SPE President Shauna Noonan’s Visit to DPE

The visit included Mrs. Noonan’s presentation, “Transformation of the Petroleum Engineer: Impact of the Digital Revolution and Social Responsibility”. DPE students and staff, who attended the event, derived tremendous value and inspiration from her enlightening presentation.

During the presentation, she weighed in on challenges young engineers will face in adopting responsibilities and navigating their careers through the digital revolution and shifting social obligations. Mrs. Noonan discussed the challenges she faced in balancing her family life with the professional one, a point that resonated with our audience, especially our talented female engineers in-the-making. Lastly, Shauna stressed the importance of the SPE in shaping her career and personal development in every step of the way.

Following a stirring round of Q&A, Shauna’s visit concluded with a tour of our university grounds and laboratory equipment. It left deep impressions on our guest and confirmed DPE’s commitment to paving the road to the future with cutting-edge technology and top-quality research. Mrs. Noonan’s visit was a resounding success in every way, we eagerly await the opportunity to host her again.

“The visit to your university has been one of the highlights so far, as SPE President. My expectations for visiting the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Montanuniversitt Leoben were high given its reputation of being one of the best in the world, and I can honestly say that those expectations were exceeded. The discussions with the SPE student members, faculty and Dr. Ott were very informative and thought-provoking. The work being done within the research laboratories was impressive and so vital towards the technological advancements our industry needs. I am very thankful to everyone’s hospitality and kindness during my visit and I look forward to returning in the near future,” Mrs. Noonan said.

Internship Opportunities

Hello Fellow PE Students,

Our new supporter Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH is offering several Internships for Summer 2020!

Take the chance and gather valuable experience in the industry. Good luck to all applicants!

Call for Applications: Weatherford

Hello fellow PE students!

We are happy to announce that Weatherford has contacted us regarding an open position in Germany. In particular, they are offering multiple positions in their NextGen graduate program as Junior Field Engineer. Weatherford is one of the largest multinational oilfield service companies providing innovative solutions, technology, and services to the oil and gas industry.

Weatherford Germany is looking for Graduate Students, who are joining them as Junior Field Engineers for Wireline Services, which are available for starting in autumn 2019.
Please read more on the official Flyer: Junior Field Engineer

If you are interested please apply using the following link:

http://jobs.weatherford.com/jobs/4536142-junior-field-engineer-nextgen

We wish all applicants good luck!

Happy Announcement!

We are happy to announce that our chapter will be supported again by the Rohrer group for this year.

Rohrer group is a multinational service company, offering its expertise in fields ranging from scaffolding and installation work to plant manufacturing as well as automation/EMSR. With over 10 branches all around the world, Rohrer group is able to supply the industry with indispensable, well-trained personnel, equipment and the required know-how to ensure safe, cost-effective and sound operations.

If you want to know more, check out their homepage:

https://www.rohrer-grp.com/

We want to express our gratitude towards the representatives of the company, for believing in our chapter, and we hope to maintain the collaboration.

Your SPE Student Chapter Leoben

PMLucas Enterprise: Call for applications!

Internships for the Easter and Summer break offer!

Dear fellow PE (Master-)Students,

Are you still struggling with internships and haven’t had luck so far to find a job for this summer?

We are proud to announce that PMLucas is offering internships to PE students from the MUL. PM Lucas is developing and maintaining software solutions for Digital Oil Field applications. Both internships are directed towards master students since one requirement is to own a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering. If you do so, look at the internship announcements and apply as quoted. These can be found below.

Digital Oil Field Intern – Easter Break

Digital Oil Field Intern – Summer Break

Easter holidays will start soon. So be fast and apply ASAP!

We wish all the applicants good luck for the application process and hope that the

Your SPE Student Chapter Leoben

SCOPE 2018 Résumé

As you all know, the Montanuniversität Leoben SPE Student Chapter was organizing the 2nd Student Congress of Petroleum Engineering under the title “PEoneer – Innovation and New Technology” in Leoben on October 15th-17th.

On Sunday, after the arrival of the incoming students from other chapters, universities and countries, we all had a warm welcoming get together at Bellini in Leoben. It is also called “Leoben oben”, which means Leoben from above and was a nice way for welcoming all participants and showing them the best view over the town. Our team was awaiting every participant with an info folder, including a city map for better orientation and one free drink of choice. Many students from all over the world were exchanging experiences in regard to studies, jobs and future plans. The tables were all pulled together, and everyone was chatting in excitement of the upcoming conference. The SPE Student Chapter Leoben was very eager to make everyone feel welcome and included. As some were tired from either travelling or classes, they went home rather early while others were at no shame to show our guests around Leoben a little while longer through the night. After all, the only thing that’s left to say is that it was a great start for a great conference with great people.

Monday, October 15th, the first official day of SCOPE 2018, started with the registration at the Department of Petroleum Engineering (DPE) building. Each participant and guest of honor received a goody bag filled with important information about not only SCOPE 18’ and the city of Leoben but also about our sponsors and their work, before heading to our organized breakfast.

