Winter 99/00 - Petroleum Engineering | The University of Oklahoma

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Gustavo Inciarte served as the 1999 president of the International Society of Petroleum Engineers. He is currently an Upstream Oil and Gas consultant based in Caracas, Venezuela, and served a three-year term on the SPE Board of Directors as regional director for South America and the Caribbean Region. Inciarte was a member of the PDVSA, the Venezuelan National Oil Company Board of Directors from March 1995 until June 1998. Inciarte graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering in June 1957. Following graduation, he joined Shell Venezuela. He remained with Shell until 1976, when the Venezuelan petroleum industry was nationalized. Inciarte has long been active in SPE, serving on numerous committees. He has also been active in the Gas Processors Association, serving on their Board of Directors as the first international member. He later founded the Venezuelan chapter. Inciarte has been active in other professional organizations and serves as a member of several advisory groups. He is a member of the Board of Sarkeys Energy Center at the University of Oklahoma, the Industry Advisory Board to the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, and he is a member of the OU College of Engineering Board of Visitors. He was named to the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Society in May 1992. 4 Inciarte, continued from page 3 industries that rise and fall on the basis of technological breakthroughs. The only constant in today’s world is change. We need to apply new knowledge to create and take advantage of opportunities around us. This requires flexible organizations with cooperative environments where empowered employees develop the capacity for personal growth. Only at that point will the company fulfill its most vertical integration, the convergence of the company and its people. It is my conviction that those companies that take up this challenge will not only be the most successful, but will survive into the 21st century, where a very likely scenario will be one of higher prices and a totally different mix of majors, state companies, independents and types of service companies. Producing countries’ oil and service companies will have a different business balance since their roles will be somewhat different. Producing countries will move toward the role of non-operating partners as they open up their industries to private investments on the road to privatization. Oil majors will absorb more and more operations that will require larger investments and financial clout than at the present. Therefore, the wave of mega-mergers currently under way is leading to much larger but leaner majors. This OU Discovery School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering Two great grads: Archie Dunham B.S.,Geological Engineering, University of Oklahoma, president and CEO, Conoco, Inc. and Gustavo Inciarte, B.S. Petroleum Engineering, University of Oklahoma will also require a different way of dealing with service providers that will eventually do more of the planning and coordination as a result of the more integrated operations required by the asset management approach. This being the case, this will eventually also result in a different balance between the medium-size majors, smaller companies and independents. We must not ignore the integration happening between gas companies and utilities resulting in total power suppliers, nor the insertion of renewable energy sources into the picture. In this day and age, all the measures taken to improve our profitability and add value to our business will likely result in job losses. In this environment, the most technically competent will be the survivors. We older professionals have to accept this reality. We probably should admit that we have no one to blame but ourselves if we are not among the chosen ones. We have not played the role we needed to play as professionals, which requires that we keep ourselves technically updated. Technology changes so rapidly that our education has become a lifelong process. A professional can no longer afford to take the attitude most of us took decades ago. We graduated from university and went to work with the idea that our employer would manage
OU Discovery School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering our professional development in a very paternalistic fashion. That viewpoint does not work any more. We have to take charge of our own continuing education. We, as individuals, must be proactive in ensuring that we remain technically current if we want to stay competitive and provide added value to our employer, which is what we are paid for. This is where the interconnective “umbilical cord” comes in. Our universities can help us remain up to date; they must also be effective in providing the right professional for our industry. Industry, of course, will provide the specific training that may be required for a certain job. SPE can help members move in this direction and provide them with the international perspective that is so important in today’s world of globalized economies and industries. To put this in perspective, I refer to an article that circulated in the mid- 1960s. The article, written by George A. Hawkins, who was dean of Engineering at Purdue University at the time, appeared in Engineer magazine (1966- 67, Volume 7, No. 4). The article called this obsolescence process “the four ages of an engineer.” Hawkins’ point was that it is a costly mistake not to recognize that maintaining our technical knowledge is a lifelong process and that the solution requires a great deal of self-discipline. Our complaints about our knowledge requirements and the fault with university education can be divided into four periods after graduation. According to Hawkins, after between one and five years after graduation, the engineer would like to have had more practical courses. The young engineer becomes impatient because he or she cannot solve the practical problems that the experienced engineer can solve. After five to 12 years, engineers wish for greater competence in the basic sciences - math, physics, chemistry - because they lack the knowledge to solve difficult engineering problems. The engineer begins to show a lack of newer scientific and theoretical knowledge. After 12 to 25 years, engineers require more administrative and managerial knowledge - speech and report writing, industrial relations, finance. The mature engineer realizes that she or he needs not only the technical knowhow but also supervisory, administrative and managerial skills. After 25 years, the engineer becomes more philosophical and may desire to know more about the arts, music, literature, and drama. As they approach retirement, some may admit to a total lack of cultural activities. Hawkins quite rightly identifies these four stages. Each requires specialized knowledge and skills. Certainly, no engineering program can prepare its graduates for the next 40 or 50 years of professional life. Hawkins believes that it is totally inappropriate to talk of not being technically competent some 10 years after graduation, when the process really starts the moment we graduate. Hawkins’ article was written more than 30 years ago. The rapidity with which technology is now being developed, and changing our ways of thinking and working, reduces those first 10 years substantially. We can become obsolete a lot more quickly now. My message to younger engineers Inciarte with University of Oklahoma President David Boren and other University dignitaries at the signing ceremony of the Charter for the Energy Institute of the Americas on May 12, 1995 in President Boren’s office. is to let your professional society, your company, and your university help you defeat the obsolescence process. Keep yourself up to date not only technically but also in your total professional and life development. Remember, it is not one instead of another, but a different emphasis at different stages of your life. continued on page 6 5
Page 1 and 2: Discovery School of Petroleum and G
Page 3 and 4: 1999-2000 Petroleum and Geological
Page 5: OU Discovery School of Petroleum an
Page 9 and 10: OU Discovery School of Petroleum an

Winter 99/00 - Petroleum Engineering | The University of Oklahoma

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?