prompting the UNGI co-directors to describe it as a “right place, right time” initiative. John Curtis, a professor in the Geology and Geological Engineering Department, is UNGI’s other co-director and he also directs the Potential Gas Agency. His research interests include natural gas resource assessment, petroleum geochemistry and petroleum exploration and development. Curtis said UNGI, which was started in August 2009, grew out of Mines’ vast experience in unconventional gas. “To our knowledge, nowhere else in the world is there a research institute that brings together under one roof the amount of multidisciplinary expertise in unconventional natural gas that UNGI does. Many faculty at Mines were working on unconventional gas before it was even formally named ‘unconventional,’” Curtis said. UNGI has consolidated expertise from at least seven departments including Petroleum Engineering, Geology and Geological Engineering, Geophysical Engineering, Environmental Science and Engineering, Engineering, Chemistry and Geochemistry, and Chemical Engineering. At this point the new entity is focused only on the research conducted at Mines, but in time it will seek collaborations with other research entities to strengthen the overall initiative. In the immediate future, UNGI will focus on unconventional resources, such as tight gas sands and shale gas systems. Its long-term projects include production from hydrates. Across all systems, research will be conducted on the environmental impacts of these types of developments. Mines students are involved in UNGI’s work both through academic departments and the dozen research groups affiliated with the institute: Center for Earth Materials, Mechanics and Characterization; Center for Hydrates Research; Potential Gas Agency; Center for Petrophysics; Center for Rock Abuse; Center for Wave Phenomena; DHI/Fluids Consortium; Golden Energy Computing Organization; Fracturing, Acidizing, Stimulation Technology Consortium; Marathon Center of Excellence for Reservoir Studies; Petroleum Exploration and Production Center; and the Reservoir Characterization Project. “We are currently soliciting membership in the institute. These members will have a seat on the institute’s board of directors and will help to determine future directions of research at Mines in the area of unconventional gas,” said Miskimins, who noted that members of the natural gas industry are currently supporting the institute. Energy
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