The Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources (ASPER) is a centre for education, training and research in
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
and
energy resources
World energy resources are the estimated maximum capacity for energy production given all available resources on Earth. They can be divided by type into fossil fuel, nuclear fuel and renewable resources.
Fossil fuel
Remaining reserves of f ...
engineering, geoscience and management at the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. ASPER is housed in the purpose-built Santos Petroleum Engineering Building on the University of Adelaide's
North Terrace campus.
History
The Australian School of Petroleum originated from the merger, in 2003, of the National Centre for Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (NCPGG) and the School of Petroleum Engineering and Management (SPEM).
In 2020, the School was renamed from the Australian School of Petroleum to the Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources to reflect its teaching and research in areas such as the underground storage and use of carbon and hydrogen. The NCPGG was founded as a government and industry-funded Centre of Excellence in 1986. The SPEM was founded in 2000 under an AU $25 million Sponsorship Agreement between the University of Adelaide and
Santos Limited
Santos Ltd. (South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search) is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil assets. ...
. At the time it was believed to be 'the largest single
industry sponsorship
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
ever given to a public university in Australia.'
School Ranking and Reputation
In 2020 the
QS World University Rankings
''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...
included the discipline of Petroleum Engineering for the first time.
The
ERA (Excellence in Research Australia) is the Australian Government’s attempt to assess research quality and impact. As a School focused largely on a single industry sector, its research outputs do not align with a single ERA field of research, with the majority of ASPER’s outputs allocated to the “Resource Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy” and “Geology” fields of research. In the most recent ERA (2018), the University of Adelaide received 5/5 in both these categories.
Engagement with Industry and Government
ASPER interacts with industry and government agencies and is sometimes sought out for advice on matters related to petroleum and energy management. ASPER’s industry Advisory Board has 13 members from 10 energy companies (Santos,
Beach Energy
Beach Energy Limited is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company based in Adelaide, South Australia. Formerly known as Beach Petroleum, the company changed its name to Beach Energy in December 2009. It is a component of the S&P ...
,
Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* ''Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...
,
BHP
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
,
Esso Australia
ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait, south east of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a gas processing fac ...
,
Woodside Energy
Woodside Energy Group Ltd (formerly Woodside Petroleum Ltd) is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. Woodside is the operator of oil and gas production in Australia and also Australia's largest independent dedicated oil an ...
,
Vintage Energy,
Strike Energy
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
,
Cooper Energy
Cameron International Corporation (formerly Cooper Cameron Corporation (CCC) and Cooper Oil Tool, Cameron Iron Works) though now operating under Schlumberger, is a global provider of pressure control, production, processing, and flow control s ...
, and
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague.
Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...
),
CO2CRC and the South Australian government. The Board advises ASPER on the capabilities they seek in future employees, their training needs and the research needs of the industry. A large proportion of ASPER research is funded by the industry in the form of consortia, direct contract research or through collaborative
Australian Research Council
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...
(ARC) Linkage grants. The South Australian State Government has provided support to ASPER and its predecessors, including funding for the South Australian State Chair of Petroleum Geoscience which has been held by Cedric Griffiths (1994-1999), Bruce Ainsworth (2010-2013) and Peter McCabe (2014-2020).
The number of research papers co-authored by ASPER staff and industry-based collaborators provides a possible measure for ASPER’s engagement with the industry. ASPER has performed an analysis that determined 29.8% of its publications during the last 3 years have been published with industry co-authors, higher than both the 3.6% of papers published by University of Adelaide academics and the Australia-wide average of 2.3%.
Teaching
ASPER offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework and research programs in engineering and geoscience, from which approximately 2100 students have graduated since 2002.
References
{{University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
2003 establishments in Australia
Petroleum engineering schools