6 PhD Positions at University of Stavanger, Norway


(1) PhD Fellowship in Carbon Capture and Gas Separation Technology

The University of Stavanger invites applicants for a PhD Fellowship in Carbon Capture and Gas Separation Technology at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering. The position is vacant from October 2022.

This is a trainee position that will give promising researchers an opportunity for academic development through a PhD education leading to a doctoral degree.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website.

The appointment is for three years with research duties exclusively.

The position is funded by The Research Council of Norway and affiliated to the project “New Porous Liquids for Gas Separation and Carbon Capture”.

We are looking for applicants with a strong academic background who have completed a five-year master degree (3+2) within chemistry, chemical engineering, material science, or process engineering, preferably acquired recently; or possess corresponding qualifications that could provide a basis for successfully completing a doctorate.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with theoretical and practical knowledge of testing materials for gas absorption and adsorption unit operations.

To be eligible for admission to the doctoral programmes at the University of Stavanger both the grade for your master’s thesis and the weighted average grade of your master’s degree must individually be equivalent to or better than a B grade. If you finish your education (masters degree) in the autumn of 2022 you are also welcome to apply.

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(2) PhD Fellowship in Reservoir Engineering/Physical Chemistry

The University of Stavanger, as part of the National Centre for Sustainable Subsurface Utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf- NCS2030, invites applicants for a PhD Fellowship in Reservoir Engineering/Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Energy Resources. The position is vacant from September 1st 2022.

This is a trainee position that will give promising researchers an opportunity for academic development through a PhD education leading to a doctoral degree.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website. The appointment is for three years with research duties exclusively.

NCS2030 (https://www.uis.no/en/ncs2030) is a national research centre funded by the National Research Council of Norway, industry and research partners. The main goal of the centre is to facilitate an energy-efficient, multi-purpose utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf subsurface in the transition to a “Sustainable Subsurface Value Chain”. An important part of this is to educate tomorrow’s energy experts. The energy sector requires geoscientists who understand the importance of transitioning to a sustainable energy mix. NCS2030 will contribute with leading edge research for both cost and energy-efficient Net Zero Emission oil and gas production, and utilization of reservoirs for renewable energy production and storage of CO2.
 
The PhD Fellow will be affiliated with the following NCS2030 project: “Water management – Minimized water production and optimized water injection”.

Injection of “Smart Water” is an environmentally friendly and cost-efficient method for enhancing oil production from reservoirs. Laboratory studies indicate that the method has potential to accelerate oil production while simultaneously reducing the CO2-emissions to air by reduced amounts of production and injection water handling during production. 

Smart Water is an injection brine with optimized ionic composition for generating wettability alteration and improved sweep efficiency in the reservoir. Smart Water alone or in combination with other enhanced oil recovery (EOR)-methods have been identified as promising methods for increasing recovery of hydrocarbons from the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Laboratory experiments will be performed to investigate the chemical interactions that affect reservoir wettability and displacement efficiency during water injection, also by hybrid methods. Optimal injection strategy will be examined and identified. Some chemical factors that are identified as having strong effect on the above-mentioned processes will be studied in further detail. Experimental observations will be included in chemical/physical models for their improvement.

This study will contribute with improved understanding of how water injection can be further developed for more efficient displacement of the reservoir at lower carbon footprint, and to decrease the gap between laboratory studies and field application.

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(3) PhD Fellowship in Debiasing of Probabilistic Forecasts

The University of Stavanger, as part of the National Centre for Sustainable Subsurface Utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf- NCS2030 invites applicants for a PhD Fellowship in Debiasing of Probabilistic Forecasts at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Energy Resources. The position is vacant from 1. January 2023

This is a trainee position that will give promising researchers an opportunity for academic development through a PhD education leading to a doctoral degree.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website. The appointment is for three years with research duties exclusively. The position is funded by NCS2030.

Research topic

NCS2030 (https://www.uis.no/en/ncs2030) is a national research centre funded by the National Research Council of Norway, industry and research partners. The main goal of the centre is to facilitate an energy-efficient, multi-purpose utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf subsurface in the transition to a “Sustainable Subsurface Value Chain”. An important part of this is to educate tomorrow’s energy experts. The energy sector requires geoscientists who understand the importance of transitioning to a sustainable energy mix. NCS2030 will contribute with leading edge research for both cost and energy-efficient Net Zero Emission oil and gas production, and utilization of reservoirs for renewable energy production and storage of CO2.

The PhD Fellow will be affiliated with the following NCS2030 project: Theme: Digitalization. Topic: Digital Subsurface for Improved Decisions. Project: Multi-fidelity models, scenario evaluation and probabilistic forecasts for the digital subsurface.

The PhD Fellow will be working in a large team on the topic of digitalization. Digitalization is necessary to build a Sustainable Subsurface Value Chain and make more informed decisions to integrate the knowledge and competence building in the transition to a sustainable energy mix. The PhD project will contribute to methodological advancement in the decision part of a larger digital workflow, and, testing of the developments via a subsurface data platform made available in the project. Methodological developments are expected by developing and extending methods for debiasing probabilistic forecasts, primarily through the use of reference class forecasting.

