SPE President Travels

I have some flexibility in where I go and because a) my son attends graduate School at MST and b) my good friend Prof. Shari Dunn-Norman has long told me I should come to see the school my wife and I headed to Rolla over Labor Day. We went to a wonderful barbecue restaurant in St. Louis --Bogart's Smokehouse. That is described at My Barbecue Blog

We also caught the Cardinals for a game on Labor Day. I love baseball and especially in St. Louis. As a Houston fan I have some conflicting memories but as an 8-year old I saw my first MLB game in St. Louis with my Dad. When my son got married I had a wedding party in a skybox there. My brothers from England and Illinois joined me at an All-Star game there. This game was great as the Cardinals battled back from a 4-2 deficit to win 5-4.

I had the opportunity to tour the school which I remember as the Missouri School of Mines and then the University of Missouri-Rolla. I remember corresponding with Prof Leonard F Koederitz early in my career. A brilliant man, he was always helpful and I understand that although retired he stills helps out occasionally.

I bought some pizza and gave a lecture in a room with 100 chairs. Since 150 students showed up we were a touch crowded. I was very impressed with the integration of the earth sciences with petroleum engineering and their emphasis on mechanical earth modeling.

1,521 miles

6,615 miles to date

The SPE Forums bring experts together to talk about the state of the art and future problems in certain technical areas. This forum addressed the topic "Well Construction Efficiency: NPT, Reliability, and Process Improvement"

Santa Fe, NM

The forum was five days of very technical information and discussions that are "off the record." This lead to very engaging discussions which I very much enjoyed. My wife came out at the end of the Forum and we spent the weekend there. The town is beautiful and I certainly enjoyed the great opera house and their creative interpretation of Carmen.

The food is awesome. Lots of great dishes with green chilis.

Santa Fe is a very colorful town with lots to do. We also saw some of the great area attractions.

And of course the opera. We went with some of our friends attending the forum.

1720 Miles 2 flights.

Denver

Also attended UrTec, a very interdisciplinary unconventional conference in Denver. Very well attended. Two more flights, 1731 miles.

To date, 8,156 miles.

Operas to date=1 Carmen

It is a real honor to be selected to serve as a President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. I joined the SPE in 1975 as a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma where I earned my M.Sc. in petroleum engineering and started attending my first SPE meetings. I had the good fortune to meet and get to know may of the SPE Presidents and eventually one of them---M. Scott Kraemer---mentored me at Union Pacific Resources. His recommendation allowed me to become a Director of the Society and eventually go back to grad school and earn my Ph.D.

The process of becoming SPE President is well documented but to recap it starts with an open nomination process--then a committee narrows the nominees list to five candidates. These candidates are given a series of questions and provide answers via a video. The nominating committee makes a recommendation to the SPE Board who then ratify the nomination. The name of the Board nominee is published in JPT and an opportunity for other nominations is made available. If the required petitions are not received, the Board nominee is considered elected. This nominee becomes President-elect of the Society at the end of the ATCE and joins the Board for a period of three years. A year later the President-elect becomes President for a year followed by a one-year term as Past-President. The time commitment for the 1st and 3rd year is estimated to be 50-75% with a nearly 100% commitment during the Presidential year. I am really grateful to my employer, Baker Hughes International for their support during this Commitment.

In this blog I will track my travels and make a few observations from the road. The first semi-official trip was to the SPE Board meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. The SPE President gets to select the locations for two Board meetings and the previous one was held in Myanmar. The third meeting is held in conjunction with the ATCE. Although I was not officially on the Board as a voting member I was able to participate in all but the closed sessions of the meeting.

IAH-PTY
PTY-CTG
CTG-BOG
BOG-IAH
4,093 miles
First SPE related trip, so 4,093 miles to date. 4 flights.