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Halliburton.
CHAIRMAN’S
CORNER By Brad Robinson - Chairman 2011-2012
Chairman’s Corner – February 2012
This is the time of year
when the Dallas Section is very busy, especially with social activities.
For example, our Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament will be held in just a few
weeks, on February 17, 2012, at Stonebriar Country Club in Frisco, TX.
Please go to the link on our website to sign up or be a sponsor. It will not
be long before we also have our Fifth Annual Softball Tournament
(April 21), Casino Night (May 4) and our annual SPE Golf
Tournament (June 4), so be sure to mark your calendars and check our
website (or the YP website) for details!
Please make a special
note of the date, February 16,
for our next general
meeting. We are very fortunate to have David Purcell, Managing Director,
Head of Securities for Tudor, Pickering Holt and Company to come speak to us
on “Oil and Natural Gas Markets: Chaos, Volatility and Uncertainty”.
Because of David’s schedule, we will not have the meeting on our normal 3rd
Wednesday of the month; instead, it will be Thursday, February 16. I have
known David for over 20 years and he holds both BS and MS degrees in
Petroleum Engineering, so he brings a wealth of technical knowledge to the
analysis of energy markets.
Our Study Group will be
meeting on February 29, 2012, and is pleased to have Jody Augustine of
Halliburton to present SPE 147179 on “How Do We Achieve Sub-Interval
Fracturing?”. Our Study Group is really growing due to a string of
excellent speakers and this is going to be another good one, so you do not
want to miss it.
Our Young Professionals’
normal meeting day is the same week as the general meeting and the Texas
Hold ‘Em Tournament, so they will not be meeting this month. Please check
their website soon for information about next months meeting, as well as
upcoming events.
There is one more special
event that I wanted to mention even though it is not affiliated with the
Dallas SPE or SPEI and that is, the Homes For Our Troops 3rd
Annual Dallas/Ft. Worth Sporting Clays Event. It will be held on March 30,
2012 at the Dallas Gun Club in Lewisville, TX. Homes For Our Troops
is a nationwide 501c3 non-profit organization that builds and retrofits
specially adapted homes for our most severely wounded returning veterans, at
no cost to the veterans. Please consider supporting this event and visit
their website at
www.homesforourtroops.org/DFW for more information.
If you ever have any
questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our Board members.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – January 2012
We finished off 2011 so
strong, I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store. But first, I want to
start by personally thanking all of those individuals who brought toys in
lieu of the normal luncheon fee to our December meeting, making our Toys For
Tots toy-drive a huge success. We collected 59 toys that were
donated to the collection center at the Addison Fire Department. The toys
were then distributed to girls and boys in the Dallas area who did have a
Merry Christmas after all. You can see some pictures of the toys on our
website. This month, we are going to continue our string of exceptional
meetings and speakers. For our regular meeting on January 18, 2012, J.
Daniel Arthur, President of ALL Consulting, will talk on “The Latest
on Environmental and Regulatory Constraints Impacting Unconventional
Resource Development”. This subject is obviously of great interest
to most of us because of our involvement in the Barnett, Haynesville and
Eagle Ford shales.
Our Study Group will be
meeting on January 25, 2012, and will welcome Kenny Vincent of Lufkin
Industries to talk about “Pumping Units”. For those of you
who might be installing artificial lift on some of those deep, liquids-rich
shale wells in a year or two, this might be your chance to get some ideas on
pumping units.
Our Young Professionals
will also be starting the year off strong with a presentation by Clay
Brelsford, President of Bass Engineering Company. His topic will be “External
Well Casing Corrosion and Cathodic Protection Evaluation Program in the
Barnett Shale”. Clay has over 30 years of experience in cathodic
protection systems and you will want to take advantage of that experience by
attending.
Do not forget our
Texas Hold ‘em Tournament on February 17, 2012 at Stonebriar Country
Club in Frisco, TX. The doors open at 5:00 pm for social activities (food,
etc.) followed shortly thereafter by the poker action. Check out our
website for more details.
It is going to be a great
2012. As always, if there is something you would like to see or do with the
Dallas Section of SPE, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our
Board members.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – December 2011
Can you believe it is
December already?!? Wow, where did the time go? It is hard to believe we
are about to wrap up another year, but I am really looking forward to 2012
because of the great slate of activities and meetings we have planned. But,
we also want to finish up 2011 strong and we are going to start with Michael
Vincent, President of Insight Consulting, who will be our guest on
December 7, 2011. Mike will be discussing “Refracs – Why Do They
Work, Why Do They Fail, and How Can We Select Good Candidates?”.
Many of us have heard Mike speak before and I think we would all agree that
he always gives an interesting and thought-provoking talk.
The time has finally come
for our symposium entitled “Raising the Dead: New Techniques and
Technologies For Bringing Old Oil Fields Back to Life.” The
symposium, which we are co-sponsoring with SIPES, is scheduled for Tuesday,
December 13, 2011, at the Collins Executive Education Center on the
SMU campus. The technical program has turned out to be excellent and
getting a chance to hear our keynote speaker, Bill Cobb, will be worth the
price of admission. So, I would encourage everyone to sign up today!
Please note the Study
Group will be having their meeting earlier in the month, December 14,
2011, so as not to interfere with the Christmas holiday. Our speaker
will be John Dees who is a Completion Engineering Advisor for the
Mid-Continent Business Unit of Encana. John will be speaking on “Extreme
Overbalance Perforating and Surge”. John is definitely an expert in
this area as he holds several patents and was one of the original developers
of the technology.
The Young Professionals
are planning to have a social gathering on December 15, 2011 at a place to
be determined. Check their website,
http://www.dallasspeyp.com, for details on the time and place.
I hope everyone has a
safe and joyful holiday.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – November 2011
One strike….. just one
more strike!! Well, if there are any St. Louis fans in north Texas, you had
to be thrilled as the Cardiac Cardinals finished off an amazing year with
yet another improbable victory. I tip my rather sweat-stained (and
foot-stomped) Texas Rangers hat to the Cardinals as they won yet another
World Baseball Championship. For the rest of us Rangers fans in north
Texas, I think it is safe to say we are disappointed, but not discouraged.
We can see the makings of a solid organization under Nolan Ryan with some
great young players that will be going back to the playoffs for many years
to come.
I have mentioned in
several of my past letters that we are sponsoring a symposium this fall
together with SIPES entitled “Raising the Dead: New Techniques and
Technologies For Bringing Old Oil Fields Back to Life.” The symposium is
scheduled for Tuesday, December 13, 2011, at the Collins Executive Education
Center on the SMU campus. The technical program has really come together
and having personally seen some of the topics and speakers, I can say
without a doubt it is going to be excellent. Once again, our Education
Committee and especially Sara Miller have done a great job organizing a
first class event.
Please mark your calendar
as our regular section meeting will be earlier this month; November 9,
2011. We are very pleased to have another Distinguished Lecturer speaking
to us; Francisco Henriques Ferreira, who is with Petrobras. Sr. Ferreira
will be speaking on “Drilling and Completion Activities Related Rock
Mechanics” which, as you all know, are becoming more and more important as
we drill and complete vertical and horizontal wells that are deeper, hotter
and higher pressure than ever.
The following week, on
Tuesday November 15, 2011, we welcome Jennifer L. Keefe, partner with Patton
Boggs, LLP to speak to us on “Ethics in Engineering Practices”. Jennifer is
certainly no stranger to petroleum engineers as she is past president of the
Petroleum Engineer’s Club of Dallas. We are pleased to be co-sponsoring the
event with SPEE, and want to make special mention that attending this
meeting will fulfill the ethics review training required to maintain
professional certification. The meeting will be held at EMGI, as usual.
The Young Professionals
have lined up a very interesting talk by Jason Wible of Geoforce, who will
be speaking on “Starting Your Own Company”. Now, that ought to get some
attention! The meeting is November 8, 2011 at EMGI and I encourage all you
young entrepreneurs to attend.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – October 2011
Finally, we are
getting some relief from the 100+ degree weather. Now, if we can just get a
little rain to help fill our lakes and replenish our water supply, then that
would make for a pretty nice October, despite the fact that a certain
somebody is having a birthday and is turning another year older. But,
enough about Hillary Clinton (BTW, she will be 64!), let’s talk about
somebody more pertinent to the SPE; namely, Ron Harrell, Chairman Emeritus
of Ryder Scott, who will be our guest speaker at the October 19, 2011
monthly meeting. Ron’s topic is: “Petroleum Reserves – The Merging of
Industry and Regulatory Definitions”, where he discusses the way
estimating reserves has changed since the release of the Petroleum Resources
Management System (PRMS) in 2007. You might think this talk is primarily
for reservoir engineers, but I bet you a donut he is going to share some
information that drilling engineers, production engineers and geologists
need to know when looking at new prospects and development wells.
Another talk I
guarantee affects almost everyone will be presented during our Production
Study Group meeting on October 26, 2011. Michael Goldman with Guida,
Slavich and Flores, P.C. will present “Drilling into Hydraulic
Fracturing and Shale Gas Development: A Texas and Federal Environmental Law
Perspective”. With increasing regulation and concerns related to
the environmental issues of hydraulic fracturing, this talk is a must-see
for everyone involved in drilling, completing and evaluating shale gas
resources.
The Young
Professionals group meeting is also focusing on shale gas wells with Eric
Burnett speaking on “The Science Behind Drilling Shale Wells”.
He will be covering the basic principles involved and the natural phenomena
overcome while drilling long, lateral wellbores. The meeting is October 11,
2011 at EMGI and should be a good one for our Young (and even our old)
Professionals.
Please make a
couple of special notes on your calendar for November. First, our
normal luncheon meeting will be November 9, 2011, which is the second
Wednesday of the month instead of the third. The reason for the change is
because we have scheduled one of SPE’s Distinguished Lecturers, Francisco
Henriques Ferreira of Petrobras, to come and speak. Also, we will be having
our annual ethics presentation on Tuesday November 15, 2011 during a joint
meeting with SPEE. Our speaker will be Jennifer L. Keefe of Patton Boggs,
LLP. More information will be provided on our website and in our monthly
newsletter for these events, but please mark your calendars.
If you have not had
a chance to sign up for our “Shoot For Your School” Sporting
Clay Tournament on October 10, 2011, there is still time to put a team
together or to sponsor the tournament. Please contact John Tabor for more
information or go to our website,
http://www.spedallas.org.
I wanted to mention
again a symposium we are sponsoring this fall together with SIPES entitled “Raising
the Dead: New Techniques and Technologies For Bringing Old Oil Fields Back
to Life.” The symposium is scheduled for Tuesday, December 13,
2011, at the Collins Executive Education Center on the SMU campus. In
addition to SIPES, we are also teaming up with the Maguire Energy Institute
at SMU’s Cox School of Business for this event. The technical program has
come together and includes numerous case studies from operating companies
showing the results of new technologies that enhanced oil recovery from old
fields. It should be very interesting.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – September 2011
Are you ready for some
football?!? I cannot decide which is more exciting – the fall when American
football season gets started (and the weather starts cooling off!), or
spring time when the college basketball playoffs begin during what we fondly
refer to as March Madness. It doesn’t really matter I guess, because fall
is one of my favorite times. It seems like fall starts off a whole new part
of the year for most of us, between kids going back to school, football and,
of course, new programs and events at SPE including our Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition which is being held in Denver this year. For
those of you planning to go, it should be another great meeting and I hope
to see you there. If you have not decided yet, then I encourage you to
think seriously about going if you can. It is the premier conference for
our professional society.
The fall also kicks off
(no football pun intended) a new slate of technical presentations at our
various monthly meetings, and we are getting some excellent talks lined up.
Terry Palisch and his Programs Committee together with Michael Tunstall and
his Education Committee have already lined up some of the leading experts in
our industry to come share their knowledge with us. If fact, we are
starting off the fall season with one of SPE’s Distinguished Lecturers,
Jennifer Julian of BP Exploration (Alaska), Inc. Jennifer will present:
Twenty Years of Wellwork: Interventions and Innovations at Prudhoe Bay,
Alaska. The meeting is scheduled for September 14, 2011, and I look
forward to seeing you there.
The fall also marks the
beginning of hunting season, so for all the bird hunters out there, now is
the time to sharpen your shooting skills with our annual “Shoot For Your
School” Sporting Clay Tournament on October 10, 2011. This tournament is
one of our more popular events, not only because it is a great social and
sporting event, but also because it raises money for scholarships and grants
to various universities that our Dallas Section supports. So, I highly
recommend putting your team together and signing up early. Of course,
information can be found on our website, or by contacting John Tabor.
As I mentioned in my last
letter, we have joined with SIPES to sponsor a symposium this fall -
Raising the Dead: New Techniques and Technologies For Bringing Old Oil
Fields Back to Life. The symposium is scheduled for Tuesday,
December 13, 2011, at the Collins Executive Education Center on the SMU
campus. We are excited to again team up with SIPES and the Maguire Energy
Institute at SMU’s Cox School of Business for this event. We are especially
thrilled to have William M. “Bill” Cobb as our keynote speaker. Bill has
over 40 years of experience in waterflooding and reservoir optimization, and
is considered one of the world’s leading experts in these areas. Trust me….
it will be worth the price of admission just to hear Bill share some of his
experience.
The YP group will be
doing a little social networking this month at the Black Fin in Addison,
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm, on September 13, 2011. While I have not been to one of
the YP socials, both Sara and Dustin assure me there are some serious
technical discussions going on. I think we need to check it out, don’t you?
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas Section
Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – August 2011
Wow, talk about
the dog-days of summer! Man, it is hot. Summer is a good time to stay
indoors and not do too much. Even so, we have had good turnouts for our
Main Monthly Luncheon meetings in June and July thanks to some excellent
topics and speakers. And, it is only going to get better. This month, we
have Mohan Kelkar, Endowed Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Tulsa
University and Regional Director for the Mid-Continent Section of SPE
International, speaking to us on “Interference Between Infill and Offset
Wells in Woodford Shale”. What?!? There cannot be any interference
between wells drilled in shale reservoirs; the permeability is too low.
This I have to see, and I would encourage everyone else to attend. It would
be nice to have a big crowd for our Regional Director.
Our Study
Group meeting this month should also be very interesting. Lyle
Lehman of StrataGen Engineering is going to present “The Wisdom in Your File
Cabinet – The Value of Artificial Neural Networks in Completion Design”.
I have known Lyle for more years than we both care to admit, and I am
certain it will be a very good discussion.
Over the past
several years, we have sponsored several excellent symposia including this
year’s Horizontal Wellbore Completion Symposium, in which we partnered with
the Maguire Energy Institute at the SMU Cox School of Business. The
symposium was held at the Collins Executive Education Center; a first-class
facility. This December 13th, we are again partnering with the
Maguire Energy Institute and the Society of Independent Professional Earth
Scientists (SIPES) to present “Raising The Dead: New Techniques and
Technologies For Bringing Old Oil Fields Back to Life”. (I
suggested we hold it on Halloween night, but that date interfered with the
ATCE in Denver.) Anyway, the technical program is already shaping up to be
fascinating, and as soon as it is finalized, we will be sending out the
details. So, give yourself a treat this year and plan to attend.
Before I close
I was going to mention that the poor YP group got stuck with me
speaking this month. So, if you are totally bored out of your mind and do
not have anything else to do, you are welcome to stop by EMGI on August 9.
I will be discussing Unconventional Reservoirs and the New
Technologies needed to develop these resources, some of which have
not even been developed yet. I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas
Section Chairman
Chairman’s Corner – July 2011
Brian is out in
the field this week, so I offered to write the Chairman’s Corner for him. I
figured it would be good practice since we are in the process of
transitioning to a new Board for the Dallas Section and I will have the
privilege of assuming the Chairman’s duties over the next year. The
transition should be complete in the next month or so. Until then, Brian is
still Chairman and your 2010 - 2011 Board is still serving.
I will skip the
introduction of myself for now - I figure we will have plenty of time over
the next year to get acquainted. I would like to mention, however, that I
have been a member of SPE for 35 years. Now, I know it might be difficult
for some of you to believe I am that old, but it is true. And, even though
I have been around for a while, I have to admit I have learned more about
SPE during the past two years working with the Dallas Section than I have
learned in the previous 33 years. So, before I even begin, I want to thank
the previous Boards of Directors, the various committees who work tirelessly
to make our programs and events successful, and the general Dallas
membership for all their help, direction and patience. It has been an
amazing experience and I am truly grateful.
Every year
begins with new ideas and expectations, and the Dallas section has done an
excellent job of fulfilling these goals by continually improving our
programs, community relations, student scholarships and membership support.
As Brian mentioned last month, one good example is our scholarship program
which should reach $75,000 to $80,000 this year, more than double what it
was just a few years ago. I have not seen the stats for 2010 yet, but this
level could place Dallas in the top 5 sections worldwide for scholarship
donations. Such an increase is only possible because of the hard work of
our various committees and volunteers who have put together some excellent
events, AND our corporate sponsors who have really stepped up over the past
few years and supported our section without hesitation.
I suspect when
you hear about things like our scholarship program, you know in the back of
your mind that we are helping people. But, it really does not sink in or
become real until you talk to some of the students, hear their stories
and/or read their letters. It is then you realize just how much our efforts
have changed the lives of these young adults who, thanks to our support, are
able to attend college and earn an engineering degree. It is really very
satisfying and we plan to share some of these stories over the next few
months so you will know exactly how your efforts are making a difference.
So, what is on
tap for next year? Well, other than reading my long-winded Chairman’s
Corner and listening to my bad jokes at each monthly meeting, we really hope
to have some very interesting technical programs and symposia, as well as
some great social events and activities. We also plan to increase our
exposure in the community through additional programs that will help educate
the general public, as well as junior high and high school science teachers,
about the oil and gas industry, and what engineers really do to create more
energy, safely, for the future. Of course, if any of you have any ideas
about things we can do to improve our Section, please contact me, one of the
Board members or one of the many committee volunteers.
I will be
making more announcements about upcoming activities over the next few
months. But, I want to make special mention and I would encourage everyone
to attend the July 20th luncheon meeting when Dr. Geoffrey Orsak,
Dean of the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU, will speak about “Innovative
Technologies in the Third World”. If you have never heard Dr. Orsak speak,
you should go because you will not be disappointed. He is interesting,
thought provoking and entertaining. You can find out more about the
luncheon, register and pay with a credit card at
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm. I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Brad Robinson
SPE Dallas
Section Chairman-Elect
Chairman’s
Corner - (June 2011)
It is with much appreciation that
this will be my final SPE Dallas Section Chairman’s Corner. The SPE
International year runs June 1 to May 31, but the Dallas Section Board has
traditionally maintained their positions through the summer until September
1. We are going to transition the new board in over the course of this
summer and align our board with the SPE International year going forward so
Brad Robinson will assume the role of Chairperson in June. It has truly been
a pleasure working with and getting to know Brad, and I believe he and the
incoming board will do a tremendous job building on some of the great things
we have started as well as adding to and improving the section in new ways.
At the end of each SPE year,
every section is required to complete and submit an annual report to SPE
International for evaluation. The Dallas Section Board and I have been
working diligently to get our report completed by the June 1 deadline. You
can access our past annual reports at
http://www.spedallas.org/Annual_reports_Dallas_section.htm.
If you take a look, you’ll see how much the Dallas Section has accomplished
each year and see how much time and work these take to complete.
Since I first got involved with
the SPE Dallas Board in 2007, I am proud of a few new things our group
started or improved. We’ve added annual symposiums, Production Study Group,
the Softball Tournament, and the Texas Hold ’em Tournament. We’ve also
increased our annual scholarship donation, expanded the Community Outreach
Program and its reach, tremendously grown Casino Night, and brought in many
new strong volunteers. The board members and committee members I have worked
with have made sacrifices and contributions to make our section successful
while always trying to improve it, and I will always be grateful to have
been a part of that.
The SPE Dallas Board recently
voted to increase our annual scholarship donation to $75,000. Dan Auces and
the Scholarship Committee will be working over the next few weeks allocating
that money to the deserving Petroleum Engineering students who applied for
our scholarship. You can learn more about the SPE Dallas Scholarship Program
and see the past winners at
http://www.spedallas.org/scholarship.htm.
