Development and presentation of the interdisciplinary course petroleum project evaluation: Integrating entrepreneurial and business concepts into a petroleum engineering curriculum

Abstract

The interdisciplinary course, PET 4460 - Petroleum Project Evaluation, offered at Montana Tech, was a direct result of the changing landscape in the petroleum engineering field. The course combined engineering concepts that students learned in other courses with entrepreneurship and other business concepts that entry-level petroleum engineers must possess in order to be successful. Faculty from the Business and Petroleum Engineering departments developed the course over a two-year time span with input/feedback from the Petroleum Engineering Department's industrial advisory board as well as input from upper-level management from many of the businesses operating in the petroleum arena. The subjects covered in the class were designed to cover topics from "beginning to end" in petroleum project evaluation. The course begins with an overview of project management principles and then continues with coverage of subjects such as entrepreneurial startup financing and capital formation, land ownership, oil and gas contracts, cash flow analysis, financial statement analysis, and the use of futures contracts to hedge risk, to name a few. The course culminated with a hands-on project using the lessons provided in the course combined with commonly used industry software to "tie everything together." The paper examines the development of the course, the need for interdisciplinary cooperation, the delivery of the course, and assessment of the course effectiveness. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2006.