Four Petroleum Students Win Research Awards
June 27, 2014
SOCORRO, N.M. 鈥� Three Tech students won awards through the regional Society of Petroleum Engineers student paper contest at the University of Tulsa in April. Another student won an award for a paper presented at the American Association of Drilling Engineers conference.
Bachelor鈥檚 student Arash Memarzadeh won second place. Master鈥檚 student Issah Abdallah won first place. Ph.D. candidate William Ampomah won third place.
鈥淭his is an extremely good showing with three Tech students placing in the top three in their categories,鈥� said Dr. Hamid Rahnema, advisor to the SPE student chapter. 鈥淐ongratulations to the NMT students for their performance! They worked and practiced many hours to refine their talks.鈥�
As a first place winner, Abdallah will move on to the international contest that will be held at SPE's Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in Amsterdam.
鈥淭hanks also to all the students, faculty, PRRC, staff 鈥� especially Karen Balch 鈥� and volunteer judges who organized and helped in the department paper contest back in November,鈥� Rahnema said.
Also, Sebastian Pivnicka won second place in a poster competition at a recent American Association of Drilling Engineers鈥� Drilling Fluids Conference.
Pivnicka鈥檚 paper is titled 鈥淧ressure Prediction of Time-Dependent Drilling Fluids - The Effect of Acceleration.鈥� He studied how fluids and clay particles arrange themselves into something resembling a house of cards over time. This "structure" gives drilling fluids the ability to suspend and carry rock cuttings while drilling.
Abdallah鈥檚 first-place paper is titled, 鈥淐ost Effective Treatment of Produced Water Using Co-Produced Energy Sources.鈥� Working with the Petroleum Recovery Research Center, he he built and tested a process called humidification-dehumidification, or HDH, to treat water produced at oil wells. He found that the cost of treating water is far lower and more efficient that existing methods.
Memarzadeh鈥檚 second-place paper was titled, 鈥淭hermodynamic Analysis of Solvent Assisted Steam Injection.鈥� He studied how steam can reduce the viscosity of in-situ oil to increase production. His study attempts to show how superheated solvents and steam will affect a reservoir at various pressures and temperatures.
Memarzadeh is a second-generation Techie. His father earned a bachelor鈥檚 in 1981 and a master鈥檚 in 1982, both in petroleum engineering.
Ampomah鈥檚 third-place paper was titled, 鈥淪ensitivity Analysis of Reservoir Fluid Effects of Seismic Properties.鈥� His paper offers a modified approach to estimating the probable petroleum reserves that could be found in an underground reservoir.