I really appreciate the time and effort the Scholarship Committee puts into
selecting good candidates and rewarding them. It is a fairly long and
arduous process that is fundamental to the success of our organization.
On May 4 SPE Dallas hosted our
“Horizontal Wellbore Completions Symposium” at the SMU Collins Center
highlighted by excellent presentations, a highly involved roundtable
discussion, great dialogue during the breaks, and a very thought provoking
keynote luncheon address by Jay Ottoson with SM Energy. Thank you to all the
speakers, committee members, sponsors and attendees for making this event an
educational and financial success. SPE Dallas is working with SIPES to plan
a fall symposium with the theme of techniques and technologies to bring old
oil fields back to life. If you would like to get involved with the
symposium event committee, contact Sara Miller.
The June 15 luncheon will feature
Dr. Paul Bommer, one of the investigators in the BP Macondo disaster, and he
will present “The BP Blowout – Linked Causes, Multiple Effects”. Due to
expected large attendance, the luncheon will be held at Brookhaven Country
Club instead of Brookhaven Community College. You can find out more about
the luncheon, register and pay with a credit card at
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm.
The Young Professionals Group
will host their summer kickoff event on June 9th at Top Golf in
Dallas. The cost is only $10, and it will be a lot of fun and very well
attended. If you would like to sponsor the event or know more about it, go
to
http://www.dallasspeyp.com/.
I encourage you to spread the word to your company’s new hires and interns
so they can attend and meet some of their SPE colleagues.
Before signing off for the last
time, I want to thank the SPE Dallas Section Members for giving me the
opportunity to serve on the board and for supporting the board’s efforts. I
think the biggest rewards for me have been meeting many tremendously smart
and hard working colleagues, enjoying the fun industry events, and
increasing my knowledge through symposiums, presentations, and talking with
colleagues at SPE events. Thanks everyone, it’s been a great experience, and
I strongly believe the section is in good hands with the incoming group.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas Section Chair
Chairman’s
Corner - (May, 2011)
For those of you who attended the
Dallas Section’s Casino Night on April 29, I hope you enjoyed yourself as
much as I did. Dina Blair and her committee once again put on a terrific,
sold out event. More than 50 companies sponsored the event, which is a very
important component to making the evening so successful, and SPE Dallas
really appreciates the support of those companies. Casino Night has been our
largest fundraiser the past few years and the money raised goes to support
our section’s scholarship and community outreach programs.
“Petroleum Resources on the Bus”
is a new educational program that the SPE Dallas Community Outreach Group is
putting together in conjunction with the Ellison Miles Geotechnical
Institute at Brookhaven Community College this summer. Approximately 40
Texas middle school science teachers will attend each of the three day
courses we are hosting this summer. The curriculum will consist of two days
of classroom training with demonstrations and experiments on geology,
drilling, completion, production, and other aspects of our industry. The
third day will entail a trip on a bus to a Barnett Shale drill site and
possibly a fracturing location if available. The teachers will be able to
take this information back to their schools and teach their students about
the oil and gas industry. This will take a lot of work to get started, but I
expect this program to continue every summer and be a great way to get
students more informed and interested in our industry. If you are interested
in helping construct the curriculum or teach one of the sessions, please
contact a member of the Outreach Group listed at
http://www.spedallas.org/Community_Relations.htm.
The originally scheduled May 18
Luncheon with Dr. Paul Bommer slated to present on the topic “The BP Blowout
– Linked Causes, Multiple Effects” has been moved to June. We will still
have a luncheon on May 18 at EMGI and you can find more information about it
and all of our luncheons at
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm.
The Young Professionals Group
will host their summer kickoff event on June 9th at Top Golf in
Dallas. The cost is very low, and the event is always well attended. If you
would like to sponsor the event or know more about it, go to
http://www.dallasspeyp.com/.
I encourage you to spread the word to your company’s new hires and interns
so they can attend and meet some of their SPE colleagues.
Lastly, congratulations to
Pioneer Natural Resources for winning the fourth annual SPE Dallas Softball
Tournament on April 9 over Denbury Resources. Pioneer scored four runs in
the bottom of the last inning with two outs to secure a 7-6 win and retrieve
the Championship Cup. I’d like to thank all the event sponsors and the 14
teams that helped make the day a big success.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas Section Chair
Chairman’s
Corner - (April, 2011)
In about one month SPE Dallas
will be hosting our spring educational symposium in conjunction with the
Maguire Energy Institute (http://cox.smu.edu/web/maguire-energy-center/)
at the Collins Executive Education Center (http://cox.smu.edu/collinscenter)
at Southern Methodist University. The theme of the symposium is “Horizontal
Wellbore Completions”, which is one of the hottest topics in our industry
and very relevant to the careers of many SPE members. For a very reasonable
$200, you can attend and learn about completion methods and technologies
that will be presented by engineers from Dale Resources, Petrohawk Energy,
Chesapeake Energy, Range Resources, Newfield Exploration, Cimarex Energy,
and Enerplus. Jay Ottoson with SM Energy, a company that is very active in
many of the horizontal plays, will give the keynote luncheon presentation.
Valet parking, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and the reception are all included
in the price of admission. Please spread the word and consider sponsoring
this prestigious event. Any proceeds will benefit the SPE Dallas
Scholarship Fund and Community Outreach Program.
The new SPE Dallas Section Board
of Directors will be voted upon in May. If you are interested in getting
involved with SPE Dallas’s leadership by volunteering for a committee,
please let us know. Each of our events and board positions has committees
that help do all the work and make the organization work effectively.
Volunteering on these committees can benefit you in many ways including
meeting colleagues, learning about other areas of your industry, having an
outlet besides your job and family, doing some public speaking, working with
a successful group, giving back some of your time and knowledge,
representing our industry in the community, helping children get started in
engineering, and even possibly making yourself more well rounded. There are
many more reasons, aside from these. Frequently people say they don’t have
the time to volunteer, although I respect that, I think most people can make
the time if they want to do something. Many of our members volunteer with
other organizations that better suit their lifestyle and their family, and I
understand and appreciate that too. Our membership is composed of a
hardworking, intelligent group of individuals who both individually and
collectively accomplish some very admirable things outside of our daily
jobs.
The SPE Dallas Softball
Tournament will be April 9 at Huffhines Park in Richardson. 14 teams from
various oil and gas companies will be competing for the Champion’s Cup.
Regardless of whether you are playing in the games, everyone is invited to
come out and have lunch and cheer on the teams. What began just three years
ago with only four teams and the goal of building industry camaraderie
amongst the SPE’s Young Professionals has grown to become a significant
fundraiser and a very exciting event for our membership. Good luck to all
the teams!
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas Section Chair
Chairman’s
Corner - (March, 2011)
Last week I called my 88 year old
grandma who lives in cold and snowy Minnesota. Before I could even tell her
what was new in my life, she asked me what I was doing to cause these high
gasoline prices. (Disclaimer: She probably shouldn’t even be driving a car
anymore, but that’s not the point.) I briefly tried to explain to her that
the price of gasoline has very little to do with the work that my US
colleagues and I do and much more to do with China’s booming economy, Middle
East unrest, and trader speculation. I don’t think she understood what I was
saying, but that brings me to my point. Many people don’t understand that
the price of oil is to a large degree dependent on a massive global market
where various countries subsidize the commodity, often to help keep the
government in power. It makes sense to be sensible and not gloat on our
successful industry situation while many of our friends, family and
neighbors are struggling in this economy and the price of gasoline only
compounds it. I think most of us understand this, especially those who have
been in the industry for a long time, but I occasionally see some people who
don’t. Times are good for most of us now, but it was just over two years ago
when the banking system and economy along with the price of oil collapsed
and many oil and gas companies were laying people off. There are several
lessons to be garnered from this, but I’ll let you determine what it
signifies to you.
Now on to some positive news; the
inaugural SPE Dallas Section Texas Hold’em Tournament was a massive success
by nearly all accounts. I have to hand it to David Creach for taking charge,
planning the event, executing the tournament, and making it a very fun
evening. Congratulations to my coworker Brad Winton for winning the
championship and getting his name inscribed on the trophy. The event also
served as a great recruiting opportunity as a few people who were new to SPE
decided to join that evening. Thanks David and committee for a remarkable
job and a huge thanks to all of our sponsors who make these types of events
successful.
The fourth annual SPE Dallas
Softball Tournament will be held April 9 at Huffhines Park in Richardson. It
looks like all 12 teams who competed in 2010 will be returning to challenge
for the SPE Dallas Softball Tournament Champions Cup, which currently
resides in my office. We have spots for four additional teams, so if you
want to put together a team, act quickly. More information can be found at
http://www.dallasspeyp.com/.
Things are coming together nicely
for SPE Dallas and SMU Cox Maguire Energy Institute’s Horizontal Wellbore
Completions Symposium, which will be held at the prestigious new Collins
Executive Center on the SMU campus. We’re limited to 250 attendees after
committee members and presenters, so register soon and pay online or risk
not being admitted, which unfortunately happened to over 30 people when we
hosted the Haynesville Shale Symposium a little over a year ago. The lineup
of presenters is very impressive, and we have just one opening left to fill.
We need some help with our
section’s Study Group. We need speakers, ideas, participation and more. What
can we do to make this group beneficial to our members? Some meetings have
been very successful, and others have not been well attended, unlike most of
our luncheons. If you have an idea or would like to get involved, please
contact Syed Hamid or me. We want good educational programming for you.
Lastly, I want to thank Richard
Lemon, Davood Ghorbani, and Robert Martinez for volunteering to judge the
2011 Dallas Regional Science and Engineering
Fair last Saturday. Engineering (and education overall) is struggling in the
United States, and I believe it’s our civic duty to change that. I read the
other day that there are 50 MBAs and 20 law degrees for every one
engineering PhD. (I tried to remember where I saw that so I could cite it,
but I was unable to find it.) I witnessed a remarkable presentation at the
Engineer’s Week Luncheon last week by the Dean of SMU’s Lyle School of
Engineering, Geoffrey Orsak. One of the things he mentioned was that a
middle school in a village in China had applied for 3,000 patents in the
past two years. Then he asked, how many high school students in the United
States had ever even read a patent. He had other similar stories, but the
moral was that we need to promote our engineering profession so that the
best and brightest of America’s youth become engineers and perpetuate the
ingenuity that has made our county and our world so great. Support our
children and students in whatever career direction they decide to pursue,
but I think it makes sense to at least introduce them to engineering since
it will always be an integral part of society.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas Section Chair
Chairman’s Corner - (February, 2011)
SPE Dallas has 12 new Legion of Honor members in 2011, which is achieved by
50 years of continuous membership. We will honor these members and their
impressive achievement at our luncheons throughout the year. It is
interesting hearing their stories about how things have evolved in the
industry over the past half century.
Many petroleum engineers began their SPE membership while studying Petroleum
Engineering (PE) in college. Others were recruited to the organization by
colleagues. In recent years SPE has put increased focus on maintaining
membership of college PE graduates and increasing participation in the Young
Professionals (YP) program. Sara Miller has led the Dallas Young
Professionals (http://www.dallasspeyp.com/)
for the past few years and has done a terrific job promoting SPE and
increasing participation. Sometimes it can be difficult to get young
engineers involved in SPE and SPE leadership, but young engineers are the
future of our growing industry and our society. Many YPs will have
opportunities to tackle greater responsibilities earlier in their careers
due to the lack of PEs between the ages of 30 and 45 and the growing number
of retiring PEs. For this reason, I urge senior PEs to mentor YPs early in
their careers and also help them realize the value SPE membership can
provide throughout their careers. SPE has an eMentoring program to assist
with this, and you can information about the program at
http://www.spe.org/career/ementor/.
Every February the Texas Society
of Professional Engineers (TSPE) hosts Engineer’s Week, and SPE Dallas
participates in the events, which include an awards luncheon honoring
engineers from various disciplines. TSPE is a strong organization that
encourages and regulates professional certification, which is a highly
respected accreditation and something I have not yet done, but plan to work
on and achieve in the near future. If you are interested in attending the
E-Week Luncheon, information can be found at
http://www.homepagetx.com/TSPE/.
SPE recognizes members every year
at the section, region, and international levels for technical and service
achievements. Right now is the time to nominate one of your colleagues for a
regional award, which is quite an honor. The process has been simplified,
and information can be found at
http://www.spe.org/about/honors/regional_awards.php.
SPE Dallas is hosting our
inaugural Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament on February 18 at the Doubletree Hotel
near The Galleria in Dallas. Please consider playing in the tournament and
asking your company to sponsor so we can have a very successful event. About
100 players have registered, so I expect this will be another fun and well
attended evening with our peers.
I’m pretty certain everyone who
attended the January luncheon was very pleased with the excellent
presentation. We plan to continue with strong programs throughout the year,
and this month we are fortunate to have Mike Chambers, Vice President at
EXCO Resources, speak about the lessons learned in the Haynesville Shale.
Mike is well known in the area and has had a very impressive career, so this
presentation will be excellent and highly attended. It is important that you
make a reservation and pay online in advance if you plan to attend. Later in
the month, Ronn Brock will speak at our monthly study group about
environmental issues, which should be another good opportunity to learn
about an area of the industry that has unfortunately been occasionally
overlooked.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas Section Chair
Chairman’s Corner - (January, 2011)
I want to thank the 14 SPE Dallas members who
donated blood at our inaugural blood drive during the December luncheon.
Carter Blood Care and I appreciate everyone’s efforts, especially Chris
Stacy and Rick Middaugh, who coordinated the drive. Collectively our
organization does some wonderful things for society, and I hope we can
double the number of donors next year.
Those of you who attended the December luncheon and
stuck around to the end heard Deborah Hempel-Medina mention why it’s
important for us as oil and gas workers to take time to educate the public
including your friends, neighbors and family. We should not let the media
(and sometimes government organizations) dictate the public’s perception of
our industry. While there will be other issues that no doubt arise, this
issue involved natural gas showing up in water source wells in a small area
of Parker County. More information on this Parker County issue can be found
at:
http://www.barnettshalenews.com/documents/2010/EPA%20Wrong%20-%20Barnett%20Shale%20Not%20Responsible%20For%20Gas%20In%20Water%20Wells%2012-13-2010.pdf.
SPE Dallas will host our inaugural Texas Hold ‘Em
poker tournament at the Doubletree Hotel near the Galleria in North Dallas
on Friday, February 18. Since this is our first tournament, strong
participation from the section important to make the event a success and
allow us to continue having it in future years. I urge you to sign up and
play regardless of your skill level or knowledge of the game. It should be a
very fun evening, and it will be our only social event for several months.
I’d like to thank David Creach, John Tabor, and the event committee for
putting together a great design for this event in such short time. You can
learn more at
http://www.spedallas.org/Texas_holdem_files/2011_Texas_Holdem.pdf.
February 15, 2011 is the deadline for 2011 SPE
Regional Awards Nominations. Please consider nominating a colleague for one
of the technical or service awards. You can find more information at
http://www.spe.org/about/honors/regional_awards.php,
and if you would like advice or assistance with the process, please contact
me.
Program Chairman Richard Lemon and the Programs
Committee have lined up a terrific slate of speakers for 2011 starting with
SPE Distinguished Lecturer Randy C. Tolman of ExxonMobil who will present
“Simultaneous Stimulation of Multi-Well Pads Using Multi-Zone Stimulation
Technology” on January 10, which is on the second Monday instead of the
third Wednesday. Spread the word to your coworkers and make your reservation
to attend an excellent presentation.
Brian Chacka
2010-11 Dallas Section Chairman
Chairman’s Corner - (December, 2010)
2010 has been a year marked for many of us by a
significant increase in activity in the upstream oil and gas industry; some
of which was based on the price of oil and some based on other things like
leasehold drilling requirements. I think most of my colleagues would agree
that the job market for experienced petroleum engineers of all disciplines
is very robust right now, and capital investment appears to be at a very
high level. I really appreciate my SPE membership in busy times like these
because of the wealth of information available through the organization. If
you haven’t visited
http://www.spe.org
recently, I urge you to do so. Among the many things you can do are discuss
topics related to a specific engineering discipline in the online chat
community, use the paper and presentation database to do research, and find
your colleagues’ contact information to collaborate on projects or industry
activities or simply just to keep in touch. Since it’s nearly the end of
2010, don’t forget to renew your SPE membership for next year. While you are
at it, please consider recruiting your colleagues to join our esteemed
organization. SPE rewards members who recruit new members, and I think your
recruit will thank you later for the introduction to SPE. If you think it’s
difficult or not worth your time to recruit new members, please talk to Herb
Bell of the Dallas Section. Herb has recruited over 2,700 new members to
join the organization.
SPE Dallas is hosting a blood drive in conjunction
with the December monthly luncheon on Thursday, December 16 at our usual
meeting location, EMGI at Brookhaven. Carter Blood Care will be at EMGI from
10 am to 3 pm taking blood to help those in need. Please consider giving
blood during our drive. You can find more information at
http://www.spedallas.org/images/2010_dec_16_SPE_Blood_Drive.pdf.
SPE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Jennifer L. Miskimins from the Colorado
School of Mines will be presenting “Unconventional Frac Jobs for
Unconventional Reservoirs – What Should You Be Concerned About?” at
the luncheon. With the amazing boom in the fracturing segment of our
industry, this presentation should be beneficial and informative for many of
us.
The SPE Dallas Section Board of Directors is
working on several activities for our members to enjoy in 2011 including our
annual Casino Night, Golf Tournament, and Softball Tournament. We’re also
going to host our inaugural Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament and a one day spring
symposium on “Horizontal Wellbore Completions”. Community Relations is
working on several activities including possibly a Habitat for Humanity
event. If you would like to get involved with one of these events, please
contact one of the Section Officers or Directors at
http://www.spedallas.org/officers.htm.
We welcome your participation.
Brian Chacka
Chairman’s Corner - (November, 2010)
If you are reading this letter, you probably understand and appreciate the
magnificent things our industry does for the world’s population. We help
provide the energy that makes our world operate, and yet we are somehow very
misunderstood and disliked by a significant portion of our fellow countrymen
and to some extent the entire world population. Massive profit
announcements, a perception of arrogance, environmental mishaps, and the
thought that we destroy the earth are a few of the reasons behind these
feelings. The strange thing is that many of these same people rely on our
industry for many of the assumed things in their lives like electricity for
homes and gasoline for automobiles. One of the problems is that we, the oil
and gas industry, don’t tell our story very well. And that’s if we even take
the time to tell our story at all. This leads me to one of the fundamentals
of our non-profit organization, the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Our
primary mission is to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical
knowledge, but another goal is to educate the world and make it a better
place. We do this through community outreach and our scholarship programs.
Rick Middaugh, Deborah Hempel-Medina, and a few of our other esteemed
colleagues make it a focus of their volunteerism to visit elementary,
middle, and high schools to educate our youth about what we do and why
engineering, specifically petroleum engineering, is a noble profession. I am
very thankful for their efforts and the things they do.
I know we are busy with work, family, church, sports,
or whatever, but I also know that more of our society can take time to give
back to our community. There are several events in the coming months like
DFW Future City, which we (SPE Dallas) are going to sponsor. If
you are interested in sharing a little bit of your time to make our
community and our world a better place, please contact me or one of our
community relations officers. The opportunities and financial support are
available through SPE Dallas. I know we are all very busy, but if you want
to assist, you can make the time.
Aside from community outreach, Brad Robinson, incoming
SPE Dallas Chair and the primary force behind the success of our Haynesville
Symposium last fall, and I are forming a committee to plan another SPE
Dallas symposium this spring. We would like to have at least a fall and
spring symposium every year going forward. The tentative topic for the
spring symposium is “Horizontal Wellbore Completions”. We are seeking
speakers who are experienced with the constantly evolving realm of
horizontal wellbore completions, which is one of the main drivers behind the
domestic (and worldwide more and more every day) success of our industry. If
one was to evaluate the evolution of this essential part of our industry,
and the unique techniques employed and lessons learned, it would take years
to accomplish, but would be extremely educating. The goal of the spring
symposium is to present the significant developments of completions
technology in one day. While that is obviously not enough time, considering
the amazing engineering and efforts it took to make the just Barnett Shale
such a success, I think we will learn a great deal about our engineering
thought process by listening, reflecting, evaluating, and discussing what
made plays like the Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus, Fayetteville, Eagle
Ford, Bakken, and several others economically successful.