At 10:00 a.m., we divided the participants into three groups and started our university tour. For each group, the tour included three main stops, but in a different order. First the drilling simulator presented by Senior Lecturer and PhD candidate Anton Lettner, who explained the principle along with the different applications of the simulator. He also focused on how the students use it in order to learn to interpret the different changes on the curves shown on the screens. Our first stop ended with a bonus, since one of our participants had the chance to manipulate the simulator and be in charge as it is in a real life situation.
The second stop was at the Geology and Geophysics Department, where Head of Petroleum Geology – Prof. Dr. Reinhard Sachsenhofer welcomed us with different posters related to the various on-going projects in our university. The participants had the opportunity to have a conversation with him about his experience in the different countries he has worked in and learned some fun-facts about the geology in the Vienna Basin in Austria, the Balkan Region, the Black Sea, China and many more. The tour ended with a visit to the geology museum where beautiful minerals and rocks are exposed for the eye to enjoy.
Our third and final stop was in the new DPE laboratory, where Head of Reservoir Chair -Prof. Dr. Holger Ott along with PhD candidate Pit Arnold not only showed the group the new equipment in the laboratory and their different applications but also presented their research about future core flooding experiments and microfluidics.
We want to thank all the guides for their nicely demonstrated tours. The tour concluded with a joined lunch at the main university.

The main part of the congress was initiated by a great opening ceremony, where the Mayor of the City of Leoben Kurt Wallner, Prof. Dr. Herbert Hofstätter and our President Christoph Flicker addressed warm welcome words to the congress participants.

One of the main highlights of SCOPE were the keynote speeches in which four different speakers from different companies spoke about their approach on how to tackle the challenges of innovation and industry 4.0. Christoph Steiner from PM Lucas Enterprise Limited started off with a technical description of his company’s solution of numerical simulation in naturally fractured reservoirs. Patrick von Pattay, who leads Wintershall’s 4.0 initiative, made it clear that breaking old habits can be disruptive in the short term, but also that rethinking and overhauling long-established processes is necessary for a modern and efficient approach. RAG’s MURAG, an innovative tool to automate processes in production operations, was presented by David Doppelreiter, Head of Business at the Austrian company, before Philipp Lang, Software Engineer at Schlumberger, completed the keynote session with his view on how far the petroleum industry can go in reservoir modelling. We, the SPE Student Chapter Leoben are very thankful for the invested time and work of the speakers and are also very proud to say, that all four speakers are Montanuniversität Leoben alumni.

In the afternoon, Peter Kronberger, Reservoir Engineer at Wintershall, Lukas Mosser, Postgraduate PhD Student at Imperial College, Franz Wohlfart, Deputy Department Director Wells Construction, JV’s and International Projects (Rosneft), Herbert Hofstätter, University Professor in Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Recovery and Hans Peter Messmer, Senior Research Analyst, Energy Studies Department at OPEC, gathered on stage under the spotlight to discuss some important points about the future of the oil and gas industry. The panel was moderated by David Doppelreiter. There was mainly a talk about oil company strategies for digitalization, adapting to new technologies and the impact it has from an economic and social viewpoint. The audience was able to join the conversation with submitting their questions during the panel discussion by means of an online live application, which was managed by the SCOPE 2018 organizing committee, Christoph Flicker, Sharadiya Kozak and Andreas Liegenfeld. This allowed for a variety of answers; the speakers contributed with their opinions on technology related ethics, recruitment, startups and the importance of soft skills.

On Tuesday, October 16th, the paper contest took place. The first phase occurred months before the congress, where more than a dozen participants sent their abstracts to our organizing committee. The abstracts were evaluated anonymously and the four best authors were picked to participate in the paper contest. The second phase occurred during the second day of SCOPE 18’, where these four participants had to present their papers in front of our two judges:
• Luis Lobianco, Technical Sales Engineer for Artificial Lift Systems at Schlumberger, Vienna, Austria.
• Prof. Dr. Herbert Hoffstater, Head of Petroleum Production and Geothermal Energy Recovery Chair at the DPE, Montanuniversitat Leoben, Austria.
The judges evaluated the participants on their presentation skills, their scientific knowledge and on their ability to answer theirs and the audience’s questions.

The ranking of the winner is as follows:
First Place: Hilali Maher
Second Place: Clemens Rainer
Third Place: Artem Karimov
Fourth Place: Alexandra Oberemok

The Student Petroquiz was hosted in the Erzherzog-Johann Auditorium. There was a setup with two teams on stage per round and with a table per team. Three members made up each team. The questions were announced by Mr. Georg Seidl from OMV and Ines Smaoui. The teams started out strongly. However, they started guessing at questions in later stages and members from the audience described as “Jokers” came to the rescue. Eventually, the team “Perdido” emerged as the triumphant winners.

At 6:00 p.m., the Student Congress of Petroleum Engineering Closing and Award Ceremony took place at the Erzherzog-Johann-Trakt Auditorium. It was indeed a great honor and joy and privilege to have Mr. Alexander Gerstner and Prof. Herbert Hofstätter with us and to witness their encouraging speeches as well as their motivational words that pushes as petroleum engineers in general and SPE members specifically to work more for the benefit of our SPE Student Chapter and university. Speeches were followed by an award ceremony for our Paper Contest and Student Petroquiz winners. Each participant was handed a certificate of acknowledgment and other gifts as cash prizes or souvenirs from Leoben and the Montanuniversität of Leoben.

