This strategic academic unit is created and developing as a response to challenges related to global energy security and resource provision under the conditions of climate change, environmental problems and political instability.
Global challenges:
– growing energy consumption (the need for new resources)
– global warming caused by the increasing emission of greenhouse gases
– environmental degradation caused by combustion of high-carbon organic fuel (coal, reduced crude, diesel)
– price decline for hydrocarbons on the global market which leads to the reduction of social care programs and economic instability in hydrocarbon-exporting countries including Russia.
Main components of global energy market foresight:
– in the upcoming 40-50 years, the world will face no alternative to natural hydrocarbon fuel, especially in petroleum exporting countries and developing nations
– non-traditional hydrocarbon reserves (high-viscosity oil, schists, gas-hydrates) are spread on the Earth in limitless amounts, however, there are no energy-saving, environment-friendly, and economically efficient technologies (EEE-technologies) of their extraction
– the proportion of renewable energy sources in global energy balance will reach up to 24%, others 76% will be represented by hydrocarbon fuels – gas, oil, coal (hydrocarbon consumption is expected to exceed the current rates by 20-30%)
Global market tendencies in this sphere:
– global demand of EEE-technologies for extraction, transportation, refinery, energy generation and new materials production using hydrocarbons
– diversification of nontraditional hydrocarbon resources, gas-hydrate development
– energy market competition (coal – hydrocarbons) which leads to substituting coal, liquid hydrocarbons with natural gas, environmental improvement, CO2 emission reduction.
– Economic attractiveness downfall of alternative energy programs
Global challenges in petroleum industry education:
Rapid development of extraction and refining technologies, implementation of information and robotic technologies, project-oriented teamwork, globalization and internationalization of petroleum companies, special attention to environmental issues, resource conservation, and energy efficiency – all these trends demand a significant transformation of higher education related to fossil fuels and their processing, as well as constant advanced training of current professionals.
SAE purpose
SAE Ecooil – Global Energy and Resources for the Materials of the Future is created to generate, concentrate, and globally distribute the knowledge and competencies in EEE-prospecting, extraction, refinery, petroleum chemistry of non-traditional hydrocarbon reserves.
Advantages:
– unique testing fields for new technologies of high-viscosity oil, natural bitumen, shale oil extraction.
– close cooperation with the region’s biggest petroleum and petrochemical companies
– unique knowledge in petroleum geology (support for resources development in Volga-Ural and Western Siberia regions), chemistry and petrochemistry (the best Chemistry faculty in Russia), and oil-field modelling.
Current achievements:
– the fundamental basis for the unique technology of hydrocarbons catalytic conversion within the shelf.
– information support for nontraditional hydrocarbons development management
– several projects on searching, extraction, and deep conversion of natural bitumen, high-viscosity oil, shale oil, are being implemented in cooperation with Russian and foreign companies.
