SPE-GCS Blog

February 22nd, 2023

The 64th Science and Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) award ceremony was held on 2/18/2023. Winners were selected from over 6000 junior and senior high school students’ projects from 23 districts in Texas. For years, the SPE Gulf Coast Section has supported the SEFH by having special judges volunteer to select the top three projects related to the oil and gas industry. This year, the winners were awarded prize money for their brilliant and innovative projects.

January 29th, 2023

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, 2023 started with a good upbeat on the industry’s pulse at this time, so great to see it and be a part of it from the GCS. I would like to start by highlighting the Young Professional’s Cycle Houston Bicycle Build, which took place at the NRG Center, the team assembled a total of 20 bicycles, alongside collaboration with CYCLE. They also volunteered at the Houston Marathon, which took place on Jan 15th where they assisted with post-race meals snacks for the runners. I am sure many of you probably attended the event. Thanks to all the YP Volunteers: Alex Romanyuk (YP Chair), Randi Steele, Saloumeh Ebrahimzadeh (Sally) and Tram Nguyen. YP’s are in need of volunteers! Let us know if you want to join! This month we have some very interesting …

December 21st, 2022

Welcome to The Chair’s Corner, December edition, I’m excited and proud to report that the 22nd Annual Sporting Clays Tournament was a total success! I cannot thank enough to the entire team of volunteers that worked on it, led by Prue Smith (BP) and Jeremy Viscomi (Pika Industries), thanks to their efforts and leadership the event raised a total of $28K for the GCS, what a milestone! I’m also very glad to report that thanks for the efforts of our Community Services Committee, led by Sherry Oyagha and Jeannie Chung-Chow, Aramco will be donating a total of $10K to support their outreach to Elementary Schools, STEM activities, Career fair and Houston Food Bank amongst others. We truly thank them for their support to our section. On another topic, we had Tim Stephens, Chair for Innovate, present their plan for 2023, …

November 16th, 2022

October 2007 Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, and Russia are predicted to cut crude exports to the US by 2012, and the resulting gap between supplies and demand will intensify investments to develop Canada’s oil sands. Experts claim that there will be a total drop of 2.5 million b/d of production among six of the largest suppliers of oil to the US, and crude prices are likely to hit $100/bbl by the end of next year as the biggest oil-producing nations reduce exports to supply their rapidly growing domestic consumption. Russia’s Surgutneftegaz reports plans to build an East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline that will ensure production of 3 million tonnes/year of oil for transportation via the line. Surgutneftgaz claims that production from fields in northwest Yakutia will be combined with that from the Verkhnechonsk fields in northern lrkutsk. …

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 5th, 2022

May 2007 

XTO Energy, the largest natural gas producer in Arkansas, has begun employing a proppant-flowback arrester (PFA), which helps control proppant flowback and fines production and helps maintain highly conductive fractures and long-term productivity.  The process combines new technologies that enable resin-treatment of proppant after it has been placed in the fracture. The service uses coiled tubing coupled with either pressure-pulsing or fluid-wave technology, and is a coiled-tubing deployed, rigless intervention. Projected value added, in the form of reduced workover-cleanout expense and increased production ranges from $210,000 to 440,000/well/year.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) completes the first edition of a National Atlas describing potential CO2 sequestration reservoirs and their capacities. These reservoirs include: depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coalbeds, and deep saline reservoirs. Theoretically, geologic reservoirs have the capacity to store all the CO₂ produced by the …

April 4th, 2022

APRIL 2017

Oil prices slip after Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that his country would free 15 British naval personnel it had captured in the Persian Gulf more than a week before, pardoning and releasing them as a pre- Easter gift to Britain. By mid-afternoon on the day of the announcement, West Texas Intermediate for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 43¢ at $64.21/bbl.

Based on a managed pressure drilling project conducted in the Sichuan basin of China, Sinopec concludes that the advantages of using air as a circulating fluid are substantial. In comparison with mud rates, the ROPs are significantly higher, which reduces drilling time. Wellbore problems, such as lost circulation and sloughing shales, are virtually eliminated, and air drilling allows the use of air percussion hammers, which also contributes to drilling a true vertical hole.

After the …

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. …