The board positions have been occupied as follows:
President – Rusmir Helja
Vice-Pres – Patrick Jasek
Treasurer – Lukas Riegler
Secretary – Basel Al-Darwisch
Aiming to honor the legacy and build upon the accomplishments of the previous board iterations, we as the new board seek to blaze a trail through the coming year by setting into motion plans on propelling the chapter to new heights. Breaking new ground is a question of navigating the challenges of our ever-shifting environment in a forward-thinking nature all the while possessing a firm grasp on the essentials that have made our chapter what it is over its rich decades-long history. We’re determined to step up to the task and see through the implementation of new ideas and programs that will provide a plethora of opportunities that our students can harness tremendous value from.
We look forward to getting to know everyone and welcoming new members into the fold. The maelstrom of cooperation knows no bounds, and in working together we can build a thriving community and tackle that which is yet to come with success and ingenuity.
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
The SPE Vienna Basin Section held the PetroQuiz at its Annual BBQ on May 17th, 2018 in Prušánky, Czech Republic.
Six teams – bachelor and master’s students – from DPE-Montanuniversität Leoben took part in the PetroQuiz organized by the SPE Vienna Basin Section during its Annual BBQ, in Czech Republic, on May 17th, 2018. Professionals from sponsor companies such as OMV, RAG, SLB, MND, Terra, Greenwell, ProNova, VTU, PetroVisor and Nafta attended the event and shared their experience with the young students.
The SPE Student Chapter Leoben was responsible for the transportation and the promotion among the students. The first activity of the day was a guided-tour of the Slavic Fortified Settlement in Mikulčice, an early-medieval Great Moravian Memorial built along the 8th and 9th centuries. After the tour, students and professionals drove to the Hotel Beatrice, in Prušánky.
The PetroQuiz started with Alexander Gerstner, SPE VBS President, giving a speech and presenting the teams. The jury, Alexander Gerstner, Reinhard Pongratz and Jean-Marc Dumas explained the rules and kicked off the PetroQuiz. The teams, Oil Brothers, JL, Perdido, Wildcatter II, Slavinator and New Kids competed against each other during 9 rounds of questions. In the final-round, Perdido (Oscar Rojas, Luis Gonzalez, Sahar Abdullatif ) won against Slavinator (Sharadiya Kozak, Andreas Liegenfeld, Markus Frauwallner) in a hard-fought game.
After the award ceremony, all the participants gathered together and enjoyed the BBQ and wine tasting at the Hotel Beatrice’s restaurant and cellar.
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.
Arriving in Clausthal in the middle of the night, we soon went to sleep, because we knew the next day would be long: In the early morning of December 8, we’d meet our German colleagues as well as a delegation of Russian students to go to Celle, the heart of German oil production, or as it is also referred to, the “German Texas”. Many oil field service providers are located in Celle – and we had the opportunity to visit one of them: Halliburton.
Being welcomed by to young engineers who had recently graduated from TU Clausthal, we received a short introduction to “the Reds”, the World’s largest oil field service company. After that, our groups got a tour through the cement lab, where Halliburton experts can test the properties of cement slurries not only under atmospheric, but also under the HPHT conditions that are encountered in the well. Moreover, we got to see their workshops and field equipment, such as high pressure pumping units ro coiled tubing trucks. Seeing all this high-tech equipment left us in awe, but on the other hand the possibility to see those things stacked also reminded us of the state our industry is in.
Halliburton’s heavy coiled tubing equipment stacked in Celle
Our second stop after lunch was the Drilling Simulator Celle, a sophisticated and ambitious research project also led by TU Clausthal. The drilling simulator is split into two parts – a software, and a hardware part. The software part is a simulation program that allows the replication of drilling, tripping etc. operations, but with some advanced programming going on, the ambitious goal is also to incorporate a realistic simulation of non-normal drilling operations, mainly their occurrence. For example, the plan is to allow kicks to occur when entering a high-pressure zone “automatically”, instead of at the order of the controller; likewise, drill bit wear (due to normal operations as well as because of poor drilling practice) will be simulated in the future.
