Petroleum Engineering, Ph.D.

Learning Outcomes

Doctor of Philosophy graduates are expected to:

• Demonstrate proficiency in the professional skills needed to become competent researchers, university professors, and scientists in the petroleum industry and/or academia;
• Synthesize, critique, apply, and extend major theories and methods and/or perform advanced engineering systems design in petroleum engineering or related area;
• Demonstrate the ability to direct teams towards state-of-the-art in their research;
• Demonstrate high standards of ethical, environmental, and societal awareness;
• Demonstrate effective written and oral communication skills.

Admission

Requirements for admission to the Graduate School, including English proficiency, may be found in the Admission section of this Bulletin.

In addition, applicants to the doctoral program in petroleum engineering must have a baccalaureate degree in engineering, physics, or mathematics from an accredited institution. Applicants with a baccalaureate degree in a field other than petroleum engineering may be required to take additional deficiency classes in the areas of reservoir engineering, production engineering and drilling engineering.

Students with baccalaureate degrees may be considered for admission to the Ph.D. program provided that the student’s academic record satisfies the following conditions:

• An undergraduate G.P.A. of 3.5 or greater;
• A composite G.P.A. of 3.5 or greater in mathematics, science, engineering science, and engineering undergraduate courses taken as an undergraduate; and
• A quantitative GRE score greater than or equal to 160.

The preceding requirements are considered minimal and do not guarantee direct admission to the Ph.D. program.

At the discretion of the graduate advisor, the requirements for international students regarding grade point average may be replaced by a rank in the top five percent of the student’s graduating class or the top ten percent of the student’s graduating class provided the student’s baccalaureate degree is from a university from which other students have been admitted into the Ph.D. program.

A student without a master’s degree who is admitted into the Ph.D. program must:

• Maintain at least a 3.5 G.P.A. in the first 18 hours of graduate work at the 7000- or 8000-level, and
• Complete the Ph.D. qualifying exams and attain a pass or repeat result within two years of his or her first enrollment.

Candidates who fail to meet the preceding two requirements will be dismissed from the Ph.D. program but have the option of transferring to the master’s program.

Any student who is admitted to the master’s degree program may apply to the Ph.D. program after completion of 18 hours of graduate coursework at the 7000-level or above provided the student’s G.P.A. in such coursework is at least 3.5.

All applicants must take the General Tests of the Graduate Record Examination prior to admission and have an official copy of the scores submitted to the Graduate School.

It is emphasized that the above requirements are minimum requirements. It is expected that the qualifications of students entering the program will substantially exceed the minimum requirements. A student who meets only the minimum requirements in each of the above areas will, normally, be denied admission.

The number of candidates in this program, both part-time and full-time, is limited. Normally, part-time students are not admitted to this program. Applicants must designate their major fields of research interest.

Applicants usually are selected for admission by February 1 and September 1, but will be considered throughout the year.

Applicants from non-English-speaking countries who have not received a degree from a U.S. university must satisfy English proficiency requirements of a minimum TOEFL score of 80 on the internet-based test or 550 on the paper test. A minimum score of 6.0 on the IELTS examination may be substituted for the TOEFL.

Curriculum Requirements

The Ph.D. program requires at least 78 approved credit hours of graduate credit above the baccalaureate level, generally distributed in the following manner:

• At least 20 credit hours of research and dissertation including master’s degree thesis;
• At least 42 hours of graduate credit in coursework, including a maximum of nine hours of approved 6000-level courses listed in this Bulletin for graduate credit. A maximum of six hours of independent study will be allowed. The core courses, PE 7013 , PE 7023 , and PE 7063 , must be included in the first 27 hours of graduate work;
• At least 9 credit hours of coursework must be taken outside the discipline.

Students may be required to complete prerequisite undergraduate courses without graduate credit, resulting in a program of more than 78 credit hours. No more than 6 hours of transfer credit beyond the master’s degree from an accredited institution may be counted toward the course requirements if acceptable to the advisory committee.

