Mature Field Management

Entry requirements

Entrants to the course will normally have a good honours degree (minimum 2:2 or UK equivalent) in an engineering or relevant science discipline from a British or overseas university.

In addition to the academic qualifications, motivation, industrial experience and personality are taken into consideration.

Recognition of prior learning

We are committed to providing study opportunities to applicants who have a wide range of prior experiences through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). For more information on RPL, please contact the Online Admissions Team (egis-idl-apps@hw.ac.uk) ahead of application. We can only consider requests for RPL at the time of application to a course of study.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

The bulk of the world's hydrocarbons come from producing assets - so-called 'mature fields'. In turn, these supply the bulk of the world's energy.

Managing these assets is therefore a central aspect of global energy supply, and will become more so as the world's giant fields become progressively more mature. Most industry jobs in exploration and production will be in this arena, requiring a talented workforce to fill them for decades to come.

Heriot-Watt's GeoEnergy Engineering has therefore created a new Masters degree to address this need. The topical content is necessarily broader than the existing IPE degrees, embracing not only geoscience, reservoir and well engineering but also surface engineering and the linkage between them in the form of integrated asset management (IAM).

The subject also demands a grasp of incremental petroleum economics and risk analysis, and a methodology for handling decision-making in assets in which production and data gathering are continuous. This methodology provides the link between the degree components and sits at the core of the group exercise, with Edinburgh's own Forth Bridge as a visual metaphor for the process.

Finally the degree deals with the asset endgame. When does production cease, how can field life be extended, how do we decommission - or then recommission and what are the potential uses of these reservoirs in the post-carbon era?

Information for international students

If English is not your first language a minimum of IELTS 6.5 or equivalent is required with all elements passed at 6.0 or above. We offer a range of English language courses to help you meet the English language requirement prior to starting your masters course:

• 20 weeks English (for IELTS of 5.0 with no skill lower than 4.5)
• 14 weeks English (for IELTS of 5.0 with minimum of 5.0 in writing and no skill lower than 4.5)
• 10 weeks English (for IELTS of 5.5 with no skill lower than 5.0)
• 6 weeks English (for IELTS 5.5 with no skill lower than 5.5)

Fees and funding

See University website