The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a worldwide association of professionals working in the petroleum industry. The goal of SPE is to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources, and related technologies for the public benefit; and to provide opportunities for professionals to enhance their technical and professional competence.Since its establishment in 1957, SPE has grown to become one of the petroleum industry’s most important arenas for sharing information and networking. Close to 75,000 members participate in 160 sections in 64 countries and 141 student chapters in 43 countries. Professional members include managers, engineers and scientists in the E&P (Exploration and Production) segments of the oil and gas industry. In addition, nearly 17,000 students, primarily from engineering and natural science disciplines, are members of SPE.
The SPE Oslo Student Chapter
The SPE Oslo section got contact with a student organization (Studentenes næringslivsutval - SNU - at the Mathematics Departement) in the University of Oslo (UiO) early in the winter of 2007. Unfortunately, SPE was completely unknown to the students in SNU. During the course of the dialogue, Ida Presteruds' background as a geoscience student became the central focus of interest for both parties involved. Consequently, two students where invited to join an SPE meeting to become more familiar with the organization. Ida attended several meetings during the spring and in May, 2007 a meeting was held at UiO to introduce SPE to the students and to see if there was any potential for starting a student chapter. The number of members after the first meeting was good enough and we ended up with around 20 members. A similar meeting was held in the beginning of the autumn semester which resulted in even more members. At this time, Wibi became associated with SPE and in doing so he eventually became our president.