Training for our future jobs – at the Drilling Simulator Celle. We still have to get used to wearing safety equipment, though…
The second part is the hardware part, which is still under construction. It consists of a 60m long horizontal casing section, at the end of which 5m of pressurized rock sample will be placed. By applying backpressure, it will be possible to simulate downhole conditions of up to 100bar with this tool, which is supposed to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Horizontally aligned top drive of Drilling Simulator Celle’s hardware part
After dinner in Clausthal, our cultural program continued with a short trip to the nearby city of Goslar, where we visited the Christmas market, which is said to be one of the most beautiful ones in Germany – a fact that our delegation said is doubtlessly true.
The next day, we took another trip to Goslar to see the picturesque old city, which seems not to have changed in the last three centuries. The Christmas Gala then started at 4p.m. in the Aula of TU Clausthal. We heard some motivating and inspiring speeches by the department head of TU Clausthal Prof. Joachim Oppelt, SPE German Section representative Ingo Forstner and SPE South, Central and Eastern Europe Regional Director Matthias Meister, who talked about how to get the most out of your SPE membership (join, attend events, and volunteer, by the way). The highlight of the evening was Mr Darcy Spady’s talk. The 2018 SPE International president talked about his career (which he said is an example of what not to do and still succeed), and what we as the future of our industry will have to deal with – both the challenges we will face on a professional working level and in the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The whole ceremony was accompanied by musical performances of students at TU Clausthal.
Music act by TU Clausthal students
After the speeches, the dinner gave us a nice opportunity to talk to old friends and make new ones over a wide selection of German food and their famous beer.
Already being close by, we decided to postpone our return to Leoben and visit Hannover and its local Christmas market on Saturday before packing our suitcases and returning to our own beloved Alma Mater Leobiensis.
A great Thank You to the TU Clausthal SPE Student Chapter for their hospitality and this inspiring Christmas party – it was a pleasure to be there!
Arriving in Moscow on a freezingly cold Tuesday afternoon, we were accompanied to our dormitory. Already at the airport, we met some old friends from Krakow, who had arrived just a few minutes earlier. The next morning, after breakfast, the congress participants left for the university. The opening ceremony was dominated by a discussion of arctic operations under the motto “Arctic – From Ideas to Actions”. Several aspects from technical challenges to political conflicts were mentioned by the high-ranked experts on stage.
In the afternoon, our delegation got a short private tour of a whole new training center sponsored by Rosneft. In the light of the recently established cooperation between our universities, this high-tech lecture rooms are particularly interesting even for us Leoben students, since they might become your potential lecture rooms as well!
In the meantime, the 2018 SPE President Darcy Spady had started his presentation. In his motivational speech, he talked about his career and how he thinks that working in small companies with a more family-like environment is the best working experience he could imagine. He also talked about the importance of being an expert, and how this expertise helps one’s career.
The last session of the day were the Student Paper and Poster Contests. Split into more than 10 sections, about 100 presentations were made on research and development projects made by students. The Leoben delegation was represented by Markus Hofmeister in the Alternative Energy section, and by Florian Gamperl (Drilling). Both students participated with topics from the Literature Review Project.
Wednesday began with a Career Fair and in parallel a contest sponsored by Schlumberger. While students got the opportunity to talk to representatives of the sponsoring companies, inform themselves about job opportunities and career development, they could also get some hands-on experience in petroleum engineering decision making: The goal was to define an ideal drilling spot for an exploration well based on the reservoir structure map. This was followed by the PetroOlympic Games, a series of fast-paced questions about all aspects of the petroleum business, in which 5 teams of 6 students each competed against each other, showing their knowledge about the industry.
Chapter representatives discussing at the Round Table
After the lunch break, our delegation participated in a Round Table of Student Chapters, presided by Mr. Spady. We discussed the most efficient ways of networking, and how to make the most of your SPE membership – with the unsurprising conclusion that the most important thing is to participate in as many events as possible, talk to your fellow students and present your own research work.
