engineering

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Society of Petroleum Engineers is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Society of Petroleum Engineers rather than just read about it. In short: The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization. SPE provides a worldwide forum for oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) professionals to exchange technical knowledge and best practices.

Key takeaways

Society of Petroleum Engineers belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Society of Petroleum Engineers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Society of Petroleum Engineers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization. SPE provides a worldwide forum for oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) professionals to exchange technical knowledge and best practices. SPE manages OnePetro and PetroWiki, in addition to publishing magazines, peer-reviewed journals, and books. SPE also hosts more than 100 events each year across the globe as well as providing online tools and in-person training opportunities. SPE's technical library (OnePetro) contains more than 314,000 technical papers—products of SPE conferences and periodicals, made available to the entire industry. SPE has offices in Dallas, Houston, Calgary, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. SPE is a professional association for more than 127,000 engineers, scientists, managers, and educators. There are about 59,000 student members of SPE.

History The history of the SPE began well before its actual establishment. During the decade after the 1901 discovery of the Spindletop field, the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) saw a growing need for a forum in the booming new field of petroleum engineering. As a result, AIME formed a standing committee on oil and gas in 1913. In 1922, the committee was expanded to become one of AIME's 10 professional divisions. The Petroleum Division of AIME continued to grow throughout the next three decades. By 1950, the Petroleum Division had become one of three separate branches of AIME, and in 1957 the Petroleum Branch of AIME was expanded once again to form a professional society. SPE became tax-exempt in March 1985. The first SPE Board of Directors meeting was held 6 October 1957. SPE continues to operate more than 100 events around the world.

Membership SPE is a non-profit association for petroleum engineers. Petroleum engineers who become members of SPE gain access to several member benefits like a complimentary subscription to the Journal of Petroleum Technology, unlimited free webinars, and discounts on SPE events (conferences, workshops, training courses, etc.) and publications. SPE Connect is a site and app for SPE members to exchange technical knowledge, answer each other's practical application questions, and share best practices. SPE is made up of about 127,000 members in 145 countries. SPE Sections are groups of SPE Professional Members, and SPE Student Chapters are groups of SPE Student Members typically named for the hosting university or a geographical region. 67,000+ professional members are affiliated with 192 SPE Sections, and about 59,000 student members are affiliated with the 392 SPE Student Chapters. SPE annually grants scholarships to student members.

Awards Annually, SPE recognizes individuals for their contribution to the oil and gas industry at the regional and international levels. All individuals who receive SPE Awards were nominated by either an industry colleague, mentor, etc., except for recipients of the Cedric K. Ferguson Young Technical Author Medal, which is awarded to SPE members who author a paper approved for publication in an SPE journal (peer-reviewed journals on oil and gas topics) before age 36. Eligibility for the awards is denoted online. SPE International Awards are announced online, featured in the Journal of Petroleum Technology, and presented at the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

Regional awards SPE grants technical and professional awards at the regional level. To be considered for these awards, one must be nominated online. Regional technical award eligibility is described online. SPE regional award recipients are considered for the international level of the award they received in the following award season. Regional awards are presented at regional or section meetings.

Distinguished Lecturers The SPE Distinguished Lecturer Committee (DL) each year selects a group of nominees to become SPE Distinguished Lecturers. SPE Distinguished Lecturers are nominated for the program and selected by the committee to share their industry expertise by lecturing at local SPE sections across the globe. Nominees are notified of their nomination and must submit a summary of their biography, a presentation that can be given in thirty minutes or less, and additional information for the DL committee. The schedule of DL talks is available online. Some DL talks are very popular and are made available online as webinars.

Publications SPE publishes peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and books. Technical papers presented at SPE conferences or approved for publication in SPE peer-reviewed journals are also published to OnePetro.org.

Peer-reviewed Journal SPE Journal, a leading publication in oil, petroleum, and natural gas, offers peer-reviewed papers showcasing methods and technology solutions by industry experts. Its first issue was published in 1996.

Magazines SPE publishes five online magazines:

Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT) is the SPE flagship magazine, providing articles on oil & gas technology advancements, issues, and other exploration and production industry news. The JPT newsletter is sent out weekly on Wednesdays. Anyone may sign up to receive the JPT newsletter, though some content is only accessible to members of SPE. Every SPE member receives a complimentary subscription to JPT. Oil and Gas Facilities (OGF) is focused on delivering the latest news on project and technology shifts in the industry. The Way Ahead (TWA) is by and for young professional members of SPE. It is the newest SPE magazine. It was first published in 2006 and moved from print to online in 2016. HSE Now is aimed at covering the changes in health, safety, security, environmental, social responsibility, and regulations that impact the oil and gas industry. Data Science and Digital Engineering presents the evolving landscape of digital technology and data management in the upstream oil and gas industry.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Society of Petroleum Engineers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Society of Petroleum Engineers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Society of Petroleum Engineers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Society of Petroleum Engineers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Society of Petroleum Engineers

In research: Society of Petroleum Engineers appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Society of Petroleum Engineers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Society of Petroleum Engineers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Engineering societies based in the United States, International organizations based in the United States, International professional associations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Society of Petroleum Engineers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Society of Petroleum Engineers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Society of Petroleum Engineers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Society of Petroleum Engineers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Society of Petroleum Engineers in simple terms?

Why does Society of Petroleum Engineers matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Society of Petroleum Engineers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Society of Petroleum Engineers.