After two successful days of Panel Discussions, Keynote speeches and student contests, an after party was launched at Bodega Central Dancing Leoben. It was a great opportunity for SCOPE participants and organizers to spend more time together and enjoy the last day of the congress before they left on a field trip to OMV Aktiengesellschaft facilities and the head office, hosted by the SPE Vienna Basin Section on Wednesday, October 17th. We hopped on a bus, heading towards Gänserndorf, where OMV-Austria’s Exploration and Production activities are headquartered. The first stop was the in-house core storage facility, where some 50.000 meters of cores from OMV’s assets all over the world are stored and examined. Next stops included the corrosion and metallurgical testing facility, where we got an insight into a lot of different corrosion problems occurring when producing, transporting and refining hydrocarbons. After this, we got a very interesting tour through the water testing lab, EOR lab and PVT lab.
After a delicious lunch in the canteen in Gänserndorf, we resumed with a bus tour through the oil fields around Gänserndorf guided by Well Delivery Manager and SPE VBS President Alexander Gerstner. As we were rolling through the smooth landscape of lower Austria, we got a glance on numerous sucker rod pumps, the water treatment plant in Schönkirchen, gathering stations, EOR facilities, a drilling rig, gas storage facilities and the desulfurization plant in Aderklaa. Furthermore, Mr. Gerstner was giving us an overview of OMV’s history in the regions and some future plans.
Our last stop was the brand-new 3D-Visualization Room in OMV’s head office in Vienna. With this state-of-the-art piece of technology, geologists can visualize complex geological formations and find potential oil and gas deposits that are yet to be drilled.
At this point, we really want to thank the SPE Vienna Basin Section and especially Alexander Gerstner for organizing the field trip and showing us around OMV’s operation in the Vienna Basin. It was really a great experience. We want to especially thank all our sponsors, without their help this event would not have been possible:

Gold Sponsor:
PM Lucas Enterprises Limited

Silver Sponsors:
Greenwell
ILF Consulting Engineers Austria GmbH
Weingut Liegenfeld
MND
RAG & RDG
Schoeller Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment AG

Bronze Sponsors:
TDE Group GmbH
Sirius E.S.
Rohrer Group

Thank you all and see you at SCOPE 2020!

The Organizing Committee:

Christoph Flicker
Sharadiya Kozak
Andreas Liegenfeld

ACPC in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Arriving in Almaty, I almost immediately fell asleep after having been traveling for more than 12 hours. Nevertheless, the long travel paid off, as I realized in the next days. On April 14, the conference began with the opening ceremony in which university and company representatives talked about the importance of networking and sharing experience and knowledge, two key points for SPE International. Also, as so often on conferences these days, the industry situation, and especially its implications for the students and fresh graduates, was a topic. Mr Iskhakov of KazNTU emphasized in this context that we should always keep these wise words in our minds: “Even if the whole world seems to be against you, always remember that airplanes always start against the wind!”

Florian defending his research work in the form of a poster

Subsequently, three events took place at the same time: The Petroleum Engineering Congress with the Upstream section of the paper contest, the Oil Games (a quiz competition), and the Job Fair, where the most renowned companies that work in Kazakhstan were represented. After lunch, it was also my own turn in participating in the paper contest, competing against 15 other students in the upstream area, with interesting topics reaching from drilling over reservoir simulation to production and reservoir management. In the evening, we were taken to Kok Tobe, a hill at the city limits, which gave us a stunning view of nightly Almaty. Tired after walking around we took the ropeway back down to the city.

Stunning view of ALmaty, the former Kazakh capital at night

The second (and already final) day started with the semi-final rounds of the Oil Games, as well as the Geology Paper Contest. Afterwards, there were presentations and motivational speeches by young successful people, such as movie directors, photographers or businessmen. They talked about how to achieve success and happiness in life – and they agreed on a surprisingly simple formula: “Do what you enjoy doing, and success and happiness will come to you all by themselves!”

After lunch, the Downstream paper contest session took place while the finalists of the Oil Games fought for the first place, which was ultimately won by three ladies of the Kazakh-British Technical University SEG Chapter, closely followed by the three ladies from Gubkin University.

In the evening, the Petroleum Party took place. In this evening gala, the winners of the paper contest sessions were announced, and I could not believe when I heard that I made third place! Of course, the evening continued on with lots of dancing, talking and taking pictures…

Medeu ski resort in the mountains surrounding Almaty. Skiing is possible until the summer here at nearly 3,000m, and you feel just like in the Austrian Alps!

Sunday morning, I used the little free time I had, going to Medeu in the close by mountains together with colleagues from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Despite the poor weather conditions in the city, the air at nearly 3,000m above sea level was fresh, but surprisingly warm, and the local ski resort really made me want to stay longer to go skiing!

After all, the two and a half days in Almaty passed very quickly, leaving me with only one wish: having had more time to spend there to explore the city and the its surrounding amazing nature more deeply, as well as enjoying the hospitality of Kazakhstan for longer! All I can say is thank you very much to the organizers for this great event, and for the great time I had in Almaty, as well as to all the great people I met, who all made this a really unforgettable trip! Looking forward to meeting you all again! Рақмет!

Reservoir Modeling Workshop – from seismic to simulation

The workshop was divided into three main parts, where each professional taught his area of expertise to a class of 20 students from different countries studying in Leoben in different Master- and Bachelor programs, such as Petroleum Engineering and Geology.

Mr. Haghighi giving an introduction into Petrel (Photo Credit: Thomas Herzog)

On the first one and a half days, Mr. Maziar Haghighi got us a perfect start with the software solution Petrel, even to those who had no idea about it. After the start was done and people got comfortable with the software, he showed us, how to import predefined time (PSTM) and depth (PSDM) domain seismic volumes and how to convert within these two using a velocity model. Setting up new Petrel projects, defining seismic horizons, mapping and adjusting the wells using different gridding algorithms were the overall goals in this time with Mr. Haghighi.

Working further on the project, coming to the static geomodeling part of the workshop, Mr. Keyvan Osivandi, Geologist at OMV, taught us, how to correlate log data with the model. We created the body via fault and horizon modeling and filled it via porosity, permeability and saturation modeling followed to volumetric calculations.

