A Young Engineer's Personal Look at the "Guidelines..."
Authors: Wilson Mary Jane 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 44th Annual California Regional Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in San Francisco, Calif., April 4–5, 1974. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Many people read the "Guidelines to Professional Employment of Engineers and Professional Employment of Engineers and Scientists" and ask "What harm could the 'Guidelines…' do?" After all, most of the Guidelines deal with the professional integrity of the company and the individual. Only a few speak of benefit plans, severance pay, and overtime. In plans, severance pay, and overtime. In my view the principle of placing a third party, be it a set of guidelines party, be it a set of guidelines endorsed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a professional union, or a well meaning individual, between the company and the engineer is out of tune with the spirit of the oil industry. It could have serious implications for the engineer, his company and society as a whole.

The technological problems that confront the petroleum engineer are great. It is his responsibility, whether he is a manager, or in a staff advisory position, to create solutions to these problems in order to provide inexpensive, plentiful energy for the future. Innovations can and must be made both in the field of technology and management. The S.P.E. should be instrumental in informing all petroleum engineers of advancements made in both fields, rather than regulating either.

I cannot speak for all engineers of my age group, or even all of the young engineers employed by Texaco. My background and situation have been different than most. I have been connected with the oil industry all my life. My father owned a drilling company in Bakersfield for fourteen years and is currently in the offshore workover business in the Gulf of Mexico. Luckily for me, he didn't believe in leaving his work at the office or in the field. It came home with him at night, and often the entire family spent vacations and weekends visiting drilling locations and equipment yards.

My education at Stanford University was unique. My graduating class in Petroleum Engineering was 100% female. I was the only person to receive a B.S. from the department that year. Many of my classes were filled with graduate students, or were tutorial in nature. Because the professors in the department were very professors in the department were very active in industry, my education extended out of the textbook into the real world.