Newsletter of the

Petroleum Engineering DepartmentColorado School of Mines

Vol. 3, No. 1 September 1998

Greetings From Craig Van KirkWhat an extraordinary year it has been since

our last Newsletter of September 1997. The Pe-troleum Engineering Department here at CSMis growing in every way, enjoying the support of asolid foundation established over a period of manyyears.

The most fantastic event for me personallyduring the past 12 months was the birth of oursecond grandchild on the fourth of July. After afew months of uncertainty, baby girl Grace did infact go full term before joining big brother Gus(age 2½) and the folks (our son Sam and wife Amy)in Portland, Oregon. Sam has just finished hisfirst of four years of residency in OB/GYN. Ourdaughter Connie has just started her third yearteaching the 4th grade in a country school in ElbertCounty, southeast of Denver. She loves it, andthe kids love her.

My wife Denice and I are very happy and feelfortunate to have a healthy family. We have beenhome for a year now after our sabbatical leaveduring the 1996-97 academic year, and we�ve al-most caught up with all the personal and CSMresponsibilities which had fallen behind duringour absence. My mother died this past April atage 75. She had a great life, full of family andlove, and we were fortunate to be at her side whenshe passed.

As I pointed out in the first paragraph, the PEDepartment is in excellent shape and is experi-encing a high level of activity. We�ve got a newCSM president, three new PE professors, lots of

new students, and plenty of energy on campusand jobs after graduation (100 percent job place-ment, as usual).

New CSM President Ted Bickart joined us thissummer from Michigan State University. I havehad the pleasure of meeting with him on severaloccasions already, and I�m sure you will enjoy hiscompany whenever you have the opportunity.

We have been able to add three new great pro-fessors to our staff this year, and their articlesappear later in this Newsletter. In January JonCarlson joined us to manage our PERFORM re-search consortium, teach, and conduct researchin well completions and stimulation. In July ErdalOzkan started on our staff to focus teaching andresearch in transient well test analysis, and inAugust John Fanchi came on board to take onreservoir simulation in the classroom and re-search. You�ll enjoy reading more about thesethree new professors on the following pages. Iam pleased to report that the rest of thedepartment�s staff continues in place, except thatprofessor Shameem Siddiqui has left to return toprivate industry with Aramco.

One of the most exciting events of the year isour new Department of Education grant. We wereawarded funding of $227,000 annually to fullysupport nine new Ph.D. candidates in PetroleumEngineering, an area of national need, to help filla national shortage of teachers, professors, andresearchers. We have been told that we are theonly PE program in the country to receive this

What a nice greeting in Beijing

2

Craig Van Kirk (continued)type of award from the DOE. The grant is designedto cover full costs for U.S. citizens in the program.After advertising for applicants in the spring of1998, we interviewed during the summer, andwelcomed our nine new Ph.D. graduate studentsto campus in August. Each of the nine candi-dates is unique and strong, five have BS degreesin PE, four have BS�s in Geology or a closely re-lated field, four are women, one graduated as re-cently as 1997 while another did so way back in1975. To satisfy the Department of Education re-quirements, we have contributed $77,000 to theprogram to supplement DOE�s funding.

This fall semester we welcomed 17 new gradu-ate students, bringing our total graduate programto 50, a healthy number for the size of our staff.Also, our undergraduate program is so success-ful, what a pleasure. During the past academicyear we graduate 21 BS degrees along with 13Masters and 3 Ph.D.�s, with 100 percent job place-ment before graduation. A year ago we sponsored

52 of our students to at-tend the SPE AnnualTechnical Conference inSan Antonio, and thisSeptember we expect ap-proximately 65 studentsto join our staff for theConference in New Or-leans.

Don�t forget to join usat the SPE Conferencein New Orleans on Tues-day evening from 5:30p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for an

informal reception and visiting with old and newfriends. Meet alums, students, and faculty. NewCSM President Ted Bickart will join us for theevening. I�m sure you�ll enjoy visiting with him.The reception is at the New Orleans Hilton Riv-erside Hotel, third floor, the Belle Chasse Room.

