Increased consumption of conventional oil and gas resources directed researchers to look for alternative energy supplies such as oil sands, tight oil, tight gas, coal bed methane (CBM), gas hydrates, shale oil, and shale gas, all of which are classified as unconventional resources. Extraction and development of unconventional resources, on the other hand, require the use of new and mostly complex techniques, understanding of which plays crucial role in world energy sector. To this end, this course mainly aimed at understanding of unconventional oil and gas resources and corresponding extraction and development methods applied. Students will be encouraged to do research on selected unconventional oil/gas fields and present their work through term projects.

In summary, the main objectives of this course are:

• To encourage students to expand their knowledge on one of the most global research areas of the recent energy industry (shale oil/ gas, tight oil/gas, oil sands, oil shale, coal bed methane (CBM), and gas hydrates).
• To enable students to use their gained theoretical knowledge on unconventional resources in the multidisciplinary evaluation/interpretation of real field applications/operations.