But the undoubted highlight of the day was the official closing ceremony of the congress. Not only the food at the gala dinner was excellent, but also the entertainment program, a mixture of Russian folklore and youth culture together with short speeches of the organizers and university representatives was very interesting. Moreover, the winners of the Paper and Poster Sessions were announced: We are proud of our representatives for winning the second place in the Drilling category, and the first place in the Alternative Energy section! Moreover, we would like to congratulate our member Markus Hofmeister for helping his team to win the PetroOlympic Games!
Our representatives Markus (left) and Florian (right) at the Award Ceremony
Such great success had to be celebrated, and what better way to do that than in a club? The official afterparty was another platform to celebrate, and to network. Good mood until the early morning hours dominated, and we went to bed tired, but excited of what had been so far, and what would be yet to come…
Oil and Gas Horizons officially ended with trips to various sponsoring companies: Salym Petroleum, for example – a joint venture of Gazprom and Shell – is a rather small company, but they are highly innovative, operating their whole oil fields in Siberia remotely using the “Smart Oil Field” concept as one of only few companies worldwide. Other company visits included Halliburton’s Moscow office, Deloitte and the university’s drilling department, with its offshore drilling simulator, which never ceases to amaze the students from Leoben (as our regular readers will probably know already).
Sightseeing in Moscow – Moscow City, in front of some of Europe’s talles sky scrapers
After reuniting for lunch, we were split up again for guided tours of Moscow. While the “novices” were taken to the “must-see” places like the Red Square, Kremlin and Arbat, the regular Moscow visitors were introduced to Moscow’s secret places, such as the area around the Patriarch Ponds, not only the main setting of Mikhail Bulgakov’s famous novel “Master and Margerita”, but without question one of the most beautiful parts of this amazing city.
All good things pass, and it was soon time for us to say good bye again, to return home. It was a great honor to be able to participate in such a truly amazing and outstanding event. Thank you very much for our great time at Gubkin university – and of course a great thank you to the organizers for making this event an unforgettable experience! Спасибо вам большое!
The event was kicked off for the students by a field trip to the OMV Refinery in Schwechat, in which not only students from MUL, but also from Clausthal (Germany), Moscow, Ufa and Almetyevsk (Russia) participated. We were shown a nice presentation about the refinery, how the process works as well as how OMV innovates and invests in environmentally sustainable technology. Then we boarded our bus and went through the refinery. We realized that the refinery turned into a comprehensible site: Suddenly all the “smoking tall towers” almost everyone knows from their way to the Vienna airport turned into chimneys, reactors, distillation towers and so on. After about an hour, we had seen all facilities, and we could return to the canteen, have lunch and return to Leoben. But on our way to Leoben, we encountered a little surprise:
About halfway to Leoben, the bus suddenly slowed down, and exited the highway for a stop in Ternitz in Lower Austria. To the surprise of the participants, we could arrange a quick visit at Schoeller Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment (SBO), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of special purpose drill string components, such as the basis for downhole motors, non-magnetic drill pipes or various logging and measurement devices. Although due to the current industry downturn the plant seemed nearly dead, we could get a good impression of how things could be here when the demand for high-quality products is high. The tour gave the opportunity to see the whole manufacturing process, starting from the raw steel cylinder over various treatment processes to the precision work of drilling out holes with diameters reaching from a few millimeters up to several inches, which are required to fit in various measurement tools, motors or electrical cables.
After returning from the Field Trip – and introducing our guests to the traditional Leoben semester opening events – we gathered again on Tuesday afternoon for the start of what would become two and a half days of intensive presentations, discussions and networking. The event started with Professor Thonhauser welcoming the guests, talking about the history of our department. His introduction was followed by interesting and inspiring keynote speeches from important and high-ranking industry veterans.
