Universities Offering Petroleum Engineering in Ghana

In this guide, we’ll be looking at the list of universities offering petroleum engineering in Ghana. We’ll also look at career opportunities for petroleum engineering graduates in Ghana as well as the requirements of becoming a petroleum engineer in Ghana.

Petroleum engineering has always been the core of most engineering discipline. This discipline is concerned with activities related to the production of hydrocarbons which can be either crude oil or natural gas.

A petroleum engineer (also known as a gas engineer) determines the most efficient way to drill for and extract oil and natural gas at a particular well. They oversee drilling operations and resolve any operating problems. They also decide how to stimulate an underperforming well. Additionally, they develop new drilling tools and techniques and find new ways to extract remaining oil and gas from older wells.

This alone has made petroleum engineering one of the highest paying engineering specialty in the world. You’ll find a petroleum engineer in almost every industry in the country.

Contents

What is Petroleum Engineering?

Petroleum engineering is the field of engineering that deals with the exploration, extraction, and production of oil. It also increasingly deals with the production of natural gas.

Petroleum engineering branches include drilling engineering, production engineering and surface facilities engineering, reservoir engineering, and petrophysical engineering.

What Do Petroleum Engineers Do?

Petroleum engineers solve important challenges that contribute to energy security and national prosperity. The rewarding field of petroleum engineering requires knowledge of physics, geology, chemistry and mathematics.

Petroleum engineers spend most of their time in offices or laboratories, but must also work at drilling sites, often for extended periods. Fieldwork may require extensive travel, including overseas. They may work a significant amount of extra hours while travelling. They commonly work on 84-hour rotations while at a work site.

Petroleum engineers typically do the following:

Design equipment to extract oil and gas from onshore and offshore reserves deep underground
Develop plans to drill in oil and gas fields, and then to recover the oil and gas
Develop ways to inject water, chemicals, gases, or steam into an oil reserve to force out more oil or gas
Make sure that oilfield equipment is installed, operated, and maintained properly
Evaluate the production of wells through surveys, testing, and analysis

Oil and gas deposits, or reservoirs, are located deep in rock formations underground. These reservoirs can be accessed only by drilling wells, either on land or at sea from offshore oil rigs.

Once oil and gas are discovered, petroleum engineers work with geoscientists and other specialists to understand the geologic formation of the rock containing the reservoir. They then determine the drilling methods, design the drilling equipment, implement the drilling plan, and monitor operations.

The best techniques currently being used recover only a portion of the oil and gas in a reservoir, so petroleum engineers also research and develop new ways to recover more of the oil and gas. This additional recovery helps to lower the cost of drilling and production.

A petroleum engineer’s role will vary depending on the company worked for, and whether the engineer will be working on land or offshore.

Types of Petroleum Engineering

The following are examples of types of petroleum engineering and engineers.

Reservoir Engineers – estimate how much oil or gas can be recovered from underground deposits, known as reservoirs. They study reservoirs’ characteristics and determine which methods will get the most oil or gas out of the reservoirs. They also monitor operations to ensure that optimal levels of these resources are being recovered.

Production Engineers – take over wells after drilling is completed. They typically monitor wells’ oil and gas production. They will also analyze and optimize the performance of individual wells.

Drilling and Completion Engineers – determine the best way to drill oil or gas wells, taking into account a number of factors, including cost. They also ensure that the drilling process is safe, efficient, and minimally disruptive to the environment.

Subsurface Engineers – will select equipment that will be the most suitable for the subsurface environment. Once the hardware is selected, the engineer will monitor and adjust the equipment, ensuring the reservoir and well are producing under ideal circumstances.

Entry Requirements for Petroleum Engineering

WASSCE/SSSCE APPLICANTS

Credit Passes in THREE (3) Core Subjects: English Language, Mathematics, Integrated
Science and Credit passes in THREE (3) of the following Elective Subjects: Physics,
Mathematics and Chemistry.

A’ LEVEL APPLICANTS

FIVE (5) credits at O’ Level including English and Mathematics, plus,
EITHER Passes at A’ Level in: Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Physics with an ‘O’ Level credit in Chemistry.

Passes at A’ Level in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry

MATURE APPLICANTS

Applicants must be 25 years at the time of submitting the Application.
EITHER Five (5) credits at the O’ Level including: English Language, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

WASSCE/SSSCE credits in THREE (3) Core Subjects (English Language, Mathematics and
Integrated Science), plus credits in THREE (3) Elective Subjects (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry). For Programme e. Applicants must have at least THREE (3) years working experience.