Head of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin’s main campus lectures at Curtin Malaysia

Miri – 11 November 2017 – Curtin University, Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently hosted a series of lectures by Associate Professor Mofazzal Hossain, Head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University’s main campus in Perth, for its students recently.

Associate Professor Hossain’s lectures were related to the Petroleum Field Development Planning unit for final-year undergraduate petroleum engineering students and Well Stimulation, Remediation and Intervention Operations unit for postgraduate students.

Curtin Malaysia offers Curtin University’s four-year Bachelor of Engineering (Petroleum Engineering) (Hons.) and 18-month Master of Petroleum Engineering courses. Both offer a multidisciplinary education covering a wide variety of subjects that are core to the petroleum engineering field.

Students attending the lectures found them very engaging as Associate Professor Hossain gave many practical field examples, shared statistics and solutions approaches related to petroleum field development, well intervention and workover operations. He also provided consultation to the students to ensure a good understanding of the topics.

Associate Professor Hossain’s visit to Curtin Malaysia, Curtin University’s largest international campus and global hub in Asia, included a tour of the campus’ new RM20 million Faculty of Engineering and Science building housing modern teaching facilities such as distributed learning and case study rooms and laboratories.

Associate Professor Hossain is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 16 years’ experience in teaching, research and consulting works in multiple areas of petroleum engineering, including drilling, well completion, petroleum production engineering and petroleum field development planning, in Australia, the Middle East and the United States.

His research works encompass reservoir stimulation by hydraulic fracturing for improved production from unconventional tight/shale gas reservoirs, well completion and production optimisation, rock fracture mechanics, wellbore stability and sand production prediction.

He has worked on many related academic research and consulting projects supported by companies and government agencies such as Santos, Weatherford, Energy Development Corporations (ERDC) and the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

In addition, he has directed many academic research projects for petroleum engineering honours, Masters and PhD students and published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.

He has also been an active professional member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and Institute of Engineer’s Australia for a number of years.

Head of Curtin Malaysia’s Department of Petroleum Engineering, Dr Hisham Khaled Ben Mahmud, applauded Associate Professor Hossain’s commitment and contributions to the global oil and gas industry and the teaching of petroleum engineering at Curtin University.

He added that Associate Professor Hossain’s visit to Curtin Malaysia demonstrated the synergy between Curtin’s Australian and Malaysian campuses in sharing resources and expertise.

Curtin’s Bachelor of Engineering (Petroleum Engineering) (Hons.) course is accredited by Engineers Australia (EAust) and Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and graduates fulfil the stage one competencies required by EAust as the pathway to chartered engineer status (CPEng). Students of the Master of Petroleum Engineering, meanwhile, can apply for student membership of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and upon graduation, they may apply for active membership of the society.

Since its establishment in 1999, Curtin Malaysia has experienced exponential growth in enrolments for all its engineering, science and technology courses. This is due in large part to the fact that the courses and degrees it offers are identical to those offered by its Australian parent.

The courses are furthermore accredited by professional bodies both nationally in Australia and Malaysia and internationally, and engineering and science students in particular have the benefit of extensive industry exposure due to Curtin Malaysia’s location in the hub of Sarawak’s oil and gas industry and proximity to industries in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

Associate Professor Hossain (5th left, front row) with petroleum engineering students and staff.