Our annual ethics presentation, required for all
Professional Engineers, and beneficial to everyone regardless of PE
certification status, will be held November 17 at EMGI. I hope to see many
of you there. Bring your colleagues, and I think they will enjoy Dr. Larry
Brown’s presentation and discussion.
Brian Chacka
Chairman’s Corner - (October, 2010)
For those of
you who attended last month’s Dallas SPE Section luncheon, I hope you
enjoyed the presentation. The attendance was good, and I heard the
presentation was very informative. I was fortunate to be able to attend the
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition with quite a few fellow members
of the Dallas Section in Florence, Italy. It was a very unique ATCE for
several reasons, mostly because it was hosted outside the United States for
the first time. There was a very unique international experience to it,
which I found very enjoyable. I interacted with fellow Petroleum Engineers
from around the world and learned a little bit about their oilfield
operations and cultures. The SPE Annual Banquet was held at the Palazzo
Vecchio, which is an old fortress/palace that is currently an art museum.
The entire affair was extremely elegant with massive paintings lining the
walls and ceiling and statues decorating the courtyard. The event finished
with a brief opera, which was pretty extravagant. I watched several of our
industry colleagues receive prestigious awards recognizing them for
contributions to the industry and our profession. Long time Dallas Section
member Gerald Coulter was in attendance with his wife, and he deservedly
received the International Completions Optimization and Technology Award.
Please take
note that this month’s luncheon will not be held on the usual third
Wednesday of the month and will not be held at EMGI. It will be
Tuesday, October 12 at the Hilton Dallas
Lincoln Centre located near the southeast corner of 635 and the
Dallas North Tollway. The speaker will be SPE Distinguished Lecturer
Colin Alexander McPhee, and he will be presenting about how to get maximum
value from taking cores. To learn more and register, go to
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm.
On the
afternoon of October 18th, the Dallas Section is hosting our
annual Shoot for your School Sporting Clays Tournament at Elm Fork Shooting
Range in Northwest Dallas. Team spots and sponsorship opportunities are
still available so put together a team and go to
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm to register your group.
John Tabor and his committee are working hard to make sure this year’s event
will be even better than past years. The proceeds are used by petroleum
engineering students who are members of their university’s SPE chapter for
various educational purposes.
The Young
Professionals group is hosting a lunch and learn October 5 at EMGI. Devin
Frye, a Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch will be speaking about
the economy, interest rates, and the corporate sector. These events are open
to all members so feel free to attend. To learn more about the event and the
Young Professionals group of the Dallas Section, go to
http://www.dallasspeyp.com/.
The Production
Study Group Luncheon will be October 27 at EMGI and Dr Audra Robinson with
MANTIS International will be speaking about bioremediation and its
applications in our environmentally sensitive operations.
I hope to see
many of you at one of our upcoming events this month. If you have an idea
for something we can do to improve our section, please speak up. Thanks for
supporting SPE and your Dallas Section.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas
Section
Chairman 2010-2011
Chairman’s Corner - (September, 2010)
Since this is
my first Chairman’s Corner installment, I would like to briefly introduce
myself to the Dallas Section members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers
who do not know me. I have been involved in the upstream oil and gas
industry for eleven years and have lived in Dallas for the past five. I’ve
been actively involved the Dallas SPE Section since 2006 and have greatly
enjoyed my time interacting with fellow members and learning through the
great technical resources provided by SPE and the Dallas Section. In late
2006 I helped start the Dallas Section’s Young Professionals group and from
that role I was asked to serve on the regular section’s board as the Sports
and Social Director. From there I progressed through Program Chair to
Chairman-Elect and now Chairman. Danny Bell and David Hamilton have helped
guide me through the process, and I truly appreciate all the help they
provided. If you would like to get more involved with the section, there are
many opportunities available, so send me an email or come talk to me
sometime. I look forward to a very successful year for the Dallas Section
thanks to our incoming board, our strong committees and of course our very
supportive membership.
There are team
spots and opportunities for sponsorship available for our section’s annual
Shoot for Your School Sporting Clays Tournament being held at Elm Fork
Shooting Range on October 18. John Tabor and his hard working committee
raised over $6,000 last year from this excellent event that was sent to SPE
Student Chapters at the universities dedicated by the winning teams. These
funds are used by petroleum engineering students who are members of the
schools’ SPE chapter for various educational purposes including attending
conferences like the SPE’s tight gas workshop and the SPE’s Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, which happens to be this month in Florence,
Italy. More information about the Sporting Clays Tournament and the ATCE are
available on the Dallas SPE Section webpage.
I know about 20
members of the Dallas Section who will be attending the ATCE in Italy this
year, and I’m sure there are quite a few more of you going. Last year’s ATCE
in New Orleans was a large success due to good attendance, great educational
presentations, and many opportunities to meet and network with fellow
industry professionals. I will be attending again this year, and I hope to
see some of you there. If you have never attended an ATCE, I strongly urge
you to do so at some point during your career.
The
Professional Engineering Certification exam will be October 29, 2010. The
Dallas Section teamed with Bing Wines and the EMGI to host a training course
August 30 through September 3 to assist those taking the test. At least 15
people signed up for the course, and I applaud all engineers who are
attempting to obtain their certification and wish you luck in the process.
This month’s
luncheon will be Wednesday, September 22 at EMGI at Brookhaven Community
College. Please note this date is not our usual third Wednesday of the
month, but the presentation will be well worth the trip. Myron Cook with
Pioneer Natural Resources will be presenting about Global Warming. Please
make your reservation and pay online in advance because it helps us with
planning. Though I will be at ATCE and unable to attend, I urge you to go if
you are in town because everyone who has attended Myron’s presentation said
it is excellent and very informative. I am certain that our new Section
Program Chairman Richard Lemon will have many good programs for our members
this year.
Thank you for
reading my first Chairman’s Corner and for your support of the section in
the coming year.
Brian Chacka
SPE Dallas
Section
Chairman 2010-2011
Chairman’s Corner - (August, 2010)
Welcome to the
final installment of my administration. It’s no longer “months” left before
I turn this over to Brian Chacka; the remaining time is now “weeks” and
“days”. It has been a pleasure to serve as Chairman of the Dallas Section
for the past year. However, I also look forward to handing over the reins
to Brian, who will bring a real youthful perspective to this position.
Hopefully his broken leg won’t slow him down.
Some musing on
the name of our organization:
Society
– according to the American Heritage Desk Dictionary: a group of people who
unite to share a common interest. I think this certainly applies to our
Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Petroleum
– this is our common interest; this is the business all of us are in,
regardless of our degrees or our jobs. This is the binding factor of us
all, more than “engineers”.
Engineers
– obviously the majority of members, but not the only members. SPE includes
many different disciplines and occupations. With the variety of members
united here, is there a better term to use here? Society of Petroleum
Professionals? Society of the Petroleum Industry? Just musing.
To those who
will be attending the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in
Florence, Italy, in September, I am not among you, unfortunately, but have a
wonderful time. I’m sure most of you are aware by now that this is the
first time ATCE will have been held outside of the US, but I am also certain
that this will not be the last time. Will this ATCE be significantly
different than those held in the US? It’s still put on by SPE, so it can’t
be too different. Is this much different than the relatively exotic US
locations of Washington DC (1992) or San Francisco (1983) or Anaheim (2007)
or even Las Vegas (1973, 1979, 1985), none of which are typically associated
directly with the oilfield? Los Angeles (1962), while exotic, is very much
an oilfield town. And while Anaheim is perhaps part of Los Angeles, I
associate Anaheim more with Disneyland (established 1955) and Angels
baseball (established 1961) than with oilfield. Is there any reason not
to have ATCE outside the US? Does having ATCE in Italy make it easier for a
significant percentage of membership to attend? How will the make-up of
attendees change compared to when ATCE is held in the US? How will US
attendance change compared to ATCE in a US venue?
The 52 ATCE’s
held since 1958 have taken place in only 10 different locations, and 86.5%
of those 52 have taken place in only five different locations (Houston – 12,
Dallas – 10, New Orleans – 10, Denver – 7, San Antonio – 6). I found it
interesting, but not surprising, that four of the top five attended ATCE’s
were in the early 1980’s, and all five of the early 1980’s ATCE’s were in
the top 10. Location appears not to have mattered in those top 10 attended
conferences; included are six different locations, including San Francisco
and Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, three of the top 10 attendances took place
in Houston, which is easy to envision as the most successful venue. The
table of ATCE data below was provided by Brian Wiggins and Company at SPEI
(as so often happens, I wonder about something and they come through with
the support I need), and the chart was assembled from that data by Lonnie
Kysiak here at Nexen.
Back to this
year’s ATCE, Florence has a lot to offer, and the usual tourist attractions
may be quite crowded, or your schedule may not allow you to partake.
However, one thing that is easy to enjoy is gelato – make sure you try
some.
Thanks to the
entire Board of Directors for all their help and support this year. Check
back in this space next month for Brian’s first installment.
Let’s have
lunch together on August 18 (third Wednesday yet again!) and listen to
Galen Treadgold with Weinman GeoScience & Steve
Sinclair with Matador Resources Company discuss “Seismic Interpretation of
the Eagle Ford Shale within a Tectonic and Depositional System Framework”.
It’s a different approach from our usual fare, but we think you’ll find it
just as valuable. See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
(soon-to-be-former) Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
|
Date |
Location |
Facility |
Attendance |
Papers et al |
NSF
Exhibits |
|
1958 |
Houston, TX |
|
3,576 |
|
|
|
1959 |
Dallas, TX |
|
3,166 |
|
|
|
1960 |
Denver, CO |
|
2,736 |
|
|
|
1961 |
Dallas, TX |
|
3,445 |
|
|
|
1962 |
Los Angeles, CA |
|
1,836 |
|
|
|
1963 |
New Orleans, LA |
|
3,535 |
|
|
|
1964 |
Houston, TX |
|
3,748 |
|
|
|
1965 |
Denver, CO |
|
3,095 |
|
|
|
1966 |
Dallas, TX |
|
3,582 |
|
|
|
10/1-4/67 |
Houston, TX |
|
4,361 |
|
|
|
9/29-10/2/68 |
Houston, TX |
|
5,030 |
|
|
|
9/28-10/1/69 |
Denver, CO |
|
4,108 |
|
14,863 |
|
10/4-7/70 |
Houston, TX |
|
4,501 |
|
17,040 |
|
10/3-6/71 |
New Orleans, LA |
Rivergate Convention
Center |
5,135 |
|
14,850 |
|
10/8-11/72 |
San Antonio, TX |
San Antonio
Convention Center |
4,627 |
|
14,630 |
|
9/30-10/3/73 |
Las Vegas, NV |
Las Vegas Convention
Center |
4,658 |
|
13,525 |
|
10/6-9/74 |
Houston, TX |
Albert Thomas
Convention Center |
6,723 |
|
18,100 |
|
9/28-10/1/75 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention
Center |
5,743 |
151 |
22,559 |
|
10/3-6/76 |
New Orleans, LA |
Rivergate Convention
Center |
7,028 |
216 |
20,900 |
|
10/9-12/77 |
Denver, CO |
Currigan Exhibition
Hall |
7,279 |
180 |
24,500 |
|
10/1-4/78 |
Houston, TX |
Albert Thomas Convention Center |
7,950 |
178 |
29,980 |
|
9/23-26/79 |
Las Vegas, NV |
Las Vegas Convention Center |
9,506 |
227 |
34,020 |
|
9/21-24/80 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
8,863 |
244 |
43,075 |
|
10/4-7/81 |
San Antonio, TX |
San Antonio Convention Center |
12,105 |
265 |
71,325 |
|
9/26-29/82 |
New Orleans, LA |
Rivergate Convention Center |
12,679 |
253 |
76,957 |
|
10/5-8/83 |
San Francisco, CA |
Moscone Convention Center |
10,849 |
186 |
67,225 |
|
9/16-19/84 |
Houston, TX |
Astrohall Convention Center |
14,133 |
249 |
97,070 |
|
9/22-25/85 |
Las Vegas, NV |
Las Vegas Convention Center |
10,412 |
306 |
76,425 |
|
10/5-8/86 |
New Orleans, LA |
New Orleans Convention Center |
7,904 |
321 |
64,780 |
|
9/27-30/87 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
8,200 |
339 |
54,900 |
|
10/2-5/1988
|
Houston, TX |
Astrohall Convention Center |
9,030 |
314 |
78,450 |
|
10/8-11/89
|
San Antonio, TX |
San Antonio Convention Center |
8,495 |
348 |
70,950 |
|
9/23-26/90 |
New Orleans, LA |
New Orleans Convention Center |
10,294 |
377 |
82,240 |
|
10/6-9/91 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
9,944 |
406 |
96,300 |
|
10/4-7/92
|
Washington, DC |
Washington Convention Center |
5,791 |
402 |
61,150 |
|
10/3-6/93
|
Houston, TX |
George R. Brown
Convention Center
|
9,193 |
328 |
83,700 |
|
9/25-28/94
|
New Orleans, LA |
Ernest N. Morial
Convention Center |
9,117 |
349 |
74,150 |
|
10/22-25/95 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
8,916 |
333 |
77,650 |
|
10/6-9/96 |
Denver, CO |
Colorado Convention Center |
8,907 |
334 |
75,090 |
|
10/5-7/97 |
San Antonio, TX |
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center |
10,074 |
404 |
93,570 |
|
9/27-30/98 |
New Orleans, LA
Meeting canceled due
to Hurricane |
Ernest N. Morial Co
Convention Center |
0 |
355 |
117,060
|
|
10/3-6/99 |
Houston, TX |
George R. Brown Convention Center |
12,352
|
380 |
98,201 |
|
10/1-4/00 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
8,825 |
360 |
92,000 |
|
9/30-10/3/01 |
New Orleans, LA |
Ernest N. Morial
Convention Center |
9,372 |
361 |
104,300 |
|
9/29-10/2/02 |
San Antonio, TX |
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center |
8,704 |
383 |
95,200 |
|
10/5-8/03
|
Denver, CO |
Colorado Convention Center |
8,061 |
393 |
89,900 |
|
9/26-29/04 |
Houston, TX |
George R. Brown Convention Center |
10,482 |
398 |
94,700 |
|
10/9-12/05 |
Dallas, TX |
Dallas Convention Center |
7,840 |
437 |
90,150 |
|
9/24-27/06 |
San Antonio, TX |
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center |
9,300 |
477 |
94,900 |
|
11/11-14/07 |
Anaheim, CA |
Anaheim Convention Center |
8,286 |
446 |
90,800 |
|
9/21-24/08 |
Denver, CO |
Colorado Convention Center |
9,831 |
|
105,000 |
|
10/4-7/09 |
New Orleans, LA |
Ernest N. Morial
Convention Center |
7,926 |
|
88,700 |
Chairman’s Corner - (July 2010)
Welcome to the
penultimate installment of my administration.
What do the
members of the Dallas Section Board of Directors do when they are not at
the monthly luncheons? This is not intended to be an absolute description
of each position, but rather my thoughts, to try to convey to you the
essence of each position.
Past
Chairman. Serves as a resource for the current Chairman and other Board
members, and provides the benefit of his/her experience. Serves on the
Nominating Committee that comes up with Board of Director candidates each
Spring. Steve Grape is currently serving in this position.
Chairman.
Coordinates the rest of the Board. Serves as host at monthly luncheons.
Serves on the Nominating Committee that comes up with Board of Director
candidates each Spring, after appointing the other members of the
committee. Calls for Board meetings. Communicates with Regional Director
as needed.
Chairman-Elect. Basically spends a year preparing for the following
year, when he/she will be Chairman. Serves on the Nominating Committee that
comes up with Board of Director candidates each Spring. Chairman-Elect is
perhaps the most important member of this committee, since these are the
people he/she will be working directly with. I have tried to copy
Chairman-Elect Brian Chacka on as much correspondence as possible so he can
see what goes on. Responsible for keeping Events Calendar on section
website up-to-date.
Program
Chairman (First VP). Responsible for arranging monthly luncheons,
including finding and securing speakers, arranging venue, arranging and
coordinating food (and paying for it, then getting reimbursed from
Treasurer), having name tags, checking everyone in at front desk, providing
door prizes and speaker gift. Responsible for selecting Distinguished
Lecturers for the following program year. PJ Edsall is currently serving in
this position.
Education
Chairman (Second VP). Responsible for arranging for continuing
education programs and for presenting Study Group luncheons, including same
responsibilities in this regard as Program Chairman. Syed Hamid is
currently serving in this position.
Membership
Chairman (Third VP). Primarily responsible for maintenance of section
roster, but also analyzes membership statistics, helps members with
membership issues and works at front desk at luncheons. Larry Champlin is
currently serving in this position.
Treasurer.
The only position with a two-year term. Responsible for keeping the books
balanced, writing checks when necessary, making deposits when necessary,
keeping accounts straight. Prepares financial reports during the year to
keep Board members aware. Prepares financial report for the program year as
part of the Section year-end report. Brent Haas is currently finishing the
second year of his term.
Secretary.
Responsible for transcribing minutes of Board of Directors meetings, or
other meetings as directed by the Chairman. Also serves on the Nominating
Committee that comes up with Board of Director candidates each Spring.
David Creach is currently serving in this position.
Director
Tech/Newsletter. Maintains the Section website and generates and
distributes the Section electronic newsletter and any special e-mails that
need to be sent to entire section. This job occupies a lot of Danny Bell’s
time.
Director
Sports & Social. Primarily responsible for overseeing the three big
fund-raising events of each program year: Golf Tournament, Casino Night,
Sporting Clays. Each event has its own committee, and Richard Lemon oversaw
all of it this program year.
Director
Community Relations. Oversees a committee which is responsible for
presentations to schools and civic groups as needed, including Career Days.
Coordinates use of SPE’s energy4me presentation kits. Community Relations
will be trying a Section blood drive this Fall. Rick Middaugh is currently
serving in this position.
Director at
Large. We had three this year. Can take on special assignments from
the Chairman and get a sense of what is involved in being a Board member, in
preparation for taking on a bigger role the following year (Brad Robinson,
Deborah Hempel-Medina) or serve as a source of experience (Herb Bell).
Young
Professionals Liaison. Runs a whole separate organization. Sara Miller
oversees the YP’s, who are members less than 35 years old.
Let’s have
lunch together on July 21 (third Wednesday yet again!) and listen to
Dan Themig with Packers Plus Energy Services
discuss “Good Fracturing Practices and Multi-Stage Fracturing System
Solutions”. SPE Mid-Continent Region Director Roy Knapp will be presenting
Regional awards to two very deserving Dallas Section members. See
you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
Chairman’s
Corner (June 2010)
I did a
presentation at the Young Professionals luncheon on May 3, and the question
was asked, “why should I be a professional engineer?” I did a thoroughly
inadequate job of answering the question that day, and realized that, even
though I am a professional engineer, I have never taken the time to prepare
an answer to that question. I embarked on the process at the request of a
former employer, who was contemplating taking on some additional business
that would have required the stamp of a PE. That business opportunity never
came to fruition, but I did become a PE.
Many Petroleum
Engineers are not registered, and don’t actually need to be, and therefore
never take the time to pursue it. The National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE) has a 7.5 minute video on their website (www.nspe.org)
called “Get Licensed, Get Ahead” that is worth watching. In the video, they
show a jack-up drilling rig at the exact moment the narrator uses the words
“safe and secure”, and this video was made well before the Deepwater Horizon
incident. Other words and phrases used in the video are “serious about
profession”, “serious about career”, “professional”, “credibility”,
“respect”, “earlier the better”, “flexibility”, “prestige”, “judgement”,
“trust”. Following is a quote from the NSPE website:
“If you're a student
or recent college graduate, starting on the path to licensure is one of the
most important decisions you'll ever make. The P.E. after your name is an
advantage that will open doors for the rest of your life.”
