Petroleum Engineering Program

Teaching petroleum engineering started in the fall of 1944, when 16 students registered in the second year in the new Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department. One year later, 10 of these students specialized in mining and 6 specialized in petroleum. The first petroleum engineering graduates were in 1947 (almost 50 years later, two of them are still active in the local business). At that time, the department was the first of its kind in the Middle East and Africa. The foundation of the Department of Petroleum engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of Fuad Elawal (Fuad the First) University was one of the national initiatives that prepared for the post war era, by supplying the local petroleum industry with national, specialized engineering staff that was necessary to develop one of the important national resources of the country.

The number of graduates started with 6 in 1947, reached a minimum of 2 in 1952 and 1953 and gradually increased thereafter to reach the peak of 35 in 1962 (almost 5 years after the formation of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, the General Petroleum Company and the discovery of Belayim-Land field). The number of graduates remained between 30 and 39 until 1965 when it dropped to the level of 12-17 during 1966-1969. The seventies and the eighties witnessed another affluence of graduates; the peak was in 1972, with 68 graduates — the record so far. Over 50 years of the department’s life, graduates will have totaled 1300 who have been working in the core business and in some other 20 specialties, in Egypt and in more than 20 countries world wide.

Topics leading to granting B. Sc. are broken down as follows: specialty topics (38%), engineering topics (26%), non-engineering topics and humanities (10%), and basic sciences (26%).

The teaching staff is a diverse total of 13, including 5 emeritus professors, 5 professors, 1 associate professor, and 2 assistant professors; besides 5 teaching assistants actively involved in preparing for their postgraduate studies. Besides the B. Sc., the Department grants two postgraduate diplomas in exploration and production engineering, an M. Sc., and Ph. D. degrees in petroleum engineering. Currently, there are more than 50 postgraduate students registered in all petroleum engineering disciplines.

The infrastructure of the Petroleum Engineering Section includes four laboratories for undergraduate purposes and two for postgraduate research work, in addition to the computer center and the library which are jointly used by all students of mining, petroleum, and metallurgy.

Relationship between the teaching staff and the industry is rather excellent. Traditionally, university-industry relationship in this area dates back to the origin of the department: in the early stages the teaching staff was among prominent personnel from the industry. These days graduates of the sixties frequently meet with the students. Also most of the postgraduates are industry members and the topics of their research work address industry problems. Many of the teaching staff have industry experience and are active in consulting and continuing education work with the local industry.