Educational activities at high levels in the oil industry in Iran were officially started by establishing the Abadan College of technology in 1939. By developing this institution, its name changed to Abadan's technical college and then to Abadan Faculty of the Petroleum Engineering. Considering the expansion of this institute's educational activities, and country's need to train specialists in oil and gas industries this institute was upgraded to become the Petroleum University of Technology in 1989.

Educational activities in Abadan's technical school were combined with work and the students who were employed would spend two-fifth of their time in the institute and the rest of it in the Abadan's Refinery.

After one year of full-time primary education and four years of education combined with work with the technical expert degree in Petroleum Chemistry, Refining Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering, they would graduate and take positions in different places mostly in Abadan's refinery.

In 1956, the time and the situation caused the educational system to change and the institute's name changed to Abadan's technical college. Educational programs were concentrated on general engineering

And students were through the entrance exams and interviews when they were in their fourth year of high school. 1961 was the last year of student acceptance in this period and students were gradually graduated until1966

In 1962, again with the educational activities changing, the name technical college of Abadan changed to Abadan Faculty of the Petroleum Engineering. Petroleum Engineering in Refining, Exploration and Mining, as well as Business and Administrative Sciences in Management and Accounting had a new educational program. Also in this period educational programs were combined with internship which concluded three years of full-time education and one year of internships in different departments of the oil industry. Students would graduate with bachelor's degree and mostly were being hired in the oil industry.

From 1966 to 1980 based on the industry's need, some fields were started or ended.

With the war being started, the college couldn't stay in Abadan so first in 1981 it was moved to Gachsaran and then when the universities were opened in December of 1982 it was moved to the current location of the Ahwaz Faculty of  Petroleum Engineering.

In 1986 when war was finally over, the ministry of culture and higher education allowed the university to cover all the existing educational institutes. The permission of the Development Council of the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education gave the oil ministry this opportunity to cover the existing educational institutes and establish new scientific, educational, and research centers at different levels based on regulations of the supreme council of the cultural revolution. Some examples of which are the Shahid Tondgooyan college of Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering which was located in the previous location of Abadan Faculty of the Petroleum Engineering in February of 1992 and one year later the research center of Petroleum University of Technology which is in Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering previous location.

Currently, the Petroleum University of Technology has 4 colleges and 4 research centers:b

1. Abadan Faculty of  Petroleum Engineering
2. Ahwaz Faculty of  Petroleum Engineering
3. Tehran Faculty of  Petroleum Engineering
4. Mahmoudabad Faculty of  Nautical Science
5. Abadan Faculty of  Petroleum Research Center
6. Ahwaz Faculty of  Petroleum Research Center
7. Tehran Faculty of  Petroleum Research Center
8. Offshore Oil and Gas Industries Research Center, Mahmoudabad Faculty of  Nautical Science

One of the achievements of training specialists in this university was the nationalization of the petroleum industry which is a great event in Iran's history. This university's graduates' surprised the world by starting different parts of Abadan's refinery while other countries claimed that Iranians cannot even purify drinking water.

With the victory of the glorious Islamic Revolution and the imposition of different sanctions, the graduates of this university have played an important role in helping our country not rely on other nations.