One of the most gratifying functions I have had the honor to perform as AAPG president is the interaction with those selected to receive awards from AAPG. Awardees are contacted by a personal call from the president to inform them of their nomination and selection to receive an award after a careful review by the Advisory Council and a vote by the Executive Committee.
In most cases, the nominees are unaware that they had been nominated to receive an award and the reaction upon hearing the news is always thankful and gracious. Hearing their response was in itself rewarding for me — a moment of joy I would not have experienced via email. In this age of instant communication and social media, I learned that it can be difficult to reach folks by telephone. It didn’t dawn on me that reaching out with good news by a simple phone call might prove to be more challenging than expected. Some of the recipients were out of town, on vacation, on assignment at another location, even on an outcrop, and some were no longer at the company or recently retired but had not updated their contact information in the member directory.
So, I share with the Membership an important lesson: keep your contact information updated the old-fashion way — it may just prove to be rewarding!
Nomination Process
I encourage all Members to take some time to consider nominating fellow Members for honors or awards. The process for nominating a Member for an AAPG award is simple. An award nomination kit is mailed out every year to every Member. It’s up to the Membership to recognize someone they know and think is deserving of an award to complete a nomination form and submit it.
It is a truly Member-driven process, and Members should not assume someone else is going to recognize and nominate a person for an award. So next year when the nomination kit comes to you in the mail, please use it to recommend someone you know and believe is deserving of an award for recognition.
A list of this year’s award recipients is in this issue of the EXPLORER, so when you see one of the awardees at a local meeting or other get-together, please congratulate them on receiving the award. You may be pleasantly surprised by their appreciation, as I am sure they will be for the recognition.
Rewarding Event
The 10th International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) was held in Bangkok, Thailand this year. This conference is a joint meeting held in cooperation of four societies including AAPG, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers. This year it was sponsored by PTT Exploration & Production, the Thailand national petroleum company.
Total attendance was 3,721, which was about the same as last year, and it proved to be a successful conference and continues to be an important revenue source for host societies.
The event was punctuated by the death of the Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej the previous month. Bhumibol was revered by the people of Thailand and the country is observing an extended time of mourning, so conservative black attire was worn to honor his passing.
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the Royal Princess of Thailand, presided over the opening ceremonies on Tuesday morning. It was truly an honor to be in the presence of Thailand’s royalty, and certainly a bit different from our typical opening ceremonies.
The conference drew attendees from nearly 60 different countries for cross-discipline talks that integrated geoscience and engineering for exploration, production, drilling and production topics. The theme of the conference was “Innovation and Efficiency Excellence for our Energy Future.” The conference had an executive plenary session, four topical panel sessions, an IPTC Society Presidents Panel, four “Ask the Expert” sessions, and 53 technical sessions. Combined, they fulfilled the broad spectrum of topics, from exploration to facilities design, and from seismic to environmental, health and safety challenges.
A rewarding moment for me was to see AAPG Student Chapter members from several Indonesian universities fully engaged in the organization to help with the event. I extend my gratitude and thanks to these enthusiastic students for taking the time to assist Adrienne Pereira, AAPG’s Asia Pacific Region project coordinator, in the AAPG booth.
The 11th IPTC is currently planned for early 2019 in Bejing, China. AAPG as an organization continues to provide leadership in geoscience for the oil and gas industry and we feel confident that many of the university students at this year’s event will represent AAPG in 2019 as Young Professionals.
In closing, I want to also thank AAPG Member David Blanchard for his service to the IPTC as chairman and for making it a rewarding event. Well done.