SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS (SPE)
Trinidad and Tobago Section
Incoming Chairman’s Address: 2016/2017 Term
Jamaludin Khan
Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies
Date: 2016 June 15, Wednesday
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
• Dr. Nathan Meehan : SPE International President 2015/2016
• Ms. Shelly Persad : SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Chairperson 2015/2016
• Mr. Brian Baptiste : SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Conference Chairman
• Members of the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section 2015/2016 Board
• Members of the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Conference Organising Committee
• Members of the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section 2016/2017 Incoming Board
• Conference Delegates
• Members of the Media
• Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Good afternoon and thank you for the honor of addressing you at this, our SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section’s membership luncheon, awards ceremony and installation of officers for the 2016/2017 term of office.
The year was 1992, twenty – four (24) years ago, when I was privileged to serve the Society of Petroleum Engineers Trinidad and Tobago as our Section Chairman.
Since that time, the Society has been very kind to me, affording me the opportunity to function at increasing levels of responsibility, up to and including service at the global, governance level when my tenure at the SPE International Board’s level over the period 1999 to 2002 coincided with the service period of our guest of honor, SPE President Dr. Nathan Meehan who we, as a section, are very privileged to host at this, our Trinidad and Tobago Section 2016 Energy Resources Conference, so appropriately themed: Rethink, Regroup, Accelerate.
As the term of office for the 2015/2016 SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section officers approached closure, an invitation was extended to me for resumption and continuation of service, and was met with mixed emotions, not the least of which were:
• Was repeat service at leadership level appropriate?
• Should not others be the beneficiaries of the unique professional development that such leadership afforded those of us who went before?
Initially inclined to decline the Section’s kind invitation, sober reflection suggested that any such notion would be both selfish and churlish.
Our industry, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, have given much to many of us.
Further, we, who have been been the beneficiaries of such experience ad tutelage, owe a duty of care to both to consider carefully that sacred responsibility that comes with such benedictions.
It is incumbent on us to give back, to share our experiences, to contribute to the development and growth of those to whom industry leadership will be entrusted and to add seminally to the body of industry knowledge, experience and intelligence, even as the incubator that is the SPE allows us the facility to rethink, regroup and accelerate in these significantly challenging and parlous times.
It was after careful consideration of all such circumstances, coupled with discussions with several industry associates, that I accepted the Section’s kind invitation and feel both humbled and honored to have done so.
The events of the past three days have demonstrated that the new Board that will assume responsibilities from 2016 July 01 will have both the foundation and challenge of growing the organization further along the eminently strong path that Shelley and her Board and Brian and his Organising Committee so admirably charted.
Please bear with me as I offer some perspectives that we, as incoming officers will consider and seek to implement during the coming 2016/2017 term of office.
In 1999, when Nathan and I began our service period, we were offered significant words of guidance by the then Executive Director of SPE International, Dan Adamson during our informal orientation.
His perspectives resonate with me to this day and I share them with you.
He noted that, for organizations like the SPE, underpinned by voluntary service, motivated solely by professional commitment, and whose activities are discharged at the Section level by volunteerism not bound by formal governance structures of reward and consequence, faced the inevitable challenge of competition for people and their time and attention.
If applicable then, it is my view that Dan’s perspectives are even more relevant today.
Communication and connectivity have grown exponentially; corporate responsibilities are even more pressing in a significantly heightened competitive environment where results are required more accurately and more rapidly and obsolescence an even closer heartbeat away for those amongst us who do not seek to achieve and retain currency.
We as a Section face a further dichotomy.
It was very pleasing, during a conversation with Shelley, that several of us as incoming members of the incoming 2016/2017 Board, were advised that SPE Trinidad and Tobago membership, inclusive of current, lapsed and student membership, stood at of the order of one thousand members, a significant increase from the three hundred and fifty of the earlier era.
That human resource complement is, unquestionably, the single most valuable resource of our Section and offers the single largest opportunity to position the Trinidad and Tobago Section as a regional and world exemplar in SPE Section leadership through our activities and programmes.
Yet, despite that growth in membership, and, conversely, coupled with the increased competition for space, attention and resources, we face the challenge of seeing the same group of volunteers, and have commanded reduced attention on the national and professional calendar.
Both these circumstances will warrant early and critical examination by the new Board, even as we build on the structures and foundations so capably put in place by those who served before, as our Section seeks to grow itself consistent with the philosophy of our and our parent organisations.
It is our intention to convene an early working session at the beginning of 2016 July between the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 Boards, with industry stakeholders and with academia so as to facilitate the productive and efficient work of our Section as we continue to strive to meet the needs and requirements of our membership and industry.
Further, as would have heard over the last three days, our industry is faced with significant challenges.
Oil, gas and commodity prices are exceedingly volatile; global markets respond to nuances and intimations of players in the energy markets; technology development and adaptation are fundamental requirements for growth; environmental sensitivity and standards compliance are paramount and alternative energy is an ever present consideration for our industry’s health and prosperity.
With this complex proliferation of factors facing us, we must infuse ourselves with the excitement, imagination and agility that our industry and Society require us to.
Even as our 2016 Energy Resources Conference is themed “Rethink, Regroup, Accelerate,” our new Board would be well positioned intellectually and operationally were we to adopt Muhammad Ali’s still so poignantly relevant admonition:
“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish now to take this opportunity to introduce to you the 2016/2017 officers of the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section who will be charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing vision, mission and suite of activities for the upcoming year.
You will understand that, several years ago, we amended our bylaws to facilitate staggered replacement of officers so as to ensure continuity, both of service and of programmes already conceived and in train.
You will also notice from the complement of officers to be named shortly that there is a judicious mix of experience and youth, which is consistent with our Society’s philosophy of serving as an incubator that facilitates mentoring and professional growth.
I also wish to advise that all officers who have agreed to serve are primus inter pares and are all leaders in their own right.
I will ask each member to stand, please as you are introduced and I will ask you, our audience, to hold your applause until all members have been introduced:
• Programme Chairperson : Ms. Jeneece Isaac
• Membership Chairperson : Ms. Kavelle Mohammed
• Secretary : Ms. Amelia Duncan
• Finance Chairperson : Ms. Anisa Ali
• Technology Transfer and Internet Chairperson : Ms. Jasmine Medina
• Communications Chairperson : Mr. Kamlesh Ramcharitar
• Scholarships Chairperson : Ms. Yanitza Wilson
• Section Director of New Opportunities : Mr. Kevin Ramnarine
• Section Director of Continuing Education : Mr. Allister Cooper
• Past Chairperson : Ms. Shelley Persad
• 2016/2017 Chairperson Elect : Mr. Jamaludin Khan
Ladies and gentlemen: I invite you to recognize the new, 2016/2017 Board of the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section.
My final duty this afternoon is to recognize Shelley and the Board she served with for the 2015/2016 term and to acknowledge gratefully Brian and his Organising Committee for the yeoman service provide in making this Conference the success it has been.
As I close, I leave you with the immortal words of General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State of the United States of America:
“Leadership is the art of making more than the science of management says is possible.”
We face and create our own destiny as an SPE Section. Shall we lead…or follow?
Ladies and gentlemen: I believe our answer is self – evident.
Thank you and good afternoon.