A Reservoir Engineering Continuing Education Course for the Permian Basin Section

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. This paper was prepared for the 42nd Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Houston, Tex., Oct. 1–4, 1967. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. A questionnaire sent to members of the Permian Basin Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME resulted in the development of a two-semester course in reservoir engineering. The course material was developed and presented by a faculty member of the Petroleum Engineering Department of the University of Texas. The initial enrollment was 128, with 116 completing the work necessary for certificates in the first semester. This course was devoted to the basic law of fluid flow in porous media and the mathematics for those solutions used in modern reservoir engineering. Eighty of those completing the first-semester enrolled for the second half, which consisted of the application of the laws to reservoir engineering problems in well testing, gas cycling, waterflooding, and other secondary recovery methods. The main objective of the program was to increase the ability of the practicing petroleum engineer to understand and use the reservoir engineering methods now being developed and described in the literature. A survey of those attending indicated general satisfaction with the program. The Section intends to continue its education program by repeating the reservoir engineering course in 1967–1968 and also introducing a second course covering principles of management. Another outgrowth has been the decision by the SPE Board of Directors and Continuing Education Committee to record the lectures on video tape for distribution to certain other sections through SPE's Dallas headquarters. The subject program provided a satisfying solution to the unique problem confronting continuing education efforts by the Permian Basin Section; i.e., a large number of members located in several towns and cities remote from a college or university equipped to handle an off-campus continuing education program. It is hoped that results of this pioneer effort will have far-reaching effects on SPE's long-range efforts in continuing education. Introduction It is incumbent upon all professional engineers to maintain their technical competence. The importance of this and the difficulties involved in doing so in the face of our rapidly advancing technology have been well-stated and completely documented in the literature by many authors over the past three or four years. The responsibilities that professional societies (particularly SPE) have toward their members in this connection have been adequately stated.