Help the
profession’s public image – you never know when a black eye like the
Deepwater Horizon will come along. There could be more scrutiny and more
requirements on us as Petroleum Engineers, just like there are going to be
more requirements in other parts of our industry as a result of the
Deepwater Horizon incident. For instance, MMS is being split into three
pieces.

My advice, if
you are not already a Professional Engineer, is to “look beyond”. You may
not need to be a PE right now, and you may be able to go your entire career
without being one, but if you do need it, you won’t be able to place a phone
call and make it be so. The requirements for becoming a Professional
Engineer are: college degree; passing the Fundamentals Exam; gaining work
experience (at least four years); completing and submitting an application,
with at least three reference statements from PE’s who can vouch for your
experience; passing the Professional Exam (Principles & Practice). If you
have not taken the Fundamentals Exam, make that your first priority. It’s
the first step in the process, and you’ll at least be that far along. I
can’t tell you that you need to be a PE to be a Petroleum Engineer, but if
you want to do certain things in this industry, you need to be a PE.
Here are a
variety of reasons to become a Professional Engineer, compiled from several
different sources:
-
Serves as protection of
public health, safety and welfare. PE’s must hold themselves to high
ethical standards.
-
Demonstrates competence in
your profession and commitment to the profession.
-
Allows engineers to offer
engineering services directly to the public.
-
Confirms engineers
credentials to serve as an expert witness.
-
Licensure is a legal
requirement for consulting engineers or private practitioners who are in
responsible charge of work, be they principals or employees.
-
In many federal, state and
municipal agencies, certain governmental engineering positions must be
filled by licensed professional engineers.
-
Many states require that
individuals teaching engineering must be licensed. Licensure helps
educators prepare students for their future in engineering.
-
PE’s are respected by the
public and held in high esteem by their peers in the engineering
community.
-
Licensure not only enhances
your stature with employers, it demonstrates heightened leadership and
management skills.
-
Licensure has recently taken
on increased meaning with heightened public attention concerning product
safety, environmental issues and design defects (Deepwater Horizon).
Employers have found it advantageous to identify to courts and the
public those employees who have met at least a minimum level of
competence.
-
Having a PE license opens up
your career options. It can protect you during downsizing or
outsourcing.
-
Studies have shown that most
PE’s earn higher pay throughout their business careers.
-
Licensure is an assurance
that the individual engineer has passed at least a minimum screen of
competence, but licensure is just a starting point for professional
growth and development, and participation in professional activities is
part of the ongoing activities of a true professional.
-
The scope of engineering
practice is constantly changing, and engineering activities that may be
exempt today may eventually shift and require a license.
As of 1/1/06,
Texas licensure by waiver of the PE Exam is limited to engineering educators
with a PhD, those that are licensed in another state, and former Texas
license holders. All other applicants for standard licensure as PE’s are
required to take the PE exam. So while some of the old-timers you work with
may tell you that they became PE’s without having to take the PE exam, those
days are over and that will not apply to you. By the way, the first
engineering licensure law was enacted in Wyoming in 1907.
SPE has established a certification program that seeks to accomplish these
same things. My understanding is that it came about for engineers in the
Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa who may not have access to the
registration process we have in the United States. I also discovered that
SPE has Professional Competency Matrices in each of the following areas:
General Engineering, Drilling Engineering, Formation Evaluation, Production
Engineering, and Reservoir Engineering. These may be of interest to some of
you.
We think enough
of the registration process to offer the Bing Wines review course for the PE
(Principles & Practice) Exam this fall. The Dallas Section also dedicates
one program per year to ethics; PE’s are required to have one hour of ethics
training each year as part of the continuing education that is required for
license renewal. Of the 1500 or so Dallas Section members, 423 are
currently PE’s, so we feel like this is a good practice. Going forward, we
will try to make that ethics presentation relevant to the oil & gas business
so that everyone can benefit from it.
Following is a
table showing the scholarships awarded by your Dallas Section for the
2009-2010 school year:

In addition, we
will be distributing $7,950 worth of scholarship money from the Shoot For
Your School sporting clays event that took place in October, wherein the
winning shooters specify the school to which they want their share of the
proceeds to go.
Michigan
Tech $2,000 Not aware of plans yet
Texas Tech
$1,750 Will be used to offset transportation and lodging
expenses for 40-50 students at SPE Tight Gas Completions Conference in San
Antonio in November.
Texas A&M
$1,500 Will be used for travel expenses to ATCE 2010 in
Italy; sending 5 student chapter officers, 4 Petrobowl participants, plus
ATCE chairman
LSU
$1,200 Not aware of plans yet
Oklahoma
$1,000 Will be used to fund Student Chapter trip to ATCE in
2010 for their 5-member Petrobowl team.
CO School of
Mines $ 500 Will be used for ATCE travel
support.
Joe Mueller
contacted the Faculty Sponsor for the Student Chapter at each school and
explained the acceptable uses for the money: travel to, and participation
in, ATCE or other SPE-sponsored conference; student memberships for SPE;
individual scholarships from the Petroleum Engineering Dept at that school;
SPE software or publications. The Faculty Sponsor must specify how the
funds will be used before the funds are distributed, and the Faculty Sponsor
must also provide documentation of how the funds were actually used after
the fact. We’ve been slow getting this money distributed because we’ve
re-designed the distribution process and requirements.
Need or want to
be a member of both the Dallas Section and Ft. Worth Section? Here’s how!
SPE members are automatically assigned to a section based on their primary
address, however they can affiliate themselves with other sections for $15
each. You need to complete the online Section Affiliation Form. You will
not be a full voting member of the additional sections, but you can
participate in all activities and will be added to their mailing lists. Go
to
www.spe.org and enter “section affiliation form” in the search box.
Choose the first selection, then click on “Change my section affiliation” on
the right side of the ensuing page.
Let’s have
lunch together on June 16 (third Wednesday) and listen to Rick Lewis with
Schlumberger discuss “What Makes a Good
Gas Shale”. See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
May, 2010
I’ll start this
month with the results of my request to have readers e-mail me to let me
know that they read last month’s column. It was pretty bleak. I received a
total of three responses, which isn’t much, but it’s enough to keep me
going. I’ll just have to trust that these writings will serve a greater
purpose as an archive of information.
Friday night
(April 30), I spent a couple hours at the SPE Dallas Section Casino Night at
the Double Tree Hotel near Brookhaven College, and came away VERY impressed
with all aspects of the event. The venue was very conducive to this type of
function, the logistics were well organized and the attendance was
impressive. Casino Night had a 16-person committee with a wide variety of
representation by operators, service companies and consultants, and only one
company with more than one representative. This committee was also 25%
female. It says something when a committee like this contains six past or
future Dallas Section Chairs. Here is the actual committee:
Richard Lemon, Chairman Gary Patterson
Ben Elbel, Treasurer Gary Penner
Arved Von Zurmuehlen
Harold Hill
Brad Robinson
J. P. Herzog
Brian Chacka Jason Vining
Brian Walter Mary
Williamson
Cara Hill Peggy
Tibbetts
Dina Blair Steve
Plato
This is the
kind of successful organization we need to employ in other parts of the
Dallas Section. Richard Lemon informed me during Casino Night that they are
training people within the committee to take over positions of
responsibility, and that’s something else we need to do a better job of
throughout the Dallas Section. Congratulations Casino Night Committee on a
job extremely well-done!
The next event
from our Sports & Social group will be the 27th annual Dallas
Section Golf Tournament, which will be taking place on June 7.
Membership
Chairman Larry Champlin is working on some SPE Dallas Section logo
merchandise. Hopefully we can start rolling out some of this stuff soon and
start getting our brand out there. We also need to do a better job at all
of our meetings of showing our brand – every meeting needs to have a sign or
banner and we need to get those into the photos we take at meetings. Sara
Miller does a great job of taking photos, but she’s not everywhere. If you
are at a Dallas Section event with a camera, including the one in your
phone, take some pictures and submit them so we can get them on the
website. Documentation of everything we do is essential.
SPE continues
rewarding the people in our Section who deserve recognition. Two more of
our stellar members will be receiving Regional Awards this year:
Pat Handren
will be receiving a 2010 Regional Award for Completions Optimization and
Technology, and Brian Chacka will be receiving a 2010 Regional Outstanding
Young Member Award. Congratulations to both of these well-deserving
individuals.
I don’t think I
can avoid mentioning the oil industry event that is taking place in the Gulf
of Mexico. How does a multi-million dollar piece of equipment go from the
“before” photo to the “during” photo to a final resting place on the bottom
of the Gulf of Mexico 5000’ below the water surface? Will the federal
government really stop offshore drilling until the cause of this catastrophe
is known? What will be the long-term effects of this on our business and on
our planet?



Transocean Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig
Random
thought: Can I really entertain the idea of going paperless? Is anyone
actually doing this? I receive five trade journals every month, all as
paper copies. I like to actually carry them around, just like the daily
newspaper. Is it a generational thing? I can’t fold the corner of an
electronic page to mark my place. I do religiously recycle these paper
copies of trade journals; is that green enough? I really feel like I should
receive these journals electronically when they are available in that
format, but can the benefits of this to the publisher and the environment
actually be quantified? I’m certainly not to the point of wanting to carry
a kindle (or similar device) around on which to do all my reading.
What happened
to the green EMGI road-side signs around Brookhaven College that used to
guide visitors and directionally-challenged members to our luncheon venue?
They steadily disappeared, until now, I don’t see any remaining.
Let’s have
lunch together on May 19 (third Wednesday) and listen to Doug Walser with
Pinnacle discuss “Performing Up-Front
Science in Shale Plays with Marginal Thermal Maturity”.
We’ll be voting to approve the nominated slate of officers for 2010-2011.
See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
April, 2010
I’m taking time
this month to try to document two things involving your SPE Dallas Section
that don’t get much, if any, public scrutiny, but impact us in a big way.
Hopefully this will serve to make some things clearer for you and perhaps
serve to stimulate some dialogue.
1) Officer selection process
The annual
spring process of determining next year’s Board of Directors is underway.
Dallas Section by-laws require the current Chairman to appoint a Nomination
Committee no later than March 1, headed by the immediate Past Chairman, in
this case the very capable Steve Grape, and consisting of the current
Chairman, Chairman-Elect (Brian Chacka), Secretary (David Creach)
and one member-at-large (Steve selected Richard Lemon). Discussion
takes place among the committee members as to who wants to continue to
serve, who would be good in which position, etc. Because the Nominating
Committee changes every year, there’s always a different set of perspectives
to help keep things fresh. The all-important positions of Chairman-Elect
and Programs Chairman perhaps receive the most discussion and analysis.
Normally a few people drop off the board each year and a few new faces are
added. This year will be no exception. The Nominating Committee will be
presenting a slate of officers and directors at the April general luncheon,
and the slate will also be posted on the website once all candidates have
been contacted and confirmed as interested. Nominations from the floor can
be made by contacting the Chairman of the Nominating Committee no later than
April 30. Be on the look-out for the slate of officers for 2010-2011 and if
you have any questions about the process, please let me know. The actual
election of officers will take place during the month of May. During my
involvement with the Dallas Section, we have always used the alternate means
of election, which calls for the election to be held by accalamation at the
May meeting, with results announced right there and then by electronic means
(the by-laws also outline an election process by letter ballot, which would
take place during May, with results announced at the June meeting). If you
want to participate in the election process this year, I recommend that you
attend the May meeting.
One thing we
need to do a better job of, in regard to our officers, is promoting from
within, which in turn requires us to have capable people serving in
positions under our officers and directors. Positions like Programs
Chairman need to have committees working under them, not only to help make
each program a success, but to breed our future officers and directors.
This is an excellent opportunity for Young Professionals to make a
difference; YP’s already on the Board include Brian Chacka, Sara Miller
and Brent Haas. Whether you are a YP, or an “older” member like me, if
you have an interest in serving your Dallas Section, make your interest
known to a board member and find out how you can serve on a committee and
thereby start your own Dallas Section career path.
2) EMGI / SPE Dallas Section relationship
Those of you
who attend luncheons, Study Group and/or YP meetings are aware that the
Dallas Section has a relationship with the Ellison Miles Geotechnical
Institute, where virtually all of those meetings are held. And this is a
longstanding relationship at that. This is EMGI’s mission: “Promotes and
provides geoscience and related technical education through professional
development for users of geotechnology; instruction, materials, resources
and career guidance for teachers and strudents; interaction with and among
the geoscience community and community at large.” We are proud to be
considered Stakeholders in EMGI, which basically requires us to donate a
significant amount of money to the EMGI Outreach Fund; participate in
outreach activities, like career days and field trips; serve on the EMGI
Advisory Council, which updates and improves the strategic plan of the
Institute; and keep incoming officers advised of Stakeholder
responsibilities.
We contribute
$5000 annually to the Outreach Fund, which is dedicated to promoting the
geosciences to elementary through high school age students and teachers to
educate them on our industry and to encourage them to pursue the
geosciences, through classroom visits and field trips. SPE Dallas Section
participation in this process allows Petroleum Engineering to be included as
well. Several Dallas Section board members have been invited to serve on
the Advisory Council. Additional things we do for EMGI include alerting our
membership about upcoming EMGI programs and contributing to upkeep of the AV
equipment we use.
As long as we
honor our Stakeholder requirements, what we are entitled to includes
advanced reservations for rooms in which we hold our meetings; free AV and
IT support; free parking; and janitorial service. We have found EMGI to be
a tremendous facility, with great audio-visual capabilities, central
location and reasonable parking, not to mention the fact that it is geared
towards the energy industry. We typically use rooms at EMGI at least three
times per month, and we are able to cater the food ourselves.
In order to
facilitate a smooth relationship with EMGI, Dallas Section
Directors-at-Large Brad Robinson and Deborah Hempel-Medina have
recently taken on the additional role of EMGI Liaison. They are our
point-people for all dealings with EMGI. Brad and Deborah
have already proven themselves to be valuable resources in dealing with EMGI
(among other things).
The bottom line
is that this is a two-way relationship and a mutually beneficial
partnership.
Hopefully in
the near future we’ll be unveiling some changes to the Dallas Section
website, including a re-vamped Scholarship page, a page dedicated to SPE
International and new pages for Sports and Social and also Community
Relations. EMGI will also have a more prominent place on our website.
The YP softball
tournament later this month will be raising money for a Dallas Section
donation to the Tom Hunt Energy Hall at the under-construction
Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory
Park. If you haven’t heard about this, please check out this link:
http://www.natureandscience.org/expansion/media_assets/release_tom_hunt_energy_hall.asp.
The following quote from that page gives you just an overview of what this
thing is all about: “The Tom Hunt Energy Hall, named in honor of Hunt
Petroleum Chairman Tom Hunt, recognizes the $10 million early leadership
gift that Hunt Petroleum made to the Museum in 2005 to move the Expansion
Project forward. World-class and Texas-sized, the new 6,500-square-foot
gallery will be dedicated to telling the rich geological and historical
stories of nature’s energy sources and exploring how science and technology
are used to capture the vast array of traditional and alternative energy
resources.” Brian Chacka is working on a way to get interested
Dallas Section members a closer look at how the construction is developing.
I have the
feeling that not many people read this column each month, so I would like to
try to quantify that feeling. If you have read this far, please take a
couple of seconds immediately (before you forget) to send me an e-mail
(before April 25). The subject line can be as simple as “read it” and
nothing is required in the body. My e-mail address is
dave_hamilton@nexeninc.com. Thanks for participating. I’ll try to
remember to include the results in next month’s column, unless no one
responds, in which case, I may abandon the effort of writing a Chairman’s
Corner!
Let’s have
lunch together on April 21 (the third Wednesday – finally!) and listen to
Matt Blauch of Superior Well Services
discuss “Hydraulic Fracturing in Shale - Engineering Challenges and
Solutions Created by Environmental, Media and Perception”. We’ll be
entertaining some guests from SPEI. See you at EMGI.
David
Hamilton, Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
March, 2010
The end of February marks the mid-point of my term as Dallas Section
Chairman. Right now, I can’t tell if the glass is half-full or half-empty.
I watched a lot of Olympics coverage over the last 2.5 weeks, and finally
realized that I wanted to tie that into my column this month. Unfortunately
the plan I came up with (to look at our business at each point the US won
the gold medal in Olympic hockey, including 2010) did not come to fruition,
because of Sidney Crosby’s goal in overtime. I’m still going to pursue my
angle, but it just won’t be as seamless as I had hoped. Before I actually
tie in some oil business here, is anyone else aware of the US hockey team’s
overall history in the Olympics? Everyone’s aware of the 1980 Miracle On
Ice, and right now, there’s probably a lot who remember the 1960 gold medal
also. However, were you aware that in addition to those two gold medals,
the US has won the silver medal eight times (1920, 1924, 1932, 1952, 1956,
1972, 2002 and now 2010) and has only one bronze medal ever (1936)? Were
you also aware that hockey was introduced at the Summer Olympics in 1920,
before moving permanently to the Winter Olympics in 1924?
When the US won the gold medal in hockey in 1960, it was the year before I
was born. Dwight Eisenhower was President. SPE membership worldwide was
less than 15,000. Venezuelan Sun Oil Co. installed the world’s first
automated production platform and largest (100,000 BOPD) flow station at
Lake Maracaibo. In the Gulf of Mexico, the first platform in 200’ of water
was built at South Timbalier Block 132B. The first exploration offshore
Alaska had taken place the year before. Billionaire oilman and
philanthropist, Sid Richardson, had died the year before. Petty Ray
Geophysical introduced the common depth point technique for the horizontal
stacking of seismic data. It was the time of
the Seven Sisters, comprised of the companies that came to be known as
Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, Gulf, BP and Shell. The names “Exxon” and
“Chevron” did not yet actually exist. The names “Mobil” and “Texaco” had
just come on the scene. On September 14, the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) came into being, for the purpose of negotiating
with oil companies on matters of petroleum production, prices, and
concession rights. The first member nations of the cartel were Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
When the US won the gold medal in hockey in 1980, I was a freshman in
college, and had been a member of SPE for less than one year. SPE
membership was around 39,000. The Miracle On Ice took place in Lake Placid,
NY, when the young team from USA defeated the team from USSR (are you old
enough to remember that nomenclature?) in a huge upset, then beat Finland to
claim the gold medal. Jimmy Carter was President.
A second energy crisis had occurred in 1979
after the Iranian Revolution transformed oil-rich Iran from an autocratic,
pro-West monarchy under the Shah, to an Islamic theocracy under the rule of
Ayatollah Khomeini. Iran's oil supply was largely curtailed, prompting
President Carter to call the new energy crisis "the moral equivalent of war"
in a nationally televised speech.
In
September 1980, Iran, already weakened by the revolution, was invaded by
Iraq. Two months later, the combined production of the two countries was
only a million barrels per day, which was 6.5 million barrels per day less
than a year before, resulting in worldwide crude oil production that was 10
percent lower than the year before. The combination of the Iranian
revolution and the Iraq-Iran War caused crude oil prices to more than double
from $14 in 1978 to $35 per barrel in 1981. Also in 1980, the United States
enacted the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act as part of a compromise
between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of
crude oil prices. The Act was intended to recoup the revenue earned by oil
producers as a result of the sharp increase in oil prices brought about by
the OPEC oil embargo. OPEC members in 1980 included the original five plus
Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and
Gabon (13 total). OPEC was a huge player in the world of oil. The name
“Chevron” still did not yet exist.
The US almost won the gold medal in hockey in 2010 (as I said earlier,
Sidney Crosby spoiled my angle here by putting those silver medals around
our necks again, but nevertheless, I’m plowing ahead). I have now been a
member of SPE for 30 years. SPE membership is greater than 92,000. Showing
that hydrocarbons are still waiting to be exploited, the US is now the
world’s largest gas producer with the proliferation of all the shale gas
plays, and what’s left of the majors are coming back here and investing in
those plays. A major natural gas field has been discovered in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, the first large field discovered
in this area, which has been mostly unexplored until recently. Israel,
which has been nearly 100% dependent on imported fuel sources, could
eventually become a natural gas exporter. There’s even talk of exploring
for hydrocarbons in the Arctic, once enough of the ice cap melts or breaks
away. OPEC is not involved in any of these areas. This is the 50th
anniversary of the formation of OPEC. OPEC members in 2010 are Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, UAE, Algeria, Nigeria,
Ecuador and Angola (13 total). OPEC has been unable to come up with
production strategies that appeal to the diverse interests of its members,
now located on three different continents. OPEC supplies approximately 37
per cent of world demand, but their share of the market has been declining
and continues to decline.
