This could not have come at a more opportune time, as one of the central objectives of our board this time around is strengthening awareness of our industry for non-specialists and potential students in particular. In collaborating with other regional chapters we’ll tailor-make edutainment programs designed to educate students and the general public about the energy industry and motivate them to pursue careers in the STEM fields. By organizing school visits (Corona restrictions will mean possible online sessions!) we’d demonstrate in a fun, engaging and easily digestible way the roles, responsibilities, and benefits of a Petroleum Engineer in the context of the challenges awaiting us.
We look forward to working closely with the Energy4me team and hope that we can have a positive impact on our community. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.
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.
We look to this gilded statement as a guiding beacon in structuring and conducting our operations. Our adapted mission statement is to provide current students and incoming talent an operating platform to develop technical and professional competencies and industry engagement.
Weighing relevance against feasibility, we’d like to give an overview of the objectives we’ve set that we feel best encapsulate the core values of our Chapter. As an organization whose deeds and decisions hold the potential to shape students’ educational and professional experiences for the better, we always strive to adapt to the novelties and challenges of our milieu and industry. Forging ahead while consigned to stagnation is an oxymoron, and that’s why we’re focusing on not only fortifying the existing Chapter tenets but also laying the groundwork for developing the following:
Intensifying Industry Involvement
Ours is an exceptional industry, one that is transforming by leaps and bounds in view of socioeconomic and environmental considerations. Slated to become the engineers at the forefront of this paradigm shift, we’ll be responsible for continuing to secure the global energy supply while ensuring we’re part of long-term sustainability efforts. It’s now more than ever that we require the unconditional support of our industry in guiding us through these times of rapid change.
We maintain the stance that continuous exposure to the industry during one’s education is the key to producing evolved engineers equipped for tackling the evolving problems of the future. It’s to this end that we’ll continue cooperating with companies regionally and globally in intensifying efforts to provide opportunities to our students for jobs, internships, and informative programs in the form of technical talks and lectures. It’s our goal to make sure industry presence is felt more strongly than ever and to transcend boundaries between the different stages of a Petroleum Engineer’s educational and professional career.
Intensifying Dissemination of Technical Information and Knowledge through High-Quality Programs
This initiative seeks to pull out all stops in developing as diverse a platform as resources permit for our students and those of associated chapters. This platform would encompass across-the-board events that would raise awareness of and encourage engagement in the dissemination of knowledge, from technical conferences to paper contents, both in-house and interinstitutional.
There’re many non-technical benefits to be accrued from active involvement in such functions, which are often objects of considerable industry interest. Participation and profession are flip sides of the same coin, as the events are gateways to expanding one’s network and coming into contact with representatives that seldom fails to open doors of opportunity. It’s for these reasons that we want to include as many events into our repertoire and encourage our students to become involved, starting with our flagship SCOPE conference.
Furthermore, we’re setting a high value on holding in-house workshops, training courses (on subjects ranging from CV-writing to Data Sciences), and internal technical sessions.
Strengthening Community Core Values and Empowering Personal and Social Well-Being
We firmly believe that SPE carries the potential for being something more than a mere organization and all the bureaucratic features it entails. Rather, it’s a community; one that fosters a sense of belonging amongst its constituents, conjoined in shared goals and a common purpose. The relationships forged between the students hold value beyond an academic scope, particularly when done so towards bringing Chapter projects to life.
In cultivating communal inclusion and rapport, we want to pepper the students’ schedule with plenty of opportunities to wind down and blow off steam through socially stimulating events and meets, ranging from the famous annual BBQ to bowling nights and commemorative parties. Injecting a healthy dose of socializing into the educational experience, especially for the younger students, is crucial in maintaining a balanced approach to university life.
Strengthening Awareness of Petroleum Engineering for Non-Specialists and Potential Students
Along with increasing social awareness brought about by globalized connectivity come hurdles endemic to our industry. A facet of the modern Petroleum Engineer that’s of growing importance is the ability to communicate with society at large in a way that facilitates understanding and places an approachable face onto our profession. Openness and soft skills are of the essence. It is becoming our duty as future engineers to establish a dialogue with non-specialists and address issues in a way that dispels misapprehensions and misconceptions about our industry and its role in the world.