When the static part of the project was done, dynamic simulation was the topic of Mr. Nicolas Legrand. We did the initialization of the reservoir to get it to dynamic equilibrium at the start of production using initial pressure and saturation data. After the initialization process, a history match with existing data was necessary to get a good reservoir model for forecasting further processes. Based on the forecast, we could make a decision if a workover in an existing well or if an infill would be more beneficial in the field.

Working hard and having fun doing it (Photo Credit: Thomas Herzog)

Summarized, the workshop gave us a really good start in working with the Software Petrel and renewed or even created much reservoir knowledge for students in different study programs. It was a pleasure to work with professionals from OMV who really know what they are talking about.

We would like to thank the ÖGEW for their help, without them this event would never have been possible!

Darcy Spady Visits Montanuniversitaet Leoben

At first, Mr. Spady got to see our Department of Petroleum Engineering, which he was quite impressed by. Not only was he impressed by the applied research Prof. Hofstätter and his team took the time to introduce him to, but also by our new building and the facilities in general. We also had the pleasure to show him the downstream applications of our beloved petroleum in the Department of Polymer Science, and especially, their lab facilities.

Department tour: Sepp Steinlechner, Ines Smaoui, Darcy Spady, Florian Gamperl, Prof. Herbert Hofstätter, Georg Ripperger (from left to right) in the Production Engineering Master Class

In the evening, Mr. Spady gave a motivational presentation to an audience of about 50 students. He started talking about his personal career which he says is an “example of what not to do”. However – and that is the huge motivating message behind this talk – it also shows that anything is possible, if you are willing to take chance and move out of your comfort zone. For example, he was based in an area with enormous shale layers in a time when “shale was considered garbage. It was something you’d speed up your logging tool”. Yet, he developed some kind of expertise in this area, which was then helpful for his further career.

With shale gas being a very controversial topic, this was an excellent opportunity to move to another subject Mr. Spady is very enthusiastic about, community involvement. Again, he gave an example from his personal career, where he had to drill a well on a university campus, in the middle of a city. Despite public concerns, he and his crew managed to drill the well, and even reduced the public resistance to a minimum by getting them involved, allowing them on site, and explaining what is going on. Darcy Spady says that regaining the public trust is the key to continuing our work in densely populated areas. This may not be the case for many areas of the world, but it sure is an important factor in Central Europe!

As the President Elect of SPE, our organization also had to be mentioned. Showing interest in SPE is something very rewarding. Mr. Spady especially encouraged us to write papers, and go on conferences with them. He also mentioned that we should not be afraid of being made fun of with our research work: If it makes it through the selection process, the paper has to be good! And Mr. Darcy Spady also specifically said that the level of teaching and research is very high at our university, another big encouragement to start spreading our knowledge!

Thomas Gundacker of BP during his presentation

The visit of Darcy Spady coincided with the traditional visit of Thomas Gundacker, a Leoben graduate working with BP. He also gave a brief talk about the world energy outlook, the role of oil and gas in the future. He also pointed out that BP is hiring students for internships and for permanent work despite the crisis. For more, visit www.bp.com/leoben

The evening was concluded with a dinner at Mensa, to which both Mr. Gundacker and Mr. Spady were invited.

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in organizing the program, especially Prof. Hofstätter and the team at the DPE for taking the time to show our guest around, and of course, a big “Thank You!” to Mr. Gundacker and Mr. Spady for visiting Leoben. We hope you enjoyed your stay just as much as we did.

Internship Opportunity Transaustria Gasleitung GmbH

If you are still looking for an internship we would like to present you a great opportunity. The Transaustria Gasleitung GmbH is offering two internships this year. One is in the field of system management and the other in the field of HSEQ.

The internships will take place in the headquarter in Vienna. The duration for the internship in system management is from one month up to three months. The HSEQ internship lasts for six months. Both internships are paid internships.

If you want to find out more about the company, please click on the following link: Transaustria Gasleitung GmbH

Furthermore please check the links below if your profile fits the requirements. The deadline for the applications is the 31st of January 2017. Please submit your application to the email-adress which is mentioned in the files.

We wish you good luck with your application.

Your Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter

System Management-Internship

HSEQ-Internship

We are hiring!

Dear SPE Members and Petroleum Engineering Students!

We are looking for creative minds to share our vision for the future of the SPE Student Chapter Leoben. Take a look at our job openings and apply if you find working at the SPE Student Chapter would be something for you.

Take the chance to fill a position of your choice – due to the progress of their studies, the current board will no longer be available for 2017. All available positions are described in detail, accessible via the following link:

2017 Job Openings

Board positions

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer

Officer positions

International Relations Chairperson
Head of Public Relations
Membership Chairperson
Events Chairperson
Training Chairperson
Office Manager

Project Leaders (Field Trip 2017, Book Order 2017, PetroBowl 2018) and Assistant of Chairperson.

Deadline for applications for board positions: January 6th, 12:00

Deadline for applications for officer positions: February 3rd, 12:00

If you are interested in one or even more fields please do not hesitate and write a short email application to chapter@speleoben.com.

Onboarding

Onboarding, also known as organizational socialization, refers to the mechanism through which new students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders.

Bauer, T. N (2011)

Dear Students, as we already mentioned in the earlier post “the change process”, we strive to achieve a better, easier and more user friendlier future with more benefits for you, we were looking into several topics and processes that we had in place over the past years and decades.

One of the processes we analyzed was the “onboarding process” or in a less formal way the join / sing up procedure. There were different systems in place starting from signing pages, paying money to officers and writing down your email address in some Excel sheet up to facebook sign up buttons and many many more.

join.speleoben.com

As we offered other petroleum societies collaboration partners that we represent their interests as a “ONE-STOP-SHOP” under the new branding “Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter” we also included their registration forms.

