Graduate / SOP for MS in Petroleum Engineering: Fall'16: US universities [6]

Please evaluate my SOP below:

Statement of Purpose

When I think about commodities it is hard to think of one which has affected the global economics and politics the manner oil has. Reading about incidents like the oil embargo by OPEC members that raised the price of oil or the war between Iraq and Kuwait due to oil, I became curious about the way a country produces such an important commodity which affects not only its own GDP but also their relationship with other countries. This led me to take Geophysics as the subject for my integrated master's degree program from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. And now, after a year of working in Shell as a Geomechanist, I realized that I wanted to know more about the different core disciplines of the subsurface to gain a broader knowledge base that will help me in a long career as a Petroleum Engineer. Courses offered in U.T. Austin's master degree program in Petroleum Engineering like Drilling, Advanced Reservoir Engineering and Advanced Production Engineering will help me achieve this. Also during my work as a Geomechanist I got interested in researches combining rock mechanics with various other disciplines. There are many such studies going on in U.T. Austin and I want to be part of it and contribute to it. Hence, I wish to return to academics by pursuing graduate studies in Petroleum Engineering (P.E.) at U. T. Austin.

My experience in college turned my affinity in oil industry from a mere curiosity to a serious academic interest. The oil industry related courses like Advance Seismic Prospecting, Well logging and Reservoir Geophysics really engrossed me and therefore I secured the highest grade awarded in them. This is when I realized that I could pursue a career in the oil industry in the future. This interest is even more evident when I compare this performance to the performance in courses which are not directly related to the oil industry. The general courses like electronics or physical chemistry were taught in the first two years. I was young and naïve at that time and couldn't understand the role of such general courses in my goal of joining the oil industry. Therefore I became a bit distracted and involved myself in too many extracurricular activities like organizing technical, cultural and sports events, writing humorous articles, being part of an NGO working for underprivileged children. Though being involved in these activities helped me become a well-rounded individual but it became difficult to juggle academics with so much extra work and led to relatively low grades. I learned from my mistakes and focused more on academics as I entered my department in the third year, improving each semester. I eventually ended up being fourth in the integrated geophysics batch of IIT-R considering the department GPA. This experience has helped me get more matured and now I realize that every course is important though we may not see its use at that point.

Any doubt I had about joining the oil industry was dispelled when I experienced its actual workings at the end of my third year. I was selected for an internship in Reliance (E&P Company working in collaboration with BP) and worked on Seismic Processing and Petrophysical evaluation. During a site visit for training, I saw an artificial blowout and was amazed by the grandeur of the equipment used. This whole experience further increased my passion to join the oil industry and I became sure that I wanted to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry.

The discipline I wanted to join became clear at the end of my fourth year when I was selected for an assessed internship in Shell as a Geomechanist. I worked on Malaysian and New Zealand fields to get drilling window closure and subsidence respectively. I secured a pre-placement offer for my work and became the first person to get placed from my department in IIT Roorkee. Geomechanics got me so interested that at the end of the internship when I was asked whether I would like to join as a Geophysicist or Geomechanist, I chose Geomechanics as I was certain that I wanted to pursue a career in oil and gas as a Petroleum Engineer.

The seeds of pursuing higher studies in P.E. were sown during the Shell internship itself. In one of the town halls addressing the interns, John Hoppe (GM, Subsurface development, Bangalore) told us that apart from knowledge in our own field of expertise, we need a broader knowledge base to succeed in this industry. In a conversation later with Andre de Kuijper (Petrophysics discipline lead - Bangalore) I enquired about ways to attain this. He advised me that since I am coming from a geosciences background and now will be working as a Geomechanist, an education in Petroleum Engineering would improve my knowledge base, giving me the necessary skills for a career as a Petroleum Engineer. This is how my interest to do masters in Petroleum engineering arose.

