Nina Rach
Drilling Editor
DENVER, Oct. 6 -- The Society of Petroleum Engineers has earmarked more than $10 million for web site enhancements, in a three-phase effort to expand members' access to technical knowledge, improve online collaboration and continuing education, and provide efficient online registration and membership renewal.
In a noon press conference today at SPE's annual technical conference and exhibition in Denver, SPE Foundation Pres. T. Don Stacey and Trustee Dennis E. Gregg announced that $2.3 million has already been committed in support of the campaign dubbed Tomorrow's SPE: Investing in SPE.org. They were joined by representatives from ChevronTexaco Corp. and EnCana Corp., major donors to the campaign.
SPE has already spent over $5 million from its reserve and operating funds to bring the electronic library, Autonomy-based search engine, and membership directory online. Future enhancements will include expedited identification and retrieval of information from the technical e-library, improved collaboration tools for virtual technical interest groups, online continuing professional education, and a more efficient volunteer work space.
ChevronTexaco contributed a pace-setting $1 million to support the e-library, and John E. Betancourt, the company's executive vice-president of technology and services, said, "SPE provides formidable resources to continually improve the industry's ability to provide essential oil and gas resources to the public. ChevronTexaco's contribution reflects our global commitment to supporting meaningful partnerships, and we encourage others to contribute to Tomorrow's SPE: Investing in SPE.org."
He added, "ChevronTexaco prides itself on being a partner of choice. We have a long-standing relationship with SPE and believe that partnerships are based on mutually beneficial relationships. We are very interested in the SPE.org web site and knowledge portal." Betancourt is also an active director of SPE and said that 1,500 ChevronTexaco employees are SPE members. Total SPE membership is 55,000.
Stacy announced that EnCana Corp., a Canada-based independent, contributed $250,000 to the campaign. Mark Mason, representing EnCana said, "EnCana Corp. and EnCana USA are very supportive of the technologies provided for geoscientists and engineers. We challenge other independent companies to contribute."
Apache Corp., BP PLC, and ExxonMobil Corp. also plan to donate to the campaign, according to Gregg.
The SPE web site receives 2-3 million visits/year, each averaging 15 min. There were 200,000 downloads from the e-library in 2001 and 500,000 in 2002, and over 600,000 are expected in 2003.