Oil & Gas – Khalifa University

Khalifa University Takes 3rd Place Win at the AAPG Imperial Barrel Award Program

Ara Cruz — Wed, 18 May 2022 06:18:52 +0000

Khalifa University proudly took home 3rd place at the latest American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Imperial Barrel Award Program-Middle East Region. The program is an annual competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world. Winners are awarded scholarship funds for their schools.��

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The KU Team was composed of Earth Sciences graduate students Abdulquadri O. Dauda, Abdulwaris Ramoni Ajagunjeun, Ahmed Khaled Eleslambouly, Andreas Fernandez Moncada, and Omar Aldhanhani under the guidance of their team advisor Dr. Mohammad Alsuwaidi, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences.

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Dr. Alsuwaidi explained, “The team went through a rigorous two-month program where they analyzed a large dataset and assessed whether to invest in a particular petroleum play or not. They examined data in geology, geophysics, petrophysics, and petroleum volumetric estimations, which usually requires teamwork from experts such as geologists, petrophysicists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers.”

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The team was able to identify 13 different leads within the area that covered aspects such as environmental risks, reserves estimation, etc. They then delivered the results of their analysis to a panel of industry experts. Winners were selected based on their presentation’s technical quality, clarity, and originality.

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“In oil companies, projects like these are conducted for at least a year, but the students were able to complete the analysis and assessment in two months. Participants of these competitions usually make excellent hydrocarbon explorationists,” Dr. Alsuwaidi added.

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Team captain Ahmed K. Eleslambouly said, “It has been a great experience for me and the team as we accomplished work that usually takes a year or more within a very narrow time schedule. I am very proud that we were able to tackle most of the problems and come up with creative ideas and multiple leads within the study area.”

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“The competition was challenging, time consuming, and required much critical thinking. Although it was tough, the outcome for me and my time was worth it and amazing in terms of learning new technical and academic skills, gaining valuable industry knowledge, and getting familiar with the workflow of petroleum and geoscience projects for well-known companies in the oil and gas industry,” Omar Aldhanhani added.

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“It was hard to balance time working on the competition, our own research, semester projects and other school requirements but working with a team of enthusiastic colleagues and the constant encouragement of our faculty advisor, Dr. Mohammed Alsuwaidi, made the experience more pleasant and worthwhile. Our appreciation goes to the Earth Science Department, faculty, and Khalifa University for their support all through the preparation until the delivery of our presentation,” commented Abdulquadri Alabere.

Ara Maj Cruz
Creative Writer
18 May 2022

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Khalifa University and ADNOC to Organize Program to Educate High School Students on the UAE’s Oil and Gas Sector

Ara Cruz — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 08:23:28 +0000

Ro’ya Program will Raise Awareness among Students about Taking Up Petroleum Engineering-Related Majors and Potential Careers in Oil and Gas ��

Khalifa University and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have announced the launch of a two-year Ro’ya program for high school students to educate them on the UAE’s oil and gas sector. The program that aims to raise awareness among the students about undertaking Petroleum Engineering-related academic majors and potential careers in the oil and gas sector, kicked off this summer.��

The Ro’ya initiative underpins ADNOC’s corporate social responsibility efforts to invest in the education and development of the UAE’s students and enable them to contribute to the nation’s long-term economic growth. It also reflects the status of Khalifa University’s Petroleum Engineering Department, which is ranked 21st globally in the 2021 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings by Subject.

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Senior Vice-President, Academic and Student Services, Khalifa University, said: “We are glad to partner with ADNOC for the Ro’ya summer program that is designed to provide students with the right perspectives as they look forward to planning and choosing their future academic course. Khalifa University’s Petroleum Engineering program is ranked 24th globally, demonstrating the world-class quality of our faculty, cutting-edge laboratories, research centers, and state-of-the-art campus facilities that create the most advanced learning environment. We believe through the Ro’ya summer program, high school students will be able to dream their future and adopt the right approach that will help them materialize their vision.”��

Ghannam AlMazrouei, ADNOC Director, Group Human Capital Directorate, said: “ADNOC is committed to supporting the development of the next generation of skilled workforce across the UAE’s oil and gas value chain and so we are pleased to partner with Khalifa University on the Ro’ya program. The program will provide our students with unique insights into the latest technologies, processes, and expertise used in the industry and highlight the exciting opportunities that our dynamic sector offers to young talent. We will continue to invest in STEM-related educational programs and initiatives to empower and foster our youth and help them build successful careers, in line with the UAE Centennial 2071 vision.”��

The program will have two parts. The initial segment ran virtually from 11 July – 5 August 2021 and combined practical hands-on training, laboratory work, interactions with professional organizations, and project assignments related to the oil and gas industry, all virtually. In the second segment, Grade 11 students will have a one-week internship at Khalifa University that will include workshops and project presentations from December to January 2022, which will lead to another three-week program the following summer. Khalifa University faculty who are leading the program will remain in touch with the students over the entire period and support their projects.

