AFRICAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (AUST)

ABUJA, NIGERIA
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING CURRICULUM (Rev. May 2016)

MSc Thesis Option: 18 credits of Foundation courses, 3 credits of University courses, 24

credits of Graduate level courses including all core courses, 6 credits of Thesis.
MSc Non-Thesis Option: 18 credits of Foundation courses, 3 credits of University
courses, 33 credits of Graduate level courses including all core courses, 3 credits of
Project.
PhD: 18 credits of Graduate level courses including PET 640--Research Methods for
Engineers & Scientists, 36 credits of research. Students are required to take and pass the
departmental PhD qualifying exam on the fundamental and core petroleum engineering
courses at the completion of one academic year of study (details are given in the
Petroleum Engineering Department PhD Requirements).

MSc Program starting in June:

Year 1:

Jan Feb
-

Mar
-

Apr
-

May
-

Jun
Fc
Fc

Jul
Fc
Uc

Aug
Fc

Sep
Fc

Oct
Fc

Nov
Fc

Dec
Gc
Gc

Year 2:

Gc

Gc

Gc

Gc

Gc

GE

GE

GE

GE

T/P

T/P

T/P

Jul
Gc
Gc

Aug
Gc

Sep
Gc

Oct
Gc

Nov
Gc

Dec
Gc
GE

MSc Program starting in January:

Year 1:

Jan Feb
Fc
Fc
Fc Uc

Mar
Fc

Apr
Fc

May
Fc

Jun
Fc

Year 2:

GE

GE

GE

T/P

T/P

T/P

LEGEND
Fc = Foundation Course
P = Project
Uc = University Course

Gc = Core Graduate Course

GE = Graduate Elective Course

Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 1 of 7

T = Thesis

AFRICAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (AUST),

ABUJA, NIGERIA
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING COURSES
Foundation Courses
PET 500 - Introduction to Petroleum Engineering - 1 Credit
Overview of the oil and gas industry; global nature; regional and local challenges and
opportunities; different sectors in the industry; fundamentals of geology and accumulation
of petroleum; petroleum field life cycle (exploration, appraisal, development, abandonment)
and the activities carried out during each phase; pipeline transportation, safety and
environmental issues; future of oil and gas industry.
PET 501 - Petroleum Geology - 3 Credits Review of basic geology concepts in petroleum
exploration and exploitation. Petroleum generation, migration, trapping, and sealing. Practical
experience in actual oil/gas fields/accumulations. Review of reservoir characterization and
reservoir/petroleum engineering concepts.
PET 502 - Reservoir Properties & Well logging - 3 Credits
Basic Knowledge of rock properties and fluid rock interaction (porosity, permeability, fluid
saturation), coring, capillary pressure, basic concepts of logging and miscellaneous logging
tools/devices: caliper logs; temperature logs; SP and gamma ray logs; resistivity and porosity logs;
dipmeter logs.
PET 503 - Drilling and Well Completion - 3 Credits
Principles of drilling, drilling fluids and rheology, drilling problems, drilling hydraulics, well control
techniques and casing seat selection, design of casing programs, completion and workover fluids.
PET 504 - Reservoir Engineering and Fluids - 3 Credits
Quantitative study and prediction of the behavior of oil and gas reservoir under primary,
secondary and tertiary recovery mechanisms. Properties of gas reservoirs, oil reservoirs, water in
petroleum reservoirs; material balance in oil reservoirs; single phase fluid flow in porous media,
natural water influx; gas reservoirs; water coning and fingering.
PET 505 - Production Engineering - 3 Credits
Subsurface & surface production facilities, production system analysis, inflow performance analysis,
selected artificial lift mechanisms, production decline analysis. Well performance, artificial lift,
surface production facilities, piping systems, oil & gas separation and processing, crude
oil/water treatment systems, mechanical equipment, crude oil & gas measurement and production
problems.
PET 510 Introduction to Fluid Mechanics - 2 Credits
Coverage of the fundamental of fluid statics and dynamics. Formulation of the equations of fluid
flow such as Navier Stokes, Euler, Bernoulli, etc. and their application. Examples of ideal and
viscous fluid flow in open and closed conduits

Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 2 of 7

University Courses
GEN 500 - Computational Science / Scientific Tools and Technical Publications - 3 credits
(Required for all MSc Petroleum Engineering Students)
Numerical methods and scientific software (Use of Matlab and EXCEL spreadsheets for plotting,
data fitting, data analysis, basic statistics, optimization) and introduction to technical writing and
presentations.
Note GEN 504 is an Elective for Petroleum Engineering Students
GEN 504 - Computational Modeling 3 Credits
Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations; Finite Differencing; Finite Element methods

