees, or graduate certificates to ensure graduates are marketable and prepared for the future energy market. Regional analysis of survey results showed that energy adaptation has affected each region but to a different extent, where African universities are the least affected. Also, all universities in Australia changed the program or department name, and no energy-related minor or professional degrees are available in South America yet. The findings obtained in this study are based on the universities surveyed in each region. They could be justified by energy resource availability and affordability, as well as climate action commitment. This study is one of the first to track the current shift in the status of undergraduate and graduate petroleum engineering programs around the globe. The paper highlights the new global trends in PE education and reflects the disparity in different regions worldwide. Based on the findings of this study, several actions can be taken by different universities to better prepare their future graduates for the new energy market.
Hydrocarbons are one of the most important sources of energy globally. The processing, use, and commercialization of these resources are the basis of the world economy, even in an era of energy transition like the one experienced today, in which alternative energies are developing rapidly. Activities carried out in the hydrocarbon industry contribute a large amount of energy-related CO2 emissions, in addition to other environmental risks such as hydrocarbon spills, soil and groundwater contamination, and fires. As a result, the importance of the industry has been overshadowed, even though because of these same activities, engineering and scientific advances have been achieved to optimize the production of hydrocarbons to satisfy global demand. Consequently, it is expected that the oil and gas industry will face challenges in the environmental, operational, and social context during the next decade.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
Contact Info
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Product
Resources
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.