Christopher Veit (OMV), who chose to talk about the successful scientific cooperation between MUL and OMV, was followed by a speech by Gerald Grohmann (coincidentally the CEO of SBO which we had visited just the other day). He introduced the audience to his company’s operations. The keynote speeches were continued by a representative of Rosneft, Franz Wohlfart. He talked about his company, which seems to be quite unknown in Europe, despite being one of the largest oil companies not only in Russia, but worldwide, and more importantly, about the importance of strategic planning, exceeding just the next reporting period. In his opinion, even our industry, which is dominated by significant price fluctuations, has to think in dimensions well exceeding 10 years to position ourselves and to be prepared for the future!
SCOPE Chairman Daniel Hirschl is giving his welcome address. (click/tap on image to open gallery)
Chris Veit, SVP Exploration, Development and Production at OMV, explains the successful scientific cooperation between MUL and OMV.
Ted Christiansen, Managing Director at voestalpine Tubulars, focused on innovation in his keynote.
Ted Christiansen and Professor Gerhard Thonhauser
Kris Ravi, PhD, President at Kris-Ravi Consultancy during his speech about well integrity.
Dinner
Philip Keil – professional pilot, speaker, author – giving his inspiring keynote prior the dinner.
Philip Keil – professional pilot, speaker, author
Panel discussion “Last 60 Years – Next 60 Years”
Matthias Meister, SPE Regional Director for South, Central and East Europe, addresses his key points at the panel discussion.
Ted Christiansen of voestalpine Tubulars focused on innovation, and the role of our generation: We will be the ones whose visions will bring the industry forward in the future. He encouraged the audience to think out of the box, be curious and creative, and most of all persistent if we are convinced of an idea! The last keynote was by Kris Ravi, a former Halliburton Technology Fellow, now running his own consultancy, who talked about well integrity.
The day was concluded by a gala dinner in the Congress Leoben. Along with a great selection of typical Austrian food, we could talk and get to know each other. But even during dinner, we had the great opportunity to listen to another great presentation: Philip Keil, a professional pilot with Lufthansa, talked about the techniques pilots use to keep calm even in unusual and highly stressful situations. “Aviate, navigate, evaluate” and a technique called “FORDEC” (acronym for “Facts, Options, Risks & Benefits, Decision, Execution, Check”) does not only help pilots, but they are also things we could use for ourselves. The basic idea behind those models are to have a predefined “checklist”, what has to be done first before doing the next step. It also gives a clear priority to the important things (Aviate, i.e. flying the plane is the key, and only if that is guaranteed, the pilot can go to the next task, which is to follow his route. And only when on this route, he can deal with all the “greater picture”).
Wednesday morning was dominated by a panel discussion between Prof. Hofstätter, Prof. Ott, Kris Ravi (Halliburton), Helmut Langanger (ex-head of OMV E&P) and Matthias Meister (Baker Hughes, Regional Director of SPE) led by Prof. Thonhauser. The motto of the discussion was “Last 60 years, next 60 years”, investigating various aspects of the industry, what led us to the status quo, and more importantly the outlook to the future. While the panelists did not share an opinion on the role of renewables, and how much our own industry should focus on this subject, there was one thing quite clear: The future generation will see some significant changes, but oil will always be important, and a high quality education is the key to success. With this reassuring message, the official program of the 60th anniversary celebration was ended over lunch.
This was the time when the SPE Student Chapter took over, now under the motto “PEfficiency – New Technologies to Improve the Energy Efficiency of the Oil and Gas Industry”. On Wednesday afternoon, Matthias Meister talked about the newest developments in logging while drilling made possible by Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield services providers. The second presentation was done by Peter Soroka and Anna Petitt, presenting their company Tendeka, a market leader in the production of completion equipment. They also talked very much about autonomous inflow control devices, a piece of technology Tendeka developed, which is used to control water and gas influx in oil wells. This allows a more efficient production of oil while not having to shut in perforations completely.
Schlumberger Poster Contest (click/tap on image to open gallery)
Larissa Zhigalova presenting her poster “Optimization of the Process for Biodiesel Fuel Production Using the Fungal Cells as a Catalyst”
Christian Mudrak on “Subsea Production Systems”
Alexis Koulidis and Mislav Halilovic talking about “Extended Reach Drilling Wells – Cost Reduction, Challenges, and Solutions”
Christian Burgstaller, Rohoel-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft (RAG), opens the SCOPE: PEfficiency Session TWO on Thursday with his presentation on “ New Approaches of Using Fluid Level Data for Production Optimization and Reservoir Engineering Applications (SPE-180159-MS)”
Reinhard Pongratz, OMV, talking about his successful career in the oil and gas industry.
