Om instituttet

Petroleum education at NTNU

• Established in 1973
• More than 2000 graduated M.Sc.´s
• More than 100 Ph.D.´s graduated
• Around 80 M.Sc.´s graduate every year
• Around 10 Ph.D.´s graduate every year
• Currently around 90 full-time teachers, researchers and staff
• Around 300 students enrolled at upper B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels

Strongly focused on the international profile with a friendly multi-cultural atmosphere, the IPT welcomes a new person coming to NTNU-Trondheim to a productive English-speaking educational and research environment. From the very beginning the international atmosphere existed at IPT in the form of teachers, researchers and students from all over the world.IPT has been actively cooperating with countries like Russia, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Angola, USA, Australia; altogether more than 50 countries.

There are two 2-years international programs leading to Master Degrees, one in Petroleum Engineering and one in Petroleum Geoscience. Exchange students are welcome to take shorter term education within this program. In addition Ph.D-positions are open to qualified international candidates. These positions also constitute the basis for international research cooperation .

Professors have individual scientific cooperation with various foreign institutions. The funding comes from Norwegian agencies SIU (NORAD, QUOTA), The Research Council of Norway , oil companies Statoil , Hydro , Total , BP , and NTNU Scolarships; also from European Programs (Erasmus , Marie Curie, TIME, Socrates ) and others. IPT cultivates personal international contacts as originators of new collaboration. Graduated Ph.D.s represent a particular bridging potential for new joint research.

SPIN-OFFS: One new company each year is the result of innovation in the department. New companies are founded by professors and/or students, including: Agir Boosting Technology , Geoprobing Technology , Markland Technology, Natural Gas Hydrate, Pera , Petreco, Sensorlink, Seres, Technoguide, Volve, Voxelvision, Waptheweb .

IN THE CLASSROOM: New courses and teaching methods are introduced and new groups of students recruited, increasingly from developing countries with a virgin petroleum industry. In addition to continuous development in the content of the main courses, the emphasis of the teaching has moved in the direction of more group work. Examples are the cross disciplinary student projects “The Virtual Reality Village ” and "The Gullfaks Village". The department is one of the largest users of computers at the university – the use of computers ranges from reservoir and production simulation to 3D representation of seismic and geological data. ( More on these cross disciplinary projects. )

FOR INDUSTRY: The department has a unique and close relation to the petroleum industry. Research and development results obtained in the department are readily disseminated to the industry, leading to new technology and practices. We collaborate with a multitude of oil companies and service suppliers through research based innovation centres, research programs and student projects. The premier center-based innovation in the deparment takes place in the Centre for Integrated Operations where 11 oil companies and service suppliers are collaborating on an 8 years program.

Sudent exchange agreements (in addition to many European universities):

• University of Texas
• Texas A&M University,
• Colorado School of Mines
• Univeristy of Campinas, Brazil
• University of New South Wales

Other collaborations and agreements

• NORAD-financed petroleum education for students from Asia and Afrika (12 per year)
• Government-financed petroleum education for students from Eastern Europe and developing countries (15 per year)
• Educational collaboration with Pomor University, Russia
• 150 students trained during 1996-2004
• Training ageement with NIOC, Iran for education and research.
• 50 Iranians will get M.Sc. degrees at NTNU 2000-2005
• Training agreements with Venezuela og Aserbaijan
• Discussion of collaboration with Angola, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia,

• The department building is shared with SINTEF Petroleumsforskning .
• The department is a Center for Research driven Innovation (SFI) within integrated operations .
• The department is located only 200 meters from Lerkendal Stadium, home of Rosenborg, one of Scandinavia's most successful football teams.
• His Royal Majesty, King Harald V visited the department at its opening in 1984.
• 50.6% of the new students in 2006 were females, being the first time the number of females was greater than the number of men.
• 40% of the master students are from abroad.
• The department has a high number of PhD students, of which a great portion is from foreign countries.
• Two of the professors own an oil well in Oklahoma, USA.
• The Norwegian tycoon Øystein Stray Spetalen graduated from IPT with a degree in petroleum Engineering in 1986.