Month: September 2017

SPE would like to express our sincere appreciation for our volunteers service and contribution as members of the Inspire committees.

We ran a multitude of events this year targeted at Students and Young Professionals as part of the 2017 Inspire Programme.

We had two sponsors for the Inspire programme including Expro and TAQA. In addition Schlumberger provided additional support to the Schools Engagement Programme.

A summary and some photos of these events are below.

Career Pathways Fair We had great engagement from local volunteers and our program sponsors for this program with 13 Stands representing a variety of industry career paths. This allowed attendees to find out everything they need to know about the potential opportunities available to them by speaking to those in the industry one to one.

CV and Interview Skills Workshop  SPE President, Janeen Judah, started us off at this event discussing her views on the future on then industry. This was followed by an in depth exploration on how to approach a job description and making yourself the best candidate for the role. We have had some great feedback from this event and plan to run more.

Emerging Engineers Forum Adam Zalewski and Lalit Bhamare from the Aberdeen Section led on this event, featuring many local experts from Aberdeen. Through round table groups, six industry topics were explored, discussing various future developments with the groups. This was an excellent way to give some in depth insights about exciting upcoming local innovations.

Communication Skills Workshop This event explored various methods and tips to develop skills that will benefit any career. Through activities and presentation, best practices were described allowing attendees to hone their skills and understand their own communication styles. Topics included what using the best method of communication for the message, understanding your audience as well as discussing global issues like time zones, cultural and language barriers.

Oil and Gas: EXPAT-ations of living abroad This event featured seven great speakers who each talked about their own experiences working abroad. Their combined knowledge meant that we covered experience from almost everywhere in the world. This global insight allowed for great discussions with attendees to inform their own decisions, plans and concerns about living abroad.

Making the Most of Your membership Attendees were welcomed by a last minute additional speaker, Hisham Saadawi, SPEs Technical Director for Production and Facilities. Joined by Aberdeen Section Vice Chair, Brenda Wyllie and SPE Staff, this session was able to explore everything to be gained from SPE membership. By the end attendees were thoroughly up to speed with everything SPE.

Schools Engagement Programme This year the programme welcomed over 30 students (15-17 year olds), 10 teachers and 8 schools. Several exhibitors supported the programme and hosted the student tour groups including Aker, EC-OG, Expro, Fairfield and Schlumberger though a tour of the OE Exhibition. Keynote speeches were provided by SPE President Janeen Judah, Neils Sims VP of Europe CIS Region, Expro and Donald Taylor, MD, TAQA.  There was a lot of positive feedback from the teachers and pupils who were in attendance.

SPE Cares Beach Clean at the River Don Working with the Marine Conservation Society, we recorded data on what the types and quantity of litter found at the local River Don Beach. Local and international volunteers contributed to this national study to improve conservation and manage to clear a considerable amount of waste from a very beautiful beach.

Some photos are below. The full 17OE Conference and Exhibition photos can be found online here.

SPE Aberdeen University student chapter hosted Shell Upstream Vice President U.K. and Ireland – Steve Phimister  who came to campus to deliver a seminar. The session began with Steve introducing himself, his education and varied roles within Shell which took him across Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas. Steve also gave a brief insight into Shell’s current operations both globally and in the North Sea region, after which the event proceeded to a Q&A session.

The one and a half hour Q&A session extensively covered a broad range of queries posed by fully-packed lecture theatre of undergraduate and post-graduate students hailing from various engineering and geology disciplines amongst others along with specialised post-graduate degrees such as decommissioning and oil and gas law.

PACKED LECTURE THEATRE FOR STEVE PHIMISTERS PRESENTATION

The session covered the present-day oil and gas climate along with Shells current and future strategies. Net zero emissions and Paris climate agreement were raised in one of the questions and Shells commitment towards diversifying its energy portfolio aimed towards a sustainable future was outlined. Similarly, Steve shared the process that goes into major current and future investments in the ongoing downturn such as diligently scrutinising natural and monetary resource efficiency, while keeping environmental impact at the forefront of the discussion.

