Petroleum Geoscience

Modules shown are for the current academic year, and are subject to change depending on your year of entry.

• Applied sedimentology
• Basin analysis
• Characterisation of fractured reservoirs
• Development geology and reservoir modelling
• Formation evaluation and petrophysics
• Geostatistics
• Modelling of petroleum systems
• Petroleum economics
• Petroleum engineering
• Petroleum structural geology
• Seismic techniques and advanced seismic interpretation

• Dorset, UK: characterisation of outcrop analogues for subsurface reservoirs; integrated analysis of petroleum systems
• Utah/west Texas, USA: stratigraphic analysis of depositional systems from reservoir scale to basin-scale; comparison of structural styles in extensional and salt basins

A major multidisciplinary exercise undertaken jointly by the Petroleum Geoscience, Petroleum Engineering and Petroleum Geophysics MSc groups. Using the latest industry-standard hardware and software, teams undertake the reservoir characterisation and development planning of a hydrocarbon field using a dataset from the UK continental shelf.

Exploration and play evaluation projects involving integrated teams of geoscientists. Teams analyse well and seismic data in order to assess the hydrocarbon potential of selected areas from a range of global frontier exploration datasets.

Takes place between June and September. Many of these include a placement in oil company offices, which provides an opportunity to gain an insight into current industry practices.

The majority of graduates from this course are employed as petroleum geologists and geophysicists by oil companies.

Other first destinations include: geophysical contractors involved in the acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data; geological consultancies serving the oil industry; petroleum service divisions of financial institutions; organisations providing IT services to the oil industry and financial institutions; and further higher education.