The first half of this ride as SPE Dallas Section
Chairman has been a good one (for me, at least). As a Board of Directors,
we’ve got multiple irons still in the fire, some things I hope we can finish
up before the end of my term, and some things that we’ll probably have to
leave for completion under your next Chairman, Brian Chacka.
Let’s have lunch together at yet another abnormally scheduled luncheon on
March 24 (4th Wednesday; to avoid Spring Break) and listen to Dr.
James Crafton discuss Modeling Flowback Behavior or Flowback Equals “Slowback”.
See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
My research for this column led me to the first photo below. I was not
familiar with the Baker Hotel, so I did a little more research and was
unable to find even where it was located. I can confirm that the building
was imploded, and the second photo, which I found on the internet, was
labeled as something like Baker Hotel implosion.


February, 2010
My column last month focused on SPE professional membership; this month, I’m
looking at student membership. Why? The Dallas Section, among many others,
provides scholarships to deserving students as part of our mission, so
students are intimately integrated into everything we do. Here’s some
verbiage on “university students”, as they are referred to in the SPE Member
Resource Guide:
“SPE encourages young people to consider a career in the petroleum
industry. With a vast array of career paths and the opportunity for travel
and adventure, the petroleum industry offers the chance to work in many
locations around the globe. Student members can participate in many aspects
of SPE’s programs and are given an invaluable connection to the E&P industry
while still attending school. SPE also offers scholarship programs and
technical paper contests to help students take the first step in their
careers.”
SPE student organizations are called “chapters”, and there are more than 200
chapters worldwide. Each chapter is affiliated with a “section”, which are
SPE’s professional organizations (like your Dallas Section). Unfortunately
for us, there are no student chapters in the vicinity of the Dallas Section
(in fact, there are only four student chapters in our entire Mid-Continent
Region), so we are not currently in position to support a student chapter.
We have done some investigating and while nothing has come together, it does
appear that there could be the makings of a student chapter in the Metroplex,
even if it required combining students from multiple schools. Consider that
a work-in-progress. The Dallas Section does have around 10 student members,
out of around 1500 total members. Worldwide (in 2007), SPE had 16,700
student members out of total membership of 73,000; so 23% of all members
were students at that time.
You may be aware, particularly if you are a recent college graduate, that
all SPE student memberships have been paid by a corporate benefactor since
2002. Halliburton was the sponsor for the first five years of this program,
then Chevron took over from October 2007 through September 2009. That
program has now come to an end. Student memberships are $14; SPE is paying
for any student who cannot pay, but they are looking for help in that regard
from sections and individuals. The Dallas Section Board of Directors is
considering options for helping out. If you are so inclined, consider
kicking in some money for a few $14 student memberships at your alma mater.
Here’s more from the Member Resource Guide:
“Requirements for Student Membership
Be a student in good standing carrying at least 30% of a normal, full-time
academic load in petroleum engineering or related field, AND have at least
one of the following:
Be pursuing a degree equivalent to a bachelors or graduate
degree OR
Be attending a university that has an established,
board-approved SPE student chapter”
Have you ever attended PetroBowl at ATCE? Have you ever heard of PetroBowl?
From the SPE Gulf Coast Section PetroBowl Committee Mission Statement:
“PetroBowl matches SPE student chapter teams from around the world against
each other in a fast-paced quiz competition. Similar to an academic
decathlon, the competing teams are challenged to answer both technical and
non-technical questions associated with the oil and gas industry. The
contest, organized by the SPE Gulf Coast Section Young Professionals Board,
has grown in size and popularity each year.” The most recent contest was
sponsored by PetroSkills.
New Orleans hosted the 8th annual PetroBowl during ATCE in
October. While University of Texas won this one, previous winners have been
Texas Tech, Texas A&M (twice), Montana Tech, Colorado School of Mines and
Oklahoma University (twice). The 2009 competition was also the largest ever
(16 teams), with the largest international participation ever (4 teams).
Teams are comprised of four members each. One thing I don’t know is how
each school selects its four members. For winning in New Orleans,
University of Texas received the silver trophy and a check for $2500 from
Encana. Not a bad day’s work.
The purpose of this exercise is to bring students more to the forefront for
Dallas Section members. We don’t deal with them on a regular basis, but all
of us who are degreed Petroleum Engineers were students once upon a time.
When you attend Dallas Section events like Casino Night, Golf Tournament, or
Sporting Clays, or the Haynesville Shale symposium or a monthly luncheon, or
even SPE’s HEES, remember that not only are you having a good time or
learning something, but you are helping to support a student’s scholarship,
which hopefully will lead that student into the oil and gas industry. And
that student could be somebody you work with in the near future, or could be
your replacement if your hair is gray enough. More on the scholarship
process itself in a future column.
Let’s have lunch together at another abnormally scheduled luncheon on
February 3 and listen to Distinguished Lecturer Stuart Cox of Marathon Oil
Co. discuss “Effects of Complex Reservoir Geometries and Completion
Practices on Production Analysis in Tight Gas Reservoirs.” See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
January, 2010
If you are reading this, odds are pretty good that you are a member
of SPE. Since I became Chairman of the Dallas Section, I have found myself
more interested in the question, "why am I (or anyone else for that matter)
a member of SPE?". Here are some quotes from the SPE Membership Resource
Guide (several different ways of conveying the same message):
"Membership in SPE allows oil and gas professionals from around the world to
connect and share ideas, answers and resources."
"SPE's mission is to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge
concerning the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas
resources and related technologies for the public benefit; and to provide
opportunities for professionals to enhance their technical and professional
competence."
"SPE provides a global forum for the exchange of technology to meet the
world's energy needs both today and in the future."
SPE has more than 88,000 members in more than 118 countries, and what a
tremendous networking opportunity this presents. Through luncheons,
conferences, on-line technical interest groups, the SPE website, the Dallas
Section website and the Journal of Petroleum Technology (included with
membership), we as Petroleum Engineers have the ability to learn, seek
information and counsel from colleagues outside our employers, and share
knowledge with others. Even though the name includes the words "Petroleum
Engineers", SPE "is a place for all of today's industry professionals,
regardless of experience or course of study." All facets of the energy
industry can interact through SPE resources to improve themselves and others
and the business in general. This networking also applies to establishing
contacts for use in times of occupational turmoil, ie, job hunting. So what
is specifically in it for me (David Hamilton)?
What is my personal benefit from being involved, all the way to Dallas
Section Chairman?
Allows me to improve my leadership skills in a setting outside of my job.
Allows me to improve my presentation and public-speaking skills in a setting
outside of my job. Allows me to work with a cross-section of industry
professionals, from producers and service companies; public, private and
government entities; women and men; wide range of ages; variety of
ethnicities; in a different environment from my office; working toward
different goals than I have at work, but toward common goals for the
betterment of the industry and ourselves. Allows me to expand my circle of
contacts within the industry. Allows me to leave my personal stamp on an
organization that's been around longer than my employer, and to help
perpetuate an organization that has goals and objectives I believe in.
Allows me to satisfy my belief that volunteer work is important, including
professionally (satisfies my professional "volunteer jones"). Allows me to
get good people involved to help me. And serving as an officer allows me to
claim five hours of Continuing Education credit annually towards my PE
license.
What my service doesn't get me:
Free entry into luncheons. Free trips to ATCE. A salary from SPE. A
guarantee of life-time employment. My name in lights. Preferred status
anywhere. A cup of coffee at 7-11. Any perks whatsoever. A bunch of free
time.
And yet I continue to serve, because it is worth it. See you on January 13
at EMGI for our next luncheon.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
December, 2009
The time is
still now to re-new your SPE membership, or to become a member of SPE!
Last month, I
mentioned AIME and subsequently realized at Joseph Ayoub’s Distinguished
Lecture that I short-changed us in that discussion. AIME is now fully known
as the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum
Engineers.
The graph below
shows the age distribution of the Dallas Section, with the most recent
statistics. You can see from the comments in the box that the “graying” of
the Dallas Section has been in reverse for the last four years. Apparently
we have discovered a fountain of youth, providing us with a steady influx of
new young members. We are rapidly approaching a point where one-fourth of
our membership will be under the age of 40. The Dallas Section average age
is more than the worldwide SPE average, but even there we are gaining. Only
two years ago, our average age was 54. Thank you to all you under-40’s for
instilling new life in the Dallas Section. Don’t be afraid to get involved
and make this your section. A great place to start is with our Young
Professionals, under the leadership of Sara Miller.

I sincerely
appreciate the Dallas Section membership’s patience with our programming
this year. We are really testing you with few programs taking place on our
regular schedule of third Wednesday of the month. The quality of our
programming is as good as ever, but speaker circumstances are forcing us to
be flexible in scheduling. Of our first six speakers this program year
(starting in September), only one will have been on the third Wednesday. We
have four Distinguished Lecturers this program year and we are at the mercy
of their schedules as they travel around the world delivering their
speeches. Also, we are extremely fortunate that Dr. Fattahi is taking time
from his busy schedule to talk to us while he is in town on SPE
International business, and we had to take the opportunity while it was
available. Please bear with us as our off-beat schedule continues through
February; perhaps from March through August we can get back on our “usual”
schedule, although by then, we all may have forgotten that we used to have a
“usual” schedule.
I’ll have more
to say about this as the time approaches, but the SPE Hydrocarbon
Economics and Evaluation Symposium (HEES) will be taking place in Dallas
at the Hotel Intercontinental in March 2010. “Since 1962, the Hydrocarbon
Economics and Evaluation Symposium (HEES) has attracted some of the world’s
leading financial analysts and management professionals to Dallas to discuss
the economics of oil and gas exploration and production.” You may recall
that the last HEES was held in 2007. This is still a biennial (*) event,
but in order to try to better position HEES relative to some other symposia,
the decision was made to move it to even numbered years going forward, and
that’s why there’s been such a long gap. Dallas Section stalwart Nick Duane
is 2010 Chairman.
Let’s have
lunch together (really early this month) on December 1 and listen to
2010 SPE President Dr. Behrooz Fattahi discuss the challenges facing our
industry. We’ll be presenting some more awards and acknowledging at
least one Legion of Honor member. See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
November, 2009
The time is now
to re-new your SPE membership, or to become a member of SPE!
The Dallas
Section has been involved in some organizational change lately, and unless
you’re really paying attention, you probably missed it. SPEI has
re-organized its North American regions, and as part of that, the Dallas
Section is now in a different region. Prior to ATCE, Dallas Section was
part of the Central and Southeast North America Region; since ATCE, Dallas
Section is part of the Mid-Continent North America Region, along with the
following sections: Ft. Worth, East Texas, Lou-Ark, Illinois Basin & Gas
Storage, Anadarko, Arkansas, Bartlesville, Mid-Continent, Oklahoma City,
Southwestern Oklahoma and Wichita; and along with the student chapters at
Kansas University, Oklahoma University, Tulsa University and Missouri
University of Science & Technology. SPEI took the Eastern Region, Central
and Southeastern Region and Mid-Continent Region and re-formed them into a
bigger Eastern Region and a bigger Mid-Continent Region, thereby eliminating
the Central and Southeastern Region. They kept the total number of North
American regions the same (7) by making Canada its own region, taking it out
of the Rocky Mountain Region, which is now confined to the US. You can see
the “before” map on the left below, and the “after” map on the right below.
 
At each
luncheon for the rest of this program year, we’ll be giving away a copy of
Oil and Natural Gas as a door prize. This is “SPE’s first
educational book, telling the story of petroleum and natural gas and how it
shapes our world. Easy to read and loaded with colorful photos, diagrams,
and graphics – the book is appropriate for younger students, school
libraries, and for use as a textbook.” If the book doesn’t contain anything
you don’t already know, consider donating it to your child’s school library,
or using it as a teaching tool for non-technical staff at your office.
These are the same books that SPEI donates to schools at which SPE members
make a presentation. Distribution of these books is in keeping with SPE’s
mission to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge concerning
the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources, and
related technologies for the public benefit.
During ATCE this year, I was
reminded again of our relationship with AIME, the American Institute of
Mining Engineers, and wondered yet again how the two societies are related.
AIME, founded in 1871, formed a standing committee on oil and gas in 1913,
to address the growing field of petroleum engineering in the years after
Spindletop was discovered in 1901. This committee became one of AIME’s 10
professional divisions in 1922, and continued to grow. The Petroleum
Division became one of three separate branches of AIME by 1950. On 10/6/57,
the first SPE Board of Directors meeting took place, marking the final
transition to a professional society. SPE is still one of four member
societies within AIME, along with the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and
Exploration (SME), the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) and
The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS). “AIME supports the
advancement of our Member Societies and represents the Societies in the
larger engineering and scientific communities.” So there you have it; we
were born within AIME, and continue to be a part of it, although most of us
probably don’t realize it unless we are reminded.
Larry Champlin
is our 2009-2010 Membership Chairman. If you are reading this and are not a
member of SPE, please see Larry at the front table at a luncheon and let him
help you become a member.
Let’s have
lunch together on Nov 4 and listen to Distinguished Lecturer Joseph Ayoub
discuss mitigating damage created during hydraulic fracturing. We’ll be
presenting some more awards and acknowledging at least one Legion of Honor
member. See you at EMGI. And don’t forget about our (early) December
luncheon, with 2010 SPEI President Dr. Behrooz Fattahi, on Tuesday, December
1.
David Hamilton,
Chairman
SPE Dallas
Section
2009-2010
October, 2009
This month in New Orleans will be SPE’s Annual
Technical Conference & Exhibition (ATCE), wherein current President Leo
Roodhart will step down and 2010 President Fehrooz Battahi will take over.
Dallas Section Program Chairman, P. J. Edsall, has successfully lined up Dr.
Battahi to speak at our December luncheon, which will be on Tuesday,
December 1, in order to accommodate Dr. Battahi’s schedule. You can become
more familiar with Dr. Battahi and his plans as President by reading the
interview in the September 2009 edition of JPT. Dr. Battahi is Coordinator,
Heavy Oil Development for Aera Energy. SPE says the ATCE has been taking
place since 1924, which would make this the 85th happening if it has taken
place every year since then. Of course, the Society of Petroleum Engineers
has not been in business by that name all that time, so the event may have
had other names in the past.
The Dallas Section is home to several more award
winners this year. Danny Bell has joined an impressive list of previous
winners of the International Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes
contributions to the Society that exhibit such exceptional devotion of time,
effort, thought, and action as to set them apart from other contributions,
and he will be recognized at ATCE. Alan Roachell is receiving a Regional
Health, Safety and Environment Award, which recognizes outstanding
accomplishments in the field of environmental protection, health, or safety
in oil and gas exploration, drilling, or production operations. Nick Duane
is receiving a Regional Service Award, which acknowledges exceptional
contributions to the Society at the section or regional level, and
recognizes singular devotion of time and effort to the programs and
development of the member's section and region that set it apart from the
services rendered each year by many members of the Society. Alan and Nick
will automatically become eligible for consideration for international
awards next year, and their names are included in an article entitled, “2009
SPE Regional Award Winners Named” in the October 2009 JPT.
Congratulations! Photos of Alan and Nick receiving their awards from
Regional Director Dean McPhearson at the 9/23/09 luncheon can be found on
the Dallas Section website.
The SPE Legion of Honor is for those members who
have had 50 consecutive years of membership. The Dallas Section has 10 new
members of this prestigious group and we hope to acknowledge all of them at
an upcoming luncheon. They are: Ernest M. Barnett, Gerald L. Bell, Robert
A. Cooksey, C. R. Hunnicutt Jr., Carroll F. Mahoney, Robert L. Patterson,
Allen L. Smith, Thomas E. Williams, Bertram O. Wood and Kantilal P. Desai.
Each will receive a framed certificate from SPE and mention in an upcoming
issue of JPT. Additionally, Legion of Honor members receive complimentary
SPE membership for life and complimentary registration for ATCE.
Tremendous praise needs to be heaped upon the
committee that successfully presented the Haynesville Gas Shale Technology
Symposium on September 15. Photos from the event are accessible from the
Dallas Section website. Look for coverage of this event in the “Techbits”
section in an upcoming issue of JPT. I am extremely pleased with how the
event went, and it has made the Dallas Section quite visible to a bigger
population.
Larry Champlin is our 2009-2010 Membership
Chairman. If you are reading this and are not a member of SPE, please see
Larry at the front table at a luncheon and let him help you become a
member.
Let’s have lunch together on Oct 21 and let
Charles Pennington with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers remind us
about our ethical obligations in regard to our PE licenses. Please join us
even if you are not a PE. We’ll be presenting some more awards and
acknowledging at least one Legion of Honor member. See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton, Chairman
SPE Dallas Section
2009-2010
September, 2009
It is an honor to take on the challenge of
following Steve Grape as Chairman of the SPE Dallas Section. I have enjoyed
serving, and learning, as Chairman-elect during his year in office. I hope
to serve my successor, Brian Chacka, as well as Steve has mentored me.
Speaking of Brian Chacka, he put together a very successful program year and
deserves commendation. The rest of the outgoing board, while lower in
profile, had a great year also and served the Dallas Section well. We have
some new people on the Board of Directors this year (along with many of the
old familiar faces) and I look forward to having their input. Getting new
ideas and new perspectives is going to help keep the Dallas Section from
getting stale.
Some of you may be wondering where I have been for
the last year. In this crazy system we use in the Dallas Section, one
usually starts the direct ascension roller coaster to the Chairmanship by
becoming Program Chairman, which puts your face out front at every
luncheon. The next step is Chairman-Elect, which has few actual
responsibilities and could be used effectively as part of the Witness
Protection Program. Finally, you become Chairman for a year, which puts
your face back out front at every luncheon. Alas, the final step is back
into anonymity, as Past Chairman.
I actually had no idea what I was signing up for
as I was going through a series of tables my freshman year in 1979. Turns
out it was the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and I have now been a member
for 30 years. I have to admit that my only involvement was attending the
occasional meeting, until Betsy Cook asked me to work at the front desk at
Dallas Section luncheons. That led Nick Duane to ask me to serve on the
Board of Directors as Secretary, and now, several years later, I am
following both Betsy and Nick (and many others) as Dallas Section Chairman.
What this should tell you is that it's never too late to get involved in SPE.
Earlier this year, an idea was hatched for
a Haynesville Gas Shale Symposium, and the Dallas Section has nurtured the
idea into a full-blown happening. Brian Chacka and Brad Robinson have been
the main drivers in making this thing a reality, along with Rick Middaugh
and Steve Grape, and on September 15 at the Dallas Hilton Lincoln Center,
we'll get to see the fruit of their labors. A tremendous amount of effort
has gone into this program, and I hope you're one of the lucky 275 who get
in to participate. This is more quality programming from your Dallas
Section.
We are lucky this program year to have an extra
Distinguished Lecturer, giving us four in total, starting with this month’s
luncheon. The Distinguished Lecturer program started in 1961 with only
three speakers, and has grown to 35-40 lecturers per year. A DL committee
reviews and selects candidates who are recognized as experts on their
subject matter and are nominated by their peers for the chance to travel the
world giving their presentation. You can learn more about this program, as
well as get a list of past Distinguished Lecturers, and download
presentations from the last three years, by going to
www.spe.org then
clicking on “Meetings/Events” and then “Distinguished Lecturers”.
Let’s have lunch together on Sept 23 and listen to
Kamel Bennaceur tell us about “Carbon Capture and Storage in the Global
Energy Perspective”. See you at EMGI.
