History of Petroleum Engineering Program

The Undergraduate Study Program of Petroleum Engineering in Institut Teknologi Bandung was initiated in 1950. Until 1961, Petroleum Engineering program was part of Mining Engineering Department of ITB. Since 1962 Petroleum Engineering division of the Mining Engineering Department evolved become Petroleum Engineering Department, separated from the Mining Engineering Department. In 2004 ITB conducted organizational reform when all education majors/departments in ITB were converted to become study programs. Since then Petroleum Engineering Department changed its name and organizational position become Petroleum Engineering Study Program.

Until 1980, the Petroleum Engineering education in ITB solely focused on the undergraduate level. The Graduate Program (master and doctorate programs) of Petroleum Engineering began in 1980. In its early years, the master and doctorate program was managed by the Graduate Program of ITB, together with graduate programs of other disciplines in ITB.

In early 1990s the operation and management of the Petroleum Engineering Graduate Program was handed over to Petroleum Engineering Department. Currently both the undergraduate and graduate programs are run by the Petroleum Engineering Study Program.

Petroleum Engineering Undergraduate Study Program begins with the strengthening fundamental sciences (math, chemistry and physics), followed by an introduction to the general technology of upstream petroleum production system. The students are then introduced to the basic petroleum engineering sciences namely basic geology, petroleum geology, reservoir fluids, petrophysics, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. The students are also equipped with some basic knowledge and skills needed in engineering practices such as numerical methods, computer programming, statistics, and material of construction. The students learn to apply the basic engineering sciences in drilling design and operations, well completion, well logging, well testing, reservoir engineering, and production design and operation. The student’s laboratory experiment skills are developed through laboratory courses: reservoir fluids analyses, petrophysics and drilling mud and cement.

In parallel with those applicative courses, students also learn humanities, environmental engineering, field development planning, risk analysis and economic evaluation and project management. At the final stage of their undergraduate study, the students are trained to synthesize and apply their accumulated knowledge and skills by doing the following:

• Formulating, analyzing, and solving relatively complex petroleum engineering problems and communicating their findings; this is realized in the undergraduate final project course.
• Recognizing and understanding the organizational and operational aspects of real-life commercial upstream petroleum operations through industrial internship (practical works) for 1 – 2 calendar month duration.

To enhance student’s knowledge and skills in various specific areas of petroleum engineering, a host of elective courses are offered. Guest lectures sessions by speakers from petroleum industry, government and research institutions are held weekly (Friday afternoon) to expand the student’s horizon in the real world of petroleum industry.

All ITB study programs regularly carry out curriculum review and improvement every five years. The last curriculum review was carried out in 2012-2013. The current curriculum is the “2013-2018” curriculum. The attainment of program objectives reported in this SSR is evaluated based on the implementation of “2008-2013” curriculum. The last curriculum review concluded that the “2008-2013” curriculum is still relevant and in line with the program objectives and therefore the new “2013-2018” curriculum is basically the same with the “2008-2013” curriculum.

In August 2012, the Petroleum Engineering Study Program at ITB was accredited by the National Accreditation Body for Higher Education and received an A (highest rank) level/status. This status/level is valid until 2017.