Colorado School of Mines
Petroleum Engineering
The Colorado School of Mines Petroleum Engineering Department enjoys a world-wide reputation for excellence in petroleum engineering education and research. We attract highly qualified students from all over the world, which creates a healthy international atmosphere. The popularity of the program is reflected in the large number of applicants, the industry demand for our graduates, and the high level of financial support from private sources, alumni, and industry partners.
We offer both an undergraduate degree program (ABET accredited) and graduate degree programs at Master and PhD levels. All disciplines within the field of petroleum engineering, which can be categorized into drilling, production, and reservoir engineering, are covered in depth at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Specific areas of focus are fundamental fluid and rock behavior, well design and construction, well completion and stimulation, formation evaluation, well testing, reservoir characterization, production operations and artificial lift, reservoir engineering and management, supplemental recovery, economic evaluation of petroleum projects, and unconventional oil and gas reservoirs.
Key DSA Publications:
Educating Future Drilling Engineers for the Digital Era, 2019.
Authors: Alfred W. Eustes, Kirtland McKenna, Zach Zody, Carl Healy, Camden Lang, Deep Joshi, Stephen Yow, and Kyle McGowen
Improving Torque and Drag Prediction Using the Advanced Spline Curves Borehole Trajectory, 2017.
Authors: Mahmoud Abughaban, Alfred W. Eustes, John de Wardt, Marc Willerth
Monte Carlo Analysis of Advanced Spline Curves for Wellbore Trajectory Uncertainty Calculations, 2019.
Authors: Kirtland McKenna, Alfred W. Eustes, Mahmoud Abughaban, Mojtaba Shahri
Designing Three-Dimensional Directional Well Trajectories Using Bézier Curves, 2016.
Authors: Jorge Sampaio Jr.
Links to Mines website:
CSM Petroleum Engineering Home
CSM Petroleum Engineering Research
Links to Mines contact:
Alfred William (Bill) Eustes III
Associate Professor
Petroleum Engineering
[email protected]
+1-303-273-3745
Laboratories
Apache Drilling Lab
The Apache Drilling Laboratory is a unique combination of steel, grease, rock, and computer to provide a research and educational environment for undergraduate and graduate students in the digital era. The lab consists of a Sandvik DE-130, an industrial coring rig, capable of drilling 1.75 inch cores up to 3,000 ft of the hard rock located at Edgar Experimental Mine located in Idaho Springs, CO. The drill rig is outfitted with high frequency (>1,000 Hz) sensors and a modern control system enabling a wide variety of research. The scale of the rig and the ability to drill through rock at depth provides a drilling environment much closer to full-scale oil & gas drilling.
