Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

Welcome to PNGE!

I am very pleased to welcome you to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Program at The Pennsylvania State University at University Park. Our program is considered one of the premier and historic petroleum engineering programs worldwide in one of the most highly ranked public universities in the nation. The discovery of how to produce oil by Drake in 1859 gave rise to the first super giant oil field in Bradbury Pa. Drake’s discovery came at a very opportune time in that the discovery likely saved whales from extermination (source: Drake State Park). The first course in petroleum engineering was offered in 1907 at Penn State entitled “Prospecting and Well Drilling” and the first PhD degrees was granted in 1931. Many of today’s current techniques for recovering oil, such as waterflooding, were developed at Penn State.   

As undergraduates you will have the opportunity to learn from some of the top scholars in a variety of areas of petroleum engineering, from drilling, to production, and to reservoir engineering.   This opportunity is supported significantly by one of the world’s top ranked schools of Earth and Mineral Sciences and at a top ranked Department of Geosciences.    

We are delighted that you are interested in our program, and this website will introduce you to some of the opportunities and resources that are available to you.  

Russell T. Johns
Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
Professor and Former Chair of PNGE Undergraduate Program

More information on the importance of petroleum to our society.

*The Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering B.S. program in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME) at Penn State is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org.

The vision for this program is to be at the forefront of new upstream research developments, while maintaining a student-oriented environment.