The prestigious event has established its reputation as a yearly meeting, joining the student chapters from different technical universities to address the current status of the oil and gas industry as well as the technological novelties in the domain. Our Montanuniveristät Leoben SPE Student Chapter had the opportunity to be represented in the event.
During the opening ceremony, several notable personalities from the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the city of Zagreb, the University of Zagreb and the sponsoring companies held speeches to welcome the attendees to the conference insisting on the importance of such technical events.
A panel session followed titled “Future of Petroleum Industry: New Solutions to Old Challenges “ featuring a diverse group of experts representing the Croatian government as well as a number of different companies. The discussion covered a broad range of topics as the technological advances that became essential in this new age of efficiency, the current status of the oil price and the unconventional oil and gas resources. The panel focused on the importance of the new generation of petroleum engineers and their need to deal with the new uprising challenges in the industry with keeping a flexible approach to their career choices.
After a short break, a series of presentations was carried on by of HEP Gas Supply ltd, Plinacoro and INA.
During the afternoon session, a presentation was held by Prvo Plinarsko drustvo on the topic of gas prices and their determining factors followed by another presentation as a part of the paper contest.
On the second day, the conference started with a presentation by Mr Dragutin Domitrovic representing MB Geothermal d.o.o. on “Turkish Experiences in Using Geothermal Resources for Electricity Generation”. The presentations carried on throughout the day from both the students as a part of the paper contest and from professionals from different companies such as Baker Hughes, ENI and Schlumberger.
The day was finalized with a soft skills workshop held by MR Danijel Dadovic from the Student Support and Career Development Center and Ms Ana Boric from INA HR department.
On the third day of the conference, the rest of the presentations from the paper contest were held featuring our fellows from the Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter, Florian Gamperl with a presentation on “Wellbore Quality – Impacts and Assessment Methods” and Mohamed Amine Ouarda on “Gas Storage in Salt Domes”. A Poster Session and a PetroTournament were also held throughout the day.
During the closing ceremony, the winners of the paper contest, the petrotournament and the poster contest were announced with our fellow Mohamed Amine Ouarda being tied for the second place for his presentation.
However, the conference program did not end after the closing ceremony. The Zagreb SPE Student Chapter still offered a field trip to the offshore drilling rig “Labin” which is currently in the harbor of Pula. After a bus ride through the picturesque mountains of Croatia the bus arrived in Pula, where the jack-up rig was immediately visible.
After getting our safety equipment, we were shown around the rig, getting to see not only the rig floor, mud pits and blowout preventer, but also the crew’s resting area. After this exciting excursion, we had a final traditional Croatian dinner on our way back home to Zagreb, where we unfortunately had to depart the next day.
We would like to thank the SPE Zagreb Team for these unforgettable days of networking, discussing and exploring new technologies and horizons! Looking forward to see you again next year!