Help Wanted-Petroleum Engineers
Authors: Diefenbach Russel E. 
Published: December 2007

Help is needed by the petroleum industry and by our nation. Help is needed by these two complexities from us the individual engineers who are members of SPE. Help is needed in applying sound engineering principles to the salvation of our environment. "As members of the petroleum engineering profession, we have a fundamental responsibility to profession, we have a fundamental responsibility to society, L. B. Curtis (Nov., 1971, JPT, Page 1327). production and utilization of energy resources and production and utilization of energy resources and optimum preservation of acceptable environmental conditions." This quotation is not from an ecology nut, but from the past-president of our professional society, L. B. Curtis (Nov., 1971, JPT, Page 1327). We as members of a professional engineering society, and as individuals, are remiss in our engineering ethics because we are not committing ourselves firmly to the total protection of our environment. I write this article not as a representative of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, but as a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. It is time we took affirmative action as professional engineers to preserve and improve the environment for ourselves, our children, the public and our nation, and not the least, our clients or employers. The SPE and we the constituent members have failed to concern ourselves in the past with the pollution problems created by our industry. For example, pollution problems created by our industry. For example, the SPE's Midwest Oil and Gas Industry Symposium held in Chicago last April had only two papers remotely concerned or incidentally connected with pollution or ecology. pollution or ecology. In June, 1971, the AIME held an Environmental Quality Conference in Washington. It was held in Washington probably to impress Congress that industry was interested in fighting pollution. The SPE sessions were a miserable failure. Twelve papers were presented at the SPE sessions, and 78 at the mining presented at the SPE sessions, and 78 at the mining sessions. Only two papers in the SPE sessions were presented by engineers actively engaged in oil presented by engineers actively engaged in oil production and two by oil service company engineers. production and two by oil service company engineers. The sessions were poorly attended - only 15 to 30 petroleum engineers bothered to come. petroleum engineers bothered to come. The industry sorely needs the help of every petroleum engineer because the public (whether justly or petroleum engineer because the public (whether justly or unjustly) has risen up in indignation. The public sees and remembers the messes of Santa Barbara, San Francisco Bay, Torrey Canyon, and the blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico. The news media report, expand, slant, exaggerate and constantly remind the public of these incidents. And our politicians responded in 1970 with a law carrying a $10,000 fine for not reporting an oil spill -poor penalty indeed for so toxic a condition. In all reality we must conclude that the tide is against the oil industry, and we as petroleum engineers must rise to the challenge and petroleum engineers must rise to the challenge and help turn that tide. We all know that our industry has been guilty of insults to the environment, and these can no longer be tolerated.