SPE Vienna Basin Section PetroQuiz
SPE Vienna Basin Section PetroQuiz
SPE Vienna Basin Section PetroQuiz
SPE Vienna Basin Section PetroQuiz
SPEcialists – The winners of the SPE Vienna Basin Section PetroQuiz
The sessions on Wednesday were concluded with the Poster Contest sponsored by Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil field service provider. 14 contestants from nearly all attending universities competed with interesting topics reaching from reservoir engineering over drilling and production technology as well as pipeline engineering and even alternative fuels. At the end, the proud winner of the contest was Airat Kashkarov, representing Ufa State Petroleum Technological University. Congratulations to him, and of course to all the participants to the Poster Contest for their outstanding research work!
Thursday was again under the patronage of your local SPE Chapter. Our participants could hear an interesting presentation about an exciting technology developed by the Austrian company RAG: The MURAG system, which allows an automatic measurement of the liquid level in a well, which is used to adjust pump speed for an optimized efficiency. The presentation, followed by a nice discussion about the benefits of this tool, was held by Christian Burgstaller, one of the leading developers of the MURAG system. His presentation was followed by the former chairman of the SPE Vienna Basin Section, Reinhard Pongratz. He talked about his own worldwide career with Halliburton, and then OMV as well as within SPE. His speech was a motivation to join SPE and to be active there – as he said, a very rewarding experience, although it takes a certain commitment.
The third presentation of the morning session was then somewhat science-fiction, reminding the audience of the legendary film “Armageddon”: David Kutas and Alexios Koulidis, a recent graduate and a master student of MUL, presented their research about drilling in outer space. A well-prepared and really interesting presentation was followed by a lively discussion, in which pros and cons of such a missions were discussed. While apparently the time for drilling in outer space is yet to come, it needs great visions and free spirits like these two guys to drive development and innovation!
Last but not least, Prof. Helmut Weiss of Montanuniversitaet Leoben’s Electrical Engineering Department introduced us to the electrical engineering of sucker rod pumps and the enormous potential for increasing efficiency on that field!
After lunch, SCOPE was concluded with a fun event called PetroQuiz, which was hosted by our sponsoring SPE Section, the Vienna Basin Section. Under the guidance of a jury of four industry professionals, about 30 participants competed, showing off their knowledge on various fields of petroleum engineering, and our knowledge from drilling, production and facilities, to reservoir engineering, and even our general engineering knowledge was put to the test. The final round was won by the team “SPEcialists”, consisting of students of Leoben and Zagreb university, closely followed by a Russian-German-Ukrainian trio and another team from Leoben.
Participants of the Schlumberger Poster Contest (click/tap on image to open gallery)
Handing over the certificates for successful participation in the Schlumberger Poster Contest.
SCOPE Chairman Daniel Hirschl with the winner of the Schlumberger Poster Contest, Airat Kashkarov.
SPE Faculty Advisor Professor Gerhard Thonhauser giving his closing remarks to the audience.
Mining University of Leoben SPE Student Chapter President Oliver P. Spenger officially closes the first edition of SCOPE: PEfficiency.
Mining University of Leoben SPE Student Chapter President Oliver P. Spenger together with the SCOPE Organizing Committee Daniel Hirschl, Florian Gamperl and Christoph Schwarzenegger.
A great thank you to every participant, making this event possible. At the same time, we would also like to thank all those involved in the planning and execution of this memorable event – organizing the framework, inviting speakers, putting up the questions for the quiz etc. – it could not have been such a great experience to everyone without your input!
Finally, we would like to congratulate our Department of Petroleum Engineering to its 60th anniversary, and wish the department, its members and most all its students a bright future! To many more great years to come!
