Month: March 2017

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section has awarded a total of £20,000 to the winning students in its 2017 student bursaries programme.

The programme has been an integral part of SPE Aberdeen for over 40 years, and in the last 10 years alone, more than £100,000 of financial support has been awarded to over 100 students.

This year almost 100 students applied for awards, with 20 winners selected to receive grants. Five bursaries of £2500 and 15 bursaries of £500 were awarded to students from the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University, University of Dundee and Heriot Watt University.

The bursaries were awarded to students currently undertaking oil and gas related degrees at various levels, from undergraduate to PhD. Each applicant was judged on the quality of their academic work, their intent to embark upon a career in the oil and gas industry and their active involvement with SPE.

Out of the 20 finalists, 12 were invited to attend an interview panel to compete for the five £2500 bursaries.  Judge Alan Dick, Vice President at Simmons & Co, said: “We’re presented with a challenge every year to select the highest performing candidates, and this year was no different with an extremely high quality of applications.

“Judging these entries is an inspiring process to go through – the whole panel were very encouraged by the work ethic, innovative thinking and presentation skills of each of the candidates. We wish all of the winners the very best in their future careers.”

The five students who were awarded the £2500 bursaries were:

·         Balogun Yakubu, PhD in Engineering, Robert Gordon University

·         Robert Lawrie, MEng in Petroleum Engineering, Aberdeen University

·         Mark Lakos, MSc in Petroleum Engineering, Heriot Watt University

·         Douglas Gourlay, MEng in Petroleum Engineering, Aberdeen University

·         Paul Robb, MSc Oil & Gas Innovation, Robert Gordon University

The students were presented with their awards at a ceremony at Robert Gordon University on Friday 17 February, 2017.

Ian Phillips, Chairman of SPE Aberdeen said: “Our student bursary programme was set up to help high calibre graduates achieve their career goals, and the return on the investment we make ensures these future leaders develop the leadership and innovation skills required for our future sustainability.

“The last couple of years have been an extremely challenging time for the industry, and external factors have sadly forced some businesses to reduce this type of support for students. We are extremely proud that we have been able to continue running our student bursary programme throughout the downturn, ploughing our modest surplus funds back into the future of the industry.

“SPE is a not-for-profit professional society, and aims to run events at a ‘break even’ level.   The ongoing support of our members and the wider energy industry in Aberdeen and further afield, attending our events and remaining involved in our initiatives, means that we make a small surplus on some events. This allows us to fund support for students and school age children, encouraging our industry’s next generation and future leaders.” 

Dear SPE Aberdeen members, colleagues and friends,

Our Continuing Education committee has finalised its calendar of events for the year ahead and the result is an exciting programme of events including new topics alongside some of our well established and popular events.

Our first event is DEVEX, now in it’s 14th year; this year the theme is: Building Resilience – Driving Growth. This is organised jointly with PESGB and AFES with support from the OGA. With the continuing financial support of the conference partners, 350 free delegate places were made available – a great achievement. Unsurprisingly these places went very quickly and there are now a limited number of ‘at cost’ places available. The final conference programme will be announced very soon.

This is followed by the first new event of the year, Seismic 2017: Seismic through the asset life cycle. This is the first seminar of its kind to be held in Aberdeen and will explore the entire spectrum of seismic. Judging by the number of abstracts received this will be a very popular event.

Another new event for SPE Aberdeen is Topsides UK 2017: Shared learnings, multiplied savings – balancing efficiency, integrity and investment. This event aims to explore key areas affecting every aspect of Topside operations.

Due to its popularity and relevance our Well Abandonment seminar is now held annually and the 7th in this series is being held in June: Gather Data, Plan Better and Cost Effective Execution. The exhibition space at this event has already sold out and a waiting list is now in operation. Our members identified a need to share knowledge on the issue of rig reactivation or alternative solution experiences and as a result the SPE Aberdeen 1st Rig Reactivation and Alternatives seminar is being held back-to-back with the Well Abandonment seminar.

Our Inwell Flow Surveillance and Control seminar continues to go from strength to strength with the third in this series being held in October: Delivering Surveillance Solutions & Driving Well Performance through Flow Control. Abstracts are currently being sought.

The final event of the year will be the annual SPE ICoTA Well Intervention conference in November– Unlocking our potential – innovation and collaboration to maximise recovery. This collaborative event has been running for an impressive 23 years and continues to be the largest and longest established conference of its kind in Europe; abstracts are also being sought.

Details of these all these events, including sponsorship and exhibition opportunities can be found on the section website www.spe-aberdeen.org

If there is a specific topic you would like to see featured at one of our events please get in touch with Steve Cromar, the chair of our Continuing Education committee at CE.chair@spe-uk.org. I look forward to seeing you at our events.