David Hamilton, Chairman
SPE Dallas Section
2009-2010
AUGUST, 2009
This is my last month serving as President
of the Dallas Section. It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve you this
past year, and the fulfillment of a long-held personal goal. I want to
gratefully acknowledge the hard work performed by my Board of Directors and
Event Committee members, whose efforts enabled our Section’s programs to
succeed in spectacular fashion. But most of all I want to thank our
membership, from our newest engineers-in-training to the venerable members
of our SPE Legion of Honor, for your steadfast support of our Section and
the mission of SPE regardless of the spot prices at Cushing or the Henry
Hub. Windmills and electric cars are not the future of America’s Energy
Success – it is dedicated energy professionals like you!
We have a terrific set of SPE programs for
August that make it well worth enduring a bit of Texas summer heat to
attend! Check them out!
On Wednesday August 19th, our
guest will be Roy M. Knapp, Retired Professor and SPE Regional
Director, University of Oklahoma, who will speak to us about “Microbial
Enhanced Oil Recovery technology – has its time come?”. Join us at EMGI
Brookhaven for our Dallas Section monthly luncheon. Our price is $20 for
members with a reservation – and $25 at the door if you don’t make a
reservation! For directions and to reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
On Monday, August 10, 2009 the Dallas
Section SPE Young Professionals will host their third Lunch and Learn
program at 11:30am at EMGI. Luke Rollins of SageRider, Inc.
will speak about “Intelligent Wellbores: Surface Surveillance
Technologies.” Our price for members is $15, walkups are $20.
On Wednesday, August 26th, our Production
Study Group will meet at 11:30am at EMGI. John Frick, President,
Frick Engineering, Inc. will give a presentation on “Oil & Gas
Production-Influenced Completion Materials Requirements”. Cost: $18
with a reservation or $25 (non members and at the door).
NOTICE! VENUE CHANGE DUE TO
POPULARITY!
HAYNESVILLE SHALE GAS TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM
MOVES TO THE HILTON LINCOLN CENTER!
On Tuesday, September 15th the
SPE Dallas Section, in partnership with EMGI and SIPES, will be holding a
1-day “Haynesville Gas Shale Technology Symposium”. We have grown too
large for our usual room at EMGI, so this Symposium will now be held at the
Hilton Hotel at Lincoln Center from 8:00am to 5:00pm. This exceptional
event will feature presentations by several operators with a major stake in
the Haynesville on the Geology, Petrophysics, Drilling, Completions,
Stimulation, and Reserves of the Haynesville Shale Play. There will also be
a Core display, exhibits, and poster session. Our keynote luncheon speaker
for this symposium will be Floyd C. Wilson, the President and CEO of
Petrohawk Energy Corporation. All the content and coverage you’d expect from
a symposium costing hundreds of dollars to attend, all for a bargain SPE
Dallas Section price of $150 to register! With the increase in venue size,
we now have more exhibitor space and conference seats! Reservations and
sponsorship information are still available here on our web site!
Thanks for Everything, Dallas Section! See
you at the meetings! On August 31, I confidently pass the Presidential torch
to my successor, David Hamilton. Y’all will be in good hands this
last quarter and in 2010!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
Are you ready for some Football? Our first
pre-season NFL home game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington will be on August
21 versus the Tennessee Titans.
The Texas Rangers are in second place in the
American League West Division and are 60-47.
4½ games behind the Angels, and 2 behind the
Red Socks for the AL Wildcard.
Hockey and Basketball fans, y’all are on
vacation until October.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
JULY,
2009
The Texas Summer is here, Dallas Section! As if you didn’t know it already,
having endured a week of 100+ temperatures and precious little rain. But
there is more to look forward to this July than the rockets’ red glare and a
backyard barbecue – check out our awesome schedule of SPE summer programs!
On Thursday, July 9, 2009 the Dallas Section SPE Young Professionals will
host their second Lunch and Learn program at 11:30am at EMGI. Terry Palisch
with Carbo Ceramics will be covering “Well Stimulation 101” with an extended
session from 1-2pm on “Hydraulic Fracture Design Considerations”. Our price
for members is $15 and you can make a reservation online here on our
website.
O n Wednesday July 15th, Dr. John Lee, Professor Emeritus from Texas A&M
University and our SPE inside man who advised the Securities and Exchange
Commission about the importance of Reserves Definitions will give us a
presentation about the “New Reserves Guidelines” now in place! Join us at
EMGI Brookhaven for our Dallas Section monthly luncheon. Our price is $20
for members with a reservation – and $25 at the door if you don’t make a
reservation! For directions and to reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
Coming up on August 19th, our guest will be Roy Knapp, Retired Professor and
SPE Regional Director, University of Oklahoma, who will speak to us about
“Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery”.
Mark your calendars now for Tuesday, September 15th! The SPE Dallas Section,
in partnership with EMGI and SIPES, will be holding a 1-day “Haynesville Gas
Shale Technology Symposium”. Held at EMGI from 8:00am to 5:00pm, this
exceptional event will feature presentations by several operators with a
major stake in the Haynesville on the Geology, Petrophysics, Drilling,
Completions, Stimulation, and Reserves of the Haynesville Shale Play. There
will also be a Core display, exhibits, and poster session. Our keynote
luncheon speaker for this symposium will be Floyd C. Wilson, the President
and CEO of Petrohawk Energy Corporation. All the content and coverage you’d
expect from a symposium costing hundreds of dollars to attend, all for a
bargain SPE Dallas Section price of $150 to register! Reservations and
sponsorship information are available here on our web site! Registered
Attendance will be capped at 200 in order to comply with State Fire Code
laws, so an early reservation isn’t just prudent, it’s mandatory if you want
to get in!
Happy Independence Day, Dallas Section! We look forward to seeing you at one
of our Dallas SPE Events!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
The Texas Rangers are in second place in the American League West Division
and are 41-35.
Dallas’ major league soccer team, FC Dallas (What does the FC stand for
anyways? Fris Co?) is 3-7-5 and is in 7th place (of 8 teams) in the MLS
Western conference.
There is light at the end of the summer sports tunnel! NFL Football returns
next month, and our first pre-season NFL home game in our glorious new
cathedral of sport (in Arlington *grumble*) will be on August 21 versus the
Tennessee Titans.
Hockey and Basketball fans, y’all are on vacation until October.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
JUNE,
2009
School’s
Out and the Texas Summer arrives this month, Dallas Section! Take a moment
to see what programs the Dallas Section of SPE is bringing you this month
and your eyebrows will shoot up higher than the mercury! We have an
excellent set of programs queued up to make this an awesome summer at SPE.
Our 26th
Annual SPE Golf Tournament was Monday,
June 1st. 72
teams competed for top honors on the links at the Lakes and Old Courses at
Firewheel Golf Park in Garland, Texas. Many thanks to John Tabor and his
hard-working Golf Tournament Committee for their efforts creating and
running such a great event! With deep gratitude, I also thank the tournament
sponsors for their support of our Section and our scholarship program.
On Wednesday, June 17
our guest will be Todd Brown, Asset Manager at EnCana, who will
update us on EnCana’s operations in the “Haynesville Shale”. Make
your reservations now, right here on our website so that you’ll be assured a
seat! Our price for luncheons is $20 for members with a reservation – and
$25 at the door if you don’t make a reservation! For directions and to
reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
Coming up in July, on
Wednesday the 15th, Dr. John Lee, Professor Emeritus from
Texas A&M University and our SPE inside man who advised the Securities and
Exchange Commission about the importance of Reserves Definitions will give
us a presentation about the “New Reserves Guidelines” now in place!
It’s going to be a
great summer, Dallas Section! Have fun and we look forward to seeing you at
a Dallas SPE Event!
For Dallas Sports
Fans:
The Texas Rangers
still lead the American League West Division and are 30-20.
Two months in a row?
Amazing! Once the Stanley Cup Finals are over (and with Detroit leading
Pittsburgh 2-0 that might be soon) I plan to indulge in some serious
baseball watching!
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
MAY,
2009
Spring is here in full force, Dallas, and if you’re like me, the inbox on
your desk is as high as the pollen count on certain days! Nonetheless, the
Dallas Section of SPE has some awesome programming set up this May and you
should take a moment to pencil us in on your rapidly-darkening calendar!
Our Annual SPE Night fundraiser was Friday, May 1st and we had an amazing
evening of fun and fellowship. Congratulations to our Night Committee for
their hard work creating and running such a great event!

On Wednesday, May 20 we have a very high profile guest at our monthly
luncheon! Our guest will be Douglas H. Miller, Chairman, EXCO Resources
Board of Directors. His topic will be “Where is the Industry Headed?” Make
your reservations now, right here on our website so that you’ll be assured a
seat! Our price for luncheons is $20 for members with a reservation – and
$25 at the door if you don’t make a reservation! For directions and to
reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
Coming up in June, on Wednesday the 17th, our guest will be Todd Brown,
Asset Manager at EnCana, who will update us on what they’re doing with the
Haynesville Shale.
Have a good Memorial Day weekend, Dallas Section, and remember to register
now if you have not already done so for our Golf Tournament on June 1st out
at Firewheel!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
The Dallas Mavericks are 0-3 in their Conference Semifinals versus the
Denver Nuggets, having beaten the San Antonio Spurs in a memorable 5-game
series. They’re not eliminated yet but their backs are against the wall and
questionable officiating cost them dearly – a crude parallel could be drawn
here regarding $50 oil prices…
The Texas Rangers, THE TEXAS RANGERS!, currently lead the American League
West Division and are 17-14. There is still a metric ton of baseball to be
played before October, but ain’t it nice to be in the lead?
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
APRIL,
2009
“April Showers Bring May Flowers” is how the
old saw goes, but this is Dallas, and April Showers can also bring
baseball-sized hailstones! In spite of the potential for thunderstorms, I
welcome the consistently warmer weather and enjoy this time of year,
especially the blooming redbud and dogwood trees. In addition to getting out
in the yard on the weekend, you should look forward to getting out to the
great events the Dallas Section of SPE has in store for you this month!
On Wednesday, April 22 our guest will be
Dr. Stephen A. Holditch, Professor and Department Head of Petroleum
Engineering at Texas A&M University. His topic will be “Stimulation of Tight
Gas Sands Worldwide”
Make your reservations online right here on
our website! Our price for luncheons is $20 for members with a reservation –
and $25 at the door if you don’t make a reservation! Save your spot and save
5 bucks to boot! For directions and to reserve your spot, click the link
below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
Other meetings you might consider attending:
The SPE Production Operations Symposium in
Oklahoma City, April 4-7.
Offshore Technology Conference 2009,
Houston, May 4-7.
Our Production Study Group has a talk on the
Haynesville Shale on April 29th. Dan Buller of Halliburton
will discuss “Reservoir Evaluation in the Haynesville to Optimize Drilling
and Stimulation.” Use the link above to register online.
Our Annual SPE Ca$ino Night fundraiser is
Friday, May 1st! Get your reservation in by April 15th
and receive an extra $1000 in chips! You don’t want to delay and be left
standing at the door, this event sells out! We have a new venue this year,
the Dallas Doubletree Hotel on Valley View Lane (West of Midway off I-635).
Dallas, risk a little hail and get out of
the office to join us at SPE this month! Your knowledge will blossom.
Have a Happy Easter, Dallas Section!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
The Stars are 12th in the Western
Conference and 6 points behind Anaheim and Nashville for the 8th
playoff spot. Barring a miraculous finish, our Stars are done for the year
at the end of the regular season.
Terrell Owens is a Buffalo Bill?! I am
starting to really miss football on Sundays.
The Dallas Mavericks are 44-30, still
hovering in 8th place in Western Conference, but 4th
of 5 in our Division, behind San Antonio, Houston, and New Orleans.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
MARCH, 2009
February went fast and now March is upon
us, Dallas Section! The weather can’t seem to decide if it wants to be
winter or spring, so our thermometer is soaring and dipping like the
horsehead of a Lufkin pump jack.
I am forced to wear a cardigan over a short
sleeve polo shirt!
Do a little Spring Cleaning early and clear
off your calendar for March 18th! That will be our monthly
meeting this month, right after St. Patrick’ Day! Our guest will be
Bernard M. Piot (DL), Cementing Project Manager, Schlumberger. His topic
is Cements and Cementing: An Old Technique with a Future.
Make your reservations online right here on
our website! Our price for luncheons is $20 for members making reservations
online – and $25 at the door or if you are not a member of SPE!
Save your spot and save 5 bucks to boot! For directions and to reserve
your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
In April, on Wednesday 4/22/2009, our guest
will be Dr. Stephen A. Holditch, Professor and Department Head of
Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Other meetings you might consider attending:
The SPE E&P Environment & Safety Conference
in San Antonio on March 23-25.
The SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing and Well
Intervention Conference in The Woodlands on 3/31-4/1.
Dallas, be seen (even if you don’t wear
green) at SPE this month! Your knowledge will steadily rise, just like the
average temperature here in Big D!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
We’re lucky February was a short month,
given the loss of 5 of the last 6 home games for our Dallas Stars. The Stars
are out of the playoffs if it ended this week and are fighting to regain the
8th playoff spot Western Conference of the NHL. Scrappy forward
Steve Ott (#29) was suspended indefinitely for an accused eye gouge incident
in the last tussle with the Anaheim Ducks.
The Dallas Mavericks are 36-23, residing in
8th place in Western Conference. Congratulations to Jason Kidd on
achieving the milestone of 10,000 assists.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
February, 2009
Happy Groundhog’s / Presidents / Valentines
Day, Dallas Section! It looks like the shortest month in 2009 just might be
the busiest! We hope you weathered last month’s icy blast unscathed,
because our Society has several great programs planned for February! Let’s
hope Mother Nature is more forgiving this month!
First and foremost, we have rescheduled the
January 28, 2009 luncheon that was cancelled due to the ice storm for the
first Wednesday in February! Join us February 4th for a
presentation by our guest, Gary Schein, Production Engineer at Dale
Resources. He will finally speak to us on the State of the Art of
Slickwater Fracturing.
It’s not too late to make your reservations!
Our price for luncheons is $20 for members with a reservation – and $25 at
the door if you don’t make a reservation! Save your spot and save 5 bucks to
boot! For directions and to reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
In February, we will celebrate Engineers
Week with the Texas Society of Professional Engineers and our fellow
engineering societies. The E-Week celebration starts with P.E. Day on the
capital steps in Austin and will culminate here in Dallas with an Awards
Gala luncheon on Thursday, February 19th at the Westin Galleria
Hotel. Consult the TSPE website for more details:
http://www.tspe.org
After E-Week, we will have our regularly
scheduled monthly luncheon on Wednesday February 25, 2009. Our guest will be
Woody Sandlin, Operations Engineer at Chesapeake Energy, who will
give us an update on their Barnett Shale operations at the Dallas Fort Worth
Airport.
Then March arrives and we will meet on
Wednesday 3/18/2009. Our guest will be Bernard M. Piot, Cementing Project
Manager, Schlumberger. His topic is Cements and Cementing: An Old
Technique with a Future.
Stay Warm, Dallas Section, and Stay
Informed! Join us at our meetings!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
Superbowl Sunday is finally here. Good Luck
to Arizona and Pittsburgh. Take heart Dallas fans, there’s always next
season!
Our Dallas Stars are fighting for the 8th
playoff spot Western Conference of the NHL. Congratulations to the team for
a great 4-2 win on the road in Detroit last month!
The Dallas Mavericks are 26-19, residing in
7th place in Western Conference.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
January, 2009
Happy New Year, Dallas Section! This month
we inaugurate a new President and the hubbub around that is making the
District of Columbia look like New Orleans prior to Mardi Gras. One has to
admit that a new year does bring in hope for prosperity and growth, and we
hope you will share your time with us in 2009 – our Society and your own
knowledge will prosper and grow with your participation!
Please join us for our great lineup of
events in 2009 here at the Dallas Section of SPE!
In January, we will meet on Wednesday
January 28, 2009. Our guest will be Gary Schein, Production Engineer
at Dale Resources. His presentation will be on the State of the Art of
Slickwater Fracturing.
Make your reservations now! We expect
excellent attendance for this one AND we have had to raise our price for
luncheons to $20 for members with a reservation – and $25 at the door if you
don’t make a reservation! Save your spot and save 5 bucks to boot! For
directions and to reserve your spot, click the link below:
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
Aren’t we a week late? Shouldn’t we meet on
the 21st?
Yes, Virginia, we are pushing back our
luncheon a week, but we have a good reason!
The SPE is sponsoring a major meeting on
hydraulic fracturing down in the Woodlands during our regular meeting week.
The link to attend it is below – so you are free to go enjoy it and not miss
our regular monthly meeting! Come back and tell the rest of us who had to
stay here in Dallas how it went!
http://www.spe.org/events/hftc/index.html
In February, we will meet on Wednesday
February 25, 2009. Our guest will be Woody Sandlin, Operations
Engineer at Chesapeake Energy, who will give us an update on their Barnett
Shale operations at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
Happy New Year, Dallas Section!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
Fickle Fate (and chilly Philly outside at
the Vet) has poleaxed our playoff hopes for the Dallas Cowboys.
Alas! There’s always next year – but I’m
going to wait to pop the popcorn.
Our Dallas Stars are 15-15-5 and sitting in
the basement (5th and last place) of the Pacific Division of the
Western Conference of the NHL. Still plenty of hockey to be played, so don’t
count them out!
The Dallas Mavericks are 19-12, residing in
4th place in their Division, but only 1.5 wins behind the
Southwest Division leader, New Orleans. They had an amazing comeback win at
the end of December, a new team record. What other surprises do they have
for us in 2009?
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
December,
2008
Happy Holidays, Dallas Section! 2008 is
rapidly coming to a close, and what an amazing year it was! Oil prices
peaked and sank, the stock market and the banking industry did cartwheels,
and America elected its first African-American president. Throughout the
year, Energy was a leading economic and political issue. Renewable “green”
energy made the headlines, while our industry silently shouldered the load
to keep the wheels turning and the lights on in America.
If you’re like me, Holiday shopping isn’t
the only thing high on the priority list to get finished before the end of
the year. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I hope that the
comfort of family and friends will be yours this Holiday Season.
Remember that 1 hour minimum of Ethics
refresher training is mandatory to maintain your professional engineering
registration! Did you put it off to the last minute? Worry not, friends,
because the Dallas Section of SPE is here to give you an early Holiday gift!
Our monthly luncheon meeting will be on December 17th, and our
speaker will be Charles B. Pennington of the Texas Board of
Professional Engineers, who will give us a presentation that meets
Austin’s requirements for an Ethics Overview! The TBPE is the agency in
Austin that manages professional registration in Texas, so they are the
experts at what qualifies as an Ethics credit! Come get your bonafide ethics
credit and a share a great luncheon with us at the same time!
In January, we will meet on Wednesday
January 28, 2009. Our guest will be Gary Schein, Production Engineer
at Dale Resources. His presentation will be on the State of the Art of
Slickwater Fracturing.
Buy a new calendar and mark that date!
Happy Holidays, Dallas Section, and Happy
New Year , too!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
Tony Romo is back and so are our hopes for a
strong finish for our Cowboys! The Dallas Cowboys are 8-4, scrambling to
secure a playoff spot in the hotly contested NFC East Division.
Alas, our Dallas Stars are 8-11-4 and
sitting in the basement (5th and last place) of the Pacific
Division of the Western Conference of the NHL.
The Dallas Mavericks are 8-8, residing in 4th
place in their Division, but only 3 wins behind the Southwest Division
leader, Houston.
It may be frustrating to watch our teams
struggle this month, but at least we don’t have to watch any more political
ads on TV!
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
November, 2008
November at last! Only a few scant days of
furious campaigning left, and then the sound and the fury will finally
culminate into the Presidential Election. Do your duty as a citizen and
vote, even if it is for “None of the Above.” Hopefully the newly minted
President and Congress can forgive the trespasses of the opposition made in
the heat of competition, and can roll up their sleeves and set to work
together to move America forward.
You can move your career forward by coming
out and joining us at our planned events this month!
Our Shoot for Your School Sporting Clays
Tournament event was held on Monday October 20 out at Elm Fork
Shooting Range and was well attended. I want to extend a hearty thank
you to our planning committee and our sponsors of that event, especially our
Platinum Sponsors, BJ Services and Bobcat Pressure Control.
Congratulations to all our winners!
