AIT PROFESSIONAL MASTER PROGRAM
GEOEXPLORATION & PETROLEUM GEOENGINEERING
Introduction
Vietnam like many other SE Asian countries is rich in mineral and energy resources, including oil & gas. The lack of home-based professionals in prospecting for mineral resources, petroleum exploration and production, nearshore reclamation, and risk management leaves much of this wealth to remain untapped. To meet the rising demands in HR due to the fast expanding Oil and Gas industry in the region the master program in Geo-Exploration and Petroleum Geoengineering (GEPG) of AIT is now offered beyond the Bangkok campus with the one-year professional master program being delivered in Ho Chi Minh city in cooperation with the AIT-Vietnam (AITVN) and other academic partners such as Heriot Watts, Chulalongkorn, Oklahoma, Clausthal and KIGAM.
The GEPG program has been set up at AIT since the early 2000s. It is an application-oriented program that has received the supports from many donors, including the governments and national organizations, big oil and gas companies. Many of GEPG alumni went further for PhD programs or have become key staffs for oil and gas companies operating in the region.
The first three batches of PME-GEPG have been successfully conducted since 2008. The PME-GEPG students come from well-known oil and gas companies in Vietnam such as PVEP, VPI, Cuu Long JOC, Lam Son JOC, Con Son JOC, Truong Son, Chevron, Hoan Vu JOC, Pearl Oil, Thang Long JOC, Phu Quy POC, Schlumberger, Nippon oil and Salamander Energy.
Notable features
GEPG is the first international graduate education in the region on GeoExploration and Petroleum Geoengineering setup by Asian Institute of Technology to serve the upstream sector of oil and gas industry (E&P). The objective of the GEPG program is to provide a graduate and continuing education to professionals and staffs who are at present or in the future will work in the E & P sector of the oil and gas industry, where a shortage in HR is markedly felt. The students attending PME-GEPG will have a balanced and up-to-date mix of knowledge in geoexploration, reservoir engineering and management, drilling and production technology as well as risk and project management in E&P business.
As an application-oriented program, GEPG diverges from the traditional discipline-based one. This notable feature allows a flexible study structure. In addition to the AIT teaching team, a number of well known experts and adjunct faculty members from partner universities in Asia and Europe as well as from the industry join teaching the GEPG program.
The program is fully equiped with high performance computing facility and highly specialized subsurface software as supported by Schlumberger and dB Earth Sciences such as Eclipse, Interactive Petrophysics, Petrel, Pipesim, Geoframe, OpenTecht (The Innovatice System Seismic Open Source by dGB Earth Sciences), Radpro, Rockworks2006 and others.
The partners
The program is operated with the support and collaboration from well-known academic and industrial partners:
- Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
- Clausthal University of Technology (Germany)
- Herriot-Watt (UK)
- ITC (The Netherlands)
- Kyoto University (Japan)
- KIGAM (Korea)
- Oklahoma (USA)
- Vietnam Petroleum Institute
· Vietnam National University, Hanoi
· Faculty of Petroleum and Geology, HCMC University of Technology
· Hanoi University of Mining and Geology
· Department of Mineral Fuels of Thailand
· PTTEP of Thailand
· Schlumberger
· DGB Earth Sciences
Program structure
Students who expect to obtain a Professional Master of Engineering (PME) degree in Geoexploration and Petroleum Geoengineering will need to complete a 33-credit curriculum, consisting of 24 credits of course work and 9 credits of project work and/or customized courses over a period of 12 months (8 months of course work + 3 months of project work/customized courses). Students who need preparation in English and computer skills could be enrolled in the bridging program during the June/July prior to September intake.
Duration: two main semesters of coursework at AITCV (HCM city) and an internship period at a major Oil and Gas company for project work or customized course
Enrollment: August Intake
Total Credit: 33 Credits
Total Courses Offered | No. credit/course | Total Credits To Be Completed |
January Semester –Coursework at AITCV (HCM City) |
4 | 3 | 4 x 3 = 12 |
August Semester –Coursework at AITCV (HCM City) |
4 | 3 | 4 x 3 = 12 |
Customized courses and/or Internship at an Oil and Gas company | 9 |
Total coursework credits | 33 |
Admission schedule
Intake | August |
First Deadline for application (for those who need English training) | 30 May |
First Entrance Test and Interview for admission to the Master Program | 02 June - 13 June |
Intensive English training | 01 April – 31 August |
Second Deadline for application submission (for those who do not need more English training) | 30 July |
Second Entrance Test and Interview for admission to the Master Program | 01 August –06 August |
Start of class | September |
Typical study plan
Ord. No. | Course ID | Course Title – Credits ( lecture-lab hour) Credit | Instructor(s) |
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER SEMESTER at AITCV, HCM city (12 Credits) |
1 | CE71.69 | Fundamentals of Geosystem Exploration 3(3-0) | Dr. Pham Huy Giao |
2 | CE71.66 | Petroleum Reservoir Engineering 3(3-0) | Dr. Suwat Athichanagorn |
3 | CE71.9001 | Decision Analysis and Risk Management for O&G Industry 3(3-0) | Prof. S.O. Ogunlana /Dr. Thitisak Boonpramote
|
4 | CE71.9002 | Drilling and Well Completion Operation 3(3-0) | Dr. Noppadol Phien-wej/Mr. Sarunphong Articharte/ Dr. Le Hai An |
JANUARY-MAY SEMESTER at AITCV, HCM city (12 Credits) |
5 | CE71.65 | Exploration Geophysics 3(2-3) | Dr. Seonghyung Jang/ Dr. Peangta/ Dr. Pham Huy Giao
|
6 | CE71.70 | Petrophysics 3(2-3) | Dr. P. H. Giao |
7 | CE71.9003 | Petroleum Production Technology 3(3-0) | Dr. Suwat Athichanagorn |
8 | CE71.9004 | Petroleum Geochemistry 3(3-0) | Prof. R. Paul Philp |
JUNE at AITCV, HCM City: |
9 | Seminar course | Work flow of O&G Exploration and Production operation in Vietnam |
|
JULY – AUGUST: Internship Trip (9 credits) |
Teaching schedule
Each course is separated in two modules. Duration of a module is a week from Monday through Saturday. The students need to spend about two weeks per month to attend two the classes as scheduled below:
- Monday: 18h00 – 21h00
- Tuesday: 18h00 – 21h00
- Wednesday: 18h00 – 21h00
- Thurday: 18h00 – 21h00
- Friday: 18h00 – 21h00
- Saturday: 09h00 – 12h00 & 13h30 – 16h30
Seminar Course: Work flow of O&G Exploration and Production operation in Vietnam
This course aims to give a better understanding of the practical side of the oil and gas exploration and production operations to the students. The course will be a combination of lectures, seminars as details below. The teaching of the course is largely carried out by the invited industrial experts.
§ Lecture 01: Overview of E&P Operation: from Bidding to First Oil
§ Lecture 02: Oil and Gas Economics, Policy and Management
§ Lecture 03: Seismic Interpetation - Sequence Stratigraphy
§ Lecture 04: Wireline Logging Operation and Petrophysics
§ Lecture 05: Petroleum System Analysis
§ Lecture 06: Integrated Interpretation of Geological, Seismic and Well Logging Data
§ Lecture 07: Drilling and Well Completion
§ Lecture 08: Reservoir Management
§ Lecture 09: Production Technology
§ Lecture 10: Future E&P Activities in Vietnam
Course description: Practical works of petroleum geology and geophysics: seismic stratigraphy; petroleum reservoir management; petroleum drilling operation; petroleum production technology; project works.
