YSU Research Foundation Awarded $14M in Software

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A $14 million software package from a global oilfield services company will give students at Youngstown State University hands-on experience with tools used by exploration companies throughout the world.

Schlumberger, a worldwide provider of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing in the oil and gas industry, awarded the software package to YSU’s Research Foundation, the university announced. The renewable software grant includes access to the Petrel E&P software and Techlog wellbore software platforms; PetroMod petroleum systems modeling software; and GeoX exploration risk, resource and value assessment software, which will be used for teaching and research.

“This provides an incredible opportunity for students to gain first-hand experience with software used by most of the major resource exploration companies throughout the world,” said Jeff Dick, professor and chair of the YSU Department of Geological and Environmental Studies.

The Techlog software platform is the centerpiece for the Geophysical Well Log Analysis course offered in the Fall 2018 semester, Dick said. It allows students and professors to interpret geophysical well log data for individual oil and gas wells, and combine the results from multiple wells. This helps to construct a play or basin-wide model to better understand reservoir behavior and assist in targeting areas of interest for future exploration using 3D or 4D visualization.

Additionally, Dick and Tom Jordan, part-time faculty in the department, will use Techlog to direct basin analysis research of conventional oil and gas reservoirs of the Appalachian Basin. The research is made possible by cooperative arrangements with state agencies as well as regional oil and gas exploration and production companies.

“Techlog will provide our students with advanced skills, thus broadening their job opportunities in the rapidly growing oil and gas energy industry because they will be able to hit the ground running when they are hired,” Jordan said.

Giving the students hands-on experience with cutting-edge software during classroom work and undergraduate research will help to “prepare a highly skilled STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] workforce that can compete for geology and geophysics jobs anywhere in the world,” Dick added.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.