This past summer we took 47 PE sophomoresto Alaska for two weeks as part of our annualSummer Field Session. Many CSM alumni andindustry friends hosted our group; thank you verymuch. Also, as usual, our junior class of 28 en-joyed their field-oriented Summer Field Session

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Craig Van Kirk

These two owls have been roosting over thefaculty parking lot since the beginning of the98 Fall semester.

3

group to Daqing in early August to make presen-tations. It was a great trip, a new adventure, veryinteresting and fun. Fortunately, my visit toDaqing was completed prior to major flooding ofthe city and the oil field.

Again this past summer we held anotherSuperSchool Program on campus for four weeksof intensive training. Petroleum industry pro-fessionals without formal degrees in PE, are spon-sored by their companies for full immersion intopetroleum engineering.

CSM�s GEODES, the four Geo-Departments ofMining, Geology, Geophysics, and Petroleum En-gineering are working closer together than everbefore. We have joint research projects and team-taught courses at the undergraduate and gradu-ate levels; and we share lab facilities, comput-

ers, and software.Our exchange program with the Min-

ing University, Leoben, Austria (MUL)continues to prosper. Every semesterwe enjoy the company of several new stu-dents from Austria, and we sponsor bothCSM graduate and undergraduate stu-dents for a semester abroad at MUL.This exchange truly adds some spice toour program.

Our computer lab continues to ex-pand to meet our ever growing needs,thanks mostly to our alumni and friendsin industry. Your support has enabledus to invest a quarter of a million dol-lars in state-of-the-art hardware, whiledonated software (such as reservoirsimulators) would demand a street valueof $1.0 million per year in annual rent-als.

Support of our successful program is expressedin many ways, eg.

1. Our Visiting Advisory Committee�s com-mitment to our success.

2. Hosts of our visits to Alaska, California,Gulf Coast, Rangely, and the Denver area.

3. Sponsors of our research programs, frommany private industry partners to several U.S.Government agencies.

4. Recruiters of our students and the jobmarket.

5. Daily inquiries from prospective students,visiting scholars, post doctorates, professors, andexchange programs.

6. Donors to our general support funds, sev-eral hundred thousand dollars in cash annually.

A few examples of the investments we makein support of our program are:

1. Computer lab hardware and software. Sev-eral hundred thousand dollars on location now,

in the �modern cabins� at our camp near Rangely,Colorado. Many thanks to our corporate friendsin the area who hosted our visits.

CSM has recently adopted a new undergradu-ate curriculum, not totally new, but seriously re-vised after a multi-year review and redesign. Theprimary changes are: more integration ofclasses, subjects, students, and professors; anearlier exposure to engineering projects andmajor options; and more team teaching inmultidisciplinary courses.

At the graduate student level and in the re-search arena we have been awarded some newand unusual grants, from developing lasers fordrilling on earth, to extraterrestrial drilling, andto assist the National Geographic Society in de-

veloping educational material for K-12 on thetheme of energy.

On February 26 and 27 we welcomed our Vis-iting Advisory Committee to campus for two daysof meetings to review our program; meet withthe students, faculty, and CSM President; andshare opinions on education, research, and fore-casts. Our current committee membership isas shown in the box on the previous page.

During 1998 we started new programs train-ing Chinese professionals on campus in severalareas of expertise, from drilling through inter-national investments and business manage-ment. The Shengli Oil Fields Group is sendingfour separate teams of 12 to 15 mid-career pro-fessionals for intensive training for two to threemonths. Two modules on Geology and Econom-ics were completed during the summer, whilethe two other modules, Drilling and Reservoir,will be conducted during this academic year.

Also, a separate group from Daqing, Chinawas on campus for training throughout the sum-mer. I had the pleasure of accompanying the

Van Kirk inconspicuously blending in with the Great Wall

4

with annual updates. Costs of maintenance, ap-proximately $40,000 per year. All PE studentshave 24-hour, 365-day access to the lab.

2. SPE Annual Technical Conference travelexpenses for students, approximately $16,000 peryear.

3. Summer Field session trips to Rangely,Alaska, et al, approximately $25,000 per year.

4. Thanksgiving lunch for students and staff,$1,000 per year.

5. Receptions for graduating students andfamily members each semester the afternoonprior to the graduation ceremony, $1,000 per year.