Part of this includes volunteering efforts as well as giving lectures for entry-level students at local schools through technical presentations, extensive discussions, and various case examples on what Petroleum Engineering is, its importance, and the role of engineers. The HSE aspects of our field are at the heart of the matter.
The annually held SPEAD Program Presentation accompanied by the On Campus Interviews held by Wintershall DEA are upcoming!
Facts:
SPEAD Program Presentation 18.11.2019 starting time 6 p.m, HS Kuppelwieser (new university building)
After the presentation there will be a buffet provided by our Mensa with sandwiches and drinks, where you can come together with the people from Wintershall DEA and ask them questions, or just chat, in a relaxed ambience.
Additional to the presentation there will be On Campus Interviews for SPEAD Programm applicants! These will be held the morning after the presentation on the 19.11.2019 in the DPE Leoben.
For the SPEAD Flyer please click on these two Links! SPEAD On Campus Interviews Montanuniversität Leoben 2019 FAQ On Campus SPEAD
Deadline is soon on the 10th of November, so hurry up and apply ASAP for this unique opportunity!
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
Once again the workshop was held by Lori and Dwyann Dalrymple from Architecture of Communication. They 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 started Friday in the morning with a fun exercise. Everybody had to take a shoe off and put it in front of the white board. Then each participant had to pick a shoe which didnt belong to him and talk to the owner of the shoe. Then he had to introduce this person to the rest of the participants. Afterwards Lori talked about the importance of critial thinking and how it can influence our behaviour in the daily life. It is an important skill because it influences our decision making process. Another interesting topic which was covered, was the difference between vertical and lateral thinking. Vertical thinking means that coming up with a solution for a certain problem or task. Compared to that lateral thinking is totally different and it is mostly used by creative persons. It is not a structured process and it means that you come up with several ideas and new paths during the process of solving a specific problem or task.
After lunch it was time to adress the topic “The power of appearance”. People form an opinion about you during the first sixty seconds they meet you. This is especially important during an interview situation. Therefore you should always be the best version of yourself. The day was concluded with short presentations where each particpant had to state two facts about their life which are true and one lie. Afterwards the other participants had to find out which of the three statements was the lie based on the performance of the presenter.
On the second day of the workshop the participants learned how to create a personal brand. The personal brand is something which seperates an individual from the rest. The creation of a personal brand starts with the CV. Basically all the students who finish university start with the same technical background. Therefore you have to highlight what makes you special, such as volunteerism, special skills and if possible your record about writing papers. After that you have to think about your performance in an interview. You should never be underdressed and it is appropriate for an interview to show up in a suit and tie. Furthermore your overall appearance should be confident but not arrogant and pay attention to cultural differences. What might be appropriate for an interview in Austria does not necessarily apply to any other country.
After lunch the focus was on the so called SWOT analysis. Theses letters stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. By doing that you can quickly find out which strengths you already have and where you have to improve. Opportunities represent what you can do to enhance your chances of acomplishing a goal. And you have to think about threats which could possibly lead to trouble on your way to acomplish that goal. Finally in the last session of the workshop the partcipants learned about SMART goals. Goals should always be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound. If you set goals based on this technique you are more likely to succeed.
During the whole workshop Lori and Dwyann encouraged the participants to use their skills in different exercises. For example in one of the exercises the participants had to form teams. Afterwards they had to build a tower made out of paper without using any items such as glue or a scissor. The team with the higher tower won the competition. It was a simple exercise but it required the application of several skills such as leadership, time management, critical thinking and communication.
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. Once again it was a great pleasure for us to learn from your experience, expertise and knowledge. Furthermore we would like to thank the SPE Vienna Basin Section for their financial contribution to make this workshop possible. We really appreciate this generous support.
If you want to have further infomation about Lori and Dwyanns expertise and their company please follow the link to their homepage:
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.
