A Program for Improving the Technical Competence Of SPE Members
Authors: Kriegel Monroe W. 
Published: December 2007

Editor's Note: The following article is a slightly revised and condensed version of a written report submitted to the Board of Directors of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME at its Oct. 11 meeting in Houston, Tex. The author, Dr. Monroe W. Kriegel, was commissioned by the Board last June to conduct a study to determine the continuing education needs of the Society's 14,000 members - a study which would result in specific recommendations for the development of a program by which SPE could assist members who are genuinely interested in improving their technical competence. At its Oct. 11 meeting, the Board directed that Dr. Kriegel's report be published in JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY for the information of interested SPE members; following publication the article will be distributed to heads of petroleum engineering departments, college and university deans, to oil company executives, to other engineering societies, and to the various oil industry trade publications, along with a letter from SPE President John C. Calhoun, Jr.. requesting comments from these groups. The Board also charged the SPE Education Committee and the Headquarters star with the responsibility of developing specific recommendations for implementing the program.

Scope of Investigation

The Board of Directors of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME retained the author to make a study of the continuing education needs of its members. The study was to include:

a definition of the nature of the problem through extensive interviews and correspondence with members, educators and company officials; an investigation of current and proposed adult education programs offered by various major universities in petroleum and other fields of engineering; the extent of involvement of various agencies of the Federal Government in programs for Lip-dating the competence of scientists and engineers; the status of self-instruction manuals; the work being performed by other professional societies for their members: and a study of the role of various petroleum producing and service company methods of training.

Finally, the future role of SPE was to be defined in recommendations for a broad program for raising the general level of technical competence of engineers engaged in the production phase of the petroleum industry. The results of this study and the author's recommendations are presented in this article. The Appendix includes the results of a questionnaire survey conducted among a sampling of the SPE membership.

Approach

The opinions of individual members were gained from an analysis of 300 questionnaires received from a mailing to 807 SPE members (see the Appendix), and by personal interviews with local section members at Liberal, Kans.; Hobbs, N.M.; Bartlesville, Okla.; and Amarillo, Dallas. Lubbock, Pampa and Snyder, Tex.The viewpoints of university people were obtained by personal interviews with Robert L. Whiting. Texas A and M U.; E. T. Guerrero, U. of Tulsa; John M. Campbell, The U. of Oklahoma; and Duane A. Crawford and Philip Johnson, Texas Technological College. Company opinions and attitudes were obtained by personal interviews with the officials and employees of Amerada Petroleum Corp., Pan American Petroleum Corp., Cities Service Oil Co., Sinclair Oil and Gas Co., Jersey Production Research Co., The Atlantic Refining Co., Dowell Div. of The Dow Chemical Co., Sunray DX Oil Co., and Core Laboratories, Inc. The national picture of continuing education for all engineers was obtained principally by attending the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education. (Seven parts of that program dealt with various phases of adult education, indicating the degree of interest in this subject among engineering educators.)Through the courtesy of R. William Taylor, AIME General Secretary, reports were obtained on the continuing education activities of the other engineering societies, and personal interviews were held in New York with representatives of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, AIChE, IEEE and AIIE. The work of the American Society for Metals was obtained by correspondence, while a personal interview with Dr. Francis Pruitt, director of postgraduate studies for Hillcrest Medical Center, yielded the program for the medical profession.

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