Curious about studying Oil and Gas Engineering, MScat University of Aberdeen? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MSc - Master of Science
Old Aberdeen Campus
Full Time
Jan 2028
1 Year
The MSc Oil and Gas Engineering is designed to create future industry leaders. The wide range of subjects taught, including engineering, geology and chemistry, ensures that you will gain a deep understanding of all the key scientific elements of the oil and gas industry and an appreciation of how these different aspects work together to deliver projects safely and efficiently. As well as learning the principles that underpin the drilling of hydrocarbons and well production technologies (including reservoir engineering, petroleum geoscience and flow assurance) you will also learn about project management and the safety and environmental considerations involved in the oil and gas industry. Aberdeen is known as the Energy Capital of Europe and with hundreds of energy operators and supply chain companies based in the city and surrounding region and numerous industry conferences, networking and career events taking place every year, there is simply nowhere better to gain industry exposure while studying for your energy degree. Our industry advisory panels help ensure that the content and learning outcomes of our programmes reflect the needs of the industry while guest lectures from energy sector experts and industry-supported projects also help ensure our students’ learning is in line with industry's standards. This degree holds accreditation from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Energy Institute, ensuring that the curriculum is designed and delivered to the highest professional standards.
Smooth petroleum production requires an understanding of all technical disciplines in facility design and their deliverables as well as of specific new technologies. Competent facilities engineering is needed from concept selection to commissioning and maintenance.
There are many challenges during transport of oil and gas through pipelines. These challenges require a real grasp of the fundamentals in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, phase changes, deposition and/or obstruction, erosion and new technologies to ensure a reliable and cost effective provision of oil and gas. Deep water production, heavy oils, high water production, severe slugging, hydrates, sour gases, asphaltenes and waxes make this task even harder. This course will provide a detailed explanation of the topics, a well-balanced set of tutorials with real examples, invited lectures from experienced engineers and flow assurance specific software training.
The course covers aspects of geology, geophysics and prospect evaluation to illustrate how geologists deal with uncertainty and risk during the exploration process. It will look at the place of the geoscientist during the productive life of an oilfield. Another key aspect of this course will be the issue of communication between geoscientists and engineers. By the end of this course students should understand how geologists explore for oil and gas, and the main tools at their disposal; the role of the geophysicist; how to make prospect maps; petroleum volumetrics; subsurface fluid flow; and the creation of static reservoir models.
The dissertation is an independent piece of work based on a topic of the students own choice. Students are encouraged to focus their dissertation on a problem confronting or a study related to the Energy industry. They should demonstrate how the knowledge they have learned during the taught programme can be put into practice to provide solutions towards addressing the problems. The dissertation should contain a degree of original work and demonstrate in-depth the skills and knowledge acquired throughout the MSc programme.
This course includes three key components where chemistry is fundamental to upstream and downstream oil and gas transport and processing. In this course, you will learn about general pipeline flow assurance, and risks related to the chemistries of waxes, resins, asphaltenes, gas hydrates and scales. Chemical strategies for managing flow assurance are discussed. Processes involved in converting oil to valuable fuels and chemicals are investigated. These include: distillation, coking, cracking, hydrotreatment and reforming. Natural gas utilisation including transport, processing and conversion to upgraded products is also covered, to give an overview of chemistry in the oil and gas industry.
The course provides an introduction to project management and is aimed at students who expect to be working in a project related environment or are considering a potential move into project management. The course covers a number of key aspects of project management from the project managers perspective and so whilst it does cover areas such as planning and estimating it is NOT intended to prepare students for such roles. Students are expected to apply their learning by completing a piece of group project work.
The course provides an understanding of the flow of hydrocarbon fluids through reservoir rocks and the interplay between the fluid and rock properties and reservoir performance.
This course provides students with an understanding of the engineering science and principles that underpin the drilling of oil and gas well, production technologies, design methodologies, as well as associated safety and environmental considerations.
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