June in Canada, Mexico and...

Another busy month

02.06.2015 - 17.06.2015

It has been my privilege to present the one-hour ethics class for several years at the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE) annual meeting. This year's meeting was in Halifax and I have some great photos at the end of the blog. It is a beautiful area and I preceded the SPEE trip with several SPE visits with our Canada Region SPE Director Darcy Spady. Since both of our wives were there we had some great tourist time over the weekend. The tourist stuff is with the pictures at the end.

We went to Dalhousie University and we met with multiple groups from engineering and earth sciences. We spent most of the time planning a new student chapter. The next day Darcy and I went to New Glasgow to meet multiple local SPE leaders. We also met with the local manager at Baker Hughes' office in Dartmouth.

On Saturday we were tourists and enjoyed the fact that many buildings were open that day that were not normally open to the public. I particularly liked firing an old Enfield rifle at the Citadel and touring the Government and Provincial houses. We went on a "tall ship" tour of the bay. Our whale watching trip was enjoyable but "whale free."

The SPEE annual meeting was Sunday-Tuesday and as per usual I taught the ethics class. We had originally planned to fly directly from Halifax to Mexico City but found a way to go through Houston and spend a night at home. Of course we also found a way to spend an extra six hours in airports that day due to flight delays.

We flew to Mexico City for the SPE Board of Director's meeting. Helge Haldorsen (2015 SPE President) picked Mexico City primarily because of our expanding relationships as a Society with Mexico and secondarily because he lives there as Statoil's country manager. As you might guess it was already getting warm in Mexico in June but we had very pleasant weather in the mornings. Jan and I toured the nearby pyramids at Teotihuacan and many other local sites. We ate dinner at several wonderful restaurants including Biko and Quintonil. We saw La Traviata at the Palacio des Bellas Artes, a magnificent opera house. Photos at the end!

Of course the Board meeting was busy. Meetings with the other Presidents and SPE leaders. Audit Committee, Finance, Regional directors, technical directors, the three board committees, plenary sessions and the final board meeting. It is busy. It was great to meet various Mexican leaders of the oil and gas industry including several old friends and classmates.

Personal note

I did get to be home a little this month which was good since we had a wedding (friends) at out house. My bees are doing well (see the photos) and the cardinals are in my backyard all the time. My jalapeños and tomatoes are being productive. I finally was home enough to fire up my smoker again and barbecue.

All of my grandchildren came together at our annual "Grammy Camp" where my wife (the grammy!) sponsors a big get together. Some in Houston and a week at the Fort Worth Museum school where our children studied so many years ago.

Other Blogs

You can of course read about my barbecue at This site
My Baker Hughes reservoir blog is here.
My (old) blog detailing my 18 months in Hong Kong is here,

Travel this trip (basically includes airport to airport) 6,289 SPE travel to date 175,841 miles.

Countries to date (my counting rule is basically that I spent the night there with some sort of SPE content...not just went through the airport like New Zealand or Panama): 22
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Canada
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Indonesia
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (Scotland, England)
USA

Operas this month = 1 Operas to date = 19

HALIFAX

Beautiful area. With a free weekend we went to Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, Lunenberg. The entire city of Lunenberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Of course we ate plenty of lobsters since this is lobster heaven. We also visited the sobering Swissair 111 memorial. A few pictures.

There is an LDS temple in Halifax 

This boat was used to pass salt at the large table!

Ship used as a survey vessel. On old coal fired bolt ship.

When trying to self park at the hotel I apparently put my card in "WORNG". I love this one.

Mexico City

==
Some from the pyramid tour, the local churches and the LDS temple.

Here are a few of the opera house.

Here are some from the city tour
==

Around the world (again)

Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, Switzerland, Brussels, Qatar, Germany

24.08.2015 - 21.09.2015

Another big trip.

First off to Malaysia via Qatar. Unfortunately I arrived at 8:30 in the morning and barely got to my hotel in time to go to the first luncheon talk in KL.

I toured the SPE offices and spoke to the staff.
(SPELFIE OF COURSE)

I gave a Presentation to Young Professionals of the SPE Kuala Lumpur Section on the topic “The Shifting Energy Landscape: How Young Professionals can turn crisis into opportunity for long term career growth.”

The anxieties about employment and the future are global for the petroleum industry. I met with section officers and discussed their great results.

I finally met with my friend Dato’ Wee Yiaw Hin, Executive Vice President & CEO, Upstream for Petronas. I had a long visit with the UCSI Student Chapter.

