Thomas

Welcome to the December 2009 issue of SPE Projects, Facilities and Construction. I have the pleasure of serving as your new Executive Editor. One of the tasks of the Executive Editor is to write a column for every issue. This quarter, I would like to focus on three goals for my term.

First, I would like to expand the pool of paper reviewers, the technical editors. SPE journals are peer-reviewed. Papers must meet quality standards for both technical content and clarity before they are accepted for publication. They must also meet a relevance criterion; the topic needs to be of interest to the journal's primary audience. You may have noticed that SPE Proj Fac & Const serves a broad audience, encompassing areas from pipeline design and installation through mega-project management, with topsides facility design and operations somewhere along the line. Balancing these diverse interests is challenging, and therefore the best way to ensure that you get to read a paper that is of high interest to you is to serve as a reviewer and to identify high quality papers from your specific area of interest.

Second (and related to the first goal), I would like to see more SPE Proj Fac & Const papers submitted for presentation at the various technical meetings. My primary technical interests are in PVT and hydraulics, from a process design and operating perspective. These interests are similar to reservoir PVT issues and production operations concerns. However, I am more interested in conditions at surface equipment conditions at the separation and export facilities. I always look through the reservoir and production sessions to see if I can find a paper of interest. It sometimes isn’t clear whether the presenters thought of their paper as a SPE Proj Fac & Const interest, or if the planning committee felt the paper belonged in these other sessions.

A third goal is related to the second: I would like to be able to have a "focus topic" for each issue. This goal requires access to several high-quality papers addressing a facet of a project, construction, or surface facilities within a short period of time. The more SPE Proj Fac & Const-area papers that are presented, the more candidates are available for possible publication. Please continue to write papers that address SPE Proj Fac & Const topics.

So I offer you a challenge. If you regularly read this journal, please contribute to it either by serving as a technical editor or as a paper author. Your participation in both areas will contribute to the continued success of SPE Proj Fac & Const.