Characterizing the Conditions of Marginal Oil and Gas Wells

The National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL's) record of success has been built on understanding the future of energy and the technologies required to make that future possible. We’ve long touted our success in developing the technologies that took on acid rain in the 1970s and mercury in the early 2000s. More recently, NETL has a leading role in President Biden’s ambitious climate goals, including a carbon emission-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050.

Program Goals

The Professional Internship Program is designed to introduce undergraduate students and recent Bachelor's graduates to the challenges of conducting energy research, and enable graduate students to further build off their studies an experience as they join the scientific community. Participants interact daily with assigned mentors who guide research and project activities during the internship, while they become integral members of project teams.

The program goals include providing the opportunity to participants to:

• Develop skills and knowledge in their field of study
• Engage with new areas of basic and applied research
• Transition classroom theory into hands-on experience
• Network with world-class scientists
• Exchange ideas and skills with the Laboratory community
• Use state-of-the-art equipment
• Contribute to answers for today's pressing scientific questions
• Collaborate with the broader scientific and technical communities

Project Details

Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), this posting seeks a recent Bachelor's graduate or student researcher to engage in projects with the Research Innovation Center (RIC) at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in the area of emissions reduction, under the mentorship of Greg Lackey. This project will be hosted at the NETL Pittsburgh, PA campus.

Over 80% of oil and gas wells in the United States are marginally productive. It's estimated that, on average, these wells emit higher rates of methane than other wells. It is not feasible to accurately measure emissions from all marginal wells due to the number of wells that exist. This project is focused on leveraging publicly available information gathered by state oil and gas regulatory agencies as a proxy to estimate emissions from marginal wells in the United States.

The goals of this project are to: (1) learn and apply state-of-art methods and approaches for well characterization and integrity assessment and machine learning model development to address industry-relevant applied geoengineering problems; (2) gain perspective on emissions from the oil and gas sector, key challenges, and stakeholder perspectives; (3) gain exposure to career opportunities in energy and environmental science/engineering, with particular exposure to geologic and environmental -related fields; (4) gain experience in collaborative research with, interdisciplinary collaboration teams; and (5) improve technical writing and oral presentation skills. 

Peer-reviewed publication is strongly encouraged and will be supported by the mentor and other collaborators, as it an important step for emerging researchers to establish themselves and contribute to the advancement of the state-of-understanding in their field of endeavor. It is not, however, a requirement for this opportunity.

Stipend: Participants receive a biweekly stipend based on their educational level. Stipend payments are taxable as an educational benefit. Stipends for full-time participation start at:

• $450 per week - $620 per week for undergraduate students
• $690 per week - $770 per week for recent Bachelor's graduates
• $690 per week - $1,050 per week for graduate students

Deliverables: To document the effectiveness of the program, participants are required to submit a pre-appointment and post-appointment survey, as well as a reflection on their appointment experience when they renew or end their appointment. The reflection should summarize their project(s), additional activities, and overall experience. Details are provided as the appointment end date approaches.
Participants may also have the opportunity to contribute to manuscripts, journal articles, book chapters, conference presentations, posters, patents, and other publications as a part of their appointment. Such achievements should also be reported to ORISE; additional details are provided after an offer has been accepted.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory system, is owned and operated by the DOE. NETL supports the DOE mission to advance the energy security of the United States. This is an educational opportunity offered by NETL and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Participants in the program are not considered employees of NETL, DOE, the program administrator, or any other office or agency.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate would have some, but not necessarily all, of the following skills:

• Statistics and data analysis
• Machine-learning methods and codes
• Research code development
• Team-based, interdisciplinary collaboration on complex research topics in the area of geologic and environmental systems.

It is recognized that not all applicants will have knowledge and experience in all of these areas. This opportunity will provide exposure to/interaction with technical experts in several of these areas

To be eligible for this opportunity, you must:

• Have one of the following academic statuses
  • An undergraduate student*1 in good standing at a regionally accredited college/university*2
  • A recent Bachelor's degree graduate*1 who has received the Bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college/university*2 within the last 24 months at time of application
  • A graduate student in good standing at a regionally accredited college/university
• Have an overall GPA of 2.5/4.0 or higher
• Be at least 18 years of age at the time of application
• Provide confirmation of coverage under a health insurance plan prior to the beginning of the internship

*1 Soon-to-be Associate's degree graduates are eligible to apply if enrolled as a student at time of application. 
*2 Students and recent Bachelor's degree graduates from accredited Community Colleges and Technical Schools are encouraged to apply.