Texas Tech oil rig gives petroleum engineering students unique, hands-on education

In 2023, Texas Tech became a pioneer in giving petroleum engineering students hands-on experience by raising the mast of the first full-scale operational oil rig on a university campus nationwide. A year later, students and faculty see the unique learning opportunity and tool paying off.

Professors like Marshal Watson — who also serves as the chair of the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech — said the Oil Field Technology Center that houses the oil rig and other machinery allows the students to interact with the equipment in ways they couldn't before.

It also enables professors to take classes out there without the worry of logistics, especially if a student misses a trip out to the rig.

"It enables me to say, 'Look, let's run out there for 30 this Monday and I'll go over everything I went over with the other students,'" Watson said.

Related: Oil field of study: Texas Tech raises mast on nation's first operational on-campus rig

Students are still bused out to Midland to see the big oil fields and how operations are done down there; however, there are limitations.

"Down there, they're extremely limited on what they could do on the rig or around a rig due to safety concerns of the companies that allowed us to come on and see the rig," Watson said. "They can't go up and touch a lot of things. They can't go underneath the rig. They can't wander around the top of the rig."

Petroleum engineering is the main discipline utilizing the center for sophomore to senior-level classes on intro and advanced drilling and production classes, among other topics.

Students at Tech are also allowed to see real-time data from the rig, Watson said, as a company donated equipment to allow students to do so.

"A student on campus can see on their computer what's going on at the drilling rig now," Watson said. "This would be emulating exactly what oil companies have their engineers in their offices."

Watson said the university is also upgrading the rig with more equipment, allowing students to see how retrofitting a rig is done properly.

One student who utilizes the OTC is Ashley Leon, a junior petroleum engineering major who said it has helped her better understand what's going on in the classroom.

"When I'm asked to calculate something in class, I better understand the mechanisms and the processes involved because I've been at OTC and seeing the size and the scale of the complicated equipment," Leon said.

Even though making the classroom-to-field connection is important, Leon said she learned a valuable lesson about safety on the rig, especially during the most dangerous time — rig up and rig down.

During this time, Leon said, numerous trucks are coming and going from the site, and electric lines and heavy machinery are being taken down and away at the beginning and end of every day. Knowing where to stand to be safe during the process is important on top of all of the other safety measures one needs to know when handling such equipment.

She said this knowledge and the hands-on experience have given her an edge over other students in the field, especially during her internship as a field intern.

"I had actually been on a rig before, and so I knew exactly what to expect. I knew the layout," Leon said. "I knew where or not to be I knew where to be. I knew kind of the machinery involved.

Leon is also an undergraduate researcher and said the rig also helps her with that part of her academics, and she feels very fortunate to have access to such a unique teaching aid.

"Texas Tech is the first and only school with a working rig and working facility," Leon said. "I feel very blessed to have that opportunity."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech oil rig gives students unique, hands-on education