Incorporating Geothermal Curricula into Petroleum Classes: A Ten-Year Experience

Abstract

Abstract Over the years, petroleum curricula have been enjoying a continuous update to keep up with technology and industry progress, whereas geothermal is still working on establishing itself as an independent engineering study program. Recently, SPE has created the SPE Geothermal Technical Section, a strong signal towards expanding existing interest areas and strengthening the position of geothermal as a renewable energy resource. Geothermal is undoubtably the closest to oil and gas operations, as it needs, among others, drilling, well construction and completion, reservoir modeling and understanding, geology assessment and geophysics. Consequently, many authors have repeatedly asked for an acceleration of the technology transfer from oil and gas to geothermal. However, this technology transfer is still very slow and irregular. With this in mind, the main question is whether there is a need of fully dedicated courses to teach geothermal or we should rather slowly incorporate geothermal into established courses. This paper is proposing an intensive discussion about how a petroleum-based program can promote and support the needs of future geothermal engineers through curriculum adaptations. As an example, ten years of teaching experience on two continents under different program concepts, layouts, requirements, and expectations will be summarized and presented here. One of the main findings of this study is that unlike a class fully dedicated to geothermal, adding geothermal aspects into drilling and completion classes is more likely to facilitate the absorption of geothermal knowledge and enhance the desired technology transfer from oil and gas to geothermal.