SPE News

Join us in congratulating the 2011 SPE International Award recipients!  The SPE Board of Directors approved the 2011 International Award recipients at their recent meeting. Fifteen international award committees recommended these winners to the board because of their outstanding and significant technical, professional, and service contributions to SPE and the petroleum industry. The winners were chosen from a pool of first-rate candidates. SPE President Alain Labastie will present the awards to the winners at ATCE in Denver.

• 2009 International Award Winners
• 2010 International Award Winners

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Development of a Saline Reservoir Carbon Sequestration
Demonstration Project at Decatur, IL USA
Monday, 16 May from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. CDT

Find out more and Register now!

ABOUT

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), also known as geologic sequestration, is the isolation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the earth’s atmosphere. CCS may play a significant role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. To further the implementation of this technology, demonstration projects are underway around the world.  The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) funds seven regional partnerships to conduct geologic sequestration research throughout the United States.  The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC), lead by the geological surveys of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky was formed in 2003 to research geologic storage potential in coal seams, mature oil fields, and deep saline reservoirs.

PRESENTER

Dr. Robert J. Finley will present a webseminar on the MGSC geologic sequestration program focusing on the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project (IBDP), a one million tonne deep saline reservoir storage project in Decatur, Illinois.  The IBDP will begin injection of CO2 at a rate of 1,000 tonnes per day starting in September 2011.  This presentation covers all aspects of developing a deep saline sequestration project from site characterization through geophysical and geochemical monitoring techniques, modeling, well construction and drilling, and much more.

Papers from the annual conferences of the International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM) are now available in OnePetro.  Content from the US Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has been indexed into OnePetro.  When NETL content is found, an Open Access link direct customers to the PDF available at no charge on the NETL site.  Read more »

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has continued its efforts to establish internationally accepted guidelines for the evaluation of petroleum reserves and resources by heading an effort sponsored by five industry organizations to develop Guidelines for Application of the Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS). Read more »

Universidade Católica de Angola (UCAN) and SPE Talent Council Conference will present “Teaching of Petroleum Engineering” in Angola on 18 – 19 November in Luanda, Angola. Read more »

A web broadcast in the SPE Webinar Series will take place on the subject of Flow Assurance and Oilfield Scale on Wednesday 17th November 2010 at 8:30 am (Central Standard Time). The presenters will be Dr. Hartley Downs of Baker Hughes and Professor Ken Sorbie of Heriot-Watt University. In the first presentation, Hartley will give an overview and general context of Flow Assurance issues and will present background basics and recent challenges in the management of waxes, asphaltenes and hydrates. Ken will then provide a second presentation on the prediction and prevention of conventional and “exotic” oilfield mineral scales and naphthenate deposits. Each presentation will be approximately 30 minutes. Following the two presentations, the webinar will be opened to participants to ask questions. Read more »

Incoming President’s Remarks

by Alain Labastie, 2011 SPE President
ATCE 2010 – President’s Luncheon and Annual Meeting of Members Florence, Italy

I take this position with pride and emotion, considering how brilliant my predecessors were. Thanks to their vision, SPE is now by far the strongest professional society in the E&P industry, a truly global organization with activities virtually everywhere in the world, and a well respected and prestigious organization.

I would like to thank our membership as a whole for giving me the opportunity to serve the society at this level. I have to say that for me it is not a duty, but a privilege. The task will be collective. I will work together with a superb board of directors and a very dedicated staff, a true dream team. <<<Read more of the Incoming President’s Remarks>>>

View a Video of the Remarks.

State of Society Message

by Behrooz Fattahi, 2010 SPE President
ATCE 2010 – President’s Luncheon and Annual Meeting of Members Florence, Italy

I am grateful for having the opportunity to serve SPE, to visit with many of you around the globe, and make so many friends. But I am also sad that this grand experience is coming to an end.

 I am speaking to you today on behalf of a great professional organization, one that has achieved prominence in our industry, and has extended its reach to more than 92,000 members in 116 countries around the globe, including a significant increase in the number of young members. We achieved nearly 4 percent growth this year, by making sure that we deliver high quality programs that serve your needs, wherever you are located and at all stages of your career. <<<Read more of the State of Society Message>>>

View a Video of the Message.