6. Assistance to needy students, working forthe department, $8,000 per year.

7. Professor expenses for computers, books,expenses for conference, $25,000 per year.

The results of all these activities are thecontinuing strengths and successes of our pro-gram. Our senior class is approximately 35 to 40students, demonstrating excellent character,abilities, and enthusiasm. The new crop of SPEstudent officers appears to be a group of fine youngleaders, quite capable, and dedicated to success.

Well, that�s enough for now. I hope you enjoythis Newsletter and keeping up with the depart-ment. Please keep us informed of your status,share your new news, and come and visit whenyou can. We love showing and sharing.

Best Wishes, Craig

Jon CarlsonI started at CSM in

January 1998 after some30 years in the oil indus-try. Most of this experi-ence involved well perfor-mance technology includ-ing research, technicalservices, training/teach-ing, research manage-ment and operationswhile working for Conoco,Montana Tech, Gulf/Chevron and MaxusSoutheast Sumatra.

At CSM, I teach bothundergraduate (426) and graduate (522 & 598)courses on well completion and stimulation. Inthese courses, I try to emphasize fundamentalsof engineering and science as well as how thesefundamentals are currently applied to solve fieldproblems. This provides the student with up todate know how along with the basis to participatein the evolution of new technology.

Two years ago, CSM successfully initiated anindustry-sponsored research consortium to studyways to enhance well performance. This program,

called PERFORM, currently has 10 industry spon-sors and supports 8 graduate students who areworking on both experimental and theoreticalwell productivity enhancement problems. Guid-ance for these students is shared by faculty fromthe Petroleum Engineering, Geology and Engi-neering Departments. I serve as the director forthe PERFORM program.

My research interests include: fracturing,acidizing, sand control, perforating, formationdamage and production operations.

Richard ChristiansenGreetings. Since

starting at CSM in1990, I have beenable to watch thegrowth of many youngpeople who now havemoved on to careers. Ihave fond memories ofexperiences withmany of them, andhope that they are do-ing well in their lives.With other faculty, Ilook forward to seeingalumni in New Or-leans.

Summer Field Session: NOT! I have had fewresponsibilities since joining CSM in 1990 thatcompare with the challenges of organizing thePE 315 Summer Field Session. I am relieved toreport that the 315 baton passed to Prof. Eusteslast Spring. I am sure he did an excellent job.Or, as Prof. Thompson and I would say, from ourexperiences with 315, as long as we don�t haveto do it, it was excellent!

Instead of 315, I spent the majority of thesummer with grad student Bharath Rajappa de-veloping my rheological skills, getting three vis-cometers into working condition, and testingnon-Newtonian fluids for research on placementof proppant in hydraulic fractures. Two of thethree viscometers were donated by Marathon OilCompany. The third viscometer is home-made.The results of these summer efforts were quiterewarding as the data answer some importantquestions generated by previous research fundedby the PERFORM consortium. And indeed, ourrheological skills have increased to the �danger-ous� level. So, if you have some rheological ques-tions or problems, please call. This summer�swork was funded through the Los Alamos NationalLaboratory.Progress on Other Fronts

A primary objective of CSM research is to pro-duce new engineers for industry who can lead

Jon Carlson

Richard Christiansen

5

the development and application of technologies.Toward this objective, I sent another student offinto the cold, cruel world: Hiro Yamamoto com-pleted his MS last Spring, and now works for Mobilin Midland. Hiro�s research on lifting liquids fromgas wells continues with the efforts of Satya Putraand Witsarut Thungsuntonkhun. The results oftheir research promise relief for aging gas wells.This research is funded by the PERFORM consor-tium.

I expressed the hope in last year�s newsletterthat another student could continue research oncomposition gradients in reservoirs that wasstarted by Nelson Maan. I would like to reportthat Karim Al-Jaziri will continue this interest-ing effort. While other researchers have workedthis area to death with theoretical analysis, wehave embarked on an experimental adventurethat could clarify issues raised by the theorists.

