Two open positions (PhD + postdoc) in Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics at NTNU

About the PhD position

We have a vacancy for a three-year PhD scholarship in the research group Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum (IGP) at NTNU. The position is part of the project “Pore Scale Simulations for Wettability Description” funded by The Research Council of Norway. It will be in the area of pore scale simulations, with a focus on wettability, both concerning description and measurement of wettability, and the effect of wettability on multiphase flow. The positions will be linked to the center of excellence PoreLab (www.porelab.no).

Wettability is an important property governing multiphase flow in porous media, including oil trapping and recovery during water flooding in oil reservoirs. However, the relation between wettability and two-phase flow in complex porous media is not well understood and the protocols of wetting state measurements show limitations using existing definitions. Measurements of the contact angle on a substrate or the wettability index in spontaneous imbibition and centrifuge experiments do not provide a good description of the complex pore scale distribution of wettability. The project will focus on simulation of wettability descriptions using dynamic fluid distribution of porelevel micro computed tomography.

This PhD is expected to collaborate closely with a PostDoc position in the same project, and shall be an integral part of the relevant research groups in PoreLab and at IGP. Main responsibilities for this position are development of numerical methods for simulation of fluid distribution at the pore scale, and development of workflows for using such pore scale simulations to determine the wettability from micro-CT images of fluid distribution. The main numerical scheme is expected to be the lattice-Boltzmann method, where we will use the open source C++ code LBPM (github.com/OPM/LBPM). While the parallel PostDoc position will focus on workflow development, this PhD will have a stronger focus on testing, applications and integration of the workflow into existing experimental procedures for wettability measurements.

PoreLab was established in 2017 at NTNU and UiO. PoreLab focuses on the physics of porous media using experimental, theoretical and computational methods. It is led by six principal scientists from physics, chemistry and reservoir engineering. The position will be linked to work package 6 (porelab.no/microfluidics-and-field-studies), which focus on a pore scale description of wettability.

This position report to Associate Professor Carl Fredrik Berg at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum (IGP) at NTNU. However, the positions will be part of an inter-disciplinary team of PhDs, Postdocs and Researchers from several departments at NTNU, including the Physics and Chemistry Department.


Read advertisement and apply for the position here >>

About the postdoc position

We have a vacancy for a two-year Postdoctoral researcher position in the research group Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum (IGP) at NTNU. This position is part of the project “Pore Scale Simulations for Wettability Description” funded by The Research Council of Norway. It will be in the area of pore scale simulations, with a focus on wettability, both concerning description and measurement of wettability, and the effect of wettability on multiphase flow. The positions will be linked to the center of excellence PoreLab (www.porelab.no).

Wettability is an important property governing multiphase flow in porous media, including oil trapping and recovery during water flooding in oil reservoirs. However, the relation between wettability and two-phase flow in complex porous media is not well understood and the protocols of wetting state measurements show limitations using existing definitions. Measurements of the contact angle on a substrate or the wettability index in spontaneous imbibition and centrifuge experiments do not provide a good description of the complex pore scale distribution of wettability. The project will focus on simulation of wettability descriptions using dynamic fluid distribution of porelevel micro computed tomography.

The PostDoc is expected to collaborate closely with a PhD in the same project, and shall be an integral part of the relevant research groups in PoreLab and at IGP. Main responsibilities for this position is development of numerical methods for simulation of fluid distribution at the pore scale, and development of workflows for using such pore scale simulations to determine the wettability from micro-CT images of fluid distribution. The main numerical scheme is expected to be the lattice-Boltzmann method, where we will use the open source C++ code LBPM (github.com/OPM/LBPM). The PostDoc will focus mainly on workflow development, while the parallel PhD position will have a stronger focus on testing, applications and integration of the workflow into existing experimental procedures for wettability measurements.

PoreLab was established in 2017 at NTNU and UiO. PoreLab focuses on the physics of porous media using experimental, theoretical and computational methods. It is led by six principal scientists from physics, chemistry and reservoir engineering. This position will be linked to work package 6 (porelab.no/microfluidics-and-field-studies), which focus on a pore scale description of wettability.

The position report to Associate Professor Carl Fredrik Berg at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum (IGP) at NTNU. However, the position will be part of an inter-disciplinary team of PhDs, Postdocs and Researchers from several departments at NTNU, including the Physics and Chemistry Department


Read advertisement and apply for the position here >>