PETE Students Compete at the University of Texas

April 5, 2008

Each year Pi Epsilon Tau, the honor society for the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering (PETE) sponsors The Society of Petroleum Engineer’s Paper Contest. PETE students participate in various projects throughout the year. Each project has a faculty advisor, and some have an industry advisor. This contest precedes the regional contest, to which the first and second place winners advance. The regional contest was held on April 5, 2008, at the University of Texas in Austin.

This year’s winners in the Undergraduate Division are Matt Weems, Michael Massengale and Charles Hurme, who earned first place with "Methane Hydrate Production and Economic Analysis." Their faculty advisor was Dr. Richard Hughes, and their industry advisor was William Benton, representing Cabot Specialty Fluids.  Second place winners are Gregory Rowland and Mayuri Murugesu with "Simulation of a Gas Injection Process.” Their faculty advisor was Dr. Dandina Rao, and their industry advisor was Walter Komos with ConocoPhillips. Placing third were Jacob Anderson and Mike Muaket with "Classifying Lithology in the Soso Field." Their faculty advisor was Dr. Stephen Sears, and their industry advisor was Charlie Gibson with Denbury Resources. Honorable Mention went to Joan Ngamo and Jason Jupiter presenting "Analyzing Well Test Results from Gas Storage Well in Canton, Ohio."  Their faculty advisor was Dr. Christopher White, and their industry advisor was Greg Theirl with Dominion.

Two winners tied for first place in the Masters Division: Majid Davoudi and Ali Afsharpoor. Majid Davoudi’s winning paper was titled "Simulation Study of Alternative Initial Responses to Kicks Taken During Managed Pressure Drilling." His faculty advisor was Dr. John Rogers Smith. Also coming in first place was Ali Afsharpoor with "Mechanistic Simulation of Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Process Using Foam Catastophe Theory." His faculty advisor was Dr. Seung Ihl Kam. Finishing in third place was Miodrag Bogdanovic with "Experimental Study of Foam Flow in Pipes." His faculty advisor was Dr. Seung Ihl Kam.

The winners in the PhD Division were Dayanand Saini placing first with "Applicability of the Line Tension Concept in Rock-Oil-Brine Systems." His faculty advisor was Dr. Dandina Rao. Second place winner was Subhash Kalla with "Reservoir Characterization Using Seismic Inversion Data." His faculty advisor was Dr. Christopher White. Finishing in third was Xin Li with "Beyond Queues: Using Grid Computing for Continuous Reservoir Model Updating." His faculty advisor was Dr. Christopher White.

The students worked tirelessly to produce a project worthy of competition. Dr. John Rogers Smith, PE is one of the faculty advisors for the Masters Division, and he guided Majid Dvoudi throughout the year on his project on Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD). MDP is an evolving technology that is being used to drill wells that were previously impractical. “The research being done by Davoudi is helping to demonstrate the best ways to apply this technology to accomplish operations by avoiding the risk of well blowouts,” commented Dr. Smith on the project.

 Article by Justin Schexnayder for the College of Engineering, 225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu

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