The Petroleum Services and Safety Technology Program, part of the Department of Applied Sciences, will be adding three labs to its program in the 2012-2013 school year.
The program secured funds totaling $376,894 dollars in May 2012. The funds were gathered through a Louisiana Board of Regents grant totaling $184,894. Another $153,000 was secured through a donation from Tellus Operating Group LLC, Turbo-Chem International and the American Association of Drilling Engineers. The University then matched the funds with $39,000.
“Nicholls Petroleum program is the ideal choice for the receipt of these funds. We are proud to be able to support the Gulf coast oil and gas industry in this way,” Ty Rivet, drilling manager for Tellus and Nicholls representative for the American Association of Drilling Engineers said in a University press release.
“The importance of an industry match cannot be stressed enough. Our faculty members were able to secure the Board of Regents grant in a competitive section under the engineering category because of the industry match. We would like to thank the American Association of Drilling Engineers and our industry partners,” Dr. Balaji Ramachandran, department head of applied sciences, said.
The funds will be used to create three phases to the lab. Phase one will be the AADE Memorial Johnson ‘Bubba’ Hale, Jr. Drilling Fluids Laboratory. Phase one will use $10,000 dollars from Tellus and $3,000 dollars from Turbo-Chem International Inc.
Ramachandran said Hale was a graduate and avid supporter of the Petroleum Services program. He was chairman of the program’s Industrial Advisory Board. Hale also gathered significant contributions to the program through donations from the American Association of Drilling Engineers.
 The department plans to dedicate the lab in August 2012.
Phase two of the lab will be the Reservoir Fluids Lab and is expected to open in December 2012. Phase three will be the Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Lab which is expected to be available to students in spring 2013, Ramachandran said.
Laboratory spaces have been identified in Peltier Hall.  Phase one of the lab is currently being renovated.
The laboratories will provide a hands-on experience to the program.
“At the present time the program lacks any laboratory component to significantly demonstrate the math and geoscience principles involved in reservoir fluid behavior, enhanced oil recovery, hydrostatic pressure and other components related to the field.” Ramachandran said.
“The program provides a technical engineering curriculum with math and geoscience concepts applied to well control and oil and gas behavior in a well bore and environmental impact assessments. These concepts can be obtuse to the student without a strong “hands-on” laboratory component.”
The department is in the process of ordering equipment while designing and developing the other two labs.
“The biggest beneficiary of the laboratory are the students of the Petroleum Services Program,” Ramachandran said.