Core Courses
PET 603 - Advanced Drilling Engineering - 3 Credits
Principles of drilling optimization, drilling cost analysis and control, rheological properties of
drilling fluid for optimum hole cleaning, planning an optimum mud program for vertical,
directional and horizontal wellbores, optimizing bit hydraulics. Use of software packages in
optimized hydraulics. Prerequisites: PET 503
PET 604 - Advanced Reservoir Engineering - 3 Credits
Concepts and tools for solving petroleum reservoir engineering problems. Advances in petroleum
reservoir engineering with emphasis on material balance methods and their application to
estimate reserves, calculate water influx; diffusivity equations and solutions; gas and water coning;
streamline tracking; decline curve analysis, productivity index and well performance models for
vertical, horizontal and multilateral wells used in management of reservoirs; and introduction to
waterflooding. Prerequisites: PET 504
PET 605 - Advanced Production Engineering - 3 Credits Production system analysis,
surface facilities design, oil & gas processing, gas & oil treating systems, production water
management treatment and water disposal, problem well analysis and introduction to multiphase
flow in pipes. Prerequisites: PET 505
PET 612 - Advanced Petroleum Economics - 3 Credits
Economic analysis of upstream petroleum operations and assets using economic and simulation
models. Economic value of oil and gas ventures and operations. Global oil and gas prices,
international fiscal and taxation policy, and environmental regulations. Mechanics of estimating
the effects of fiscal instruments on government take statistics and contractor economic metrics.
Economic structure of the global upstream industry, petroleum resources, reserves, and production
forecasting, worldwide petroleum fiscal systems, terms & modeling, and petroleum business
decisions under risk and uncertainty.
Prerequisites: PET 503, PET 504, PET 505
PET 615 - Enhanced Recovery Methods - 3 Credits
Basic water-oil flow properties of reservoir rock. The effect of displacement and sweep efficiencies on
oil recovery performances. The effect of the properties of reservoir and injection fluids on oil
recovery performance. Concepts of mobility ratio and reservoir heterogeneity. Displacement
theories of immiscible and miscible flow. Methods of predicting waterflood performances.
Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 3 of 7

Improved oil recovery processes and oil recovery evaluation techniques. Prerequisites: PET 504
PET 620 - Applied Reservoir Simulation - 3 Credits
Principles and practice of reservoir simulation. Appropriate use of simulation as tool for reservoir
management, describes how to organize a simulation study, Practical step by step approach to
history matching and performance predictions. Evaluation of the reliability of results from
simulation study. Solution of practical problems using state-of-the-art reservoir simulators. Prerequisites: PET 504
MTH 504

- Partial Differential Equation - 3 Credits

Elective Courses
PET 506 - Petroleum Economics - 3 Credits
Application of petroleum engineering principles and economics to evaluate oil and gas projects;
evaluation principles, time value of money concepts, and investment measures; cost estimating,
price and production forecasting; risk and uncertainty analysis, project selection, and capital
budgeting. Prerequisite: PET 500 or Instructors Permission
PET 607 - Horizontal Well Technology - 3 Credits
Principles and state of the art of horizontal well technology with emphasis on the recent advances in
drilling, completion and reservoir engineering analysis. Study of case histories. Prerequisites: PE
503, PET 504, PET 505

PET 609 Integrated Reservoir Studies for Asset Management - 3 Credits

Application of petroleum engineering and geoscience principles to the design and development of
the reservoir management plan; integrated reservoir description; static and dynamic modeling;
performance prediction; developing the reservoir management plan; reservoir surveillance and
monitoring; project economics. Prerequisites: PET 603; PET 604, PET 605, PET 506 or PET 612; PET
620
PET 610 - Well Test Analyses - 3 Credits
Principles of pressure transient analysis, pressure drawdown testing of oil & gas wells, pressure
buildup testing of oil & gas wells, heterogeneous reservoirs, advanced techniques, transient flow of
fluid through porous media. Prerequisites: PET 504 - Reservoir Engineering & Fluids
PET 611 - Offshore Drilling Technology - 3 Credits
Offshore drilling, deep offshore drilling issues, offshore rig selection, deep offshore drilling
challenges and future, deep water drilling peculiarities, offshore projects and deep offshore
drilling challenges. Prerequisites: PET 503, PET 505

PET 614 - Advanced Petrophysics - 3 Credits

Measurement, interpretation and analysis of Petrophysical properties of petroleum reservoir
rocks. Prerequisites: PET 501, PET 502, PET 504
Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 4 of 7