During the week of September 14, I will be inThe Hague reporting on research of Osamah Al-Omair and Salah Al-Modhi. These two young menhave developed some intriguing experimentaltechniques in core analysis for measurement ofcapillary pressures and relative permeabilitieswith a centrifuge. Their work shows that thereis room in our industry for many new ideas!New Faces

It should be clear to readers of this Newslet-ter that we have three new faces among the fac-ulty: Drs. Jon Carlson, Erdal Ozkan, and JohnFanchi. As the chair of the search committeesthat hired these individuals, I am particularlyhappy to have them here. Each of them bringsnew breadth, power, and zest to the department.Profs. Bill Eustes, Ramona Graves, Neil Hurley,and Robert Thompson served with me on the com-mittees. The search was helped also by individu-als in industry who provided valuable counsel.

Bill EustesIt has been another

busy year.Alaska 1998

This last May, MarkMiller and I had the plea-sure of taking 47 stu-dents to Alaska. As a1974 graduate of EielsonHigh School located onEielson A.F.B. nearFairbanks, I was eagerlyanticipating my returnto the state after 24years of absence. I wasnot disappointed.

The field session started on campus with dis-cussions on drilling, artificial lift, and surface fa-

cilities. We also saw a video called �RememberCharlie�. It is a safety soliloquy that was a sober-ing reminder that safety requires continuous dili-gence.

The next day we drove out to the high plainsof Colorado to visit Evergreen�s Bonny field.Hosted by Bob Brady, we saw compressors andworkover units. We also had an excellent feast.The food was great.

Then it was time to leave for Alaska. We ar-rived at Anchorage International as the sun wassetting at 11:00 P.M. Assisting Mark and I onthis part of the trip were Dee and Joe Brown, ChrisCardwell, and Roger Potuzak. The next morningstarted with a railroad trip on the Alaska Rail-road to Seward. It was a beautiful sunshiny dayfor this trip. At Seward, we jumped onto the KenaiFjords, a Resurrection Bay charter ship. We sawan incredible variety of wildlife and had a greatlunch on Fox Island. The food was great. Then,after a too short of a visit to the new Alaska Wild-life Center, we rode the train back to Anchorage.We are indebted to Johne Binkley for this greatbeginning to a memorable field session.

The next three days were spent in Anchor-age at the ARCO Alaska and BP offices. Ourthanks go out to all who presented on these days.A special thanks to Andy Bond at ARCO and toJames Seccombe at BP. By the way, the Alumnipicnic on Tuesday, hosted by Tom Walker, was alot of fun. Soccer appears to be very important tosome of the students. Also, the food was great.

Thursday, we left on an ARCO charteredConvair turboprop and we flew to the North Slope.After checking into the Main Contractors Camp,we broke up into two groups and toured variousplaces on the Slope. Three things stand out inthe students minds�: the equipment is huge, itwas also cold, and the food was free.

The day we arrived was the first day of 24-hour daylight. Some students stayed up to 2:30A.M. waiting for the sun to set when they real-ized, �the sun don�t set up here�. Many thanksgoes to Scott Goldberg, Tom Walker, Gina Luckey,Oliver Smith, and many others at ARCO, Dowell,Anadrill, Schlumberger, Alaska Clean Seas,Baker Hughes Inteq, and Alyeska Pipeline.

After more tours on Friday, we had to returnto Anchorage. We drove up to Healy the next dayand took a tour of Denali National Park on Sun-day. We did get a great view of Mt. McKinley/Denali and saw a lot of wildlife, although the ani-mals looked like tan dots in the distance.

The next day was spent reviewing the geol-ogy of the Healy region and Alaska in general withDoug Dickey and Chris Livesey. PhilippaEltringham of BP hosted and coordinated the tour.A lot of students told me that day created an �ahhah� phenomena with their geology classes. Sud-

Bill Eustes

6

denly, what the professors said really did makesense.

Soldotna was the next destination. Lew Den-nis of Unocal coordinated what was yet anothermemorable visit in the oil patch. Over the nexttwo days, Unocal flew us out to either Trading Bayacross the Cook Inlet or to either the Monopod,Steelhead, Dolly Varden, or King Salmon plat-forms in the Cook Inlet. All of the foremen andcrews of all the facilities were gracious and pa-tient hosts for all the students. According to thestudents, the most exciting part of the visit wasdonning the float suits and flying in a helicopter.None-the-less, the facilities were fascinating andthe food was great.

Then the worst thing that could have hap-pened to us occurred. The students had to leave

Alaska. Superlatives fail me. The companies thathosted us all were great to the Petroleum Engi-neering Department of the Colorado School ofMines.

