The pursuit of technological advancements in the oil and gas sector is always, and has always been, more effectively pursued when done so collaboratively, specifically when the best of the industry sits down with the best of academia.

That’s a given.

When such partnerships are formed, both sectors benefit from innovation and real-world research, which in turn leads to successful field applications for oil and gas concerns, while providing successful training for students and future funding for universities.

It truly is a win-win.

The end result is a powerful engine that discovers and unleashes talent, culls through enormous amounts of data, and, ultimately, forms productive, long-lasting relationships that continue to pay dividends on existing projects and lays the groundwork for new ones.

Of late, though, this relationship is being tested.

There are numerous reasons for it, including drops in enrollment in the number of students entering geoscience programs, cutbacks from federal sources of money, and an industry whose focus is now branching out into areas heretofore unexplored by such partnerships.

Two industry professionals believe that now is a good time for that collaboration to be renewed and reimagined.

“From my perspective, there is a common misconception that research is too expensive, too long to develop, and not focused on business needs,” said Kent Newsham, former chief petrophysicist and petrophysics fellow at Occidental.

Shared Goals, Different Clocks

There is broad agreement that collaboration between business and academia still works, he said, but the difference now is that the two are on different timelines, which can strain the relationship.

“Focused, business need-driven research often yields cost savings results, improved precision, and accuracy of results that positively impacts execution, efficiencies, and effectiveness,” said Newsham.

From a university perspective, while the goals are the same, it has its own timetables, constraints, and perceptions to deal with.

Christopher R. Clarkson, professor in the Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary, explained that the particular hurdles he most often encounters have had to do with security and proprietary information.

“When we first engage a company interested in starting up a research project with my team, there is a common, understandable concern/misconception that their data would be shared with other companies or with the public, particularly when the research is conducted as part of an industry-sponsored research consortium or joint industry project,” he said.

Calgary is extremely careful with the valuable data provided to them by industry, he said, and has measures in place to protect industry confidentiality. For instance, while students may use such data to support a thesis, the company in such cases has the opportunity to review the work and approve (or not) the sanitized document or presentation.

“The data is still valuable for student training/learning, even if they cannot publish it,” he noted.

“Trust is a two-way street,” added Clarkson, who also operates the industry/government-funded Tight Oil Consortium at UCalgary. “Industry must trust us to protect their data and their ideas (and we must trust them), otherwise, effective university-industry collaboration is not possible.”

That aside, that industry-academia coordination has produced tangible results that would not have happened otherwise.

Newsham, whose job at Occidental included coordination of data management, staff alignment, skills assessments, and promotion tracking, said that, in his experience, the merging of talents and strengths between his company and various universities, like Clarkson’s (and they have worked together), has made a profound, real-world impact.

Research that Pays

Though he retired from the company in 2025, Newsham pointed to two projects in particular that highlighted the best of such collaboration.

The first was the result of work Occidental did with UCalgary (and, specifically, with Clarkson) on the application of the TOC-innovated diagnostic fracture injection test/Flowback analysis to Occidental’s wells.

He said, the work “reduced the time required to measure closure stress and pore pressure (key calibration references) from weeks to hours saving tremendous cost.”

Clarkson said that because of the time and cost savings of DFIT-FBA, the tests can be used to perform multiple tests along a well in a single day (for better reservoir characterization). It has also been used to evaluate the risk of induced seismicity in Canada, and through a collaboration with Halliburton, the operational and analysis procedure of DFIT-FBA has been applied to open-hole micro-fracture tests to evaluate CO2 storage system caprocks.

The second example, said Newsham, was Occidental’s work with the University of Oklahoma in the development of an electric properties test on ultra-low permeable rocks to improve estimating water saturation levels and hydrocarbon storage capacity.

“In complex reservoirs, electric properties are highly variable,” he said.

Newsham indicated the original UCR electric properties workflow was based on a series of core sample desaturation steps.

“What OU did was evaluate the publication and invert the process by using spontaneous and forced imbibition compressing testing duration and saving significant cost,” he explained.

Newsham underscores that the collaborative work of the two projects was a starting point, which is why continued investment, both monetarily and intellectually, is key.

Rise of the Machines

Any discussion these days about collaboration, though, between business and academia, will be transformed with the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Newsham sees various segments of the industry that have already positioned themselves for greater productivity using the two new technologies.

He points to petrophysics and five specific examples:

  • Relative permeability: Optimization of relative permeability input parameters using random forest methodology to achieve desired water cut for given water saturation, permeability, and fluid properties
  • Facies modeling: The creation on core calibrated (thin-sections) Permian Basin facies model using random forest methodology from basic open-hole data
  • Log quality control: Log data quality control and repair application utilizing machine learning methodologies (random forest, multi-variant regression, etc.)
  • Permian Basin Permeability Model: Multi-variant regression model based on mercury injection permeability estimate (production allocation)
  • Definition of the production allocation profile: Utilizing geochemical fingerprinting technologies for optimization wellbore

AI will clearly make an impact on the field, namely in the areas of image/pattern-recognition methodologies, borehole imaging application, core/log 2-D NMR applications, and petrophysical modeling.

For his part, Clarkson said the research he has done focuses on the development of new field and laboratory methods and analysis workflows to aid with the characterization and evaluation of unconventional reservoirs.

“We have found that machine-learning techniques, constrained by physical models, can be a particularly powerful approach to help optimize field development,” he said.

The Curiosity Axis

Both spoke will speak at this month’s Unconventional Resources Technology Conference in Houston, presenting “How Research Collaborations Build Technology That Shape Our Industry,” where they will emphasize to both industry and academic professionals the importance of collaboration, and explain how it often revolves around one word: curiosity.

“The open lines of communication, funding, engagement, and collaboration between industry and university researchers have to remain open,” said Newsham.

As mentioned, those lines are being tested.

According to a November 2024 study done by the Journal of Petroleum Technology, trends in universities with petroleum engineering departments have been moving away from oil and gas research and into skill-building, expertise, and laboratory infrastructure. Such a shift will not only impact graduate education but alter the overall focus of these departments and students about to enter the profession.

Newsham pushes back some on the premise.

“Not all universities are seeing a decrease in their petroleum engineering programs, although many are,” he said.

He cited the aforementioned University of Oklahoma and Texas Tech as schools that are actually increasing enrollments.

But where schools are experiencing a drop, he understands why.

“I believe much of this is due to the misconception brought about by society perceptions and past government policies towards carbon sources of energy,” he said.

This is worse than short-term thinking, he believes – it’s counterproductive.

“Curricula these days are not only concerned with the oil and gas sector, but also towards the CCS, CCUS and geothermal sectors. The subsurface is complicated, and scientists are constantly on a learning curve,” he explained.

That dynamic underscores why collaboration between the best minds of science and academia must keep working together, as both industry and academia try to maneuver and corral the new landscape,

“I serve on multiple university industrial advisory boards,” said Newsham, “actually leading a team on business engagement as a mechanism to increase private investment through research and access to research resources.”

He urges universities to “stay the course” and to market their research activities, their resource potential, and their capabilities with industry professionals.

Clarkson puts the challenge (and the rewards) more succinctly: “Innovation through collaboration takes imagination.”