Please note! Oil and Gas Technology is not open for admission from 2026.

Instead you can apply to the master programme:

• Chemical Engineering

Turning offshore oil and gas production more sustainable

Production of oil and gas is what fuels societies and economies and will despite the increasing focus on renewable energy production and sustainability maintain this position in a substantial transition period. Therefore, there is a need to make oil and gas production more sustainable, optimize the recovery and separation processes involved using less chemicals and less energy for reducing the environmental impact and increasing cost efficiency.

Academic content

Choosing the Chemical Engineering master programme at AAU Esbjerg with specialization in Oil and Gas Technology you will learn all aspects related to topside unit operations and process technology as well as safety related to oil and gas production. You will focus on the processing of the production fluids above the seabed and the separation of the oil and gas from the significant and increasing amounts of water produced from the subsurface. You will learn the processes used to purify the oil and gas products and the treatment of the produced water. The holistic focus of your education will be to increase the sustainability of the production by optimizations and introduction of new processes and concepts aimed at better separation, reducing the use of chemicals, reducing the need of flaring and increasing the level of produced water treatment and preventing discharge of chemicals to the sea.

You become a highly skilled technical expert, and you learn to consider the importance of economic and environmental aspects. You learn to work, collaborate and navigate in an international academic environment often in close collaboration with industry. The programme give you the skill set for working in a globalised world and you will be exposed to different cultures and ways of collaboration that will prepare you to life after graduation. You will gain knowledge about the oil and gas production industry and consultancy and how its organized and operates. In well-equipped labs you will be able to tests your ideas and concepts and you will learn to develop mathematical models of the processes you are investigating and to apply different types of software for simulation and optimisation.

Through extensive project work, you will have plenty of opportunities to test you own ideas and theories and possibly in cooperation with Danish or international companies. This provides you with insight into the world outside of the university and with a professional network that you can use for future job opportunities.

This is a full-time study programme, which is characterised by problem based project work in groups. You will be working closely with other students most of the time, and you are required to be present at the university on a daily basis and spend a vast majority of your day there. The Master’s programme entitles you to the designation Master of Science (MSc) in Engineering (Chemical Engineering – specialization in Oil and Gas Technology).

When studying the Master’s programme in Chemical Engineering, you gain thorough knowledge of key areas within the field of chemical engineering as well as insight into the industry itself.

Areas you can choose to explore:

• Energy
• Environmental chemistry
• Material science

The teaching combines lectures, laboratory work and project work. During the first two semesters, you will get thorough knowledge of several core areas within chemical engineering. You will split your time equally between three 5 ECTS courses and one 15 ECTS semester project. The courses will provide you with the basic knowledge, and the projects will allow you to focus on a topic that is of particular interest to you.

The study programmes at AAU are based on problem based learning and project work. This method gives you a unique opportunity to acquire new knowledge and competences at a high academic level in an independent manner. You get to apply theory to practice in your semester projects, which will prepare you better for your future career.

Study abroad

During the third semester, you have different options to earn the required 30 ECTS:

• You can do an internship in Denmark or abroad, where you take part in the day-to-day operations in the business. During the internship, you will write a project about one or more of your tasks during the process
• You can study a semester at another educational institution abroad or in Denmark
• You can do a regular semester at AAU with courses and project work
• You can begin your Master’s thesis, so your work is spread out over both your 3rd and 4th semester

Aalborg University has collaboration agreements with universities around the world, and the programme’s research environment has a wide range of internship contacts.

Find out more about studying abroad and internships here

Job and career

Job opportunities in the offshore or onshore oil and gas industry are good, when graduating from the Chemical Engineering programme. Your future workplace could be a consultancy, within an operator or one of the many companies supplying knowledge, skills, competences and materials to the sector.

Job opportunities are excellent when graduating from the Chemical Engineering programme. Your future workplace could be in a consultancy, the public sector or in the private industrial sector.

During the study programme, you use the PBL method and you work in groups, which will give you many useful skills that make you an attractive candidate on the job market. You know how to approach a problem and solve it in collaboration with other people, which is a very useful skill to have in your future job.