MSc Petroleum Geoscience

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £17,000
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £41,400

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

The Energy Transition Centre for Masters’ Training (CMT) and the Geoscience Energy Society of Great Britain (GESGB) will be jointly funding 12 Bursaries, each valued at £6000 per annum, for students who will be enrolled in an energy geoscience-related MSc course for 2027 entry.

Funding of the Bursaries is kindly provided equally by GESGB and CMT sponsors: bp, CNOOC and ExxonMobil.

The scholarships are available for UK and International students holding an offer on one of our Geosciences taught master's courses before 9 April 2027 .

All eligible students will be automatically considered for the bursary, there is no need to contact the department.

The University of Manchester can nominate up to 2 students for the award.

We also offer a number of postgraduate taught scholarships and awards to outstanding UK and international students each year.

The University of Manchester is committed to widening participation in master's study, and allocates £300,000 in funding each year. See our Manchester Master's Bursaries .

See our range of merit-based master’s scholarships for international students .

Dicsover more about our Manchester Alumni loyalty 10% discount. Find out if you're eligible and how to apply .

This course is designed to provide the skills required to identify and assess subsurface resources, developing hydrocarbon play types and petroleum systems, assessing storage for carbon capture, or modelling subsurface geothermal resources.  We assess what data is required and how to undertake an evaluation of leads and prospects, evaluate risk and uncertainty, and review the processes that aid decision making in companies.  The course will teach how to rank prospects, calculate reserves (deterministic and Monte Carlo). The second part of the course builds skills in estimating the economic worth of the project, covering CAPEX, OPEX, NPV and also decision making. 

This module will be delivered as 11 sessions with up to 3 hours asynchronous lecture / practical material and pre-read material, prior to weekly 3 hour synchronous teaching, lecture and practicals, focused on problem solving and data analysis, supplemented by workstation practicals, self-study (background reading, quizzes, revision) 

Papers will be provided online each week for further reading.  In addition, the following textbooks are recommended:

Petroleum Economics and Risk Analysis: A Practical Guide to E&P Investment Decision-Making, 1st Edition, Volume 71 - January 29, 2021 Elsevier; Author: Mark Cook

Paperback ISBN: 9780128211908.  eBook ISBN: 9780128232064