We are in the beginnings of spring and with it hopefully some warmer weather, in the meantime, SPE OKC is planning a number of great events for our membership.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to nominate a colleague for the Regional and International awards that recently passed. Our section was very well represented on the Regional front, having one or more nominations for almost all categories, and we also had several nominations for international awards. The results from these will not be decided until later this summer, and as we have done for the past few years, we will plan to present recipients their plaques at the Awards Banquet in the fall.
On March 1st, the section hosted its 13th Annual SPE Mardi Gras Gala at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, and the event committee members truly outdid themselves this year, executing what has been my favorite Mardi Gras to date. We had over 200 people in attendance including some of the young men from Willow Springs. The dinner, as ever, was amazing and it was a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues from across Oklahoma City. Proceeds from the silent auction and the casino tables will go to support Willow Springs and, through your generous support, the Section was able to raise close to $12K this year! I want to offer my sincere thanks to our sponsors, attendees, volunteers and to our planning committee for their hard work on making this such a great event.
This month’s Luncheon will feature Martin Rylance from BP Exploration who will be sharing his over 30 years’ experience in fracturing operations in a talk entitled “The Fracts of Life (Common Failure Mechanisms Associated with Fracturing)”. In the coming months, our Program Chair has done an outstanding job in securing us SPE Distinguished Lecturers for April, May and June. April’s Luncheon will be by Lori Dalrymple, CEO of AOC and she will be speaking to the topic of “Soft Skills for Hard Times: How to Succeed in the Industry Downturn.” May will feature JJ Xiao of Saudi Aramco and his talk concerning Enhancing Production with ESPs, and in June, our own Mark Van Domelen of Downhole Chemical Solutions will be presenting on “Developing the Next Generation of Completion Engineers.” Signups for all luncheons through June are now available.
Registration is now open for the third installment of the SPE OKC spirits tasting, featuring Scotch whiskeys, being held on April 5th at Opus Prime. These events are a great chance to enjoy a social setting with your industry colleagues and learn more about various spirits and have a great meal selected to pair with the individual tastings. April will also host a study group entitled “Drilling Decisions and Survey Uncertainty: Avoiding Bad Beats” being presented by Marc Willerth, Vice President of Survey Technologies.
On April 8th – 12th, the section will be hosting the Oklahoma City Oil and Gas Symposium. The theme for this year’s symposium is “Developing the Future” and our technical program will include topical sessions covering data driven solutions to formation evaluation, development of unconventional resources, enhanced oil recovery, and fracturing materials and operations. Our panel discussion this year will focus on the topic of the STACK/SCOOP developments and will involve panelists from several operators in the plays. There are also short courses being offered to provide opportunities for technical development. I would like to thank our corporate sponsors for their generous support of this symposium and remind the employees of the following companies that they have a corporate registration, meaning you just need to show up with an ID and our committee will print you a badge. Devon Energy, Continental Resources, Chaparral Energy, Ascent Resources, EOG Resources, Chesapeake Energy, and Tapstone Energy.
Have a great month and look forward to seeing you at our events!
Tyler Conner