Then it was off to Brunei. Landed at midnight and it was pretty late when I arrived at the hotel. My driver showed up EARLY for the drive to BSP. There I met with Brunei Shell Head Office staff in the morning, made a lunchtime presentation and with SPE members and SPE YP. I had a visit with the Shell MD, Andrew Faulkner. Drove back to Bandar for dinner with SPE members from Total, BSP, etc.

The next AM (early) I met with students at ITB and their newly formed student chapter.

Drove to Miri and met with other SPE members and then flew back to KL.

Made a presentation to Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Student Chapter and then to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Student Chapter.

Universiti Teknologi MARA is the largest University in Malaysia and has a relatively recently formed student chapter. They were not yet in school! However I had a huge turnout including many of them who took a half day off from their internships to attend. One SPELFIE with the group and one with the student SPE chapter leaders.

The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is a solid two hour drive away on a good day and is not yet in session. So I met some of their students at the SPE office.

More meetings with local members. Then south of KL I participated in and spoke at the SPE Reservoir Testing to Add Production Value Workshop.

Then off to Vietnam with the first stop in Hanoi. My wife flew in via South Korea and met me there; she traveled with me for the remainder of the trip. We had various meetings with the senior executives of PetroVietnam including Nguyen Quoc Khanh, President and CEO of PetroVietnam Group and Dr. Do Van Khanh, President and CEO of PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation and then to the Hanoi University of Mining & Geology (HUMG). We flew south to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and met with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) Student Chapter.

Students were very enthusiastic.

Eight students from PetroVietNam University made the four hour trek to come see me.

One of the bigger SPELFIES!

It was a big crowd.

The new student chapter leaders.
I have some great videos of a performer at HCMUT.

Met with the SPE section officers spoke at the section meeting.

Then off to Bangkok. We stayed at a great hotel with a great view and my old ExxonMobil friend now living in PNG came to visit.

Dinner with section officers. The car came to pick me up at 6:00 PM for the 7:00 PM dinner 4 miles away. Two and a half hours later I arrived at dinner. I should have walked! Bangkok traffic can be hard to take.

Up early the next morning for a long drive to make a presentation at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) Student Chapter. They were enthusiastic and it was a large group.

My wife stayed in the city, took a Thai cooking class, boat tours, etc. Back to Bangkok for a welcome Dinner hosted by PTTEP executives. I participated in and gave a keynote at PTTEP Knowledge Management Week 2015, Theme: Sustainable Growth and Efficiency thru Technology and Innovation. Met with Phongsthorn Thavisin, Executive Vice President, Technology and Sustainability Development Group, PTTEP. That day my wife was a tourist courtesy of our gracious hosts.

I then did some Baker Hughes things in Thailand meeting with our staff and customers. 

Finally, another presentation at Chulalongkorn University Chapter Student Chapter. 

The off to Brussels, Belgium for a weekend day and then SPE meetings in Milan. I met with a group of Young Professionals and students from Politecnico di Torino. I met with ENI executives and toured their immense laboratories. We had a great Section meeting that night.

It was live cast to other sites. We had 61 people attending locally and 46 remote participants from 19 locations. The largest remote group was from Nigeria but there were participants from the UK, Angola, Ecuador, Turkmenistan, etc.

Our hosts took us to the Milan Expo where we saw many great pavilions. WAY too many photos to post so I will add a link later.

Then a drive to Lugano to fly to Geneva for an SPE meeting celebrating their 10th anniversary. But at Lugano our flight was cancelled so we took three trains, arriving at 1:30 AM. I had lunch with the section officers, met with the senior management at Addax Petroleum and spoke to the energetic section meeting.

Then home to Houston via Frankfurt.

The good news is that after that I am in Houston for two weeks. Of course they are nearly full-time SPE since it is our Board meeting and the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

Other Blogs

You can of course read about my barbecue at This site
My Baker Hughes reservoir blog is here.
My (old) blog detailing my 18 months in Hong Kong is here,

Travel this trip (basically includes airport to airport) 28,023 SPE travel to date 207,193 miles.

Countries to date (my counting rule is basically that I spent the night there with some sort of SPE content...not just went through the airport like New Zealand or Panama): 29
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
Brunei
Canada
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Kuwait
Indonesia
Italy
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (Scotland, England)
USA
Vietnam

Operas this month = 0 Operas to date = 21