Djebbar Tiab, Ph.D.

TECHNICAL FACULTY

MANAGEMENT FACULTY

Professor, Petroleum Engineering
Director, The University of Oklahoma Graduate Program
in Petroleum Engineering in Algeria

Dr. Djebbar TIAB is the Senior Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He received his B.Sc. (May 1974) and M.Sc. (May 1975) degrees from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and Ph.D. degree (July 1976) from the University of Oklahoma - all in Petroleum Engineering, with a minor in mathematics. He is the Director of "The University of Oklahoma Graduate Program in Petroleum Engineering in Algeria", which started in July 1997 on the campus of the Algerian Petroleum Institute (IAP). The success of this original and unique program in Algeria has attracted attention from several countries. KOC (Kuwait) is currently studying a proposal to establish a similar program at the completion of the Algerian program. Iraq is also being considered for such a program.

Before joining the University of Oklahoma in 1977, he worked as a research associate and as an assistant professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where he taught drilling & well completion, production engineering, well logging and natural gas engineering. At the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Tiab taught various petroleum and general engineering courses including: well test analysis, advances in pressure transient analysis, petrophysics, Core Analysis-lab, advanced petrophysics, oil reservoir engineering, natural gas engineering, reservoir mechanics lab, natural gas engineering lab, fluid mechanics, production, properties of reservoir fluids, introduction to engineering, advanced reservoir engineering, Fluid Flow Through Porous Media, Math Simulation & Modeling, advanced natural gas engineering, water flooding, and improved oil recovery.

Dr. Tiab has consulted for a number of oil companies and offered training programs in petroleum engineering in the U.S.A. and overseas. He worked for over two years in the oil fields of Algeria for Alcore, S.A., an association of Sonatrach and Core Laboratories. He has also worked and consulted for Core Laboratories and Western Atlas in Houston, Texas, for four years (1990-1993) as a Senior Reservoir Engineer Advisor.

As a researcher at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Tiab received several research grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Department of Energy, U.S. Department of HEW, Sonatrach, Oklahoma Mining and Mineral Resources Institute, EPSCoR and the Energy Resources Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Research Council, Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Core Analysis Society, Pi Epsilon Tau, Who is Who and American Men and Women of Science. He served as a technical editor of various SPE, Egyptian, Kuwaiti and U.A.E. journals. He was member of the SPE Pressure Analysis Transaction. He also served as a member of the University of Oklahoma Senate. He has served as a member of the College of Engineering Dean's Advisory and as Chairman of the Ad hoc PGE Graduate Program Committee. In 2001 he was elected to the SPE Twenty-Five Year Club.

Dr. Tiab is the author of over one hundred sixty conference and journal technical papers in the area of pressure transient analysis, dynamic flow analysis, petrophysics, natural gas engineering, reservoir characterization, reservoir engineering and injection processes. In 1975 (M.S. thesis) and 1976 (Ph.D. dissertation), Tiab introduced the pressure derivative technique, which revolutionized the interpretation of pressure transient tests. He developed patents for CORE LAB in the area of reservoir characterization (identification of flow units). He is the senior author of the textbook "PETROPHYSICS", published by Gulf Publishing Company: 1st Edition in October 1996; 2nd updated edition was published by Elsevier in January 2004. He is also working on another book titled "Modern Interpretation of Pressure Transient Tests" to be published by Gulf Publishing Company in 2006.

Dr. Tiab supervised 25 Ph.D. and 117 M.Sc. students at the University of Oklahoma. The MS theses and PhD dissertations covered all aspects of Petroleum Engineering including drilling, production and reservoir engineering. Most of his Ph.D. students are now consultants and/or professors at universities in the U.S.A., South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The majority of his MS students are currently working for SONATRACH in Algeria. He received the Outstanding Young Men of America Award (1983), the SUN Award for Education Achievement (1984), Kerr-McGee Distinguished Lecturer Award (1985), the College of Engineering Faculty Fellowship of Excellence (1986), the Halliburton Lectureship Award (1987-89), the UNOCAL Centennial Professorship (1995-98), and the P&GE Distinguished Professor (1999 - 2000). The UNOCAL Professorship was created to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the University of Oklahoma.

He received the prestigious 1995 SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. The citation read, "He is recognized for his role in student development and his excellence in classroom instruction. He pioneered the pressure derivative technique of well testing and has contributed considerable understanding to petrophysics and reservoir engineering through his research and writing."

Dr. Tiab has been elected in October 2002 to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences as a foreign member because of "His outstanding work in petroleum Engineering", and was awarded the Kapista gold Medal of Honor for "His outstanding contributions to the field of engineering." He recently (October 6, 2003) received the prestigious 2003 SPE Formation Evaluation Award for "Outstanding achievements in petrophysics and reservoir engineering."