SPE ’14: New President Haldorsen urges a ‘bigger tent’ for SPE

SPE ’14: New President Haldorsen urges a ‘bigger tent’ for SPE

PRAMOD KULKARNI, Editor

AMSTERDAM – At the concluding ceremony of the SPE ATCE, 2014 President Jeff Spath, Schlumberger, passed on the president's gavel to Helge Hove Haldorsen, Statoil, who assumed the organization’s lead role for 2015.

In his acceptance speech, Haldorsen suggested that the SPE membership should be expanded to other energy professionals. “People think SPE members sit in a hard chair and solve difficult equations,” Haldorsen explained. Perhaps realizing that the proposition may have difficulty in gaining acceptance from the SPE membershipof engineers, Haldorsen added a postscript: “Think about it!”

"This has been a dynamic and productive year for the SPE, with the society gaining increasing importance and relevance,” said Spath in his annual membership report. “The year2014 has been one of continuing globalization of our society. Of the 124,000 members, 55% are outside North America. This is one of the reasons we’re in Amsterdam this year and will be in Dubai in 2016.”

Spath also cited the success of the inaugural OTC Asia in 2014 with 25,000 registrants and sold-out exhibit space, and inaugural conferences in Venezuela and the Caspian.

According to Spath, another of SPE’s initiatives in 2014 has been public education through programs such as “Energy for Me” in order to provide consistent education and dispel myths about industry practices such as fracing.

Speaking about the financial success of the organization, Spath said revenue has grown in FY 2014 (ending March 31), from $71 million to $85 million, and a net operating surplus of $7.7 million.

Haldorsen praised the role of the SPE in helping the global oil and gas industry achieve production milestones of 92 MMbopd, 3.25 Tcfgd, drilling 83,000 wells and making an investment of $1 trillion. “Energy fuels human progress and increases living standards. Could we have done this without the SPE? I don’t think so,” Haldorsen said.

Citing a population growth of 9 billion by 2040, Haldorsen said, “During this luncheon event, we gained 20,000 new customers. What other industry can claim such growth?”

As a hint of the changes Haldorsen expects to achieve through what he called E&P 2.0 and SPE 2.0, the 2015 president said, “Our mission and vision are not changing, but the way we achieve these, needs to change. Some possibilities include the use of social media, hosting webinars to reach 124,000 members, and SPE TV.”

With Haldorsen’s reputation for creative thinking, SPE is certainly poised to have an interesting year 2015.