SPE-GCS Blog

November 15th, 2022

Welcome to our Chair’s Corner first edition. I’m honored to have been selected as the Gulf Coast Section Chair, and I look forward to a year full of interaction with all the Study Groups, Committees, and especially with our Community. Our key objectives for this year are three-fold; focus on membership retention and growth, strengthen the Board’s Interaction with all the Study Groups and Committees, and continue to promote the Scholarship Endowment Fund. We are currently planning some membership appreciation events, promoting the interaction within our community, and seeking to grow, and strengthen it. Our Membership Chair, Adonis Ichim, previous YP Chair, is leading these efforts, with the Board's support. We have also engaged with the Student Chapters in the area, as we need to reengage with the students and shed light on our industry, and its present and future …

June 30th, 2022

I have had the opportunity to serve and lead the Gulf Coast section for the past 12 months; it’s been the highlight of my career. I joined the Gulf coast section in the fall of 2012, this year marks my tenth year as a member of this prestigious section. I have grown as a professional servant leader, a friend, and a trusted advisor during these years. I want to take this opportunity to thank my family, friends, and, most importantly, the board of directors. I do not think I would have it this far without them. As I transition to the past chair position, I would also like to thank Simeon Eburi, our outgoing past chair, for the support and mentorship during these months and to the incoming chair and a good friend, Carlos; I wish you the best during …

May 4th, 2022

The past month has seen some of the most volatile trends in the price of oil. Variations of ±10% are becoming quite common, as the industry grapples with a highly fluctuating geopolitical risk premium. Daily updates on the Russia-Ukraine front quake the market, along with the news of government deliberations and actions in response. We also saw the first confirmations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. In response, the EU has begun an intense debate on how to proceed with bans on Russian products like wheat, precious metals, and of course, oil and gas. While not much may be achieved in the short term in terms of banning Russian gas, the fact that the EU is having these conversations is notable. The potential economic costs would be astronomical and exacerbated by present inflation, and the issue seems to be expanding …

April 1st, 2022

Hello April,

Two months ago, I spoke of the tightness of the market, and how susceptible the price was to a potential attack in Iran, Saudi or the Middle east.

What I never saw was a Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the fundamentals simply reiterated the susceptibility of the markets to geopolitical tensions.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its 2nd month with more companies announcing that they are exiting their Russia holdings including Shel, bp, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, KCA Deutag and others. The reality however is that Europe remains tied to Russia due to their dependence on Russia to meet 40% of their natural gas needs. That energy demand is not disappearing; perhaps, high gas prices can help with that albeit slowly. As such, the supply choke due to Russian sanctions will only keep oil prices higher. …

March 1st, 2022

Welcome to March; we are blessed to see this month. This month’s newsletter highlights some of the work the SPE-GCS Newsletter Committee is working on in collaboration with the Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

The Society of Women Engineers, in collaboration with the National Society of Black Engineering (NSBE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineering (SHPE), received a grant from the National Science Foundation to create the Women of Color in Engineering Collaborative (WCEC). SPE is a partner in this collaboration.

The WCEC will be targeting issues women of color (WOC) face that causes a disparity between WOC who complete engineering degrees and WOC in the engineering workspace. The goal is for partner organizations to help decrease the barriers that lead to the attrition of WOC engineers.

The grant has three main goals:

1. Establish the WCEC to address systemic barriers …

February 1st, 2022

INDUSTRY UPDATE:

At this moment in our industry, the biggest concern is that the world’s economy is yet to fully recover.

Even with the threat of the Delta, Omicron and forthcoming coronavirus variants, the world seems to have moved beyond the fears. A year ago, BP predicted that the world had reached peak demand because of Covid-19, the push for greener energy, and consumer behavior trends like working from home. Less than a year later, we have surpassed pre-Covid demand levels. As such, we’ve accepted that demand is back and poised to grow as the economy continues its recovery.

However, the more significant threat is in the supply part of the curve. To illustrate: Most investment banks expect to see oil reach $100 per barrel this year because the world’s spare capacity is almost exhausted. This implies that even the slightest geopolitical …

January 1st, 2022

Happy New Year! I’m pleased to welcome you to the first edition of the 2022 SPE-GCS newsletter. I want to take this opportunity to wish our members and affiliates a Happy New Year. Reflecting on 2021, we witnessed a promising industry ready to embrace the energy transition while providing energy for the world. This is an exciting moment for the Gulf Coast Section. As the global economy continues to recover, the outlook for 2022 and beyond continues to improve. The industry is much healthier, with a few remarkable mergers and acquisitions that will speed up growth initiatives at a high rate of return. The price of oil rose to a new record level in the last few years and most of our colleagues are happy to return to work.

In section news, I would like to thank John Vozniak. Under his …

December 1st, 2021

Adios to 2021, the Membership Taskforce Report and a Scholarship Endowment Fund Update

What an interesting year it’s been. We started the year not knowing how it would end, but things are getting back to normal. There have been trials this year, but overall, it’s been a positive one. It’s a blessing to see most of our colleagues and loved ones who lost their jobs getting back into the workforce and providing for their families. In this month’s edition of the “Chairs Corner,” I will focus on two main things: the report from the membership task force and the Scholarship Endowment Fund (SEF).

One of the key things I mentioned in the August “Chair’s Corner” was creating a task force to review and discuss the decline in membership. I want to thank John Vozniak and the membership task force team for …

November 1st, 2021

We have one more month until the end of the year, and it’s been an interesting one. We began with a great deal of uncertainty about the pandemic and how it will change the norm. We’ve seen more than half of the workforce return to the office; the surge of the delta variant; and many of our colleagues, friends and family return back to work and school. We’ve also seen oil getting back to encouraging prices and rig counts returning to normal levels. I’m glad things are turning around and I’m looking forward to the New Year. With regard to SPE-GCS, it’s a healthy section, as we are hosting events and sessions to engage our members. In this month's “Chair's Corner,” I’ll review the benefits of SPE membership.

I encourage all SPE members to renew their membership. If you are a current member, …

October 1st, 2021

The upsurge of the delta variant cases in the United States has slowed the US economic recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic because of the public still being uncomfortable returning to normal operations. According to an article published by the Houston public media, the new strain makes up more than 75% of new covid-19 cases in the Houston area. In Texas, new cases are up 92%, and hospitalization is up 49%. The gulf coast section has done a phenomenal job following the CDC rules and guidelines in all our events. We have adopted a hybrid approach to our events, still delivering high-level technical content to our members. For those not comfortable attending an in-person event, there is always a virtual option present.

As previously discussed, we are going to focus on a few key areas this year. We are first going to take …