ChevronTexaco and University of Southern California establish center
for interactive smart oilfield technologies
Posted: 2 September 2003
The University of Southern California (USC) and ChevronTexaco Corp.
announced plans to establish a new center to develop advanced technologies
to improve oil and gas exploration and production efficiency.
Lloyd Armstrong, provost of the University of Southern California,
C. L. Max Nikias, dean of the USC School of Engineering and Don
Paul, vice president and chief technology officer at ChevronTexaco,
signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the establishment
of the Center of Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies (CiSoft)
at USC.
ChevronTexaco will provide R&D funding to establish the center,
which will draw upon faculty expertise and resources within the
USC School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute, the
Integrated Media System Center and the Petroleum Engineering Program.
CiSoft will focus on the research and development of integrated
technologies targeted to the operations of instrumented, intelligent
oil and gas fields. ChevronTexaco employees will directly participate
in the center's R&D program and the company will provide real-world
drilling and production data from oil and gas fields from around
the world. ChevronTexaco also plans to provide additional research
investments as expanded programs develop within CiSoft.
"Through this partnership, ChevronTexaco and USC hope to create
an exceptional learning environment for engineering students while
accelerating the development of advanced oil field technologies
in this area," said Nikias.
In addition to research and development, CiSoft will support a
strong educational component drawing top graduates from across the
world. Nikias said the engineering school will create a new master
of science degree program which uniquely integrates information
technology and petroleum engineering.
"The USC School of Engineering is recognized for leadership
and innovation in many areas, but has earned particular distinction
for its work in information and communications technology, advanced
visualization and petroleum engineering. Adding energy to the strong
relationships the school has with the defense and entertainment
industries will make this a unique environment for developing new
technologies for real-time engineering and operations," said
Paul.
CiSoft will form an integral component of ChevronTexaco's i-field
program, which is focused on the integration of field automation,
reservoir simulation technologies, new and emerging well technologies,
and real-time reservoir management.
Advances in i-field technologies and enhanced workflows will help
reduce field development costs, speed up the analysis of information
and enhance operational reliability.
CiSoft's co-executive directors will be Mike Hauser, i-field program
manager at ChevronTexaco Exploration and Production Technology Company,
and Iraj Ershaghi, USC professor of chemical engineering and director
of the Petroleum Engineering Program.
CiSoft is the most recent center formed as part of ChevronTexaco's
strategy to develop unique, new research and educational partnership
structures between the energy industry and universities. Last year,
ChevronTexaco joined with the University of Tulsa to form the Center
of Research Excellence in production fluid flow, which is conducting
research in the areas of flow assurance, specifically the study
of emulsions and multiphase flow, dispersions and heavy-oil chemistry.
The USC School of Engineering, with more than 4,000 students, is
the largest private engineering school in the western United States.
U.S. News and World Report has ranked the school's overall graduate
program eighth in the nation for the past two years. The Petroleum
Engineering Program is ranked ninth.
Based in San Ramon, Calif., ChevronTexaco is the second-largest
U.S.-based energy company and the fifth largest in the world based
on market capitalization. More than 53,000 ChevronTexaco employees
work in approximately 180 countries around the world.
SOURCE ChevronTexaco Corp.
For more information see http://www.chevrontexaco.com/.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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