As the year is coming to a close, the section still has a number of events planned to keep our member community active and engaged. The month of October was a particularly busy one with several Engineering Study Groups and a number of social activities including our Fall Golf tournament, which turned out great! I want to thank all the section volunteers for their hard work and take this opportunity to discuss volunteerism and the role it has played in my career.
SPE can claim more the 158,000 members across 143 countries, and an overwhelming majority of these members are not paid staff. It is upon the backs of its volunteers that SPE is able to carry out its mission of disseminating technical knowledge. My educational background is chemical engineering, and early in my time at university, I did not foresee that my future would include a career in Oil and Gas. It was not until I began my master’s program and became an officer in the fledgling SPE Chapter at the University of Utah that I had my first taste at volunteerism and found my calling in the industry. Subsequent to graduating, I moved to Oklahoma City to start at Devon, but knew very few people in the city. I was fortunate that a family friend was working in the city and he suggested I get involved with the local SPE Young Professional group. It is there that I met many great engineers, both within Devon and across the city. I served in several roles including program chair, finding speakers and planning our evening tech talks. During this time, I met a great many technical leaders in our industry and it benefitted me tremendously in my technical role at Devon. Eventually, I stepped in as YP Chair, which afforded me a seat on the Section’s officer board. My network further expanded with this group of amazing people and I was able to serve as liaison between the student Chapters and the Section, work with our community outreach groups serving organizations like Willow Springs and act in a leadership position with the Young Professionals. I also learned about opportunities to volunteer at the SPE International level. It is through these opportunities that I was able to meet and work with some of the engineering giants such as Tom Blasingame and John Lee. I have since continued to serve with the local section in various responsibilities before finally being offered the Chairman role, and while this position has been challenging, I have found it very rewarding, particularly because of the great people I get to work with. Whether it is becoming more involved with your community, mentorship with university students, expanding your professional and social networks, or obtaining some leadership experience, volunteerism with SPE is not something you will regret.
I mentioned above that I have been serving on an SPE International committee, the Reservoir Advisory Committee, and this week we hosted an RTA/PTA Workshop in Galveston. It was one of the best SPE events I have ever attended so I wanted to share with you some of the highlights. As the title might suggest, the topic was Rate Transient Analysis (RTA) and Pressure Transient Analysis (PTA) and their applications to reservoir characterization, reservoir diagnostics, and development planning. It was three days’ worth of topical sessions covering everything from the genesis of RTA/PTA to future advancements. One presentation, in particular, that I found thought provoking was by a Permian operator who is employing downhole pressure gauges and using a transient analysis, Chow pressure group, to identify Power-law behavior in heterogeneous Wolfcamp horizontal wells and predict long term behavior as well as evaluate performance changes due to well interference and frac hits. By no means was this the only interesting paper, we also had several Section members presenting material in the Case Studies sections. If you have never attended a SPE Workshop before, I would highly recommend you get on the SPE website and find one of interest.
Finally, I want to share a few of our upcoming events. Remember that this month our luncheon is hosting Distinguished Lecturer Roy Ledgewood, who will be presenting on the topic of rock failure and borehole mechanics. If you are wanting to provide some service to the local community, we still have a few spots open for the Fighting Hunger volunteer day.
I look forward to seeing you all at the monthly luncheon. Happy Holidays to all.