SPE-GCS Blog

October 2nd, 2023

Howdy, I have met most of you, however for those I have not, let me introduce myself. My name is Alex Martinez, and I'm the new section chair for the 2023-2024 term. I’m a reservoir engineer at DeGolyer and MacNaughton in the North America Division with over ten years of experience in the industry. Your selflessness and dedication are the cornerstones of our success (consecutive Outstanding Section awards,) thus I want to take a moment to express my deep appreciation. Your time, energy, and most important passion have profoundly impacted our organization's ability to provide forums. These allow its members to maintain a professional competence, as well as enhance the image of the Oil and Gas Industry to the community by sponsoring service programs. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without your invaluable contributions. A couple of new …

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 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 …