Background

The Geosciences Group at Uni CIPR located at University of Bergen (UiB); Norway is seeking two PhD students to join a project called "Impact of fault rock properties on CO2 storage in reservoir sandstones". This is a knowledge-building project which involves academia and the petroleum industry and it is mainly funded by the Norwegian Research Council's CLIMIT program. The work place is at CIPR and PhD students will be employed by Uni Research and enter the PhD programme at UiB. CIPR is the Norwegian Centre of Excellence in petroleum research and currently consists of 60 researchers and more than 30 PhD candidates.

The project aims at increasing our understanding of the processes and products of faulting in porous sandstone in order to forecast the distribution and impact of faults and deformation bands on reservoir/aquifer performance and sealing properties. To achieve these aims, a comprehensive integrated and cross-disciplinary study, which combines analysis of empirical outcrop and possibly subsurface data, experiments using physical analogues, micro-structural analysis, is called for. The experiments will utilize the existing CIPR database and the state-of-the-art geo-mechanical testing equipments at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, and will be supported by numerical analysis. The final results will be utilized to verify and, where possible, improve the theories for development of shear zones (faults) and deformation bands. The results will improve our ability to forecast the development and distribution of such structures and their potential influence on fluid communication.

PhD students will be involved in different research tasks through different research methods (field, experimental and numerical analyses) during the course of the project.

Required knowledge and skills

• Suitable applicants should have a master's degree or equivalent in petroleum-oriented structural geology, rock/soil mechanics or a related earth science discipline. Experience with experimental and numerical analyses of porous granular media will be a significant advantage, but not a prerequisite.
• The applicants should have strong problem-solving and communication skills, including excellent English, and should be willing to travel and spend periods in the field and at other institutions. A moderate degree of physical fitness is a requirement for fieldwork and a valid driving licence is required.

The PhD students will enter an approved program at UiB leading to the degree of PhD within a time frame of three years. It is a prerequisite, however, that the formal admission requirements for the PhD programme are met before appointment can be made.

Salary in accordance with the Civil Service pay grade table scale for PhD students; currently NOK 355,600 gross p.a.; following ordinary meriting regulations. Uni Research offers Group Pension Insurance and Personnel Insurance Scheme for their employees. For more information please contact Anita Torabi at CIPR
(+47 55583671, apply-cipr@uni.no).

The electronic application must contain CV, scanned copies of diplomas and transcripts, driving licence, publications and other relevant work, as well as 2-3 references. The application should be marked "2010-1-AT" and sent to apply-cipr@uni.no before February 20, 2010.