Our Dallas Section Luncheon meeting is on
Wednesday, November 19th at 11:30 am at EMGI and our guest is a
former SPE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Mark A. McCaffrey , President
of OilTracers, LLC who will tell us about: Allocation of Commingled
Production using a Geochemical Technique: An Inexpensive Tool for
Production Monitoring. Learn how geochemical techniques can help you
keep track of your production splits.
The very next day, on November 20th,
our Production Study Group will hold its monthly luncheon at EMGI at 11:30
am. Our guest is Dr. Franz Zdravistch, Technical Account Manager of
ANSYS, Inc. who will give us a talk on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Solutions for the Oil Industry.
Then it’s on to December! Our monthly
luncheon meeting will be on December 17th. Our speaker will be
Charles B. Pennington
of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, giving us our mandatory
Ethics Overview for our professional certification! Come get your
ethics credit and a share a great luncheon with us at the same time!
Happy Thanksgiving, Dallas Section!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
The Dallas Cowboys are 5-3 and 3rd
in the NFC East, with many key players sidelined by injury. The defense
played a solid 60 minutes and held off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last
weekend, in the absence of the dazzling offense we hoped we’d see.
Our Dallas Stars are 4-4-2 and 3rd
in the Central Division of the Western Conference of the NHL.
The Dallas Mavericks are 0-1, losing the Home
Opener to Houston as their official season just started.
It may be frustrating to watch our teams
struggle this month, but at least we don’t have to watch any more political
ads on TV!
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
October,
2008
It’s
Fall in Big D! The weather may be starting to cool down (not that it feels
that way yet to this Aggie) but our programming schedule for the Dallas
Section of SPE is starting to heat up!
Through providence and our
north Texas location, we were spared the fury of Hurricane Ike which damaged
so much of Galveston and Houston and the surrounding area in September. Some
areas are still without electric power and cleanup operations continue.
Dallasites wishing to support our southern neighbors through donations or
volunteer efforts can visit the following website created by the SPE Gulf
Coast Section:
http://www.spegcs.org/en/art/?768
Our SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition in Denver, Colorado was a success. Over 9,800
attendees from around the globe visited Denver and enjoyed over 400
technical papers, 18 short courses, field trips, superb weather, and over
450 exhibit booths packed with the latest technology and equipment. We’re
sorry that Hurricane Ike impacted attendance to ATCE from our home State,
but understand their need to “take care of business” back home on the Gulf
Coast.
We were able to reschedule
our Ike-Interrupted Continuing Education Symposium, which was
originally to be on September 12th. Now it’s our first program in
October! On Monday, October 6th, from 9:00am to 4:00pm the Dallas
Section will host a one-day symposium on the “Control and Reduction of
Water Produced with Oil and Gas”, presented by International
consultant Dr. Ali Daneshy. The symposium will be held at our regular
venue, the Ellison Miles Geotechnical Institute on the Brookhaven College
Campus (EMGI), and registration is still only $200. If you couldn’t make it
on the 12th last month, you have another shot at it!
Our Dallas Section Luncheon
meeting is on Wednesday, October 15th at 11:30 am at EMGI and our
guest is always outspoken and entertaining Dr. Michael Economides,
who will tell us about his new book: Russia, from Soviet to Putin… and
Back. Learn how Russia and other “energy-militant countries” are
trying to command newspaper headlines to balloon up the price of oil. Copies
of Dr. Economides book will be available for 25 USD after the luncheon.
On October 16th
it is National Boss Day here in the U.S. Take time to thank your boss for
their hard work and support of your involvement in the Dallas Section of SPE.
A perfect way to do that would be to buy them lunch – Bring your Boss to our
monthly luncheon on the 15th! Or, as an alternative, if you can
risk seeing your Boss holding a loaded shotgun – Consider participation in
our popular SPE Sporting Clays Tournament! We will hold this event on
Monday, October 20th at Elm Fork Shooting Range.
SPE International is
hosting a Low Pressure Gas Applied Technology Workshop in Fort Worth on
October 28th. Get more info at:
http://www.spe.org/spe-app/spe/meetings/08AFTW/2008/index.htm
On October 29th,
our Production Study Group will hold its monthly luncheon at EMGI at 11:30
am. Our guest is Bill Wooden, founder and Vice President of Applied
Seismic Research (ASR) who will give us a talk on Seismic Stimulation:
A New EOR Solution for Recovering Lost Reserves.
Then it’s on to November!
Our monthly luncheon meeting will be on November 19th. Our
speaker will be
Dr. Mark A. McCaffrey,
the President of OilTracers LLC and his topic will be: Allocation of
Commingled Production using a Geochemical Technique: An Inexpensive Tool
for Production Monitoring.
Happy Halloween, Dallas
Section!
For Dallas Sports Fans:
The Dallas Cowboys are 3-1
after a puzzling upset by archrival Washington last week. Things still look
rosy for the silver and blue, but some early adversity should invigorate
their work ethic.
Hockey Season officially
starts for our Dallas Stars on October 10th, when we host the
Columbus Blue Jackets at the AAC.
Basketball fans, your
patience will be rewarded eventually, as the Dallas Mavericks return to the
hardwood on October 30.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
September, 2008
Howdy! Steve Grape’s my name, and I’m
pleased to meet you! I am honored to be serving the Dallas Section as your
new President, and I am grateful for all the hard work that my predecessor,
Danny Bell, and his Board of Directors were able to accomplish last
fiscal year. Suddenly it’s September! The Beijing Summer Olympics have just
concluded and now it’s back to school for our older children. Team USA
brought home a bumper crop of Olympic Medals – more than any other country,
and I share your American Pride in what they achieved. The Dallas Section of
SPE has a bumper crop of programming this year and we can’t wait to proudly
share it with our members and potential new members!
Our first guest for our September monthly
luncheon meeting is SPE Distinguished Lecturer
Tony Martin of BJ Services. His talk is entitled
Appropriate Hydraulic Fracturing Technologies for Mature Oil and Gas
Formations and should not be missed! This
meeting will be held in a different venue than normal, due to a
room-scheduling conflict. Meet us across the highway in the main ballroom of
the gorgeous Hilton Hotel @ Lincoln Centre,
(at the SE corner of the North Dallas Tollway and Loop 635) not EMGI. Mark
your calendars now for September 9th!
Yes, this is a TUESDAY, not a WEDNESDAY!
We are bending over backwards to bring you
this excellent program. This was the only day we could bring him to Dallas,
so we jumped on it. You will kick yourself for the rest of the year if you
miss out!
Back to School time isn’t just for the kids.
Reinvigorate your resume by attending our Continuing Education Symposium.
On September 12th, from 9:00am to 4:00pm the Dallas Section will
host a one-day symposium on the “Control and Reduction of Water
Produced with Oil and Gas”, presented by International consultant
Dr. Ali Daneshy. The symposium will be held at our regular venue, the
Ellison Miles Geotechnical Institute on the Brookhaven College Campus, and
registration is only $200, which is a significant discount compared to
industry seminars.
Feel that Colorado Rocky Mountain High this
year at our SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Denver,
Colorado. It kicks off on Sunday September 21st and goes until
Wednesday September 24th. This year’s theme is Connecting Members
and Exchanging Knowledge. As Texas Petroleum Engineers, we have the benefit
of experience -- the rest of the country and the world looks at “how the
Texans did it” to best develop conventional and unconventional resources.
Meet and mingle with SPE members from across the globe, and see all the
shiny new tech and toys on the Exhibition floor!
At the end of September on the 30th, consider
heading west or east from Dallas on Highway 30 to visit either the
Unconventional Gas Expo in Fort Worth, or the Horizontal Operations in the
Cotton Valley Symposium in Tyler, TX. Sometimes it’s a shame you can’t be in
two places at once.
Then get ready for a great October! Our
Dallas Section Luncheon meeting is on Wednesday, October 15th and
our guest is always outspoken and entertaining Dr. Michael Economides,
who will tell us about Russia, from Soviet to Putin… and Back.
Our popular SPE Sporting Clays Tournament will be Monday, October 20th
at Elm Fork Shooting Range.
For Sports Fans and Corn Dog Lovers (of which
this Chairman is both):
Are you ready for some football? The Dallas
Cowboys Home Opener versus the Philadelphia Eagles at Texas Stadium is
Monday night September 15th.
If you still could use a little baseball… The
Texas Rangers have 15 home games in September, including 3 with the current
leader of the AL West Division, the Los Angeles Angels. Every game will be
significant as they are 16 games out of first in the West at the time of
writing, and 6th in line for the AL Wildcard.
Dallas Stars Hockey Pre-season opener versus
the Colorado Avalanche is Thursday night September 25th.
The Great State Fair of Texas begins on
Friday, September 26th.
Sorry Basketball fans, the Dallas Mavericks
don’t return to the hardwood until October 30.
Steve Grape
Chairman 2008 - 2009
Danny Belll
Section Chairman - 2007-2008
August, 2008
Is it August already? For you that don't know, August is the last
month of my term as section Chairman. September 1st starts a new
year for the section with all new leadership. Steve Grape is the
incoming Chairman and I can tell you after having this job for a year he
would greatly appreciate your support and help. Speaking of
volunteering......get involved, you will be rewarded ten fold I promise.
The section has accomplished many things this year for which I am extremely
proud. January, 2008, Syed Hamid started up the ever popular
and educational Production Operations study group luncheons which meets the
4th Wednesday of every month. This has been very successful with an
average attendance of about 40 members. David Hamilton, our
Program Chairman, I don't know how to begin to thank him or tell you how
much I appreciate his hard work this past year. Every luncheon was
perfect with awesome guest speakers and great meals. Brian Walter,
serving as our past Chairman was always there giving me his past experience
and also picked out a great slate of officers for the upcoming year.
David Lancaster as Treasurer did a great job of keeping our
financials in order and paid all the bills on time, what more could you ask
of a great Treasurer. Brent Haas was this years Secretary and
kept our section's Board meeting minutes, i don't think he misspelled
anything! PJ Edsall was our
Membership Chairman and did an outstanding job of recruiting members and
helping out at the sign in desk for our luncheons. Brian Chacka had a
great presence in our section this past year. He was ultimately
responsible and rode herd over our extremely successful Sports and Social
Events. Not only was he our Sports and Social events Chairman he was also
this years "Young Engineer of the Year" recipient and Director of
the "Young Engineers" events. Other folks that I worked with and
I can't thank enough was, Peggy Tibbetts. Peggy is usually in
the background helping with such things as the Casino Night or working with
the Merchant account which requires a lot of time. (Thanks Peggy for your help......we
appreciate your time) Other folks that I want to thank....John
Tabor for his help and leadership on the Golf and Sporting Clay events.
Both of these events were very instrumental in our record breaking
scholarship program this year of 26,000 dollars given out to 15 college
students. Speaking of our Scholarship Program.....Dan Auces has
been doing the Scholarship program for as long as I can remember. He
has tried to find someone to take over his job but no one wants to follow
him. He has done an awesome job as Scholarship Chairman for so many years. The whole
section owes him our gratitude and thanks. Herb Bell is our
Advertising Director and keeps track of the advertisers on the website.
You would be surprised at the amount of work that goes into sending out
invoices and follow up email notices to our many advertisers.
Natalie Easley keeps track of all the email addresses for the section
and sends out all of the section's many email reminders. and flyers
Lonnie Kysiak, at Nexen, helps with our reservations and at the
luncheon check-in table, Dennis Maddox at Brookhaven College
does an awesome job of making sure that our meeting rooms are set up and
functional. I would also like to thank all the
committee members and volunteers that worked at the Casino Night, Sporting
Clay event, Golf tournament and Scholarship committee. I'm sure I left
out several people that I should have thanked and for that I apologize.
As you can see, it takes a lot of dedicated volunteers to make the Dallas
Section successful. Please know that your time and efforts make the
Dallas Section a "family" of over 1500 members dedicated to the
dissemination of technical information.
Upcoming Events:
August 20th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker:
Steven Fipke - Halliburton
Topic:
"Multi-Lateral, Multi-zone Well Designs To Maximize The Recovery
of Unconventional Reserves"
August 27th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker:
Alexander Chamorro – Principal Fluid Flow Engineer for Invensys
Process Systems
Topic: Gas
Lift Allocation Optimization
September 9th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: Tony Martin – BJ
Services - Distinguished Lecture
Topic: "Appropriate Hydraulic Fracturing
Technologies for Mature Oil and Gas Formations"
September
12th, 2008,
Continuing
Education - 1 day Course
Speaker: Dr.
Ali Daneshy
Topic:
"Control and Reduction of Water Produced with Oil and Gas "
Date:
Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Cost: $
200.00 (includes course notes and lunch)
Location:
Ellison Miles Institute, Brookhaven College
July 2008
Whew, as they
say down south...... "is it hot enough fer ya"? I hope you are staying
cool and having a great summer. The Dallas SPE section usually takes
the summer off but why should we be any different than the rest of the good
ol oil patch....it's 24/7! Seriously folks, there seems to be
plenty of interest so we will continue to provide quality luncheon and study
group speakers through the summer.
Many thanks to
Dan Auces and his outstanding scholarship committee (12 members) who have
been hard at work coming up with this years scholarship recipients.
They chose 15 recipients out of a list of 39 applicants representing 7
different universities. A record 26,000 dollars will be awarded.
to see the statistics go to:
http://www.spedallas.org/2008_scholarship_webpage_stats.xls
We are working in
exciting times and I hope to see you at one of the following summer
meetings.
July 16th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: Bryan Dotson - BP
Topic:
"Deliquifying Gas Wells for Full Depletion"
July
23rd,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker: John Warren
– Vice President of Operations and Business Development Wavefront Energy and
Environmental Services USA Inc.
Topic: “POWERWAVE – INJECTION TECHNOLOGY” -
For Secondary Recovery Waterfloods
and CO2 Floods
August 23rd
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: Steven Fipke -
Halliburton
Topic:
"Multi-Lateral, Multi-zone Well Designs To Maximize The Recovery of
Unconventional Reserves"
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
June 2008
I sat beside a lady on the plane the
other day and after the usual niceties she asked, “What do you do
for a living?” “I’m a petroleum engineer for a Dallas based oil and
gas company"….."Oh really?" was her reply. "I’m a recruiter for TI
in Dallas, and I steal your industry’s best, young engineers all the
time, and I pay them less money," she said. I’m thinking….what?
How could someone from your industry possibly steal someone from my
beloved oil and gas industry? The oil and gas industry is vibrant,
exciting, job security is at an all time high, and the pay is
great! So finally after a few shocked moments I asked, "You’re
kidding, right?" She said, "You guys (now she’s getting personal)
don’t offer enough challenging projects, flexible time schedules,
and give them the tools they want to do their jobs". Ok lady you
have my attention…."Explain please.” "Young people today don’t want
to work the long hours or days that you old timers work. They like
to hang out with their friends, whether it be in person, online, or
on the phone.” They like flexible time schedules……what? Hey lady,
the oil patch starts early. "Plus, you guys don’t give them the
tools they like to work with…..laptop computers, Blackberry phones,
and other electronic gadgets."……again, what? I said, ”Those are for
the older more experienced engineers”…you know, perks! Well, after
several minutes of conversation on this subject she convinced me
that the leaders of our oil and gas companies had better start
thinking about how we are treating and using our bright young minds
or we will lose them. Think about it!
I hope you were able to attend this
year’s annual golf tournament at Firewheel Golf course. John Tabor,
Brian Chacka, and all their helpers did a great job, as usual. This
event as well as our very successful Casino night are two of the
main contributors to our college scholarship fund. If you see one
of the committee members make sure and thank them for all of their
long hours and hard work!
Upcoming events:
June 18th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
|
Speaker: Pat Handren - Denbury
Topic: "Successful Hybrid Slickwater Fracture Design
Evolution – An East Texas Cotton Valley Taylor Case
History" |
|
June 25th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker: Gary Ring
Topic: The Need for Lower Cost Subsea Well Intervention
I hope to see you soon!
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
May 2008
The Dallas section of the SPE is alive
and thriving! The Ca$ino Night committee did another spectacular job
with the food and prizes however, if you were one of the unlucky ones
that tried to sign up late and got turned away, I apologize and I’m
truly sorry. For you that attended, I know you had a lot of fun because
I was there and have pictures to prove it. (Speaking of that…. I will
be placing some of the less incriminating pictures out on the website
shortly). I was talking to Brian Chacka about this year being sold out
and he promises me that next year’s event will be even bigger and better
and held at a place where we can accommodate a much larger crowd. I
haven’t heard how much money we brought in for scholarships but I’m sure
it will be a new record. I will put the dollar amounts in next months
Chairman’s Corner.
This month is career day in many of the
schools around Dallas and Fort Worth and they are in desperate need of
speakers that will give up a few hours and talk about Petroleum
engineering. It’s not as painful as you think. As I mentioned in my
March Chairman’s Corner, SPEI has a canned “speakers kit” that cuts out
most of the preparation time. Try it…..I promise you will have fun,
feel good about your self after it’s over and most importantly you may
be the one that influences some bright young person to go into Petroleum
Engineering.
The Nominating Committee (Danny Bell,
Brian Walter, Steve Grape, Brent Hass, PJ Edsall) hereby recommends the
following slate of officers for the 2008-2009 Dallas SPE Board;
Chairman
2008-2009 Steve Grape (elected in 2007)
Chairman
Elect 2009-2010 David Hamilton
1st VP,
Program Chairman Brian Chacka
2nd VP, Education Chairman Syed Hamid
3rd VP, Membership Chairman David Creach
Secretary PJ Edsall
Treasurer Brent Hass
Per Article VII Section 8 of the By-laws
the Directors shall be appointed by the Chairman.
Director-Tech./Newsletter Danny Bell
Director-Sports & Social Thad Toups
Director-Community & Social Rick
Middaugh
HEES 2010 Nick Duane
Magic Suitcase Phin Holmes
Scholarship Dan Auces
Career Guidance Auggie Payne
SPE Young Professionals/ELP Brian Chacka
Advertising Mgr. Herb Bell
Upcoming events:
May 14th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: "Robert Hawkes - Team Leader of
Reservoir Services for BJ Services Company Canada”
Topic: "Prefrac Reservoir
Characterization From Perforation Inflow Diagnostic (PID) Testing"
May 28th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker and Topic: To Be forthcoming.
June 2nd, SPE Dallas section
Golf Tournament at Firewheel.
I hope to see you soon!
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
April 2008
I hope you were able to attend our section's 55th birthday celebration.
David Hamilton did a great job putting it together with good food,
excellent speaker and a cake. We also handed out 7 Legion of Honor
awards to the following gentlemen:
1. Roy Keene
2. Ray Marr
3. Thomas Laverty
4. Ronald Clark
5. Glenn Jones
6. Forrest Hoglund (not pictured below)
7. William Cupit (not pictured below)

Past Section Chairmen were invited and specifically recognized.

-
Rick Bjorck 1988-89
-
Frank Robl 1989-90
-
Deacon Marek 2004-05
-
Herb Bell 1999-2000
-
Danny Bell 2007-08
-
Peggy Tibbetts 2003-04
-
Bill LaRoche 1975
-
Betsy Cook 1997-98
-
Paul Szatkowski 2001-02
-
Steve Grape 2008-09
As you can see we had an excellent celebration at our
last regular monthly luncheon. Our Monthly Production Study group
was also well attended with almost 50 members attending.
This meeting is turning out to be a great source of educational
information and something that you can take back to your job and use.
Our speaker was "Terry Palisch"
where he discussed slickwater fracturing and proppants.
Upcoming events:
April 16th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: "Ron Clarke with iiiTec ”
Topic: "Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) Actuated Self-Powered Downhole Tools"
April 23rd,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker: Gary Patterson
Topic: “CO2 Conformance at Little Creek and Lazy Creek
Units”
May 2nd,
Casino Night
June 2nd,
SPE Dallas section Golf Tournament at Firewheel.
I hope to see you soon!
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
March 2008
Bill
Cobb, our 2008 SPE President, discusses an interesting and
dear-to-my-heart topic in this month’s JPT - SPE’s energy education
program called Energy4me. I was recently asked by a friend and 4th
grade teacher to come and discuss “where does oil and gas come from?”
