Offshore oil and gas academic programs
The North Atlantic region is seeing rapid development in offshore oil and gas industries. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is in the development and early production phases of its offshore oil and gas industry. In the province, production is underway, exploration continues at a rapid pace, thousands of employment opportunities have been created, and millions of dollars in oil revenues are being generated annually.
With the start of the Hibernia project, the oil and gas initiative in the Faculty was consolidated and expanded. Several offshore related electives were introduced into the Mechanical and Civil Engineering programs. The Naval Architectural Engineering program was broadened to include the design of offshore structures and its title was changed to Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering. By the mid-nineties more than half of the graduates of this latter program were gaining employment within the offshore industry, primarily with industry based in the United States. In addition, the Industrial Research Chairs in the Faculty were expanded with an emphasis on the offshore sector.
As the offshore industry in the province is maturing there is a need for engineering graduates of all disciplines to understand this industrial sector. The Faculty has responded by developing an option in Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering in each of its undergraduate engineering degree programs.
The Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering option begins in academic term 6 and continues through terms 7 and 8. In terms 6 and 7, OOGE students would take two courses common to all students: Introduction to Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences Applied in Offshore Engineering. In term 8, students participate in offshore design group projects, with groups comprised of individuals from different disciplines and with an emphasis on teamwork. Project topics have included: feasibility assessments of options for producing, natural gas or oil and gas from an offshore fields (e.g., floating structures versus bottom-mounted structures); design facet of a production facility (e.g., a flare tower); risk based inspection of topside facilities; CNG carrier feasibility design; and assessments of the potential for offshore located downstream of processing facilities.
Students who choose the OOGE option take a core set of OOGE
courses and may chose from a set of electives. The courses
include:
| Core courses | Elective courses | |
| Offshore Petroleum Geology | Petroleum Facility Engineering | |
| Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering Design Project I | Subsea Pipeline Enginering with Geotechnical Applications | |
| Drilling Engineering for Petroleum Exploration and Production | Design for the Ocean and Ice Environments | |
| Reservoir Engineering | Offshore Structures and Materials | |
| Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering Design Project II | Process Control and Instrumentation | |
| Downstream Processing | Design of Natural Gas Handling Equipment | |
| Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition | Subsea Engineering | |
| Petroleum Production Engineering | Ocean Ice Engineering | |
| Safety and Risk Engineering | ||
| Reliability Engineering |
The OOGE term plan is as follows:
| Fall | Winter | Spring | |
| Year 1 | Engineering One * | ||
| Year 2 | Term 3 | Work Term | Term 4 |
| Year 3 | Work Term | Term 5 | Work Term |
| Year 4 | Term 6 (OOGE) | Work Term | Term 7 (OOGE) |
| Year 5 | Work Term | Term 8 (OOGE) | - |
