Overview: 25 Years of Professional Contribution to Petroleum Development And Production
Authors: Elkins Lloyd E. 
Published: December 2007

In the past 25 years our appetite for energy has been sharply whetted. At ever-increasing costs, petroleum engineering will have to become more and more sophisticated and will have to be applied aggressively if that appetite is to be appeased at anything like a palatable price.

This review is cast along two parallel developments:The growing contribution of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME to the advancement of petroleum technology, highlighted through its Journal of Petroleum Technology and its appendage, the Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal.A performance profile that reflects the positive results of applying this petroleum technology.

One could pack this allotted space by citing scores of individuals and their many professional and technical contributions. Such an approach would, no doubt, be fraught with omissions. So, except to relate major SPE-AIME giant steps forward in staff leadership (three names), the contributions of members will have to be read between the lines. First, a very brief scenario on the Society as the organization that started and has published the Journal of Petroleum Technology. After World War I, in 1922, some "engineers" directing their activities toward drilling for and producing oil found a home in AIME (American Institute producing oil found a home in AIME (American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers). This was a natural for professionals in the extractive industries. They constituted the Petroleum Div., parallel to other divisions in AIME. Organized about the same time was the Mid-Continent Section, which included everything in the Mid-Continent geographically as far as oil was concerned and also had some mining and metals members. The Petroleum Div. was administered out of New York AIME headquarters. After World War II, petroleum members prevailed upon AIME to employ a secretary with an office in Dallas - William H. Strang. This might be referred to as the first major step toward SPE-AIME as it is today. In the fall of 1948 the Petroleum Div. pleaded its case before the AIME board in New York for increased autonomy. With some reluctance these requests were granted and the Petroleum Div. became The Petroleum Branch of AIME. A principal change brought about at that time was the delegation of responsibility to the branch to handle its own publishing, plan its meetings, sell advertising, and so forth. This started the 25 years that our Society is celebrating, commemorating the publication of the first Journal of Petroleum Technology. At this time, Bill Strang accepted an assignment with the API and Joe B. Alford came on the scene as Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Branch. With considerable delegated responsibility, the Petroleum Branch in its pilot test moved aggressively Petroleum Branch in its pilot test moved aggressively forward. To improve its image and growth potential, three important actions were taken:The Journal of Petroleum Technology was published. published.Petroleum sections of AIME were authorized, geographically overlapping traditional AIME section boundaries.

P. 1337