With some arm twisting on her part, I was more than happy to give a
little “show and tell”. It was actually a lot of fun to discuss a topic
I love to 25 eager little minds. I showed them a reservoir rock, an oil
sample, a drill bit, and I even showed them an open-hole well log with
an explanation of what we look for in all these “squiggly lines”. I
also used SPE’s educational kit that includes a CD and a wonderfully
written book with lots of neat color pictures. The book is written
so that is of interest to several age groups. I showed a short film
clip (8 minutes) from the CD in SPE’s kit and left the book Oil and
Natural Gas with Mrs. Grissom’s class so they could study and look
at it at their leisure. Both the CD and book were donated free of
charge by SPEI for this purpose. For more information go to
http://www.energy4me.org/
If
you are lucky enough to be asked to do this for a school, give SPEI a
call and they will be more than happy to mail you a “kit”. Hey, answer
this….would you rather that a petroleum engineer talk about and answer
questions concerning our beloved industry, or would you rather that they
be educated by a politician’s thoughts on the subject?
Make
sure you attend this month’s luncheon. We are celebrating the section’s
55th birthday, plus we are passing out “Legion of Honor” awards to
several of our members that have been members for over 50 years. David
Hamilton, our program chairman, has several surprises for the members at
this special meeting.
Legion of Honor inductees:
Ronald
Clark Donald Brown
Daniel Hologa
William
Cupit Frederic Sewell
Clyde McCall
Thomas
Laverty Sloan Black
Roy Keene
Ray Marr
Glenn Jones
E. Kistenmacher
Forrest
Hoglund Paul McGee
John Tansil
Wendell
Cook
Frederic Wagner Glenn Willis
Earl Ramsey
H. Wofford
Robert Fowler - Deceased
Upcoming events:
March 19th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College
Speaker: Mark Day - Sr. Construction Engineering Advisor for Devon
Energy
Topic: "Devon Energy Deck Raising Project - Eugene Island 330-B & C"
Plus
we are celebrating the section’s 55th birthday and passing
out several Legion of Honor awards.
March 26th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker:
"Terry Palisch"
Topic:
Slickwater Fracturing – “Food for Thought”
I hope to see you soon at one (if not
all) of the above events.
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
February, 2008
I hope you had a chance to attend our
January Monthly Luncheon or our newly formed Production Study Group. I was
unfortunately out of town on business and unable to attend the Production
Study Group but I understand it was well attended and a great success. Syed
Hamid has done a great job of organizing this newly formed forum. If you
have a topic that you would like covered please contact me or Syed and give
us your ideas. Better yet, volunteer to present a topic that you think would
be beneficial to the Dallas section. Remember dissemination of information
is what, we, the Society of Petroleum Engineers are all about.
Please note and remember that the February
meeting is early this month (February 6th) and on the first Wednesday
rather than our usual third Wednesday.
Upcoming events:
February 6th ,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brook Haven College
Speaker: "Ron Harrell is "Chairman Emeritus"
of Ryder-Scott Company”
Topic: "Petroleum Reserves Estimates - Where
We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Appear Appear To Be Headed"
February 28th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker: "Mehdi Azari”
Topic: “Production Logging and Multi-Rate
Pressure Testing of Multi-layer Reservoirs"
March 19th
,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brook Haven College
Speaker: "Mark Day - Sr. Construction
Engineering Advisor for Devon Energy”,
Topic: "Devon Energy Deck Raising Project -
Eugene Island 330-B & C"
I hope to see you soon at one (if not all)
of the above events.
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
January, 2008
2007 is now officially
behind us. I don’t know about you, but I am excited about the possibilities
for 2008. The Industry is healthy, oil prices are at all time highs and new
technology is abundant. It is a great time to be a petroleum engineer and a
good time to be in the oil and gas industry. Realizing these things, I hope
you have set aggressive goals for 2008.
Speaking of 2008 goals…..how about
considering:
-
Writing a technical paper- sharing your successes and even failures
helps “disseminate technology” which is one of SPE’s main goals.
-
Speaking to young students about becoming a petroleum engineer
or choosing a profession in the oil and gas industry.
-
Volunteering - helping your local SPE chapter. We have needs on
almost every committee.
-
Sharpening your technical skills by reading petroleum-related
technical literature 15 – 30 minutes per day.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the
idea. My hope for you in 2008 is that you become more involved. “Think
BIG” in 2008!
Upcoming events:
January 16th,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brook Haven College –
Speaker: "Don Hannegan - SPE Distinguished
Lecturer 2006/2007”
Topic: "Improving the Drill-Ability of
“Hydraulically Challenged” Prospects"
January 29th,
SPE Production Study Group
Speaker: "Mofazzal Bhuiyan”
Topic: " Production Optimization using Nodal
Analysis "
February 6th ,
SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brook Haven College –
Speaker: "Ron Harrell is "Chairman Emeritus"
of Ryder-Scott Company”
Topic: "Petroleum Reserves Estimates - Where
We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Appear Appear To Be Headed"
I hope to see you soon at one (if not all)
of the above events.
Danny Bell
Section Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
December, 2007
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving
and are ready for Christmas. Speaking of being ready, are you ready as a
registered professional engineer if you are audited by the board? You need
15 PDH (Professional Development Hours) with at least one PDH being on
professional ethics. I hope you have your hours this year but if you need a
couple more hours the Dallas section is sponsoring a 6 hour short course
which will help cover your needed PDH’s. The short course is a bargain at
50 dollars and is located at the EMGI for your convenience. For more
details and to sign up go to the website.
Our guest speaker for this month
(December 19th) is our very own Dallasite Bill Cobb - 2008 SPEI President.
Let's all turn out and show Bill our support. His dedication, time and
effort to SPE is greatly needed and appreciated world wide.
Up coming events for the Dallas
section.
-
December 12 – Halliburton “Red
Book online” to sign up and for more information go to the website at:
http://www.spedallas.org/study_group.htm
-
January 2008 – I am proud to
inform you that the Dallas Section is starting up a “Monthly Production
Study Group”. Date and topic will be forthcoming.
-
January 16th, 2008 – Luncheon
Speaker: "Don Hannegan - SPE Distinguished Lecturer 2006/2007”, Topic:
"Improving the Drill-Ability of “Hydraulically Challenged” Prospects"
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm
-
Note: Starting in January 2008,
non members and members paying at the door will be charged 20.00 dollars
for our monthly luncheons. This is being done to encourage non members
to join SPE and to help the folks at the door with making change.
Paying via the website will still be the usual bargain price of 17.00
dollars.
I hope to see you soon at one (if not all) of the above
events.
Danny Bell
Section
Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
November, 2007
Are you ready for the
Holiday Season? Get-togethers with family and friends are just a few short
weeks away.
If you remember in last
month’s Chairman’s corner, I said I wanted the Dallas Section to “Think
BIG”. Well, everyone certainly responded.
October was a GREAT month
for the Dallas section. Due to the hard work of the program committee, our
October 17th luncheon was sold out, with 212 members attending. Our
speaker, Dave Leopold - DFW Project Manager with Chesapeake Energy
Corporation, gave a fascinating talk on Chesapeake ’s “Drilling and
Operating Wells at DFW Airport ". We hope to have Dave back next year to
give us an update.
The Dallas Section’s annual
Sporting Clay Event was another huge success, with all the available 40
teams filled. The day was a little chilly and windy, but everyone had a
great time. John Tabor and his Sporting Clay Event Committee did an
excellent job in putting this year’s event together. As a result, the
Dallas section gave $8100 to 9 different SPE student sections. Good job
guys!
The Dallas
SPE Board of Directors met on October 23rd . Several issues and changes
were discussed in an effort to make the Dallas section the best ever.
·
An after Christmas Holiday party is being discussed (time and
venue forthcoming).
·
Syed Hamid (Education Chairman) and his committee are starting
a monthly “Operations Study Group” that will kick off after the first of the
year. (Stay tuned for more details.) He is also putting together a
December, 2007 short course on the use of Halliburton’s new online Red Book.
(Again, stay tuned for more details.)
·
The 2009 Hydrocarbon Economics and Evaluation Symposium (HEES)
has been postponed until 2010 in an effort to keep it from conflicting with
the OKC section’s POS. We are in hopes that this will boost attendance at
both events.
·
Starting January 1st, 2008 the monthly luncheons will have a
different cost structure. Members paying online will continue to pay
$17.00, non members will be $25.00, and members paying cash at the door will
be $20.00. This will hopefully boost SPE membership and will help the people
at the door who are making change.
Upcoming events:
·
November 27 (Tuesday) –
Dallas sections next luncheon at EMGI. You won't want to miss this if
you are a Registered Professional Engineer since it is our annually required
Ethics PE credit.
·
December 12 – Halliburton “Red Book online” to sign up and
more information go to the website at:
http://www.spedallas.org/study_group.htm
·
December 19 (Wednesday) –
Dallas section Monthly Luncheon. Guest speaker will be Dallas’s very on
Bill Cobb (2008 SPEI President). Make plans to attend and hear what’s new
with SPE globally.
·
January 2008 – I am proud to inform you that the Dallas
Section is starting up a “Monthly Production Study Group”. Date and topic
will be forthcoming.
I hope to
see you soon at one (if not all) of the above events.
Danny Bell
Section
Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
October, 2007
I hope you
enjoy the fall season as much as I do. Football season, cooler weather
and the holidays are just around the corner.
In
September we had a great luncheon, and it was well attended. David
Hamilton, our Program Chairman, did an excellent job of getting us fed,
comfortable, and providing us with an interesting speaker (Bill Ott on
sand control). Also, last month I was honored to present the 2007
Drilling and Completions Regional Award to my old friend and
colleague Gerald Coulter.
Gerald is world renowned for his technical papers, patents, and has
taught and mentored many us on how to have better well completions.
I am
pushing all our Dallas section officers to THINK BIG this year.
I want our luncheons sold out, our social events to be the biggest and
best ever, and our Dallas section membership to increase. The Oil and Gas
industry is flourishing, and now is a great time to get more involved and
help our profession grow.
I am
looking for someone that will contribute a monthly technical article for
our website and monthly e-news letter. If you would like to organize
this or perhaps write the articles, please call or email me and let’s
talk. I think this would truly be a growth opportunity for someone and
would help “disseminate technical information” to the membership, which is the
mission of SPE world wide. Please consider volunteering for this
opportunity.
Upcoming
2007 events:
I hope to
see you soon at one (if not all) of the above events.
Danny Bell
Section
Chairman
dbell@excoresources.com
September, 2007
I would like to start off
by saying a warm hello, and if you don’t already know me, I’m Danny
Bell, your new Dallas Section Chairman for the 2007 – 2008 year.
Following in the foot steps of Brian Walter, our past chairman, will be
a big job. Brian’s year along with fellow officers and helpers did an
outstanding job with the 2007 HEES, Golf Tournament, Ca$ino Night,
College Scholarships, and numerous monthly luncheons, and even a joint
"Unconventional Exploration" seminar with EMGI…….all very
successful and rewarding for our section members.
I’m looking forward to the up coming year, and I
hope that you will all become involved in one of the many afore
mentioned section activities. To volunteer, go to our Officers page on
the website http://www.spedallas.org/officers.htm
and contact the appropriate person, or email me (dbell@excoresources.com)
and
I’ll get you in contact with the right person. Remember……our goal is to
have fun; our mission is to disseminate technical information to the
membership. If you have ideas about our goal or our mission please
contact me. I’m listening!
What’s going on in
September? Our next luncheon and speaker is on Wednesday, September the
19th. The talk is on “Selection and Design Criteria for Sand
Control Screens” and our speaker is William K. (Bill) Ott
with Well Completion Technology. For further information and
details, go to the Dallas section website at
http://www.spedallas.org/monthly_meetings.htm.
David
Hamilton, our Program chairman, has lined up several interesting and
educational luncheon speakers for the upcoming year… I know you won’t
want to miss a single one. Mark your calendars early. Our luncheons
are usually on the third Wednesday of every month (check the website for
the exact date and time). The location is at the easily accessible and
comfortable Ellison Miles Institute, Brookhaven College
(Map).
I hope to see you soon, and if I don’t already
know you, please locate me at one of our section events and introduce
yourself. I can’t wait to meet you!
Danny Bell
dbell@excoresources.com
August, 2007
Danny Bell (Chairman elect 2007-2008) and the
new Board of Directors will take the reins of the Dallas Section at the end
of August. Thanks to the 2006-2007 Board and Volunteers for their service
to the Society. It has been a great year to be a petroleum engineer!
Deepankar
Biswas our Continuing Education Chairman coordinated our Unconventional
Exploration Seminar held July 17th. The Seminar was designed to
broaden your knowledge and understanding of Unconventional Resource
Assessment Methodology, Completion Decisions, Water Fracs, Passive Seismic
Frac Monitoring, Shallow Oil Accumulations and Coal Distribution and
Production Patterns in CBM Basins.
The symposium
was intended to follow the SPE mission statement;
To collect, disseminate, and exchange technical
knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and
gas resources, and related technologies for the public benefit; and to
provide opportunities for professionals to enhance their technical and
professional competence.
The Seminar was
held at Ellison Miles Geotechnology Institute (EMGI) and was also
cosponsored by EMGI. Diane Brownlee with EMGI and also serving as the
Dallas SPE Community Relations Director was instrumental in hosting the
symposium.
I look forward to a continuing partnership with
EMGI and the Dallas SPE section.
As a byproduct of the seminar we raised
enough money for two scholarships.
See you at an upcoming luncheon meeting!
J. Brian Walter
2006-2007 Chairman
214 369-4564
brian@walterx.com
Chairman’s Corner
July 2007
On June 18, 2007, eight of the ten members of
the Scholarship Committee met and selected 13 students from 40 applicants to
receive a scholarship. All ten committee members submitted recommendations.
Dan Auces and the Dallas Section Scholarship
Committee recommended and the Dallas SPE Board has approved scholarships for
13 students selected from 8 regional universities. The total amount of
scholarships approval was $20,000.00.
Here are some basic statistics about this
year’s scholarship process. Forty students from eight of the nine regional
universities submitted applications. Only the University of Missouri at
Rolla did not submit applications due to confusion in the petroleum
engineering department. The applicant age range was from 17 to 26 years.
There were 14 female applicants. One school, the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette alone submitted 12 applications. At least one award was give to
eight schools. *One student, Eric Paul Lege will be a three-time recipient
of a scholarship from our section.
I thank Dan and his Committee for their hard
work and deliberation.
John Tabor and his golf committee played golf
on June 4th. The 24th Annual Dallas SPE Golf
Tournament. was held on at Fire Wheel Golf Course in Garland. By all
accounts the Tournament was a success. Thanks to John and his committee!
Brian Chacha and Mitzi Orkus are leading the
way for the (ELP) Emerging Leaders Program. Our younger SPE members are
using ELP to network and socialize. Look for Brian’s announcements at the
monthly meetings and for the ELP link on the Dallas SPE website for upcoming
ELP events.
I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming
luncheon meeting!
J. Brian Walter
2006-2007 Chairman
214 369-4564
brian@walterx.com
Chairman’s Corner
June 2007
John Tabor
and his golf committee are ready to tee off on June 4th with
our 24th Annual Dallas SPE Golf Tournament.
The Golf
Tournament will be held June 4th at Fire Wheel Golf Course in
Garland. John is still looking for Sponsors and Volunteers. If you
have any questions you may reach him at 214 981-1918.
During our
May Luncheon meeting we voted on the proposed slate of officers for the
2007-2008 year. The Slate was voted in unanimously. Thanks to Gary
Patterson and the Nomination Committee for their hard work in fielding
our next slate of officers. Also Congratulations to Danny Bell our
2007-2008 Chairman! Thanks to all of the 2007-2008 Officers and
Directors for their volunteer commitment to the Dallas Section.
Casino
Night was held Friday May 4th at Royal Oaks Country Club. We
had the highest attendance ever and are projected to earn a record
amount for our Scholarship program! Thanks to Gary Patterson and the
Casio committee for the great work in hosting the party.
Brian
Chacha and Mitzi Orkus are leading the way for the (ELP) Emerging
Leaders Program. Our younger SPE members are using ELP to network and
socialize. Look for Brian’s announcements at the monthly meetings and
for the ELP link on the Dallas SPE website for upcoming ELP events.
I look
forward to seeing you at an upcoming luncheon meeting!
J. Brian
Walter
2006-2007
Chairman
214
369-4564
brian@walterx.com
May 2007
Dan Auces
and his Scholarship Committee will put our charity funds to work
filling our 2007 Dallas SPE scholarships. Dan has received a number of
applications before the May 1st deadline. The Scholarship
committee will convene shortly to deliberate on the applications. Dan
has been the Scholarship chairman since 1998!
During our
April Luncheon meeting we announced the proposed slate of officers
for the 2007-2008 year. The Slate will be voted on during the May
16th Luncheon meeting. Nominations closed on April 30th.
Thanks to Gary Patterson and the Nomination Committee for their hard
work in fielding our next slate of officers. For more information
please see the website.
Casino
Night is Friday May 4th at Royal Oaks Country Club. We
are almost sold out. I recommend making your reservations as soon as
possible. A portion of the Casio night profits will go to fund our
Scholarship program.
John Tabor
is back again this year with his Golf committee. The 24th
Annual Dallas SPE
Golf
Tournament will be held June 4th at Fire Wheel golf
Course in Garland. John is still looking for Sponsors and Volunteers.
If you have any questions you may reach him at 214 981-1918.
I look
forward to seeing you at an upcoming luncheon meeting!
J. Brian
Walter
2006-2007
Chairman
214
369-4564
brian@walterx.com
April
2007
Come by and roll the dice with Gary Patterson and
the Casino Committee on Friday May 4th at Royal Oaks Country
Club. This event has strong early reservations and I recommend making
your reservations as soon as possible. Last year the Casio Night sold
out. A portion of the Casio night profits will go to fund our
Scholarship program.
During our April Luncheon meeting we will be
announcing the proposed slate of officers for the 2007-2008 year. If
you wish to run for an SPE Dallas Section Office please contact Gary
Patterson, the Nomination Committee Chairman, to be included on the
slate.
HEES 2007 was held April 1st through
the 3rd, 2007. Congratulation goes out to Eddie Rhea and his
committee for a great job. Early estimates project the Dallas Section
will clear $17,000 to $19,000. Most of the monies raised will go toward
the Scholarship program. Dan Auces and his Scholarship committee will
put the funds to work filling our Dallas SPE scholarships.
I look
forward to seeing you at an upcoming luncheon meeting!
J. Brian
Walter
2006-2007
Chairman
214
369-4564
brian@walterx.com
March 2007
HEES 2007
(Hydrocarbon Economic Evaluation Symposium 2007). The theme of this
year’s event will be “Unconventional Economics”. Eddie Rhea and his
committee have been working hard for the last 10 months to plan our
biannual Symposium.
We are
fortunate to have Ken Hersh CEO of Natural Gas Partners to give our
Keynote Luncheon presentation on Monday April 2nd. Tuesday, Barry Davis
president of Dallas based Crosstex Energy will be our Tuesday luncheon
speaker.
Gary
Patterson will be running our short courses at HEES 2007. The first
short course will be on Saturday the 31st by Larry Lake on
Enhanced Oil Recovery. The second short course will be presented Sunday
by Sada Joshi on reservoir parameters of horizontal well projects.
HEES 2007
will be held April 1st through the 3rd, 2007 and
is the biggest fund raising event for the Dallas SPE Chapter. Please go
to SPE.org website and sign up under Meetings and Conferences.
I look
forward to seeing you at an upcoming luncheon meeting!
J. Brian
Walter
2006-2007
Chairman
214
369-4564
brian@walterx.com
February
2007
Congratulation to Dallas SPE member Gary Patterson
for receiving the 2007 Engineer of the Year Award from the Texas Society
of Professional Engineers Dallas Chapter. Congratulation also goes out
to Janice Mineke for receiving the 2007 Young Engineer of the Year
Award.
Last month we were fortunate to have Eve Sprunt
President of SPE International speak at our luncheon meeting. Ms.
Sprunt pres
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