So now what does that mean for you becoming a member or renewing your membership:

only one page for onboarding that is updated if we will offer new petroleum societies
less emails during the processing period
no worrying about deadlines of payment and so on, we will inform you about your dues
instant access to all future events with your SPE International Member Number

We offer the same what we did before but one more thing – the Petroleum Engineering Club Package. This gives you the benefit of your local SPE Student Chapter for 10€ and the additional benefit of the ÖGEW & WPC for an additional 10€ instead of ÖGEW alone at 15€. This offers you now the possibility to choose either the local chapter, the ÖGEW, the WPC alone or however you like it or all together.

So we are looking forward for your replies and seeing you at one of our many events in the future. Next topics we will discuss are mailing and events, as we also improved this two things.

Stay tuned and sign up today!

Soft Skill Workshop by AOC, Career Strategies for young professionals

As students we are constantly increasing our knowledge about specific technical topics during the course of our studies. Nevertheless success is not only based on technical skills. The oil industry is a global industry and more than ever it is necessary to master soft skills as well. To cover this highly interesting and important topic, the Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter organised a two days softskill-workshop which took place from the 2nd to the 3rd December 2016.

The workshop was held by Lori and Dwyann Dalrymple who are running their own company, which is specialised in teaching industry professionals and students how to utilise soft skills in the work life.

The workshop began by giving a presentation. The presentation had to be prepared at home, about a topic of our choice. The presentation was recorded for further evaluation. Several different topics were addressed. The topics ranged from people talking about their hometown, to an introduction how to use a specific software properly.

The afternoon was dedicated to the topic, “How to make you a dynamic presenter”. Lori gave a lot of useful insights how to improve the presentation style and the overall communication skills. What was obvious from the beginning, often only little changes can make a big difference. Furthermore it is very important to know who is going to be the audience. Especially for presentations in the oil industry where it is very likely to face a multicultural audience. These and more techniques how to improve the presentations were introduced during the afternoon session.

The second day started by a mock interview session. Dwyann who already has more than thirty years of experience in hiring and also firing people, faced us with some ideas how a real interview session could look like. We had to answer questions about ourselves but also some questions which were a little bit outside of the box. Have you ever asked yourself which animal you would like to be? Maybe you should ask yourself before the next interview.

Afterwards we continued by giving the same presentation than yesterday but this time with incorporating all the learned techniques. The presentations were recorded and feedback about that material is going to be sent to all the participants in a few weeks.

Workshop Participants together with teacher Lori Dalrymple on the left — Group Picture

Finally at the end of the second day Dwyann gave two interesting technical presentations. One about hydraulic and fracturing and the other about the production of water, possible causes for that and how to deal with it. This was a perfect opportunity for the participants to see how soft and technical skills can be combined to be an effective presenter.

In the end the Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter would like to thank Lori and Dwyann very much for their time and effort to make this workshop possible. It was a great pleasure for us to learn from your experience, expertise and knowledge. We are looking forward to repeat that in the future.

If you want to have further information about Lori and Dwyanns expertise and their company please follow the link to their homepage:

http://arofcom.com/aocskills/

Adventures in the Middle East – ATCE 2016 in Dubai

From the 26^th -28^th of September professionals and students from around the world gathered in this wonderful city to address the future challenges that this industry has to face. Alongside of them were three members of the SPE Student Chapter Leoben, using this opportunity to participate in panel discussions, workshops and technical sessions. Besides that, there was also time for some sightseeing, networking and meeting some good friends from other student chapters. The following is the story about their visit.

On the 25^th of September Emirates EK 128 departed at 15:05 from Vienna International Airport and was heading to Dubai. The main reason for using Emirates was that this route is operated by an A 380 and Emirates offered some discount because they were the official partner airline of the conference. After 6 hours of flight we arrived in Dubai and spend the rest of the day in the hotel meeting some friends from overseas.

Monday the 26^th of September was the official starting day for the conference. During the opening ceremony the CEO of Saudi Aramco addressed the current issues in the industry and pointed out a possible solution for the future that included a concept for dealing with the low oil price. Afterwards a panel discussion took place. High ranked managers from different companies among them the CEOs of Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and the Kuwait Oil Company were discussing about the topic “E&P 2.0: Shaping the future“. The overall conclusion of this discussion was that every part of the industry has to adapt to the new environment because most likely this situation will last for a longer time.

In the afternoon the workshop “How to write a good technical paper” gave some useful insights into the procedure of successfully writing a paper and the whole reviewing process that is carried out if you submit a paper for an SPE Conference.

In the evening we spent our time with a sightseeing tour through the Dubai Mall. Finally, we made our way up to the 148^th floor of the Burj Khalifa which is currently the highest building in the world, with a total height of 828m. Afterwards we finished our day with dinner at TGI Fridays.

On the second day of the conference we participated in the leadership workshop. People from different industries amongst them 2010 SPE President Behrooz Fattahi taught us about the important difference between being a leader or a manager. Then we attended the Students Luncheon were Outstanding SPE Student Chapters and the PetroBowl Winners were honored by 2016 SPE-President Nathan Meehan. After lunch we toured through the exhibition and talked to some professionals to expand the personal network but also to get some people interested in our Student Chapter and the work we are doing here in Austria. The evening featured the Young Members Reception where a lot of students together with young professionals gathered and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in one of the ball rooms of the convention center. Later went to the beach to relax after an interesting but also exhausting day at the conference.

