Section news

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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 13^th, 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.

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 20^th 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.

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 9^th 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.

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 9^th 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 18^th, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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

Oklahoma $1,000 Will be used to fund Student Chapter trip to ATCE in 2010 for their 5-member Petrobowl team.

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.

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:

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 27^th 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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 50^th 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 (4^th Wednesday; to avoid Spring Break) and listen to Dr. James Crafton discuss Modeling Flowback Behavior or Flowback Equals “Slowback”. See you at EMGI.

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.

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.

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 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 8^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 19^th, 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:

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).

On Tuesday, September 15^th 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!

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.

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.

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.

June 1^st. 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:

Coming up in July, on Wednesday the 15^th, 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!

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!

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?

“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:

Our Production Study Group has a talk on the Haynesville Shale on April 29^th. 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 1^st! Get your reservation in by April 15^th 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.

The Stars are 12^th in the Western Conference and 6 points behind Anaheim and Nashville for the 8^th 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 8^th place in Western Conference, but 4^th of 5 in our Division, behind San Antonio, Houston, and New Orleans.

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.

Do a little Spring Cleaning early and clear off your calendar for March 18^th! 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:

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.

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!

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 8^th 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 8^th place in Western Conference. Congratulations to Jason Kidd on achieving the milestone of 10,000 assists.

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 4^th 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:

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 19^that 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.

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 8^th playoff spot Western Conference of the NHL. Congratulations to the team for a great 4-2 win on the road in Detroit last month!

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:

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!

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.

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 (5^thand 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 4^th 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?

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 17^th, 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!

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 (5^thand last place) of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the NHL.

The Dallas Mavericks are 8-8, residing in 4^th 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!

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 19^th 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 20^th, 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 17^th. 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!

The Dallas Cowboys are 5-3 and 3^rd 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 3^rd 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!

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:

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 12^th. Now it’s our first program in October! On Monday, October 6^th, 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 12^th last month, you have another shot at it!

Our Dallas Section Luncheon meeting is on Wednesday, October 15^th 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 16^th 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 15^th! 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 20^that Elm Fork Shooting Range.

On October 29^th, 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 19^th. 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.

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 10^th, 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.

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 9^th! 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 12^th, 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 21^st and goes until Wednesday September 24^th. 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 15^th 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 20^that Elm Fork Shooting Range.

Are you ready for some football? The Dallas Cowboys Home Opener versus the Philadelphia Eagles at Texas Stadium is Monday night September 15^th.

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 6^th in line for the AL Wildcard.

Dallas Stars Hockey Pre-season opener versus the Colorado Avalanche is Thursday night September 25^th.

Sorry Basketball fans, the Dallas Mavericks don’t return to the hardwood until October 30.

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.

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.

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

July 16th , SPE Monthly Luncheon at Brookhaven College

Speaker: Bryan Dotson - BP

Topic: "Deliquifying Gas Wells for Full Depletion"

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 4^th 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 19^th , 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 55^th 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

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.

Topic: "Petroleum Reserves Estimates - Where We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Appear Appear To Be Headed"

Topic: “Production Logging and Multi-Rate Pressure Testing of Multi-layer Reservoirs"

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.

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!

Topic: "Improving the Drill-Ability of “Hydraulically Challenged” Prospects"

Topic: "Petroleum Reserves Estimates - Where We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Appear Appear To Be Headed"

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.

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.

· 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 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.

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:

October 17 - Dallas sections next luncheon at EMGI.
October 22 - Dallas section’s annual SPE Sporting Clay shoot at Elm Fork Shooting Range.
November 12-14 – SPE Annual Technical Conference (ATC) in Anaheim California.
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.

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

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 17^th. 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.

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.

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.

John Tabor and his golf committee played golf on June 4^th. The 24^th 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.

Chairman’s Corner

June 2007

John Tabor and his golf committee are ready to tee off on June 4^th with our 24^th Annual Dallas SPE Golf Tournament.

The Golf Tournament will be held June 4^th 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 4^th 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.

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 1^st 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 30^th. 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 4^th 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 24^th Annual Dallas SPE

Golf Tournament will be held June 4^th 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 4^th 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 1^st through the 3^rd, 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 31^st 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 1^st through the 3^rd, 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