After the students left, my wife joined me inAlaska (the grandparents kept the kids) and wespent ten more wonderful days in Alaska. We evenhad the opportunity to visit Fairbanks and visitmy old stomping grounds. The city looks thesame, it just has a lot of expressways around itnow. Johne and Judy Binkley hosted us on theDiscovery III sternwheeler and at the Eldorado GoldMine where Susan and I panned $106 worth ofgold (including two nuggets)! Both places are wellworth a visit. In addition, Johne, Susan, and Ialso visited Fort Knox, a gold mine north ofFairbanks. Our comrades in the mining business

At the Anchorage CSM Alumni Picnic

At the Usibelli Coal Mine in Alaska

7

have quite an operation run-ning up there. They mine over1,000 ounces of gold a day.

All in all, we had a greattime. The key was the people,however. Thank you one andall for a wonderful visit. I hopeto see you sooner than another24 years.Drilling Activities

On other fronts in thedrillin� bizness, many thingsare happening.

The AADE keeps growing.We had a Mobil sponsored tripover a March weekend to seeone of their drilling rigs in theParks field near Midland,Texas, along with Smith Inter-national and Sperry-Sun.Thanks goes out to Laura Klineand Joe Okerman of Mobil.This trip rated a front page ar-ticle in the Mobil Drilling News.

This year, I have presentedthree papers. One was at the Energy SourcesTechnology Conference and Exhibition in Hous-ton. By the way, I am the Drilling Symposiumchair for the 1999 ETCE in Houston, Feb. 1 - 3,1999. Y�all come, ya hear? I presented a drill bitpaper at the 1998 Society of Mining EngineersConference at Orlando in March. Then I pre-sented another paper at the Space 98 conferencein Albuquerque in April on extraterrestrial drill-ing. Armageddon has it all wrong!!!! As soon asI get time, I�m going to write Michael Eisner andoffer my services as a technical advisor on theirnext drilling movie. (For a nice sum, of course)

Drilling re-search activitiesare increasing.Perhaps the mostexciting researchproject that I haveis from the JetPropulsion Labora-tory. Along withthe MichiganTechnological Uni-versity, the Colo-rado School ofMines has beentasked with help-ing develop theMartian Subsur-face Explorer (MarsSSX).

From the samepeople that built

the Sojourner Truth MarsRover, they are now startingthe design of the Mars SSX.They have an ambitious planto drill to 10 km below the Mar-tian plains to look for life. Theidea is to drill below the�cryosphere�, the frozen part ofMars to find liquid water. Thegeologists of Mars are not cer-tain where liquid water begins.They can only say it is from 1to 10 km below the surface.

In any event, there aremany issues to resolve. For ex-ample, energy supply is limited.This means that we can�t over-whelm the hole with energylike we do on Earth. We needto know the actual energy ittakes to drill a hole, both forpenetration and for cuttings re-

moval. Friction is another fac-tor along with cuttings compac-tion and directional control. As

you can see, it is not a trivial task. Any ideas orknowledge on these issues you would like to sharewould be appreciated.

Along these same lines, CSM is going to spon-sor the Exploration and Utilization of SpaceResource workshop. It is a day and a half work-shop to be held on campus February 24 and 25,1999. The purpose of the workshop is to bringtogether space, energy, and mining expertise todefine future needs, scenarios, and technologi-cal milestones for the economic development ofspace resources. If you are interested in attend-ing or even presenting, please contact me. I have

heard it said thatthe petroleum en-gineering profes-sion is headeddownhill. Well Idon�t believe that!One, we havemuch oil and gas torecover yet. Andtwo, we can useour expertise outthere on the Moon,Mars, asteroids,and comets. Weneed to think out-side the box calledEarth!

The Monopod in Cook Inlet aswe flew onboard.