On the final day of the conference we decided to leave earlier to explore the city of Dubai. By using the monorail, we went to the hotel “Atlantis” which is located on the world famous Palm Island. Afterwards we went to the Burj Al Arab. This world class hotel features a great bar located on the 27^th floor. It features an amazing view over the city of Dubai.

Finally, on the 29^th of September we left Dubai in the afternoon. Our journey had finally come to an end after 4 days in this amazing city. When the plane departed from the Dubai International Airport during the sunset we got a last glimpse on the city of Dubai and it is not going to be last.

Next year the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition is going to take place in San Antonio. We are already looking forward to it.

Opening Ceremony with 2016 SPE President D Nathan Meehan

Panel Discussion E&P 2.0: Shaping the Future

The highest building in the world: Burj Khalifa 828 metres

Career | Two internships at TAG

Are you still struggling with internships and haven’t had luck so far to find a job for this summer? Well we are happy to announce that Trans Austrian Gasleitung GmbH is offering two internships in different fields.

Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH is a natural gas undertaking responsible for the transportation of natural gas as well as the acquisition, construction, expansion and operation of the required transportation systems and especially for the conclusion of Transportation Contracts as well as the accomplishment of related activities.

Facts about the internships:

paid internships
duration will be between 1 to 3 months
location of work will be in their Headquarter in Vienna

Praktikant/in im Bereich Gasmessung
Praktikant/in im Bereich System Management

They are looking forward to receiving your application under the email address in the PDF’s – make sure you read trough the attached files if your application fits.

We wish you good luck and hopefully two of you will be able to get this opportunity.

Your SPE Student Chapter Leoben

Praktikant/in im Bereich Gasmessung Praktikant/in im Bereich System Management

East Meets West – A Personal Success Story

With great inputs for discussion, knowledge sharing the congress has not only proven to be a great place to meet new people and to network but it was also the perfect opportunity to bring together old friends. Nicola travelled from Vienna to Krakow whereas Christian made his way from the north, since he is currently doing an exchange at NTNU in Trondheim. The reunion included typical Leoben traditions (beer J) but also the final preparation for our poster presentation. In fact, as most of the other participants were enjoying dinner, we were sitting in our hotel room rehearsing and trying to figure out the most salient points to address in front of the jury. Certainly we joined the party afterwards, but business before pleasure!

The first day of the congress was highlighted by the debate “Managing the current economic situation in the Oil & Gas Industry” and the career session featuring Orlen Upstream, EY, MOL Group, and FMC technologies. On the second day of the congress it was our turn. We presented the results from our “Flow Behaviour Investigation of a Sandstone Reservoir”, research that we had carried out as part of our bachelors programme related to a geological field study. It describes how we developed an outcrop-analogue reservoir model from a mapped geological area. After carrying out a flow simulation using this model, we investigated the different effects of changing scenarios (water injection pressure, viscosity as well as density of oil and water phase). Additionally we accounted for uncertainties running a probabilistic calculation of the stock tank original oil in place.

The posters were put up in the exhibition area and visitors as well as the jury walked from one work to the next in order to ask questions and inform themselves about the conducted research. A total of twenty different posters were presented at the congress also featuring “Drilling Rate Models for PDC Bits” by Florian Gamperl, one of our colleagues from Leoben. The posters included drilling, reservoir, production, geology, petrophysics, and even refinery topics leaving the judges with the fairly difficult task to rank them. Among other criteria poster appearance, innovativeness and laboratory research were accounted for. Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time ourselves to see all the other posters, and to talk to with their authors, which we would really have appreciated.

Christian Mudrak & Nicola Zivelonghi next to their poster presentation

At the lasts day’s closing ceremony one presenter after the other was called on stage. Although being confident with our performance we were astonished to be called out as the winners of this year’s poster competition. We felt relieved and proud when receiving the award Even now, a few days after the event, these feelings are still present. Hereby we want to express our gratitude to the organizing committee again, and to our guides who took such care of us in Krakow. It was great to be part of the event! Additionally we want to thank the SPE Student Chapter Leoben for their support.

In conclusion, we really want to encourage fellow students to step up and present their work at one of the several possibilities. As a member one can benefit from SPE in so many ways but entering the stage will give you additional attention and a whole new level of interaction with other students, scientists, and industry professionals.

Catch a Glimpse of Two Conferences in Norway

Let me start this story from very far and very abstraction! People often think that petroleum engineering and especially drilling is a field where everything goes just so smooth and easy and it is an easy engineering field compared to i.e. computer engineering or even to reservoir engineering where most of the things are abstract, therefore every term or idea feels highly technical. I think it is totally wrong because of the following: the involved risks and other unknown and uncontrollable factors create an environment where there is no room for failure.

I’ve always been obsessed with blowouts. Not because of their catastrophic consequences (that is kind of sad actually) but a blowout really shows to us what powers, risks and consequences we are possibly and directly dealing with in petroleum engineering. These consequences are highly undervalued (or at least were back in the days before Macondo) and the vast majority of the industry is “only” focusing on the prevention of these possible risks and realization of consequences. I believe that it is not the right way to deal with it and avoid future events like the first and (so far) last. This is the reason why I spent my entire summer sitting in my room and trying to understand how that particular blowout was stopped, what options we would have today, and how it would be possible to get better.

And now comes the understandable part!

I have attended two major conferences in the last 10 days in Stavanger and Bergen in Norway helped by the department.

In the first couple of days I have been participating in the second industry wide HSSE Challenge in Stavanger during the 16th SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility. It was a particularly good conference and event since many of the young professionals can come together, meet each other and see what knowledge level we have. Seven teams were participating in the HSSE challenge which had 3 sections: Health, Safety and Security, and Social Responsibility. During each sections 2 or 3 teams were facing each other by getting numerous “fast questions” regarding the given section’s most important abbreviations, terms, regulations, general concepts.

