Petroleum Engineering, Ph.D.

About the Petroleum Engineering Doctoral Program

The objectives of the Ph.D. program are to provide students opportunities to reach a critical understanding of the basic scientific and engineering principles underlying their fields of interest and to cultivate their ability to apply these principles creatively through advanced methods of analysis, research, and synthesis.

The Ph.D. degree is awarded primarily based on the student’s research contributions. Applicants for the doctoral degree must have a degree in an engineering discipline and must meet the approval of the department’s graduate committee. Ph.D. students must take the qualifying exams within the first two semesters of matriculation. These qualifying examinations consist of the four disciplines of petroleum engineering: production, drilling, reservoir engineering, and formation evaluation. Students have two opportunities to take and successfully pass the qualifying exams. If students cannot pass the exams in all four disciplines by the second attempt, the student will have to drop the Ph.D. program. 

In addition to regulations established by the Graduate School, applicants for candidacy for the doctoral degree are required to complete a minimum of 72 credit hours beyond the Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering comprised of 60 hours of coursework (which will include a maximum of 30 hours of 7000-level research). The remaining 12 required hours will consist of 12 hours of PETR 8000  (dissertation). The coursework of each student must also meet any additional recommendations of the student’s dissertation committee and/or graduate committee. Doctoral students are required to attend department seminars (PETR 5121 ). Please see the department doctoral handbook for more information and requirements.

The departmental graduate coordinator and graduate advisor determine course content and transferable hours from previous Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering programs, if any. No more than 24 hours can be transferred from your MS degree at your previous institution. Transfer equivalencies must be approved by the Graduate Program Committee or graduate advisor during the first semester of enrollment.