Petroleum engineering expert delivers talk at Curtin Malaysia

Miri – 27 April 2017 – Curtin University, Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently hosted a series of lectures by Professor Reza Rezaee, a leading academic from the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Curtin University in Perth.

The lecture on Curtin’s petroleum geology and geophysics course units was for engineering undergraduate and postgraduate students of Curtin Malaysia, which offers courses in both applied geology and petroleum engineering. Professor Reza elaborated on field examples and also shared statistics and solutions related to the petroleum geology and geophysics fields.

His visit to Curtin Malaysia, Curtin University’s largest international campus, included a tour of the campus’ new RM20 million Faculty of Engineering and Science building housing modern teaching facilities and laboratories.

Professor Reza has over 26 years’ experience in teaching and research and was the winner of the Australian Gas Innovation Award for his innovation of tight gas sand treatment for gas production enhancement.

His research work focused on integrated solutions for reservoir characterisation, formation evaluation and petrophysics have led him to be involved in major projects funded by various oil and gas companies such as WAPET, WMC, MESA, Santos, Devon Energy, Woodside and others.

To date, Professor Reza has supervised over 70 master’s and PhD students and published more than 130 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.

In addition to being a founder of the Unconventional Gas Research Group of Australia, he established a unique and highly sophisticated research laboratory at Curtin Perth’s Department of Petroleum Engineering to conduct research on petrophysical evaluation of tight gas sands and shale gas formations.

Head of Curtin Malaysia’s Department of Petroleum Engineering, Associate Professor Sharul Sham Dol, applauded Professor Reza’s commitment and contributions to the global oil and gas industry, adding that his visit to Curtin Malaysia demonstrated the synergy between Curtin’s Australian and Malaysian campuses in sharing resources and expertise.

Since its establishment in 1999, Curtin Malaysia has experienced exponential growth in enrolments for 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.

Professor Reza Rezaee (centre) and Curtin Malaysia students pose for group photo following his talk.