Secretary Dee Brown and her husband, Joe, with theirteam of students on the King Salmon Platform in theCook Inlet

8

John FanchiI joined the faculty of the

Petroleum Engineering De-partment this Fall and Iwould like to take this op-portunity to introduce my-self. I have B.S., M.S. andPh.D. degrees in physicsfrom the Universities ofDenver, Mississippi andHouston respectively. I haveworked in the technology centers of Getty Oil Com-pany, Cities Service Company and Marathon OilCompany. My industrial responsibilities have re-volved around reservoir modeling, both in the ar-eas of simulator development and applications.In addition to being the principal author of theU.S. DoE simulators BOAST and BOAST II, I haveperformed development work on black oil, gas,compositional, electromagnetic heating, chemi-cal flood, and geothermal simulators. My reser-voir management experience includes projectleadership or significant participation in studiesof oil, gas, and condensate fields in the North Sea;offshore Sakhalin Island, Russia; the Gulf ofMexico; and in many parts of the U.S.

I have designed and taught courses in engi-neering and physics for universities and indus-try. My publications include several articles andthree books, including Principles of Applied Res-ervoir Simulation and Math Refresher for Scien-tists and Engineers. My most recent article waspublished in the 6 July 1998 issue of the Oil &Gas Journal. It is entitled �Flow models predict4D suitability�. The article is a continuation ofmy efforts to improve our ability to predict theperformance of reservoirs. I ammarried and have two sons atGolden High School. I look for-ward to working with the CSMcommunity.

Ramona GravesThose of you that have been

following my �saying� for theyear will remember when I wasacting department head duringCraig�s sabbatical it was: �It�sGood to be the Queen!�! Thenwhen he returned it was: �It�sGood to not be the Queen�!This year it is: �It�s Great to beon sabbatical�!

This is the start of my 17th

year at Mines and I am readyfor a change of pace. I�ll bespending the year working onmy laser drilling project (more

about that later). SinceJacob is a Senior in highschool and Lacey a Junior,it didn�t seem fair to uprootthem and spend the yearsomewhere else. Besides,at this point in their livesthey don�t think I makevery good decisions (espe-cially about how they spendtheir time) and if I movedthem, they wouldn�t talk tome until I am a grand-mother. Family is all doing fantastic, except forthe iguana who went to Iguana Heaven this year.

�Determining the Benefits of StarWars Laserto Drill and Complete Natural Gas Wells�. Im-pressive title and as I am finding out, it is alsovery exciting research. My co-investigator,Darien O�Brien CSM �83, and I submitted this pro-posal to the Gas Research Institute and it wasfunded for a two-year basic study. We�ve beenworking with the US Air Force and the US Army�zapping� rocks with high power lasers. As one ofthe newspaper headlines stated, �Lasers CutThrough Rocks Like Butter�. They do!! It is diffi-cult to express the excitement of seeing a laserblaze through everything from sandstone to shalesto salt. Our preliminary results look promisingand we hope to have the project funding extended.If it is not evident, the picture below is a 6-inchdiameter hole being bored in a sandstone with a1.2 megawatt laser. This is the highest poweredlaser in the Western hemisphere. Penetrationrates of 170 ft/hr were achieved. A 2-inch holehad rates over 450 ft/hr. If you are in New Or-leans at the SPE meeting and would like to see

Rocks don�t last long under 1.2 megawatts of laser power.

John Fanchi Ramona Graves

9

the lased rocks, stop by the GRI booth. We�re alsogiving a paper on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00P.M. Drillers � you might want to start brushingup on your physics!

Mark MillerHave you thought about

continuing your education?Thought you would nevergrace the CSM campusagain? Well guess what, weare coming to you. ColoradoSchool of Mines is developinga distance learning program.Currently graduate levelcourses are being developedin several departments.Roger Slatt, the head of theGeological Engineering De-partment is developing a res-ervoir characterization class. In conjunction, Iam working on a characterization class from apetroleum engineering point of view. Theseclasses will be offered beginning next spring. Ourgoal is to add one course per semester, depend-ing on the success of the program. These effortsmay eventually evolve into a masters degree pro-gram. You may visit our virtual campus at: http://www.minesonline.edu

I also maintain a state-of-the-art computerlab for the students. This lab is open 24/7 forstudent use and, as you can imagine, more thanone student has put the �24� part to the test. Thestudents have access to the latest petroleum soft-ware available and a place to work with other stu-dents.

Thanks to our friends in industry, over a mil-lion dollars of software is donated each year forstudent use. We are able to train our studentson the latest reservoir, drilling, and productionsoftware. Having the latest software is fantas-tic. It ensures that our students will have expe-rience with programs they may use during theircareers. Having the latest also has some sideeffects. Several times the software has pushedus to upgrade the hardware in the lab. It seemsthat Bill Gates is not the only one who is drivingtechnology.