PET 617 - Multi-Phase Flow in Pipes - 3 Credits

Multiphase flow in pipes, modeling of fluid of complex mixtures in pipes, empirical correlations
developed in the literature and calculation of pressure gradients and flow rates during the flow of
multiphase fluids through vertical, inclined and horizontal pipes. Prerequisites: PET 505
PET 618 - Advanced Natural Gas Engineering - 3 Credits
Fundamentals of natural gas production and processing, including reservoir and facilities aspects.
Global natural gas supply and demand; estimation of physical and thermodynamic properties of
natural gas and gas condensate fluids; estimation of natural gas reserves; design of natural gas
separation, dehydration, compression, flow measurement, transportation, and storage systems;
gas well performance and deliverability; and field development planning. Prerequisites: PET 504,
PET 505
PET 619 - Fluid Flow Through Porous Media - 3 Credits
The study of transport phenomena and equations governing the steady state flow of homogeneous
fluids in porous media and their application to petroleum engineering problems. Prerequisites:
PET 504

PET 621 - Geostatistics - 3 Credits

Comprehensive treatment of the theory and applications of geostatistics to characterize subsurface reservoirs; use of geostatistical tools to create high quality petroleum reservoir models.
Topics include probability, kriging, stochastic simulations, Boolean methods and multipoint geostatistics, Monte Carlo simulation, Uncertainty analysis and Upscaling of geologic models. Prerequisites: PET 504
PET 622 - Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics - 3 Credits
Characteristics of stress in fluids, flow models of non-Newtonian fluids (Bingham plastic fluids,
fluids without yield stress), Couette flow analysis of non-Newtonian fluids, surge and swab pressure
models for plugged and open-end pipes. Prerequisites: PET 503
PET 624 - Advanced Stimulation and Completion - 3 Credits
Theory and concepts of Formation Damage, Theory and design of hydraulic fracturing, acidizing, and
other stimulation processes. Prerequisites: PET 503, PET 504, PET 505
PET 626 - Seismic Reservoir Modeling - 3 Credits
This course is designed to explore the seismic response of rocks and how it is related to
petrophysical parameters. This understanding is key to interpretation of seismic data in terms
of subsurface rocks and fluids. Prerequisites: PET 501, PET 504

PET 627
- Applied Computational Methods in Petroleum Engineering - 3 Credits
Analytical solution of ordinary and partial differential equations in drilling, production,
Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 5 of 7

reservoir engineering and well testing; Green and source functions; integral transform
methods; solution of linear and nonlinear systems of equations; regression analysis;
introduction to operations research and optimization. Prerequisites: PET 500, GEN 500,
MTH 504 or Instructors permission. (Required course for PhD students and Elective for
MSc students)

PET 628 - Seminar in Petroleum Engineering - 1 Credit

Current petroleum literature, lectures, and reports; emphasis upon energy production;
conservation and environment. May be repeated up to maximum of three credits.

PET 630 - Special Topics in Petroleum Engineering - 1 to 3 Credits

May be repeated up to maximum of six credits. Special topics or seminar course for
content not currently offered in regularly scheduled courses. May include library
and/or laboratory research and field projects.

Electives from Other Streams

CSE 544 - Operations Research - 3 Credits
Linear programming; Transportation problems; Assignment
Sequencing models; Dynamic programming; Games theory.

models

(TSP...);

MSE 503 -Thermodynamics I 3 Credits

This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of thermodynamics. Topics include:
the first and second laws of thermodynamics; use of mass, energy, and entropy balances for
the solution of a wide variety of problems involving solids, liquids and gases; manipulation of
thermodynamic partial derivatives; equations of state and the principle of corresponding states,
engines, thermodynamic cycles, and efficiency.

MSE 504/520 - Thermodynamics II - 3 Credits

This course is a continuation of Thermodynamics I and focuses on the behavior of
multicomponent systems with emphasis on the solid state. Topics include: review of
thermodynamic partial derivatives; phase transitions, fundamentals of multicomponent systems,
equilibrium and stability; the multicomponent Gibbs Phase Rule, species fugacity, activity, and
activity coefficients; chemical equilibria (gas-solid, liquid-solid, and solid-solid), solid-state phase
diagrams.

Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 6 of 7

Research Project/Thesis/Dissertation
PET 640 - Research Methods for Engineers and Scientists - 3 credits
Tools for research methods; data analysis; technical writing and presentation; Research
documentation; research publications. Prerequisites: Graduate Standing. (Required course for
PhD students and Elective for MSc students)
PET 649 MSc Project - 3 credits
This course is designed for non-Thesis MSc Students. Supervised individual or specialized
research in petroleum engineering. May include library and/or laboratory research and
field projects. Student must submit a project report as a requirement for completing this
course.

PET 659 MSc Thesis Research - 6 credits

PET 699 PhD Dissertation Research 3 to 12 credits
Variable enrollment, may be repeated for three to twelve credits up to the maximum
number of credits applicable toward PhD degree.

Petroleum Engineering MSc & PhD Curriculum. Rev March, 2016. Page 7 of 7