Petroleum Center of Excellence
ND Legislature Funds Center of Excellence in Petroleum Research, Education, and Entrepreneurship -
The Budget Section of the ND Legislature voted unanimously yesterday to approve a proposal establishing a Petroleum Research, Education, and Entrepreneurship Center (PREEC) in the UND School of Engineering and Mines. The plan's authors are GGE's Will Gosnold, Zheng-Wen Zeng and Richard LeFever, together with Mike Mann (Chemical Engineering) and Hossein Salefar (Electrical Engineering).

PREEC's missions will include: 1) improving our understanding of the petroleum geology, petroleum geophysics, and petroleum engineering of the Williston Basin, 2) developing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques for the Bakken Formation (L. Devonian - E. Mississippian), 3) developing techniques for CO2 sequestration in the Williston Basin, 4) developing engineering enhanced geothermal systems (EEGS) using oil field waters to generate electrical power, 5) addressing environmental and policy issues of petroleum production, and 6) helping entrepreneurs develop new businesses and industry. The educational mission will be to train UND students and industry professionals to meet the challenges of these six focus areas, and in the special techniques used to extract oil from the Bakken Formation.

Will Gosnold (Director of PREEC), Zheng-Wen Zeng (Co-Director), and Richard LeFever will focus on petroleum related research. Mike Mann and Hossein Salefar will work with Gosnold and Zeng on enhanced geothermal systems and to develop new businesses for distributed electric power systems.

State funding of $3 million is matched by nearly $8 million in donated software and cash from private sector participants and alumni.

In addition to supporting faculty and students, PREEC funds will be applied to equipping a dedicated petroleum engineering laboratory. (Posted 09/26/2008)