One might think that funding for the lab hard-ware and maintenance comes from student fees.Every semester each student pays a $35 technol-ogy fee. Depending on perceived needs aroundthe campus, the department may or may not re-ceive a portion of this fee. With over 75 comput-ers in our department, the department�s share ofthe student technology fee, while helpful, needssome big supplements. Funded research pays forsome of the costs, but the majority of the costs

associated with computing resources are fundedfrom donations to the department.

One can tell of the interest of students in pe-troleum engineering careers by class size. ForPE 315, summer field session, there were 47 stu-dents willing to accompany Bill Eustes and me toAlaska. This is 70% more than attended lastyear�s trip to Southern California. Is this a cyclicindustry or what? Although the students under-went a period of shock, by the end of the trip theyhad learned a great deal. I enjoyed seeing friendsat the Alumni BBQ. It was exciting to see PrudhoeBay and the massive equipment there. Bill puttogether a great experience for the students andmore information can be found in his section.

My wife, Loralee, was able to join me in Alaskaafter the students had left. On a clear day, wewent �flightseeing� around Mt. McKinley. Themountain was spectacular. We even landed on aglacier. I recommend the experience. We alsowent halibut fishing out of Homer. As with mostof our fishing experiences, she caught the mostand biggest fish. I pulled in skates, small hali-but, and empty hooks (the fish that got away musthave been really big). Alaska is a truly great place.

Erdal OzkanI am one of the new ad-

ditions to the faculty at thePetroleum EngineeringDepartment at CSM. Ijoined the department inAugust 1998 and am look-ing forward to meeting youat the upcoming SPE An-nual Meeting in New Or-leans. Until then, let mebriefly introduce myself.

My BS and MS degreesare from Istanbul Technical University in petro-leum engineering. In 1983, I was awarded a schol-arship from the Turkish Government to pursuea Ph.D. degree in petroleum engineering. In 1988,I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Tulsawith a dissertation titled Performance of Horizon-tal Wells. By that time, the horizontal well tech-nology was still emerging and I was one of thepioneers devoting a Ph.D. dissertation to horizon-tal wells. Since then, my work has continued onthe production and reservoir aspects of horizon-tal wells. This, however, is only a part of my tech-nical interest in reservoir engineering. In abroader sense, I work on the solution of fluid flowproblems in porous media. If required to choose aspecific area as my expertise, I would choose welltesting.

Back to my journey leading to CSM; upon com-pleting my Ph.D. at the University of Tulsa, I re-turned to Turkey to teach at Istanbul Technical

Mark Miller

Erdal Ozkan

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University. For eight years, I taught courses onwell testing, reservoir engineering, horizontalwells, and applied mathematics and advised stu-dents at undergraduate and graduate levels. I alsohad the opportunity to be involved in various pro-fessional, academic, and administrative activi-ties.

These eight years were extremely rewardingand provided me with invaluable academic expe-rience. In February 1997, I decided to take a sab-batical leave to continue my research on hori-zontal wells and reservoir characterization at theUniversity of Tulsa. While in Tulsa, I discoveredthe opportunity to become a member of the CSMPE faculty and I pursued it. Today, I am very happyto address to you as a member of this great insti-tution. To complete the record, I am married; Iand my wife, Aysin, have a nine-year-old son,Sarp.

This year, I can only tell you about myself.Nice things are already coming. Next year, I willhave the news of the exciting events and accom-plishments of the past year.

Robert ThompsonEverything is fine in

the Thompson household.My daughter, Katy, wasaccepted into the busi-ness program at the Uni-versity of Colorado atBoulder and startedclasses this Fall semes-ter. Several mother-daughter combo�s includ-ing my wife and daughtermade a trek to Irelandthis summer. My daugh-ter tells me that Murphy�sStout is a close competitorto Guinness! My wifemade the annual bicycle trek across Iowa leav-ing my daughter and me home to work on thepositive side of the NCF equation.

