Annual report 2009

1. Board membership

Steve Bedford (Chair), Steve Jewell, Craig Durham, Margaret Copland, Prof. Babs Oyeneyin and Martin Cox. Stuart Preston joined the Board as the IOM3 Co-ordinator.

2. Board meetings

20th April, attendees: Steve Bedford, Margaret Copland, Martin Cox, Prof. Babs Oyeneyin, Steve Jewell and Craig Durham.
17th June, attendees: Steve Bedford, Steve Jewell, Craig Durham, Prof. Babs Oyeneyin, Martin Cox and Stuart Preston.
2nd December, attendees: Steve Bedford, Steve Jewell, Margaret Copland, Prof. Babs Oyeneyin, Martin Cox and Craig Durham.

Minutes of Board meetings are posted on the IOM3 website.

3.  Opportunities for growth of Division Community or constraints

In line with IOM3 the P&DE Board set a target to increase Division membership by 20% by 2011, with a 10% increase in 2009. This target has been significantly exceeded with a 50% increase in membership in 2009. Since re-activation of the Division in 2007 membership has approximately doubled from the initial 436 members. The P&DE Board is now focusing on delivering a quality service to the P&DE members with the twin objectives of retention and further sustained long term growth. The P&DE Board has identified the following potential groups as targets for further growth:-

• Practising Petroleum and Drilling Engineers in Scotland and overseas.
• Students undertaking relevant Engineering courses.
• The oilfield technician community.

From the 2009 P&DE member survey the Board has identified that people in the above categories are attracted to the Institute by the opportunity to acquire professional qualifications and network with their peers at professional events. The P&DE Board has agreed deliverables in 2010 designed to address these requirements.
 
The P&DE Board has identified the following constraints to continued growth:-

• No legal requirement for the professional qualifications and continuing professional development offered by the Institute.
• Very limited career enhancement through gaining the professional qualifications offered by the Institute and participation in the continuing professional development activities.
• Engineers in the Oil and Gas Industry have been very stretched due to increased activity and a limited resource pool making it difficult for individuals to find the time to participate in the Institute.
• There are multiple Institutes working in the Petroleum and Drilling Engineering sector, decision makers tend to support their own “heritage” professional body.
• The American Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) globally dominates the Petroleum and Drilling Engineering profession. The SPE has linked up with the Energy Institute and is offering an increased level of service to Petroleum and Drilling Engineers, including: a route to professional UK registration as a Chartered Petroleum Engineer and model codes of safe practice/guidelines for Petroleum and Drilling Engineering activities i.e. Industry Best Practices.
• Reliance on a small group of volunteers, based in Scotland, to both maintain the existing Divisional activities and pursue growth. With no current active participation from members outwith Scotland.
• Limited IOM3 resources.
• It is difficult for the Division to directly communicate with members.
• It is not readily apparent where to find information on the P&DE Division or professional qualifications on the Institute website.

The P&DE Board recommend that the Institute:-

• Lobby the European Union, with other professional bodies, to have legislation passed to recognize and require professional qualifications to practice as an Engineer within the oil and gas Industry in Europe.
• Update the home page of the IOM3 website to make it more intuitive and easier to access the Division micro sites and the application material for professional qualifications.
• Actively participate in Offshore Europe 2011 in Aberdeen.

4    Technical programme

P&DE Division has been active through 2009 delivering technical presentations, industrial visits, student seminars and training courses as detailed in Appendix I. At each event there was a recruitment stand and video conferencing was used to reach the geographically dispersed membership. The P&DE membership survey clearly indicated that members view networking opportunities at professional events as a key reason for belonging to the Institute so the Division is looking to sustain popular technical events and add new events in 2010 as detailed in Appendix I. Highlights and learning’s from 2009 were:-

• Engagement with other Institutes for joint technical events has proved to be effective for the Institutes involved as many different Institutes operate in the Aberdeen area and programmes tend to clash.
• Continued over subscription for the downhole metallurgy course.
• Student seminars have proved to be a more effective means of engaging students than attendance at induction events.
• Techfest proved again to be a very effective way of reaching out to a large audience, in particular this year there was significant interest from teachers.
• Offshore Europe 2009 attracted 49,000 attendees to Aberdeen with many of the major Institutes participating. It was a missed opportunity for IOM3 to not be visible at this event.

