The Petroleum Engineering Research, Training & Testing (PERTT) Lab is revered as a valuable extension of the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at LSU, located on the Baton Rouge Campus. It has accommodated many bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD student research projects, as well as the internal research of our experienced assemblage of PETE professors.  Also noteworthy is the support that the Lab receives from student and professor involvement with different national and international organizations including the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE), International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), and the LSU chapter of Pi Epsilon Tau (PET), the petroleum engineering honor society. 

These student and professor relationships have formed a vast network of capable professionals worldwide who have offered time, expertise, and resources for the development and sustainability of the Petroleum Engineering Research, Training & Testing Laboratory.

NASEM Gulf Research Program

In 2017, LSU received a prestigious $4.9 million grant from the NASEM Gulf Research Program to improve offshore well safety. The program successfully advanced understanding of riser gas dynamics during deepwater drilling. In partnership with Texas A&M and Weatherford, the PERTT Lab delivered full-scale, sensor-enabled testing to validate multiphase flow models and enhance riser gas detection and mitigation. The results offer industry-ready insights that improve the reliability of pressure barriers and kick control strategies, supporting safer offshore operations and risk-informed well design.

Valve Performance Clearinghouse

The PERTT facility also hosts and conducts gas flow testing for members of the Valve Performance Clearinghouse (VPC), a Joint Industry Project originally formed in 1996 by Ken Decker as a non-profit organization for modelling and testing artificial gas lift valves.  Today, the VPC maintains the experimental performance database of 60 different valves with various port sizes to account for over 200 different valve configurations.  The PERTT Lab executes testing of both orifice and injection pressure operated (IPO) gas lift valves according to API SPEC 19G2 and reports all of the DAQ data, unbiased findings, and test observations to the VPC consortium members for collection and further analysis.

🔍 Explore collaboration opportunities with PERTT—where academic excellence meets industrial-scale testing.