As I joined Shell a year later as a Geomechanist and started working on different projects, I interacted with various disciplines like drilling, production or reservoir engineering on a regular basis. I especially understood how important these interactions were for the success of a project when I was appointed the project lead for an integrated geomechanics project. At times, I felt my lack of knowledge in all these fields decreased the effectiveness of some of these conversations. I would always sit after office or during weekends with colleagues from other disciplines to understand their work. Also, I chose many of my optional courses in my Shell graduate program to gain knowledge about these different disciplines. But all these methods could only provide me with a superficial understanding of the subject and the more knowledge I gained about these disciplines the more inquisitive I got. Thus I feel an MS in Petroleum Engineering would be an ideal way to satisfy this quest for knowledge and would help me to do my job better when I join back the oil industry - this being my short term goal.

As a person I like taking up new challenges and get bored if I am doing the same work over and over again. Hence, my midterm goal is to work in different disciplines as I progress in my career. The expertise I gain in my master's degree program in Petroleum Engineering will help me hone such a role. This desire to take up varied roles is in line with my long term plan of leading integrated teams and going into techno-managerial roles in the industry. When Harry Brekelmans (P&T director for Shell) came to Bangalore for a visit, I was in awe of the way he could understand presentation and ask important technical questions for a variety of disciplines. In his introduction it was mentioned that he had taken up varied roles during his career and had a master's in Petroleum Engineering. I further looked into the profile of people around me in Shell I looked up to like Suhail Kak (GM - Integrated Gas, Shell Bangalore), Viren Kumar (Team lead, Steam flood projects, Shell Bangalore), Charles Ileagu (Subsurface coordinator, Shell Bangalore). These were the careers I wanted to emulate and found one common thread - they all had taken up diverse responsibilities in their career and had education in Petroleum Engineering. At this point I was absolutely sure that I wanted to do an M.S. in Petroleum Engineering as it will not only provide me with the knowledge that interest me but would also help me achieve my short, mid as well as long term goals.

Geomechanics as a discipline is extremely safety critical for instance a wrong prediction of pore pressure can lead to a disaster like blowout. It is also economically very important for e.g. Non Productive Time (NPT) due to borehole instability greatly increases the cost of a project. For these reasons I felt the results we provide to the clients should be more robust - be it the mud weight to be used to decrease borehole instability issues and hence NPT, or predicting of subsidence to plan the air gap or finding the fracture direction for hydraulic fracturing or predicting the sand production that can be used for completion design. But there was a major challenge to achieve this due to limitations in accuracy of some basic geomechanical input. This led me to read about researches going on to decrease some of these limitations like better constraining the maximum horizontal stress or better correlation between petrophysical properties and rock strength and stiffness parameters. Reading about such studies got me interested in the research side of Geomechanics especially the ones combining rock mechanics with other disciplines and I wanted to be a part of such a research.

I saw the profile of professors in the Petroleum Engineering department of U.T Austin and was excited to see that many of the professor's research areas matched my research interest. Prof. Carlos Torres-Verdin's work on the description of the near well bore region combining rock mechanics with petrophysics, geology and geophysics really interests me. Also, Prof. John Olson, Prof. John Foster, Prof. Eric van Oort, and Prof. Mukul Sharma's work on the geomechanical applications to well completions, borehole stability and hydraulic fracturing is something I want to be associated with. I believe that my varied background and work experience will help me contribute to such an integrated research effectively. I am also willing to convert my MS to PhD if the research demands it.

Since, U.T. Austin is one of the only universities with so many studies going on combining rock mechanics with other disciplines therefore it is my natural choice for doing my masters. Moreover, I love attending music events and Austin as it is called the live music capital of the world would be a perfect destination for me. I have seen picture posted by friends of concerts like Austin City Limits or performance inside U.T. Austin's Cactus Café or the Bass concert hall and felt that this is the place I want to be in. Therefore, not only because U.T. Austin is the best when it comes to the Petroleum Engineering graduate program, but also because the research going is in line with my research interest and I want to experience the culturally diverse and lively campus life of U.T. Austin, I want to be a longhorn and spend the next few years in the forty acres. I would feel privileged if you would accept my application for the master degree program in Petroleum Engineering from your esteemed university.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Questions I have:

Does it look too long? should I skip some information?

I have tried to explain about my bad grades, does it look negative?

I have explained about my passion to go into managerial roles in the industry - does it sound negative that i am not going for research or technical role?

I have mentioned a no. of professors, should I decrease the names?