After the challenge, every team has been awarded by ExxonMobil with valuable gifts and a confirmation of participation sheet signed by Nathan Meehan and the CEO of SPE. Ah, and of course, Nathan Meehan has also made a selfie with some of us!

On the next day, I could also take a day visit at Statoil’s Business center where I could introduce my Subsea Petroleum Containment System concept (which I has been working on in the last couple of months next to the paper) and participate in numerous speed datings and presentations. It was also a great venue. The meeting at Statoil is maybe projecting a viable way forward for us to be more innovative: come up with startup ideas, concepts, share openly with others, learn from each other, get more entrepreneurial spirit, make a company and change PE for the better.

Next to the whole day programs of course there was a bit of time for fun. The Stavanger Oil Museum is a great place to understand offshore and petroleum engineering.

After leaving Stavanger, the more interesting part of the journey came for me since I have been invited to present my second OnePetro registered publication on the SPE One Day Seminar in Bergen. As I mentioned in the second block, I have been working on this paper for a quite a lot of time, here is the story why and how: we had Offshore Technology lecture last year, and in the last section of it we had a lecture with John Turley who walked us through how the Macondo blowout has occurred. It was an amazing presentation. Then, before the lunch break during Q&A, I asked that what happened after the blowout has started: “how did they solve it? Are we going to cover it too?”

He replied something like this:

No, we are not going to talk about it since there are a load of sources available about it and focus should go on prevention, to prevent events in the future by learning and identifying the reasons of failure.

So, I walked into this after I got back home. I went looking at OnePetro but could not find anything, anything at all. I was particularly interested in how and what the industry learned. I could not accept that we should focus on “only” prevention since I believe the biggest tragedy of Macondo is that it still affects the everyday life of nature and millions of humans by the contaminated areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Then, I kept looking and the capping stacks came into the picture and then after a couple of weeks I found not much, but a bit of sources on how the problem was solved, what technologies, what culture represented the approach and then more and more things came into the picture… I came to the conclusion that this field is highly under-researched and the actual technology (namely the capping stack as the centerpiece of response capabilities) nowadays may not be the ideal solution. Then, I came up with a technical concept, which I was then able to present in Aberdeen and recently in Stavanger, and I also carried out a research focusing on what and how the stop of the outflow has happened, and what are the possible ways forward.

So, the paper was born, and the first conference I found was in Bergen. Then, I submitted an abstract, and I got in! It was a great feeling and a great payback for the interest of mine.

The EPoster presentation went well, attendees appreciated the work. The seminar has also held good other presentations on i.e. heavy kill muds and oil based mud kick recognition.

As a learning I can only encourage you to do what you love, where you think you have no limits, where you are unstoppable. Just do it, and it will turn out to be good, if you really like what you do. Do not afraid of failures, have courage to write, this paper has its very own failures too, but hopefully I will have a chance to make it better, or continue on this field. Regarding a specific conference paper. Work on those nasty sentences, make your thoughts the world and SPE is interested in your view. When you have something meaningful it is easier to share than you think.

The paper is available here to download (download it from school, it is free there) from OnePetro.org:
Subsea Blowout Source Control Technologies Utilized at the Macondo Accident and Developments in the Post-Macondo Era
Document ID: SPE-180018-MS
Written by David Thomas Kutas, BSc; Philip Bailey, MSc and Michael Prohaska, PhD.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/180018-MS

Student Technical Conference 2016

The annual “Student Technical Conference” is a 2-day event with up to 100 participants. It has grown over the last 11 years of its existence and established itself as the premier such event in Germany for upstream oil and gas. The STC is a technical conference with 14 student-presentations, key-note speakers and poster presentations. There will be a Young Professionals Panel with engineers already in the industry and many opportunities for networking.

The STC also functions as a mini job-fair for Petroleum Engineering and related Geoscience students.

For further information and the application form, use the flyer and/or visit the STC 2016 page.

Why should you attend?

As a student

Learn about upstream research done elsewhere
Network with other students
Find job-opportunities

As an industry representative

Meet Petroleum and Geoscience students close to graduation
Get informed about the topics researched in academia

Support for students

Enable students to participate and to perform a presentation or present a poster. (one night’s accommodation and reasonable transportation cost will be reimbursed).

08-July-2016: Deadline for abstracts

Encouraging the Future Oil Industry Leaders at ITE TU Clausthal

The event started at 9 o’clock in the morning with a friendly get-together in the entrance hall of the university. After the registration process the welcome speech was held by Prof. Ganzer who gave a few insights into studying in Clausthal. Then a representative of the German SPE Section introduced the organization and highlighted their achievements in recent years and how they are going to proceed in the years following. After the obligatory coffee-break Dr. Meehan gave a very inspiring and encouraging speech that showed that even during these hard times there is a meaningful way to use your time. The highlights of his speech are summarized in the paragraph below.

Right now in the United States of America fewer rigs are operated then in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was president. Nevertheless downturns are also opportunities for innovation as the downturn of the oil price in 1980 clearly showed. During that time some of the most beneficial systems in our industry were invented, such as horizontal drilling and LWD. Still as a student you need to find different options to be able to overcome the current downturn as good as possible. There are several academic options to consider. One of them is to think about a victory lap at the university. This means to go for several other courses which can be beneficial in the future work life such as project management or a deeper understanding of the supply chain in the oil and gas industry. Another very important point to consider is to broaden the horizon by going into totally different directions then the oil and gas business. It is never bad to have an MBA but only from a top business university such as the London Business School. Also it is now a good time to think about extending your personal studies with a PhD degree. Besides that it is always good to have entrepreneurial skills. Not only if you want to run your own business but also if you want to get hired by a renowned company. And having an up-to-date LinkedIn profile is more than important in our modern world because CVs are so 2013. Finally the overall conclusion is that something that happens in the past does not determine your future and giving up is never an option.

