NMT - New Mexico Tech New Mexico Tech Petroleum Engineering

The New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology

Department of Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering


New Mexico Tech has over 60 years' experience educating petroleum engineers, dating from the 1930's when we were known as the New Mexico School of Mines. Today, with the world's demand for oil still growing, we are at the forefront in petroleum education and technology. The high demand for trained petroleum engineers is projected to remain well into the 21st century. Starting salaries are among the highest for any field of engineering. Recent New Mexico Tech graduates with bachelor's degrees in petroleum engineering reported starting salaries of $70,000 and higher.
Announcements:

  • NMT Career Fair. Thursday, February 2, 2012


  • Wednesday, February 15, 2012. SPE Distinguished Lecture Series. Ding Zhu, from Texas A&M, will speak on, "Understanding the Roles of Inflow-Control Devices in Optimizing Horizontal Well Performance." Lunch begins at 11:30am. Lecture at 12:15pm. ELKS Lodge, Roswell, NM. RSVP by February 9 online, http://connect.spe.org/roswell/home/.


  • Friday, April 27, 2012. Langdon B. Taylor Banquet. Dr. Chen Classic and Senior Design presentations TBA.


  • Commencement. Saturday, May 12, 2012.


  • SPE 10th Annual 49ers Gold Rush Golf Scramble, Friday, October 19, 2012. Stay tuned in March for information. We are celebrating 10 years hosting the event.


  • ATCE Denver 2011. NMT Alumni Reception It was great to see, and meet, so many of our alums at the October 31st reception. Thank you for stopping by! A thousand thanks to our sponsors: Chevron, Bill Marble, Julie Cruse, Sisan Linert, and Sumit Malhotra/AES Drilling Fluids, LLC.


  • SPE Student Chapter's Exemplary Community Involvement The SPE student chapter has again shown their community involvement by collecting $560 to benefit the widow and children of a Department staff member's brother who was killed in a motorcyle accident in August.

  • SPE Students Attend Oil & Gas Day at the Capitol

    On Friday, February 18, 2011, New Mexico Tech's SPE student chapter attended the Oil & Gas Day at the Capitol in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Students represented New Mexico Tech, the Petroleum Engineering Department, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) chapter.


  • Wild Well Control School March 23-25, 2012. Sponsors needed for the weekend-long school. Call Karen for more information.



  • All petroleum students will be asked to sign a release form so Karen can release pics and resumes.

  • SPRING 2011 NEWSLETTER Spring 2011 newsletter

Thank You Message from the Department

    I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the overwhelming support of all of our donors and supporters to the Petroleum Engineering program. Due to your generosity we are able to provide the program with the resources to attract, retain and graduate quality students. Within the past year we have distributed over $50,000 in scholarships and fellowships to support both our undergraduate and graduate students. Details of scholarship awardees and sponsors are frequently posted on this website and newsletters.We have also received funds to improve our facilities and support student activities. As examples we have supported:
  • Professional development: An NMT faculty member presented a talk on assessment at the ABET Symposium in April, participated in the SPE forum on Petrophysics Meets Well Testing in June, the Colloquium on Petroleum Engineering Education in August, and recently presented a talk on the future of petroleum engineering at the international faculty session at ATCE in September. Participation in these events provides exposure and recognition to NMT.
  • The Wild Well Control School: extremely popular among the students and beneficial as all students receive well control certification.
  • Student travel to provide an SPE paper at a conference and to participate in the SPE Student Paper/Presentation contest in Lubbock, Texas.
  • Collaborating with the SPE and AADE student chapters in sponsoring the widely popular SPE golf tournaments, the Landon Taylor Banquet, and field trips to drilling and/or production facilities.
  • Purchasing two smartboardsTM, one in the computer lab and the second in the conference room. We are the only program outside of CS and DE to have this advanced technology in the classroom.
    • The Petroleum Engineering program leads NMT in its support by its alumni, industry and professional societies, and in developing an effective alumni network. Through our efforts we have provided information via newsletters and the website, and have alumni participation at the golf tournaments and banquets. We will continue to do so, but we need to improve and do more. If you have any suggestions please contact Karen Balch (kmbalch@nmt.edu) or Thomas Engler (engler@nmt.edu).
Award Recognition:

    RPSEA/Strata Production/Bertram H. Murphy Scholarship

    Recipients, William Barton Murphy (left) and Todd Parks (right). Middle-Dr. Thomas Engler (Chair/Professor, Petroleum Engineering)

    [Scholarship Recipients]

    William Barton Murphy is a 2008 graduate of Roswell Goddard High School, Roswell, New Mexico. He began his studies in the Fall of 2008 at New Mexico Tech, pursuing a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. Bart has been an outstanding student with a GPA over 3.00. While at NMT, he has been active in numerous student (soccer and golf clubs) and professional organizations (SPE and AADE), and currently holds the position of Chief Financial Officer for the Student Association. He has a summer internship experience with Armstrong Energy, where he assisted in evaluating well and reservoir performance.

    Ross Parks graduated in 2010 with a B.S. degree in Engineering Geology from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Previously he worked for Canrig Drilling Technology doing well logging and analysis. He is currently in his first semester as a graduate student at NMT pursuing a M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering. His interests are in drilling and completions. Ross Parks in from Tomball, Texas.

- Meeting Tomorrow's Energy Challenges Today -

   As a modern petroleum engineer, you'll be expected to perform interdisciplinary activities in the areas of drilling, production, formation evaluation, and reservoir engineering. Accordingly, we have designed New Mexico Tech's program to train you in many areas: geology, hydraulics, engineering mechanics, thermodynamics, physical chemistry, and economics.

   The Petroleum Engineering department places particular emphasis on giving you "hands-on" experience as well as classroom education. In four modern laboratories, you'll gain practical experience with drilling fluids, well completions, formation evaluation, and reservoir engineering.

   An industry consortium sponsors projects in the area of reservoir characterization and simulation, and our students work and interact directly with industry operations and research staff. In addition, engineers and geoscientists from Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories often work with the Petroleum Engineering department. The Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC) is located on campus and is well known in the industry as a research leader in advanced techniques of improved petroleum recovery. Researchers from the PRRC interact extensively with the Petroleum Engineering department.



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Last Updated: 1/6/2012