METU NCC success at Society of Petroleum Engineers European section student paper contest, held during Annual Student Energy Congress, March 2-5, at University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is the main international professional organization of petroleum engineers with 160 000 members worldwide.
Student Paper Contest organized by SPE is held separately for Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral levels in 14 different sections around the world every year. In addition to Turkish universities, many prestigious petroleum engineering schools in Europe participate in the European Section such as Imperial College (UK), TU Delft (Netherlands), Clausthal University of Technology (Germany), University of Stavanger (Norway), IFP School (France), Heriot-Watt University (Scotland), and Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria). Students who win the regionals participate in the International Student Paper Contest held at the largest petroleum engineering convention, SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
The SPE Paper Contest attracts attention of well-known petroleum engineering departments and oil companies across the world.
Our students Ms. Thraiye Hemed and Mr. Burak Pehlevan has won first and second place respectively.
Ms. Hemed (PNGE, 4th year) presented her work titled “Development of a tracer analysis system using dye tracers”. Her work is the PNGE component of the ESC 491 multi-disciplinary project co-advised by Dr. Doruk Alp (PNGE), Dr. Mustafa Özser (Chemistry group), and Dr. Cemal Albayrak (Chemistry group).
Thraiye is now eligible to represent METU NCC in the international SPE paper contest at Denver, CO in October, during the largest meeting of PNGE professionals, SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE).
The PNGE component of the project was completed by Ms. Hemed in the PNGE laboratories of METU NCC. And the chemistry module of the project was carried out by fellow CHME students Ms. Fakiha Khalid and Ms. Simran Masood at the chemistry laboratories of METU NCC.
Ms. Hemed’s success also marks several firsts for PNGE program:
1. In the previous years, our students won 1st & 2nd place in the European and Turkish sections, but this the first time a woman from our PNGE program won the European contest.
2. Students had customarily completed their research during PNGE 490 research course, this is the first time ESC 491 project work was submitted to SPE paper contest.
3. First time PNGE participated in the ESC 491, in collaboration with Chemistry group professors and CHME students.
Mr. Burak Pehlevan, who has won the second place, presented his work titled ‘Directional Strain Using Uniaxial Compression Tests on Rock Samples’ which was completed for PNGE 490 research course and advised by Dr. Salih Saner. The work was completed in the PNGE laboratories of METU NCC. Last year, Burak had won first place in another SPE contest in Ukraine.
We acknowledge Mr. Hasan Okaygun’s continuous support for both Ms. Hemed and Mr. Pehlevan in the PNGE lab.
METU NCC Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Undergraduate Program has been successfully providing high-quality petroleum engineering education for the last 13 years. There are currently ~120 students, more than half of which are international students representing 20 different countries other than Turkey and TRNC. Research completed by undergraduate students is presented in conferences. Graduates of the program find work opportunities in the geothermal and petroleum industries in Turkey and worldwide, and some pursue post-graduate studies and admitted to prestigious schools around the world.
Over the past years, METU Northern Cyprus Campus students won first place three times in the Turkey section, and once in the European section of the SPE paper contest.
This year METU NCC was represented in the SPE paper contest by following students:
- Ms. Thraiye Hemed (4th year, PNGE)
- Ms. Ozlem Buyukekinci (3rd year, PNGE, advisor Dr. Doruk Alp)
- “Pipeline Cost Estimation and Alternative Transport Analysis Tool
- Mr. Burak Pehlevan (4th year, PNGE, Dr. Salih Saner)
- Mr. Dani El-Achkar (4th year, PNGE, advisor Dr. Emre Artun)
- Geochemical Characterization Using Exploratory Data Analysis and K-Means Clustering
- Mr. Joshua Mugisha (SEES, advisor Dr. Salam Al-Rbaewi)
- ''Analytical modeling of flow regimes during cyclic CO2 injection in hydraulically fractured tight reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery''
Ms. Thraiye Seif Hemed in her own words:
Thraiye Seif Hemed is a 4th-year PNGE student at METU NCC and a member of SPE. Thraiye worked on "Development of a tracer analysis system using dye tracers" during ESC 491, Multidisciplinary Engineering System Design course with her advisor Assis.Prof.Dr. Doruk Alp. She presented this work at the SPE Student Paper Contest in Zagreb, Croatia. Thraiye is originally from Tanga, Tanzania. She has done internships with Gulf Energy SAOC (Muscat, Oman) and Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). She is mostly interested in unconventional resources and optimization of future energy resources.
Mr. Burak Pehlevan in his own words:
Burak Pehlevan is a 4th year PNGE student at METU NCC and a member of SPE.
Burak worked on "Directional Strain Measurements by Applying Uniaxial Stress on Rock Samples" during PNGE 490 research course with his advisor Prof. Dr. Salih Saner. He presented this work at the SPE SPC 2020 contest in Annual Student Energy Congress at Zagreb, CROTIA. Burak is originally from Bursa, TURKEY. He has done internships with Turkish Petroleum and Bordrill. He is mostly interested in hydraulic fracturing, directional drilling, reservoir geomechanics and rock mechanics. After graduation he is planning to pursue graduate study on related topics.
Burak himself says that “Since the first day we decided to work on this such an undocumented topic, our Prof.Dr. Salih Saner kept believing in us and mentioned that the project could win the contest”. I am so glad to get two titles in a row this year. I would like to take this chance to congratulate my research partner Ahmed Hussein so also, he showed great effort in this great topic. Without no doubt this was a reward of this hard teamwork. One again I would like to take this chance to thanks our Professor. Thraiye will no doubt represent us and Europe Section. I am so happy to represent METU in international congresses '