The Outreach Department’s program for high school students from ADNOC Technical Institutes will involve Khalifa University’s Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering departments.

The first week of the initial segment of the program included virtual tours of ADNOC’s Panorama Digital Command Center and Thamama Center of Excellence, and presentations on geology from relative to absolute dating, as well as palaeontology, stratigraphy, correlation techniques, and isotopes. The week also covered scales in geology from small to large, microscopy, fieldwork, seismic reflection geophysics, and reservoir characterization. Participants learnt about the geology of the Middle East and worked together to build a geologic model of a field.��

The second week introduced students to oilfield services company Schlumberger, with tours of its Al Shamkhah Technical Learning Center in Abu Dhabi. The week also included visits to Khalifa University’s Reservoir Rock Properties Lab, Reservoir Fluids Properties Lab, Well Drilling and Drilling Fluids Lab, and the Petroleum Reservoir Simulation Lab.��

In the final week, participants received presentations from professional organizations such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). Interactions with the alumni and current Khalifa University students were also part of the agenda during the week. Other events included sessions on ‘Lead with Ro’ya’ and a workshop on webpage development, as well as a visual interactive platform for exploration and production in the oil and gas industry.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
9 August 2021

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3D Printed Transparent Rocks with Fluid Imaging Could Help Extract Energy from the Ground

KhalifaU19 — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 05:31:07 +0000

Khalifa University researchers leverage 3D printing to better image the fluid dynamics in underground rocks

Researchers at Khalifa University have developed a new way to 3D print reservoir rock replicas that have complex porous structures and mimic a carbonate rock’s natural mineralogy. The 3D printed rocks are transparent, and allow researchers to image precisely how fluid flows through the ultra-tiny pores of rock – information which could help develop effective strategies for hydrocarbon and geothermal energy extraction, carbon sequestration, and even ice mining and water extraction from the ground during planetary exploration.

“While recent improvements in 3D printing enable scientists to fabricate 3D structures that have complicated porous structures by using polymeric materials, these structures ultimately lack in surface functionality. We overcame this problem by integrating high-resolution 3D printing with an internal coating to create structures that functionally replicate the natural rock,” explained Dr. TieJun Zhang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and the principal investigator of a reservoir characterization and modeling project.

His team, which includes, Hongxia Li, Aikifa Raza, Qiaoyu Ge, and Jin-You Lu, recently published describing the new micro-3D printing and mineral coating technique. This approach has been filed as both International PCT and GCC Patents.

Highly porous materials exist in all sorts of applications, from concrete and filtration to biology and oil and gas extraction. Engineers have been studying how fluids flow through porous materials for some time – a branch of study known as microfluidics. Because pore sizes can be as small as a single micrometer, and the porous material being studied can be in hard to reach places, like underground or within the human body, creating devices that can be used to simulate the way fluids flow through porous materials has been the primary way that scientists have advanced understanding of microfluidics.

Even better microfluidic devices, like the 3D printed porous structure developed by Dr. Zhang’s team, could open the door to a vast array of opportunities in quickly modelling and predicting microfluidic flow behaviors in applications such as geology and hydrocarbon extraction.

Traditional microfluidic chips show how fluids move through the pores of the rock and are typically made from glass or silicon. For some applications, this is enough, but carbonate rock is a material susceptible to fluids underground, and the microfluidic model needs to take into account the strong interactions between the fluid and the rock.

3D printing has emerged as one solution to this but many of the issues in fabricating complicated porous networks arise from the limitations in printing materials.

“Conventionally, we can enhance the thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties of 3D-printed devices by adding nanomaterials into polymer ink,” explained Dr. Li, the leading author of this work. “However, these added particles often cause severe light scattering, which impacts printing precision.

It’s then much harder to create the microstructures of natural porous materials like rock. Another issue is that this composite material has poor light transparency, meaning seeing the fluid flow through the device is much more difficult.”

To overcome these issues, the KU researchers used an alternative to polymer ink: in-situ mineral growth in 3D-printed device.

“On complex surfaces, putting a thin layer of a mineral coating on the inner surface of the micromodel mimics the natural surface mineralogy, but can mean that the crystal growth isn’t uniform,” explained Dr. Li. “To overcome this, we coated a seed layer of calcite nanoparticles on the inner surface. This facilitated calcite crystals to grow uniformly, resulting in a device that functioned precisely like carbonate rock. We made a ‘real’, yet transparent, rock.”

This device can then be used as a sort of ‘rock-on-a-chip’ to analyze how various fluids move through the pores and can be readily tailored to test, observe and analyze fluidics in biological, soft robotics, aerospace, and other emerging applications. This ‘rock-on-a-chip’ use has also been demonstrated by the team in another publication.

The transparent, 3D printed rock created at Khalifa University makes microfluidic technology more accessible to researchers in various fields and accelerates innovation. It could also be used to gain key insights into how to extract more hydrocarbons from the UAE’s oil fields in a more sustainable and cost-effective way.

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
25 August 2020

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