New Bureau of Ocean Energy Management regulations require offshore operators to provide an estimate of the worst case discharge if a blowout occurs in offshore well plans submitted for permitting to the agency. An SPE committee developed “Guidance for Complying with BOEM NTL No. 2010-N06 on Worst Case Discharge for Offshore Wells” to address this new requirement.

Background

In response to the Macondo blowout, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), formerly the Minerals Management Service, issued a notice (NTL No. 2010-N06 ) concerning information that will be required in well plans submitted to the agency for permits to drill offshore U.S. One of the requirements is a calculation of the worst case discharge (WCD) if a blowout occurs. No direction on how to calculate the WCD was provided by BOEM. Recognizing that there are a number of methods that could be used, the Offshore Operators Committee  asked SPE to form a committee to develop consensus best-practice guidelines for WCD calculation.

The SPE Gulf of Mexico Incident Response Task Force worked with the Offshore Operators Committee  and the Offshore Technology Research Center  (a joint venture of University of Texas and Texas A&M) to bring together experts from industry and academia to share their methods and to develop consensus guidelines.  The committee developed guidelines and sought industry comment.

SPE WCD Guidelines Committee
Chairman: Tim Magner, Chevron
Ashley Africa, Woodside Energy
Connie Bargas, Cobalt International Energy LP
Phillip Bednarz, ExxonMobil
Akhil Datta-Gupta, Texas A&M University
Stuart Hara, Shell
Jonathan Harris, Apache Corporation
Ron Harvey, Century Exploration New Orleans Inc.
Richard Hughes, Louisiana State University
Curt Killinger, Challenger Minerals Inc. (CMI)/Transocean
John Leonard, Stone Energy
Tad Patzek, University of Texas
Dan Smallwood, ConocoPhillips
Ted Skinner, Marathon Oil Company
Donny Torres, Newfield Exploration
James Wells, ATP Oil & Gas Corporation
Martin Wolff, Hess Corporation

RICHARDSON, Texas, USA (22 September 2010) – The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) 2010 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) was held this week in Florence, Italy, and brought together approximately 4,700 oil and gas professionals from 70+ countries around the world.

For the past 85 years, ATCE has been the leading technical conference in the upstream oil and gas industry, bringing together current best practices and emerging technologies to the engineers, scientists, managers, and executives in attendance.

It is the first year that the conference has been held outside of the United States. Approximately 60% of this year’s attendees were from Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, the Russia and Caspian area, Africa, and South America.

This year’s conference received 1,800 paper proposal submissions, the largest number ever submitted for an SPE event. Of those, more than 400 were selected for presentation.

More than 250 exhibiting companies from 17 countries, utilizing approximately 4,000 sq meters of exhibit space, featured the latest products and services in the E&P industry.

Panelists in Monday morning’s Opening General Session, “Gas Market Variables In The Global Energy Equation,” discussed how worldwide demand for natural gas likely will continue to soar, but the oil and gas industry faces challenges in meeting that demand.

Moderator Andrew Gould, chief executive officer of Schlumberger, noted the spectacular growth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the rise of unconventional resources spurred by drilling and completion innovations. A diverse group of panelists echoed these remarks and provided examples of how their companies have been involved in LNG developments, shale gas, and clean technologies to support future demand.

Panelists included:
• Sara Ortwein, President, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
• Michael Stoppard, Managing Director, IHS CERA
• Yan Cunzhang, President, PetroChina Company Ltd.
• Howard Paver, Senior Vice President, Global New Business Development, Hess Corporation

Also on Monday at the ATCE Chairman’s Luncheon, Claudio Descalzi, chief operating officer for E&P of Eni, shared his insights on how operators must refocus on improving competencies, relationships with producing countries, and corporate culture in order to succeed in the future. He noted that, with global demand predicted to soar, international and national oil companies must become smarter, more effective, and more efficient in their production operations.

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