About

The Upstream Engineering and Flow Assurance (UE&FA) Forum was chartered in April of 2011 by The American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The mission of the UE&FA Forum is to serve the broad range of interests and needs of chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, petroleum engineers, civil engineers, petroleum chemists and our colleagues from many other disciplines who work in the upstream part of the energy industry and who share our interests in the principles, practice and technologies of chemical engineering.

A special feature of the UE&FA Forum is that non-AIChE members can join the UE&FA Forum directly. It is not a requisite to be an AIChE member in order to be a member of the UE&FA Forum.

It is a specific mission of the UE&FA Forum to promote ongoing education of upstream and flow assurance practitioners. Such ongoing education aims for better understanding and mastery of upstream and flow assurance technologies, by making ongoing professional development education available and affordable to our members, via seminars, lectures, workshops, networking, and via our website, and by encouraging educational institutions to provide coursework and curricula that better prepares graduates for work in the upstream industries.

Chemical engineering principles and practices have relevance to many technical fields that are important in the development of upstream energy resources. In the case of the petroleum industry, for example, chemical engineering technologies and methods are useful in a range of real-world high-tech upstream applications, such as

• sampling, analysis and characterization of multicomponent reservoir fluids; their phase behavior;
• issues of miscibility and immiscibility;
• interfacial phenomena;
• in-situ rock-fluid interactions;
• flow in porous media;
• thermal and hydraulic transient multiphase flow;
• mathematical modeling of large systems;
• numerical methods;
• shale gas technology;
• steam injection and thermal recovery;
• complex rheology of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids;
• emulsions and colloidal systems;
• hydrates, waxes, asphaltenes, inorganic scale;
• additives and inhibitors;
• high-temperature and high pressure behavior;
• heavy oil production and transportation technology;
• nanotechnology applications;
• novel drilling, completion and remediation fluids;
• enhanced petroleum recovery;
• safety and risk management;
• flow assurance;
• thermal-hydraulics of tie-back systems;
• special process and mechanical design of surface and subsea facilities; and
• management of integrated projects involving energy resource development and transport of reservoir fluids from the reservoir to the point of custody transfer to downstream entities, onshore, ultra-deepwater subsea, or in extreme climate conditions, such as Arctic and Antarctic regions.

The UE&FA Forum provides a meeting place for the exchange of information and ideas among chemical engineers engaged in all phases of upstream engineering and flow assurance practice. The UE&FA Forum coordinates activities through its own leadership team, as well as with in cooperation with other professional societies and organizations in relevant fields. The UE&FA Forum sponsors conferences, workshops, short courses, lectures, technical presentations, as well as technical sessions at AIChE national meetings, relating to upstream production and development of natural resources, and flow assurance analysis and design of natural resource production systems and in the R&D, manufacturing, and applications of specialty chemicals and drilling, completion and remediation fluids used in production of our natural resources.

Why not join us, today? Get involved and help to develop your Upstream Engineering and Flow Assurance Forum. With your advice, suggestions and help, the UE&FA Forum will grow to better serve your needs and the needs of our colleagues who plan, design and operate some of the most challenging projects ever attempted.