March 2015

Yes, my gf joined me for this trip or at least most of it. gf is of course an abbreviation for girlfriend and I often refer to my wife as my gf on facebook postings. When I first did this one of my children posted "Does Mom know about your gf?" as a sort of joke. We will celebrate our 39th anniversary this year. This blog entry is very PICTURE HEAVY and most of them are posted at the bottom. Please keep in mind that a lot of the nice "tourist" photos are from the gf's traveling while I am in various meetings.

Maps for this trip:

OMAN
The first part of the trip is to Oman for an SPE Board of Directors meeting. This lasted several days and was quite busy. We also met with the local section and I addressed a large group of students at Sultan Qaboos University. More pictures at the bottom of the post.

The hotel was on the beach. Sunrise.

Great trip to speak with a large group at Sultan Qaboos University

BAHRAIN
I flew off to Bahrain to attend MEOS and the Middle East Oil Show. My first stop was the University of Bahrain where I gave the welcome address at 2015 SPE Middle East Regional Student Paper Contest. I gave one of the opening remarks speeches at MEOS and participated in a panel discussion on innovation. I then had the chance to participate in the Petrobowl contest with many students from across the region. It was awesome.

Amazing how many old friends and new ones I met here. It was awesome.

I made a return trip to the University of Bahrain on Wednesday after my panel discussion.

Many more pictures at the end. I had many opportunities to meet with local and area engineers and executives. This included a dinner with local leaders at a surprisingly good sushi restaurant.

My gf didn't go to Bahrain; she headed off to Stavanger, Norway to visit our four grandchildren. My second daughter married a young man who is an ExxonMobil drilling engineer in Stavanger.

LONDON
After MEOS I flew to London and the gf flew in from Norway. I had the chance to address a group of students from Imperial College in London, one of the very best petroleum engineering schools in the world. That night the gf and I went to the English National Opera to see La Traviata.

We had a weekend in London and went to Preston, England on Saturday. Among the highlights for me was dinner at Barbecoa.

Of course the real reason to come to London was the very successful SPE/IADC conference where I gave one of the opening remarks and learned a lot more about the most recent advances in drilling and completion technologies. I was also able to kickoff the PetroBowl European Qualifier --- the students were enthusiastic and quite brilliant! I also met with local section leaders, students from London South Bank University and made a trip to BP's research facilities.

Among the tourist things I joined my wife for included a trip to the Greenwich Observatory where we stood on opposite halves of the earth and showed that even in different hemispheres you can get close enough for all practical purposes.

1. SPelfie

COPENHAGEN
After London we flew to Copenhagen, Denmark. I spoke at the Arctic Technology Conference and attended a performance of The Magic Flute at their beautiful opera house. The Queen of Denmark joined us in attending this performance. We were really glad to have a weekend in this beautiful city and my wife enjoyed being a tourist. I also had the chance to be a tourist and saw the great works of some of my favorite artists including Thorvaldsen and Carl Bloch. We ate at the world famous Noma restaurant and I addressed a large and enthusiastic group of students at the Danish Technical University. There were some great meetings with Maersk engineers and management. By the time this was all done we were more than ready to get home!

Denmark Opera House. MANY more pictures below!

1. SPelfie

Other Blogs

You can of course read about my barbecue at This site
My Baker Hughes reservoir blogis here.
My (old) blog detailing my 18 months in Hong Kong is here,

Travel this trip (basically includes airport to airport) 22,687 SPE travel to date 115,327 miles.
Countries to date (my counting rule is basically that I spent the night there with some sort of SPE content...not just went through the airport like New Zealand or Panama): 16
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Canada
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Singapore
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (Scotland, England)
USA

Operas this month = 2 To date= 9

OMAN Pictures

The Oman Board meeting was held in the Shangri La hotel on the beautiful Omani coast

The new Opera House in Muscat

Interesting sign at Sultan Qaboos.

Students

A dress at the Opera House... shhh, don't tell my gf but this is her Christmas present!

BAHRAIN PICTURES

Students at Petrobowl.

LONDON PICTURES

Jan went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford University on her own.

We enjoyed some museums together and some of course she saw on her own. Here is a massive and famous rug from the Victoria and Albert museum.

On Saturday we went to Preston to visit the Preston England temple. We also had the chance to visit the London temple.

At one museum I took a selfie with Charles Darwin. And, according to him, one of my distant relatives.

More from museums.

The trip to the Greenwich Observatory and the surrounding area was far more interesting than I had imagined. Much to see and do there.

When I met with the London South Bank and other area students we took a lot of selfies. Here are a few.

From my visit to Imperial College.

COPENHAGEN PICTURES

Our hotel

The opera house and some views from it. We enjoyed the opera along with a special guest, the Queen! Fund to see the performers take their bows first to her and then to the audience.

More sights around Copenhagen

At the Danish Technical University

At the Lego store

The Little Mermaid statue

The Marble church is directly across the harbor from the Opera house

The Nyhavn area

Some random Danish kids and I take a selfie in the park.

A central statue

At the Thorvaldsen museum

The Kiss

A few more Carl Bloch paintings

Changing of the guard

Near the harbor I spotted this Greenpeace ship.