The EGEL-group of Professor Carlos Santamarina hosted Professor Mazen El Ghoule, Professor Salah Sadek and Associate Professor Shadi Najjar from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon from October 22-23, 2017.

ANPERC welcomed two new members last month. Both Ahmed Albalawi and Ahmad Alabdulghani come from Saudi Arabia and started their new careers in September.

KAUST and Montan University Leoben from Austria recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to allow extensive collaboration between the two universities. The Memorandum was signed Professor Jean Fréchet, Senior Vice President - Research, Innovation and Economic Development and will serve as an opportunity for ANPERC to connect with the department of Petroleum Engineering of MUL and set up various potential collaboration projects such as a student exchange or collaborative research fundings.

PhD student Ahmed Saad was selected to participate in the SEG/Chevron Student Leadership Symposium (SLS) in Houston, Texas. Participants for the SLS undergo a rigorous selection process as only 50 students from all over the world get accepted.

ANPERC will be attending the SPE’s annual meeting of members which will take place from the 9th to the 11th of October 2017 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition features groundbreaking papers and special technical events designed to accelerate the application of innovations in every technical discipline. Visit our ANPERC booth and get more information about our research and academic programs. Faculty, scientists and staff will be available to answer your questions and to discuss the opportunities of learning and working at ANPERC. Our ANPERC booth (1075) is located in Exhibit Hall 2 of the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.

At the beginning of the new semester, four new Ph.D. students joined our center. This year they come from multiple countries and exciting backgrounds. Let's meet our new reinforcements!

Natalia Odnoletkova comes from Russia and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Petroleum Engineering at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. She then moved to Sweden for her Master's Degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. When she is not studying, Natalia enjoys playing tennis and swimming. Natalia will be working with Professor Patzek.

It was a pleasure to welcome back Professor Hosung Shin from the University of Ulsan, Korea for 10 days during August. Dr Shin is an expert in the field of numerical modelling of rock fractures and collaborated closely with Professor Carlos Santamarina.

This summer Murtadha Al-Mallalah completed a research internship in the Energy GeoEngineering Laboratory or EGEL-group, led by Professor Carlos Santamarina. Al-Mallalah, who went to local high school in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, was admitted in the KAUST Gifted Student Program (KGSP) because he achieved the top 1% of high school students nationwide. The KGSP grant, established by KAUST in 2008 to create a pool of highly gifted Saudi students in STEM fields, gives the students the opportunity to complete a Bachelor's degree at premier institutions in the USA before returning to KAUST to start a M.S. or Ph.D. degree program.

Young and ambitious Deemah AlAshban and Zainab Al-Abdullatif are completing their 6-week SRSI internship at ANPERC. The 11-grade students, who both hail from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, belong to the country's top students, sitting through tough exams in order to win the Saudi Research Science Institute (SRSI) grant. The SRSI grant is a summer research program and aims to support and inspire the next generation of Saudi Arabian scientists

Murtadha Al-Malallah who recently joined EGEL team as an intern from the KAUST Gifted Student Program. He is currently completing his Bachelor's Degree in Geosciences at the University of Arizona and will stay with us until August.

Dr. Volker Vahrenkamp joined ANPERC as Professor of Practice in Geology after many years of experience in the petroleum industry with Shell E&P companies and also as a Managing Director at NordicGeothermal in Dubai. In a recent interview with Professor Volker we learned more about his education and professional experience, his research and also his expectations as a professor in KAUST.

We want to thank all of the 2017 EAGE visitors to ANPERC’s booth! Here you can find a few convenient links for our EAGE visitor who may want to know more about ANPERC and KAUST.

Are you attending 2017 EAGE Conference & Exhibition, June 12-15 in Paris? Stop by and visit ANPERC’s booth to learn more about our research and academic programs!

ANPERC is looking for a postdoc. The successful applicant will be part of the Carbonate Reservoirs Geology group (Caress), affiliated to the Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center (ANPERC) at KAUST.

ANPERC is proud to announce that Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) donated valuable technical software to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. This donation is part of the company’s ongoing support of education initiatives to develop the next generation of innovators.

Over the past year, ANPERC has placed a great deal of effort and time to building and equipping a world-class petroleum and geoscience research laboratory facility. Although the center continues to add unique new equipment each day to complete the labs, principle research investigations have already begun in wide range of areas. Among these is the investigation of rock properties from oil and gas reservoirs in the Kingdom and throughout the Middle East. The availability of rock and core material is a critical prerequisite for the success of these research efforts.

The Engineering Geosystems Group (EGG) is led by Professor Tadeusz W. Patzek, ANPERC Director. The team includes graduate students, Postdoctoral Fellows, Research Scientists and Research Staff.

Professor Hussein Hoteit, Associate Professor, joined ANPERC November 2016 after a substantial career in the industry.

Professor Hoteit‘s research focuses on Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) schemes in Reservoir Engineering.

We interviewed our new faculty member to learn more about his education, research aspirations, and his experience in academia and industry.

On May 3 2017, Dr. Sara Livazovic, a recent KAUST graduate (Ph.D., Chemistry) and Lab Equipment Assistant at ANPERC, received the KAUST Award for Excellence for her outstanding work in assisting the establishment and organizing the launch of the new center laboratory facility.

“With severe constraints on cash flow and investment opportunities, the oil and gas industry will have to change ways in which it conducts business. A new consensus needs to emerge in the industry and SPE on how to move away from the current difficulties. Once the industry begins to understand where it might go, academia will help and provide the next crew to carry out the oil and gas recovery schemes of the future” - Professor Tadeusz W. Patzek