A resounding success! Many thanks to Aquaterra Energy for hosting the SPE Great Yarmouth Section and for their presentation titled "Conductor Supported Platforms, a Brief History".

It was an engaging talk, highlighting the unique design, fabrication and installation of minimalistic facilities where traditional technologies are prohibitive. Thank you, Aquaterra Energy, for sharing your expertise and contributing to the professional development of our local SPE community!

The SPE would like to extend a special thanks to Stewart Maxwell for delivering the talk.

The SPE Great Yarmouth Section is thrilled to share some exciting news: our former Section Officer, Phuc TRUONG, has been honored with the SPE European Regional Service Award!

Phuc is set to receive this prestigious award at the SPE Europe Regional Section Officers Meeting in Krakow, Poland, this September 2025.

The SPE Great Yarmouth held our annual general meeting today 22nd of May at the Imperial Hotel in Great Yarmouth. The section welcome some new board members who are all keen on levelling up the activities in the region.

Farewell, Phuc!

Now, every good story has a bit of a bittersweet moment, and ours is saying "cheerio!" to Phuc TRUONG. Phuc, who has diligently served our section for the past two years, was last spotted wandering the streets of Great Yarmouth today, presumably enjoying one last whiff of sea air before being whisked away to the bright lights (and presumably even more meetings) of the SPE London Section. We're fairly certain he's not been shanghaied, just promoted to a more central, and dare we say, rather posh, postcode. We wish him all the very best and hope he remembers us little ol' Yarmouth folk when he's hobnobbing with the big wigs in the capital. Don’t be a stranger, Phuc!

Finally, for those of you who enjoy a good natter about all things technical (and perhaps a free biscuit or two), we're eagerly anticipating our next technical talk. We look forward to seeing our members in the technical talk next Thursday at Aquaterra Energy office in Norwich.

Our officer Phuc TRUONG attended the SPE Beyond The Borders event with the theme focused on the "Role of O&G Professionals in the Energy Transition" in Paris, between the 19th and 21st of March, 2025. The event was organized by SPE France and attended by delegates from 15 different SPE Sections represent 12 countries.

Phuc's feedback highlights that the perspectives shared by the distinguished panelists were both thought-provoking and inspiring. These discussions strongly reaffirmed the critical role that our industry professionals play in driving the energy transition, emphasizing that we are an integral part of the solution, rather than the problem.

According to Phuc, the key takeaway from the Paris event is the undeniable acceleration of the energy transition, occurring at a pace that may not be fully appreciated by the general public. Encouragingly, the O&G industry is demonstrably taking a leading role in this transition. Major oil companies and service providers are making significant financial investments in the development and deployment of various non-fossil fuels energy sources, and CCUS, a trend that is being actively supported by policymakers.

Within Europe, France serves as a notable example of this commitment. The French government has allocated a substantial budget towards the revitalization of its nuclear energy infrastructure, recognizing its potential for low-carbon energy generation. Furthermore, there is a strong emphasis on making "white hydrogen" (naturally occurring hydrogen) and "green hydrogen" (produced through electrolysis, where water is split into hydrogen and oxygen) an affordable and scalable energy source.

On another note, in an exciting development, SPE, with the generous sponsorship of Saudi Aramco, is actively developing a sophisticated genetic Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent. This AI agent is being trained on an extensive corpus of knowledge, including the most widely recognized books within the oil and gas industry and tens of thousands of SPE technical papers. The overarching objective of this ambitious project is to make our collective industry knowledge more accessible and open-sourced in the near future.

SPE Great Yarmouth Section