2001 Alumni Newsletter - petroleum engineering colorado school of ...

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12 flow models have other important uses. Our research is generating new insight into how to calculate important geomechanical parameters at a fraction of the cost of more complicated systems. We are now able to easily calculate such properties as Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus, and uniaxial compaction throughout the life of the reservoir from a minimal input data set. These properties give us additional insight into the behavior of the structure of the reservoir throughout its life, and the impact of structural changes on fluid flow. Service to organization, community, and industry is the third ball that must be juggled. Probably of most interest to you is the development of a new Petroleum Engineering Handbook by the SPE under the editorship of Larry Lake (UT-Austin). Many of our colleagues around the world are writing the new PE Handbook. I am editing the General Engineering Section. By this time next year, I hope to be telling you how to obtain a copy. One other service activity might interest those of you who are involved with asset management teams: I have co-edited the October issue of The Leading Edge with Wayne Pennington (Michigan Tech). The Society of Exploration Geophysicists publishes the journal and our issue takes a look at applications of technology at the interface between geophysics and reservoir engineering. If you would like more information about my research or books, visit my website at http:/ /www.mines.edu/~jfanchi/. Ramona Graves This is the beginning of my 21 st year teaching in the Petroleum Engineering Department at Mines. It is the first time I have had to start a year without the gentle humor, wry wit and quiet strength of Robert. I profoundly miss him. But WOW, did we ever have some great adventures together. The times we spent camping with the 316 students in Alaska will always be among my favorite memories. I guess we will all just have to go to “Plan B” and continue on without him. My laser-rock destruction research is the one of the most exciting projects I have worked on in my career. The research team of engineers and scientist from PDVSA, Halliburton, Gas Technology Institute, and Argonne National Labs is one of the best functioning, productive teams I have ever worked on. This year one of the biggest accomplishments was to transmit a laser beam through a fiber optic cable that was submerged in water and still destroy rocks. I’ve also been working with a Golden company, Native American Technologies, using a diode laser. The entire laser set-up is about the size of a mini-van!! Next year we will be zapping rock under simulated reservoir conditions. I plan on soliciting industry partners to supplement current DOE support in early 2002. However, teaching is still my true passion. The students energize me and always make me laugh. What a lucky person I am to have a job I look forward to coming to every day (and lately it has been every day!) Our PE faculty is strong and enthused. It’s nice to work with people who are committed to the same goals. It is going to be another great year. On the home front, Jake has decided to be a mechanic and is in his second year of a two-year training program. It must be a good one because the tuition is higher than the tuition at Mines. He is having a good time and enjoying being 20 years old. Lacey (19) is in San Francisco studying to get a degree in photography. Much to her disappointment she still has to take math and science classes! She really loves living in the bay area and I really enjoy going there to visit her. They both go to school full time and work full time. Where did they ever get that crazy work ethic? I miss them both but I still have little dog, Fred, to keep me company. Until we see each other again, I wish you peace and joy. Hossein Kazemi Ramona Graves This is my first contribution to the newsletter. I am very grateful to Dr. Craig Van Kirk for asking me to submit a few words about my activities at the Petroleum Engineering Department. I think it would be nice to know why I am here at the CSM. The journey began a little more than twenty years ago when Craig called me up at Marathon Technology Center and asked me if I could
teach a course on reservoir modeling or well testing. You see, the enrollment in the Department was very high around year 1980 and, as I recall, we had 511 students signed up in petroleum engineering! Everybody on the staff was very busy and the Department needed help. With permission Hossein Kazemi from Marathon, I said yes to Craig. Thus, my second career began then as an adjunct professor. I taught one course a semester at night— mostly graduate courses. Then, I began doing research with graduate students. This was really fun because I wanted to continue being a researcher while I was managing the Engineering Department and later the entire Reservoir Technology in Marathon. The rest is history and it simply indicates that I was very lucky to receive that phone call from Craig. Recently Marathon decided to close its world-class technology center because of pressure from both inside and outside. I decided to stay in Colorado instead of going to Houston for purely personal reasons. While I miss the heavy involvement in the business side of petroleum exploration and production, I am beginning to devote my energies to my first love, which is the academia. Now, I am planning to teach two courses in the daytime and increase my involvement in conducting research. In fact, I have proposed to Craig that we establish a Center for Reservoir Studies at the Department to conduct practical research on subjects of interest to the industry. A further goal is to conduct such research in a timely and cost-effective manner using the Department’s high-class resources as well as outside help from local world-class experts we know. We will pursue this rigorously. As for me, I taught three courses last spring—one senior course and two graduate courses. I had a great time because two of the courses were new for me. I wanted to share with my students, in addition to the required academic material, the experiences of my professional career in the business world. It worked very well! Thanks to Craig for the opportunities. This semester I teach the first course in reservoir simulation and compositional simulation. I am also working with a couple of graduate students on topics of interest to me—especially, gravity drainage in fractured reservoirs and understanding mass transfer mechanisms in such reservoirs. I am excited for the opportunity to work with the students, the faculty and the staff in the PE, who have welcomed me to their workplace. Thank you all—especially Dee and Chris. Mark Miller The computing resources in our department received a big boost this past year. A large donation from Marathon, in combination with student technology fees, allowed us to open a graduate student computing lab. The new lab brings together state-of-art workstations with industry software, allowing graduate students to work on industrial strength problems. With all of the new machines, we were able to put older machines into graduate offices. We also set up a new server, added printers, and completely rewired the first floor. Keeping up with the constantly changing technology is a priority for the department. It also keeps me busy. Academically, I have been working with Richard Christiansen on developing programming laboratories for our undergraduate stu- Mark Miller dents. Rather than learn FORTRAN or C++, we are teaching our students the fundamentals of programming using a tool that they will likely have when they leave Mines: Excel. Well not exactly Excel, Visual Basic for Applications. This tool allows engineers to greatly extend the capability of Excel. It also can make the infamous “Tarner” senior project easier. Field session was spent in California this summer. I particularly enjoyed it, having spent several summers working there. While it seemed that there had been some growth and change, much was the same. AERA did an exceptional job of providing our students with a look at what petroleum engineering entails and the kinds of jobs they can expect to be doing. As always, more about field session activities can be found in Bill Eustes’s section. 13
Page 1 and 2: Colorado School of Mines Newsletter
Page 3 and 4: or nominate someone else to serve o
Page 5 and 6: Here are a few photos of Robert Tho
Page 7 and 8: success has been recognized by many
Page 9 and 10: engaged me to review many of their
Page 11: on the fly. I appreciate the help f
Page 15 and 16: 2001 Summer Alumni Picnic Bakersfie
Page 17 and 18: . . .and from CA Field Session 17
Page 19 and 20: members. In the spring, new officer

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