Ericvan Oort

UT PGE Professor Eric van Oort
ProfessorRichard B. Curran Centennial Chair in Engineering

Research Areas
Research Interests

General oil & gas drilling operations; geothermal drilling; drilling and well construction for carbon storage, hydrogen storage / exploration /production, waste disposal; high-pressure / high-temperature (HPHT) drilling; deepwater (DW) drilling; extended reach drilling (ERD); managed pressure drilling (MPD); well construction / performance optimization (e.g., drilling/completion efficiency optimization); drilling dysfunction / vibration mitigation; drilling automation & well construction-related big data analytics, machine learning and AI; advanced drilling sensor design; drilling fluids technology and automation; mud-shale interactions and high-performance fluid design; real-time operations centers & monitoring, remote command and control; wellbore rock mechanics / geomechanics (borehole stability, lost circulation, well control etc.); well integrity; zonal isolation; wellbore cementing, well barrier design and verification; well plugging & abandonment (P&A); well decommissioning; well sustainability, re-use and repurposing; reduction of asset retirement obligation (ARO).

About

Eric van Oort is a professor and the Richard B. Curran Centennial Chair in Engineering at the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. He began his tenure at UT Austin in 2011 after a 20-year industry career at Shell.

He directs drilling-related R&D in two industry consortia (RAPID and CODA) with over 25 industry company sponsors, covering drilling automation and control, sensor design, big data analytics, complex well construction challenges and well abandonment and decommissioning. He has become involved in geothermal drilling and well construction, underground carbon storage (CCS/CCUS) and well repurposing/reduction of asset retirement obligations (ARO).

An SPE distinguished member and former distinguished lecturer, his innovative work continues to shape the future of drilling engineering. His research has advanced shale-fluid interaction, drilling automation, cementing, MPD and geothermal well construction.

He has coauthored more than 250 technical papers (including more than 150 SPE papers), holds 22 patents and has received the 2017 SPE International Drilling Engineering Award and the 2025 Lockheed Martin Award for excellence in engineering teaching at UT Austin.

He cofounded SPYPR Automation and Ultradeep Energy Co. and is the CEO of EVO Energy Consulting.

Educational Qualifications

Ph.D., Chemical Physics, University of Amsterdam, 1990
M.S., Chemical Physics, University of Amsterdam, 1986
B.S., Chemistry, University of Amsterdam, 1983
Barlaeus Gymnasium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1982

Select Awards & Honors

  • Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching (2025)
  • SPE / AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal for Technical Leadership (2025)
  • Drilling Engineering Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers (2017)
  • Distinguished Member Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers (2016)
  • Best Paper Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers (1997)
  • Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer (1996)
  • KSEPL Experimental Award (1994)

Select Publications

Google Scholar

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