Other topics discussed included Shells regional policies and effects of geo-politics in operations, the decommissioning projects in North Sea, carbon capture facilities and possibilities, impact of major events such as Brexit on North Sea operations along with region specific developments such as Saudi Aramco’s public share offering and the Shale revolution in North America. The energy outlook of various think tanks was considered and the potential future energy makeup consisting of a harmonic coexistence of renewables and hydrocarbons was pondered over along with the prevalent electrification boom.

Similarly, population growth along with increasing urbanisation within developing countries was considered, to underscore the exponentially increasing energy demands and the strain placed on both hydrocarbons and renewables to pursue more efficient future strategies; incorporating innovation, standardisation, efficiency and transparency of technical expertise among other targets.

Steve also divulged the key traits considered during Shell’s recruitment process. He also shared some of Shell’s STEM promoting ventures along with the company goal of accruing a more ethnically and gender diverse workplace environment mirroring global communities.

All in all, it was a successful event and the attendees had all of their questions answered in-depth. The evening ended with the presentation of a handout to Steve; followed by a networking session over complimentary pizza, cake and drinks.

From Pore Space to Pipeline  leading subsurface conference returns for 15^th year

The organisers of DEVEX, a leading subsurface conference, officially launched the 2018 Conference yesterday.  Working together, from pore space to pipeline will be the theme for the 2018 Conference which is now in its 15^th year.  It is the only technical conference of its size which is focused on the full cycle of reservoir discovery, evaluation, development and recovery in the UK and provides opportunities for engineers and geoscientists to come together and share knowledge.

The Chair for the 2018 Conference, Brenda Wyllie from the Oil and Gas Authority and Vice President of SPE Aberdeen said I am pleased to be asked to Chair DEVEX 2018 on behalf of the SPE Aberdeen Section and look forward to helping the Technical Committee develop a strong program that brings together Engineers from Geoscience, Subsurface and Facility disciplines.

DEVEX is entering its 15^th year and has a reputation for showcasing Operator case studies with excellent examples of collaboration, cost savings and innovative use of technology.

SPE, PESBG and AFES are working collaboratively to provide a two day conference that provides a high quality, local conference to assist in professional development and training.

The organisers would once again like to make DEVEX free to attend, or at least with a minimal entry fee, to ensure it is accessible for all those wishing to join this important conversation. Companies pledging their support so far are Apache, BP, Chevron, CNR, ConocoPhillips, Nexen, Premier Oil, Shell and TAQA.

DEVEX 2018 will take place on the 8^th and 9^th May at the AECC. Organisers will soon be issuing a call for abstracts and will be seeking papers on frontier exploration; advanced recovery mechanisms “ waterflood to EOR; near field opportunities; facilities enhancements to improve efficiency; big data; field rejuvenation and late life well optimisation and of course case histories on maximising production and on successfully bringing shut in wells back on stream.

Back by popular demand will be expert-led masterclasses, a Young Professionals event and Core will be on display.

For further information, visit www.devex-conference.org or email devex@mearns-gill.com

This week, during Offshore Europe, we held our annual award ceremony. This event was a great opportunity to celebrate all the hard work, dedication and commitment of our volunteers; all of which will have played a significant role in the section being awarded the SPE President’s Award for Section Excellence for an unprecedented 8 years in a row. Janeen Judah, SPE President, was on hand to present all the awards.

The full list of awards recipients is below – congratulations to all.

SPE Aberdeen Section Awards:

Chris Stewart – Section Service Award – Young Professional

Ritika Pawar – Section Service Award – Student Support

Sylvester Ofogba – Section Service Award – Student Support

Kenny McAllister – Section Service Award – Programme Committee

Suzanne Robertson / Mearns & Gill – Section Service Award – Service to the Section

Diane Wood – Section Service Award – Service to the Section

Heriot Watt University – Best Student Chapter Award

University of Dundee – Highly Commended Student Chapter with special mention of chapter president Theresia Betty Sumarno

SPE Regional Award Winners

Steve Cromar – Section Service Award

Neil Armstrong – Drilling Engineering Award

Richard Cooper – Young Professional Outstanding Service Award

Eric Mackay – Production and Operations Award

SPE International Award

Colin Black – Outstanding Service Award