Personal Website 

Educational Qualifications:
PhD, Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2009

ME, Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, 2000

BE, Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, 1998

PGE Courses:
PGE 427: Properties of Petroleum Fluids

PGE 384: Advanced Thermodynamics and Phase Behavior

PGE 387K: Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery I

Research:
Dr. Okuno’s research and teaching interests include carbon capture/utilization/storage, enhanced oil recovery, unconventional oil and gas resources, hydrogen energy, thermodynamics, multiphase behavior, numerical flow simulation, and applied mathematics. He serves as the director for the Energi Simulation Industrial Affiliate Program on Carbon Utilization and Storage (ES Carbon UT). Before joining the UT PGE faculty in August 2015, he served as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Alberta. He also has seven years of industrial experience as a reservoir engineer, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada.

Awards & Honors:
UT PGE Teaching Award, December 2022.

SPE Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award – Southwestern Region, April 2019.

SPE Petroleum Engineering Junior Faculty Research Initiation Award, 2012.

Associate Editor for SPE Journal.

Technical Editor Award, SPE Journal, SPE, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021.

Technical Editor Award, SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, SPE, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021.

Excellence in Peer Review, Journal of Natural Gas Science & Engineering, Elsevier, 2014.

Highlighted Publications and Google Scholar Profile:
Achour, S.H. and Okuno, R., Application of Multicomponent Sorption for Diffusive Transport in Numerical Simulation of Tight Reservoirs, Geoenergy Science and Engineering, Volume 221, p. 111262, February 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2022.111262.

Oyenowo, O.P., Sheng, K., and Okuno, R., Simulation Case Studies of Aqueous Formate Solution for Geological Carbon Storage, Fuel, Volume 334, Part 1, p. 126643, February 15, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.126643.

Sheng, K., Okuno, R., Al-Gawfi, A., Nakutnyy, P., Imran, M., and Nakagawa, K., An Experimental Study of Steam-Solvent Coinjection for Bitumen Recovery Using a Large-Scale Physical Model, SPE Journal, Volume 27, Issue 1, pp. 381–398, February 16, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2118/205158-PA.

Achour, S.H. and Okuno, R., Phase Stability Analysis for Tight Porous Media by Minimization of the Helmholtz Free Energy. Fluid Phase Equilibria, Volume 520, p. 112648, October 1, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fluid.2020.112648.

Wang, M., Baek, K., Abeykoon, G.A., Argüelles-Vivas, F.J. and Okuno, R., Comparative Study of Ketone and Surfactant for Enhancement of Water Imbibition in Fractured Porous Media, Energy and Fuels, Volume 24, Issue 5, pp. 5159–5167, May 21, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b03571.

Sheng, K., Okuno, R., and Wang, M., Dimethyl Ether as an Additive to Steam for Improved Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage, SPE Journal, Volume 23, Issue 4, pp. 1201–1222, August 2018. https://doi.org/10.2118/184983-PA.

Zhu, D., Eghbali, S., Shekhar, C., and Okuno, R., A Unified Algorithm for Phase-Stability/Split Calculation for Multiphase Isobaric-Isothermal Flash, SPE Journal, Volume 23 Issue 2, pp. 498–521, April 2018. https://doi.org/10.2118/175060-PA.

Shi, X. and Okuno, R. Analytical Solution for Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage with Consideration of Temperature Variation along the Edge of a Steam Chamber, Fuel, Volume 217, pp. 262–274, April 1, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2017.12.110.

Kumar, A. and Okuno, R., A New Algorithm for Multiphase Fluid Characterization for Solvent Injection, SPE Journal, Volume 21, Issue 5, October 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/175123-PA.

Okuno, R., Johns, R.T., and Sepehrnoori, K., A New Algorithm for Rachford-Rice for Multiphase Compositional Simulation, SPE Journal, Volume 15, Number 2, pp. 313–325, June 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/117752-PA.