5 Foresight / Innovation and Growth

Petroleum and Drilling Engineering is vital to the delivery of energy supplies to the UK and globally. The UK remains at the forefront of the application and development of Petroleum and Drilling Engineering, with Aberdeen the recognised “Oil Capital” of Western Europe. In 2009 oil and gas prices tumbled in response to weakened global demand resulting from the global recession. Gas prices have remained low due to excess capacity, however oil prices returned to attractive levels due to successful supply control by Opec. The Petroleum and Drilling Engineering sector had overheated through 2007 and 2008 due to record product prices. 2009 has seen supply and demand for resources re-align with decreases in activity and investment. Global demand for oil and gas is already increasing which will lead to general increased demand on the P&DE sector. Nationalisation of resources and aggressive tactics to secure oil and gas supplies by major importers are driving the International Oil Companies towards technically more difficult to access resources e.g. the artic/antartic regions, deepwater, extreme high pressure/high temperature reservoirs, heavy oil and non conventional resources e.g. coalbed methane, tar sands, shale gas and tight reservoirs. These factors align with the requirement for a strong professional body for petroleum and drilling engineers. Globally this need is met by the subsidiary of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Society of Petroleum Engineers. This body has extensive resources and is well established in all the main oil and gas centres. The view of the P&DE Board is that there is scope for further growth of the Institute within the oil and gas sector but this needs to be undertaken at a pace commensurate with what can be undertaken by what is essentially a small group of volunteers with limited support and resources.

6 Professional membership developments

Membership developments are detailed in section 3 and 4 of this report.

7 National and international linkages with other Societies /Institutes

The P&DE Division has active linkages with the Energy Institute, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Edinburgh Geological Society and the Society of Petroleum Engineers; reference joint events detailed in Appendix I. The intent of the P&DE Division Board is to continue to work with these bodies to deliver an enhanced offering. P&DE is a global enterprise with strong international linkages and a strong expat community working from the Aberdeen area. Of particular interest to the P&DE Board are the aspirations of overseas academic Institutions to have their programmes accredited by the Institute. The University of the West Indies has achieved this and the Board is supporting a number of establishments in West Africa.  

8 Government interfaces

P&DE Division strategy is for government interface to be via the Institute with the P&DE Chair as the nominated subject matter expert.

9 Publications

Articles on the Division and its areas of interest have been regularly published in Materials World and MIS Branch News, including three technical articles in Materials World. The Division has also contributed to book reviews. The Division micro site has been regularly refreshed and is consistently among the most visited Divisional sites.

10 Awards/prize

The Division has no specific awards of it’s own but actively works with the MIS in this regard. The Division worked with the Robert Gordon University and Aberdeen based oil companies to encourage high quality Petroleum and Drilling Engineering papers for the Young Person’s Lecture Competition. The Division helped the MIS run the Scottish competition in Aberdeen. Enhanced prizes were awarded for first, second and third with the winner going on to the UK final. As a new initiative funds realised from the metallurgy courses organised by the Division have been used to fund a scholarship through the Arkwright Trust to encourage and support young people at school to pursue careers in Engineering, specifically Mineral Extraction. The first scholar is from the Huntly Schools. The Division works with the MIS to award travelling scholarships to suitable students to enhance their studies.

11 Other matters

2009 was the second full year of operations for the re-established P&DE Division under the new Board. It is the view of the Board that the Division has continued to make significant progress and has a robust strategy and action plan to build on the momentum that has been created; thereby ensuring that the Division will make a significant and real contribution to the Institute.

S.Bedford

Eur Ing Steve Bedford BEng CEng MIMMM
Chair Petroleum and Drilling Engineering Division
6th December 2009