Work continues on the Ph.D. in the Curricu-lum, Learning, and Technology program in Edu-cation at the University of Colorado at Denver witha target graduation date of 2000. My efforts arestill focused on multidisciplinary education. I willbe presenting a paper on multidisciplinary edu-cation at the Frontiers in Education Conferencein Tempe, Arizona this November. Finally, I willbe presenting the paper �Coupling Financial ProfitIndicators to a Net Cash Flow Model for Produc-tion Sharing Contracts� at the annual technicalconference in New Orleans. I look forward to see-

ing everyone at the alumni reception Tuesdayevening. Cheers.

John Brinks1998-99 SPE President

During the second week of school, the stu-dent chapter of SPE kicked off with it�s first meet-ing to discuss the to-do�s (and not-to-do�s) duringthe annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,this year held in New Orleans. With organiza-tional and financial help from both the PE De-partment and the National SPE, the Mines stu-dent chapter will again be well represented witha healthy number of attendees. An estimated 65members will be packing their bags later thismonth to make the trip�we�re hoping as manymake it back! Attendance at the first meetingwas so large that future meetings will be movedto a bigger, more accommodating room in theGreen Center.

A total of fourteen officers were elected lastSpring to handle the needs of this growing andincreasingly active organization and to help coverthe added responsibilities of maintaining awebpage and expanding publicity. Efforts towardthe annual Denver section joint session, the E-days Oilfield Olympics, and fund-raising are al-ready underway�again, indications that studentinterest and involvement this year will remainhigh. Other priorities include the hosting of top-notch speakers, presenting on a wide variety oftopics, and of course, having fun.

As Mines Petroleum alumni, I encourage youto visit us, take part in our activities and join uson-campus for the Joint-Session next spring.

Robert Thompson

1998 Masadona Field Session

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Steven Kendrick1998-99 AADE Chairman

The first ever AADE, (American Associationof Drilling Engineers), student chapter in thecountry was established at the Colorado School ofMines Petroleum Department in 1997. There areprofessional chapters in Dallas/Fort Worth,Houston, Lafayette, New Orleans, the WestCoast and Denver. Last year the AADE studentchapter had a membership of approximately 30students, and will continue to grow. Membershave included students that are electricalengineers, physics majors and, of course,petroleum engineers. Our mission continuesto be to provide the forum for the disseminationof practical dri l l ing technology to thoseinterested or working in the drilling industry.

Our chapter is focusing on bringing inprofessionals from oil and gas well drillingindustry to give presentations on what they doand new technology in the oilfield. Another goalthis year is to make a field trip to see a drillingrig at work, so as to bring a betterunderstanding to those in AADE, of whatequipment and procedures are used in drillinga well.

Thanks to a generous donation from Mobil,Joe Witt, last year�s chairman, led, us on a fieldtrip to Midland, Texas to see one of Mobil�sdrilling rigs. We also went to the OilfieldMuseum and a couple oi l f ield servicecompanies shops, located in Midland. If fundsbecome available again this year, we would liketo take our new members to a similar location,as last years trip helped all of the studentmembers to better understand the drillingindustry. The AADE student chapter is looking

Dee Brown

Christine Cardwell

Bill Robbins

Dan Reidel, Andrea Wescott (2nd Place, B.S.division), Abdullah Ebrahim, David Pantoja, andBill Eustes at Upper Yellowstone Falls after theRocky Mountain/Mid-Continent SPE StudentPaper Contest. 1997-98 Pi Epsilon Tau Inductees: Top Row: C.J.

Affeld, Codey James (President), Jordon Hixson,Oscar Lozada, John Brinks, Ramona Graves(Faculty Advisor). Bottom Row: Bob Schultz,David Pantoja, Paul Renouf, Nina Collonges, andRich Williams

forward to learning and seeing present drillingtechnology throughout the year here at CSM.

Administrative Staff

The administrativestaf f of the PetroleumEngineering Department.Dee and Chris run thefront office (and more!) andif it needs to be fixed orbuilt, call on Bill.

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Department of Petroleum EngineeringColorado School of Mines1500 Illinois StreetGolden, CO 80401(303) 273-3740 Voice(303) 273-3189 Faxcvankirk@mines.edu

AADE Students at Noble Rig 316 at Mobil�sParks field.

In Seward, Alaska on the first day of Field Session, Sophomore class