Starting now, we will only send you a weekly newsletter stating the lastest events, publications and any industry related stuff. This means, no more mails for an event there, a reminder over this fancy old mail address and some other mails, where you have to ask yourself what to do and reply first to understand what you read. Make sure you add our new email address to your contacts.
We all know it will be difficult for all of us, as we have built a culture of forwarding without thinking, reminding you about things you have never heard in the first part and so on.
All Mails, all information will be centrally gathered and then sent on Monday mornings each week. If there is nothing to say – well then we will not send you an email – very simple.
To make sure you will receive this mails, make sure you add our new mail address to your contact information. You will receive this mails as you are now in the mailing list we put together with the help of SPE International. If not, make sure you become a member here.
We have informed our friends at the department, at our represented societies to forward all mails to us first so we can summarize it into our weekly mail. Of course this will work only if we all pull together on one string and we are looking forward making the life easier for you.
If there is an event you signed up to – you will get a reminder normally 48h before the event or if necessary more information. But we will talkt about our events in a different topic, as we also changed there some things for you.
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.
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.
We are planning to deepen our relationship with the dpe – Department Petroleum Engineering to represent all interested petroleum students at the Montanuniversitaet Leoben and all societies that are connected with the petroleum industry. For this we will undergo a name change of our chapter and also some administrational processes. At the end of November 2016 the transformation from different entities with different names will all be gathered in one location – the all new Montanuniversitaet Leoben SPE Student Chapter.
Change is a process – not an event. This means it will take some time for us to adjust and also learn from you how you will feel about this lates changes. We hope to meet all demands from our fellow students and want to bring the chapter in a new shape into the year 2017 – where we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of our chapter at the Montanuniversitaet Loeben.
We would like to point out some of our latest changes that were made to satisfy the high level of requirements of our students.
We entered in several collaborations with national and international societies to broaden the portfolio of opportunities for you.
We are going to change the subscription modus for our chapter as we now will be able to offer more different societies. This is necessary as each other organization has their own legal framework and signing process.
The on-boarding of new members will be easier and will lead to a higher involvement of new students inside the Student Chapter.
many more
This are only some of the points that will change in the near future, and we would like to keep you informed on this site about the latest changes of our chapter. If you have any questions and inputs about this change process, please do not hesitate to contact one of our officers or use the facebook page and send us a message.
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!
The SPE Mining University of Leoben Student Chapter has been awarded the Gold Standard designation for 2016 by the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
The Mining University of Leoben Student Chapter has earned the Gold Standard, in recognition of its exceptional programs in industry engagement, operations and planning, community involvement, professional development and innovation.
Within the frame of the 60 years anniversary of our Department of Petroleum Engineering, we will be able to provide an interesting mix of presentations and panel discussions with highly recognized industry representatives, a historical overview as well as a Poster Contest. Furthermore, there will be a wide variety of cultural events introducing you to some traditions typical to our university.
SCOPE: PEfficiency will take place from 11. – 13. October 2016 in venues at Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria.
The conference is dedicated to energy efficiency, hence the main topic is “New Technologies to Increase Energy Efficiency”.
For those of you who are interested, we are also happy to organize a sightseeing tour and a get-together evening in Vienna some days before our conference takes place! In that case, we will organize the accommodation, but we have to ask you to pay for it on your own.
Registration
>> Online registration is closed <<
On-site registration for 20 EUR per person will be available during the event.
For the on-site-registration please see the following time table:
Tuesday, October 11th, from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. at Congress Leoben, Hauptplatz 1
Wednesday, October 12th, from 8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. at Congress Leoben, Hauptplatz 1
Thursday, October 13th, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at DPE Building, Parkstraße 27
General information on Austrian visas you can find here, an entire list of countries who don’t require a visa is here.
Poster Contest
We are looking forward to an exciting Poster Contest, covering the following subjects:
Drilling and Completion Engineering
Production Engineering
Reservoir Engineering
Field Development
Petroleum Geology
Geothermal Energy Recovery
Energy Efficiency
To submit you abstracts, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via