These requirements are not variable except under special circumstances and with permission of the student’s advisory committee and the Dean of the Graduate School.

Graduate Seminar Requirement

Students must also enroll in PE 7220  their first two semesters, in addition to any other courses chosen with the graduate program advisor.

Language and Residence

A candidate for the Ph.D. degree in petroleum engineering must demonstrate competence in a computer language and/or in one foreign language through readings of material in his or her major field of study. Material for this requirement is selected with the approval of the candidate’s advisory committee. At least two consecutive semesters in residence at The University of Tulsa as a full-time student are required.

Qualifying Examinations

A student will be assumed to have satisfied PhD qualifying exam if the student satisfies the following two criteria:

1. Maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher in the three core courses listed (PE 7013, PE 7023, and PE 7063) in the current Graduate Bulletin for MSPE before becoming eligible to take the oral exam described in item 2 below. Those who do not satisfy this GPA requirement will be dismissed from the Ph.D. program, while those satisfying the core course GPA requirement of 3.3 or higher will inform their primary advisors and the graduate advisor of their intention to take the Ph.D. qualifying oral exam. The students who have completed their MS in PE at the University of Tulsa and want to continue their Ph.D. in PE at the University of Tulsa will also be required to satisfy the GPA requirement in the core courses.  The student must satisfactorily complete the oral exam in the following semester after completing the three core courses. If the student has completed the MS in PE at the University of Tulsa, the student will have two semesters to complete the oral exam after being admitted to the Ph.D. program. 
2. The student meeting the requirement of Item 1 shall prepare a research proposal outlining the student’s proposed Ph.D. research. The advisor will form a committee of five faculty members, including at least three from the MSPE program. The advisor will also inform the graduate school about the date and timing of the oral Ph.D. proposal presentation. The student shall submit the written proposal to the committee members at least two weeks before the oral presentation. The student shall make an oral proposal presentation to the committee members.  The proposal presentation should be open to all MSPE faculty members and MSPE students. After the presentation and question and answer session, the student needs to receive a unanimous vote of passing to qualify as a Ph.D. candidate. If the student does not receive a unanimous vote, the student has 30 days to address the deficiencies in the proposal and re-defend to secure the unanimous vote. If the student fails to secure the unanimous vote, the student will be dismissed from the Ph.D. program at the end of that semester. If the student secures a unanimous vote, the student’s advisor will inform the graduate school about the oral exam results, upon which the graduate school will officially send a letter of admittance to the Ph.D. candidacy.

Research Proposal

For a student who has passed his/her Ph.D. qualifying exams, the final step for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree requires that he/she prepare a typed research proposal five to fifteen pages in length which outlines the research proposed for the Ph.D. dissertation. The student’s advisor may provide general suggestions on the preparation of this proposal but should not write the proposal. The completed research proposal must be submitted to each full-time faculty member and members of the dissertation committee.

The advisor will convene a meeting with the student and the dissertation committee at which the student will present the research proposal. All faculty members are invited to this presentation. This meeting should take place at least a year before the student’s graduation. Subsequent to this meeting, the dissertation committee shall recommend one of the following:

• The student shall be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.
• The student shall make committee-recommended revisions to the proposal prior to being admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.

The advisor will notify the department chair upon the student’s successful completion of all requirements.

Candidacy

A student cannot be admitted to candidacy until the language requirement has been fulfilled, qualifying examinations have been passed, and the research proposal has been approved.

Dissertation

Each candidate must write a dissertation on the results of his or her research. The dissertation must demonstrate the candidate’s ability to conduct independent research in the area of interest and must contribute to some field of science or engineering technology. The dissertation must follow the Graduate School’s recommended procedures for submission to the student’s advisory committee, and before final typing or reproduction, must be presented to the full advisory committee for examination and review. The dissertation is graded Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (U).