Drawing on historical forecasts provided by operators on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the work will include the following tasks:

  • Forecast analysis, verification and scoring
  • Identifying factors contributing to poor forecasts
  • Suggesting and developing methods and procedures for improving probabilistic forecasts
  • Developing calibration curves appropriate for different forecasts settings
  • Populate the project data platform with calibration methods and curves based on cross-company forecast data
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(4) PhD Fellowship in Reservoir Engineering/Physical Chemistry

Job description

The University of Stavanger, as part of the National Centre for Sustainable Subsurface Utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf- NCS2030, invites applicants for a PhD Fellowship in Reservoir Engineering/Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Energy Resources. The position is vacant from September 1st, 2022.

This is a trainee position that will give promising researchers an opportunity for academic development through a PhD education leading to a doctoral degree.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website.

The appointment is for three years with research duties exclusively.

Research topic

NCS2030 (https://www.uis.no/en/ncs2030) is a national research centre funded by the National Research Council of Norway, industry and research partners. The main goal of the centre is to facilitate an energy-efficient, multi-purpose utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf subsurface in the transition to a “Sustainable Subsurface Value Chain”. An important part of this is to educate tomorrow’s energy experts. The energy sector requires geoscientists who understand the importance of transitioning to a sustainable energy mix. NCS2030 will contribute with leading edge research for both cost and energy-efficient Net Zero Emission oil and gas production, and utilization of reservoirs for renewable energy production and storage of CO2.
 
The PhD Fellow will be affiliated with the following NCS2030 project: “Net-zero emission production – Tight reservoir solutions”.

Substantial hydrocarbon reserves are located in tight reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). These reservoirs are challenging to produce primarily due to pore heterogeneity, low permeability, and deep locations. Stimulation of the near well region can increase the productivity/injectivity in such reservoirs. Several stimulation methods can be employed but their suitability to NCS need to be evaluated.  Waterflooding is used for pressure maintenance, and spontaneous imbibition of water into the oil-containing matrix is important for successful oil mobilization and recovery optimization. Can optimized injection water also be used for improved stimulation?

Tight reservoirs include naturally fractured reservoirs (carbonates and sandstones) with low matrix permeability, reservoirs with zones of low permeability in otherwise good reservoirs and low permeability reservoirs. Improved fundamental understanding of tight reservoir properties, phases and their interactions will determine if water-based EOR (enhanced oil recovery)-methods can be used for waterflooding purposes in lower permeability reservoirs, or if it can serve as a stimulation fluid.

Laboratory experiments will be performed to investigate the chemical interactions that affect reservoir wettability and potential wettability alteration and displacement efficiency during water injection/spontaneous imbibition. The permeability effect will be challenged by working with different rock material, and reservoir material will be used when available.
The aim of this study is to identify improved oil recovery (IOR) solutions for tight reservoirs. The work will also contribute to better modelling of reduced permeability reservoir systems.

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(5) PhD Fellowship in Subsurface Geosciences

Job description

The University of Stavanger, as part of the National Centre for Sustainable Subsurface Utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS2030), invites applicants for a PhD Fellowship in Subsurface Geosciences at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Energy Resources. The position is vacant from 01.11.2022.

This is a trainee position that will give promising researchers an opportunity for academic development through a PhD education leading to a doctoral degree.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website.

The hired candidate will be admitted to the PhD program in Science and Technology. The education includes relevant courses to about six months of study, a dissertation based on independent research, participation in national and international research environments, relevant academic communication, a trial lecture and public defence. Read more about the PhD education at UiS on our website.

The appointment is for three years with research duties exclusively,  or four years with both research and 25% compulsory duties. This will be clarified in the recruitment process.

The position is funded by NCS2030.

Research topic

NCS2030 (https://www.uis.no/en/ncs2030) is a national research centre funded by the Research Council of Norway, industry and research partners. The main goal of the centre is to facilitate an energy-efficient, multi-purpose utilization of the Norwegian Continental Shelf subsurface in the transition to a “Sustainable Subsurface Value Chain”. An important part of this is to educate tomorrow’s energy experts. The energy sector requires geoscientists who understand the importance of transitioning to a sustainable energy mix. NCS2030 will contribute with leading edge research for both cost and energy-efficient Net Zero Emission oil and gas production, and utilization of reservoirs for renewable energy production and storage of CO2.

The PhD Fellow will be affiliated with the research project “Salt characterization and modelling for the future energy mix”.

Evaporitic successions play an important role in the energy transition. Their impermeable properties make them excellent locations for underground storage caverns, and their high thermal conductivity and associated thermal gradient are ideal for geothermal energy. However, evaporites are not just salt (halite), but they are layered evaporitic sequences (LES) consisting of sedimentary rocks such as claystones, sandstones, carbonates, volcanic rocks, and other evaporite minerals. The proportion of these varied components control the sealing and thermal properties of the LES, and the geometry and deformation of salt caverns.

The main objective of this project is to determine the composition, sealing and thermal properties of the Upper Paleozoic evaporites of the Zechstein Group in the Norwegian North Sea, via subsurface interpretation, data science (machine learning), and geomechanical modelling. This with the aim of estimating the potential of these sediments for both geological storage and geothermal energy.

The project will focus on three main topics: 

  • Subsurface data (well and seismic) interpretation to map the lateral and vertical variation of the evaporites in the Zechstein Group in terms of geometry, composition, sealing and thermal properties. 
  • Application of data science/machine learning techniques to extrapolate salt rock properties away from the well areas, and ultimately predict the best locations for geological storage or geothermal energy production.
  • Structural restoration and geomechanical modelling of selected salt structures, to determine their mechanical and thermal evolution, and implications for geological storage or geothermal potential.
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