After that a very delicate lunch was served and then the event continued with a tour through the reservoir and the drilling laboratories of the university. The event was concluded by the student chapter presentations and some final advices from the SPE-President Dr. Meehan. The remaining time of the day was used for a tour through the city of Clausthal-Zellerfeld and Goslar and a delicious dinner at a famous Italian restaurant.

Have a look at our photo gallery:

We would like to thank the SPE-Student Chapter Clausthal for their invitation and their hospitality. Especially we would like to thank Rafael Hincapie for accompanying us during our tour through these beautiful German towns and for driving us back to our hostel. It was a real pleasure to be able to participate in this event and we are looking forward to meet our German friends again at future events.

2016 IPTC Education Week

The 10th edition of the International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) – one of the world’s foremost oil and gas events – will be held from 14-16 November 2016 at the Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld in Bangkok, Thailand. An Education Week will be held for the benefit of the best 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students in science, geoscience and engineering from qualified institutions around the world. It is anticipated that 100 of the best students will be selected to participate in the Education Week. IPTC will cover travel and accommodation expenses for the selected students.

All students nominated must:

Be enrolled in full time, undergraduate education until spring/summer semester 2017.
Have an excellent level of written and spoken English.
Must obtain permission to be away from their studies from 12 to 16 November 2016 including travel days.
Must demonstrate in evidence that they are in the top 20% of their class.

Please submit your application with your transcript until 01.03.2016, 8 a.m. to events.spe@leoben.org, all applications will be processed further the Head of the Department Petroleum Engineering, who finally will nominate 4 students. These students will then receive an official IPTC application link and must register themselves until 04.03.2016. The online application form includes uploading of transcripts, personal statement, academic background, career objectives and reasons for wanting to attend Education Week, so prepare them in advance.

For further information please visit http://www.iptcnet.org/2016/index.php

Kind regards,
Your SPE Student Chapter Leoben

Student Technical Conference – Wietze, Germany for the 10th Time

The Student Technical Conference held by the SPE German Section was scheduled for November, 2015. Many industry professionals, internationally recognized companies were represented. Despite of the quite harsh environment in the petroleum industry right now, STC was held for the 10th time in 2015.

The two days long conference had provided excellent opportunities for students and industry professionals for networking, getting more information on internships and job possibilities and for many students the first real opportunity to share their interest, work with others.

STC 2015 had been a major success for Leobner students too, because compared to the last couple of years when only 1-2 students had the chance to represent MUL, this year 8 students had been able to show what they were working on during their studies and free time.

Gallery

Ingo Forstner's welcome words — Ingo Forstner’s welcome words

David Kutas with his poster presentation - Subsea Petroleum Containment System — David Kutas with his poster presentation – Subsea Petroleum Containment System

Haiwad Ahmad is presenting about Downhole Fluid Analysis

Follow our website to get more information about the upcoming SPE provided possibilites.

Fangmann Group Internship

Do you want to join the Fangmann Energy Group for the next 3-4 months as an intern, working in their stimulation laboratory? (in Northern Germany)

So if you have time the next months, and you are interested in our offer, don´t miss this unique opportunity and send a short application with curriculum vitae to our following mail address:

study.spe@leoben.org

If you made it into their short list, they will call you, so its important to put your mobile phone number on the CV!

Deadline is this Friday (23.10.2015) 3 p.m.

Start of the internship: As soon as possible
Duration: 3-4 months
mail address: study.spe@leoben.org

And don´t forget: Become a member of our SPE Leoben chapter and tell all your friends about this special offer!

EMW – International Student Petroleum Congress & Career Expo

We were warmly welcomed by the organizers, students of the native AGH University of Science an Technology and we were immediately invited to join them for a welcoming evening were we got some drinks for breaking the ice between the different students from al over the world. The first evening was entirely devoted to getting to know each othe and to enjoy meaningful conversations about our favorite topic: oil and gas.

During the next three days we were able to take part in interesting discussions about th future of our industry and we had the chance to listen to various presentations fro students who were attending in the paper contests. Especially worth mentioning the great conversations many of us had with representatives of different companies like for i.e. Jeff Spath, 2014 ́s president of SPE International an vice-president of industry affairs for Schlumberger Limited in Houston and Matthias Meister, SPE Regional Director for South-, Central-, and East Europe Region an who is a product development manager for logging-while-drilling tools at Bake Hughes’ Celle Technology Center in Germany. They encouraged us to work together cross boundaries and develop new, better and safer methods to advance locating, drilling and producing oil. We had also been able to find new friends in the participants of the various states like Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Romania and many more.

On the way to Krakow — Click/Tap on Picture to Open Gallery

The Expo gave us the chance to gain an insight into the different cultures that attended the meeting. And for sure the evening activities were well organized and our Polish guides were perfectly prepared. Especially the evenings were worth mentioning, because Krakow is well known as one of the best cities to study in due to its great night life and beauty of the old city and it’s openness towards foreigners.

Unfortunately after the three days we had to pack our suitcases and sadly waving Poland goodbye. I think I talk in everyone’s name, when I say we will be back for another great EMW conference in 2016, to stay in touch with our Polish friends and continue to form our personal career network.