Curtin Malaysia collaborates with PETRONAS Carigali on technical seminars with for its petroleum engineering students

Miri – 23 August 2018 – The Petroleum Engineering Department of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) conducted separate technical seminars on offshore petroleum production technology and management (OPPTM), and on drilling operations, for its students recently.

Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department, Associate Professor Hisham Ben Mahmud said conducting such seminars with industry partners are an essential part of Curtin’s Bachelor of Engineering in Petroleum Engineering curriculum to expose students to industry practice and help them connect what they learn in their studies to actual field operations.

In this case, both seminars were facilitated by PETRONAS Carigali production technology engineer Yuli Lestariono, an oil and gas veteran with 26 years’ experience in oil and gas upstream activities in Southeast Asia, West Africa, the North Sea and the Middle East.

His broad experience covered sub-surface asset management, business planning, economic and commercial evaluation, field development planning, project interface and risk management, drilling and completion, reservoir management and surveillance, well and production operations, and i-field applications in green and brown fields, among other areas of expertise.

During the OPPTM seminar, Lestariono described the process of bringing hydrocarbons from the sub-surface to the surface, a process fraught with challenges such as sand production, two or multiphase flow, reservoir pressure and production decline.

He outlined the steps that can be taken by production operators and engineers to restore and improve reservoir fluid production, such as re-injecting the produced gas and injecting treated seawater into the reservoir.

Lestariono also briefed the students on PETRONAS Carigali’s production technology department hierarchy which consists of a number of production technologists, well management and surveillance experts, reservoir engineers and administrative staff.

He also illustrated how various departments within the company work together on field development plans, engaging and sharing information and ideas to come up with the best solutions and ensure the robustness of the plans.

In addition, Lestariono presented real-life examples from offshore fields that have been producing for more than 20 years (brown fields), including the different aspects of fields management and the use of software tools like PROSPER, WellCat, PIPESim, and WellFlo to optimise field production.

Meanwhile, during the drilling operations seminar, Lestariono presented an overview of PETRONAS Carigali’s drilling operations, including an introduction to the offshore drilling rigs being used, how they operate at different sea depths and weather conditions, and the process of commissioning them.

To demonstrate rig operations, Lestariono played a video of a jack-up rig supported by three legs with footings on the sea floor. It showed how the rig is towed to a predetermined location, its legs lowered to the seafloor, and the platform ‘jacked up’ to a specific height above the sea surface where it would not be adversely affected by wave and tidal movements. Due to such technology, such rigs can be used in depths of up to 167 metres and under different sea and weather conditions.

In thanking Lestariono for his support, Associate Professor Hisham said the technical seminars he conducted gave the students valuable insights into the intricate workings of the oil and gas industry.

“They now have a better understanding of their field of study and hopefully will become highly inspired and driven petroleum engineers in their future careers,” he said.

With the upturn in the global oil and gas industry, Curtin Malaysia is seeing renewed interest in its petroleum engineering programmes from potential students both in Malaysia and internationally.

It offers Curtin University’s highly-specialised four-year Bachelor of Engineering in Petroleum Engineering (Honours) degree developed in collaboration with global players like Chevron, Woodside, Shell, BHP Billiton and BP.

Introduced at Curtin Malaysia in 2011, it has been further refined to meet the needs of the national O&G sector with the involvement of companies like PETRONAS Carigali, Shell, Nippon Oil, Murphy Oil, Schlumberger and Talisman. Students furthermore have the benefit of extensive industry exposure due to Curtin Malaysia’s location in the hub of Sarawak’s oil and gas industry.

Curtin Malaysia also offers the Master of Petroleum Engineering by coursework that can be completed in 18 months of full-time study.

Lestariono illustrating the operations of an offshore field.

Lestariono describing risks associated with field development.

Lestariono (centre) with Dr. Hisham (10th left) and petroleum engineering students.

Lestariono with staff and students who attended the drilling operations seminar.