The Society holds events to improve the well-being and morale of the students, from excursions and dinners to mentoring with industry respresentatives.
Past Events
Term 1
SPE Movie Night - 8 November 2019
The chapter organised a movie night to kick off the term. This provided an opportunity for the master’s students on the petroleum geoscience and engineering courses to relax and take a break. This was followed by group dinner.
BP mentoring and campus visit - 6 November 2019
Thanks to the generosity of British Petroleum, the SPE student chapter was able to arrange for a select number of students to visit the BP headquarters in Sunbury, UK. The visit involved talks held by reservoir engineers working for BP as well as an office tour and tours of the labs used for core analysis. This was an insightful trip for many as students were keen to find out about potential career pathways after graduating.
Advanced Research: A vehicle towards driving the future of energy- 14 November 2019
The SPE saw a great opportunity in communicating the importance of doctoral research in developing critical scientific advancements within the industry. To get first-hand account on this, we invited Dr. Matthew Jackson, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London, and four of his PhD students to come and lead session for aspiring students. The event successfully shed light on the significant demands of doctoral research, but more importantly shared the potential rewards of continually finding out something new in a field that you are truly passionate about.
Following the presentations, we had an interactive panel session which allowed for different responses from the panellist by virtue of their unique experiences and paths before their PhD study.
The event concluded with a networking and refreshments session wherein attendees had one-on-one and group discussions with the panellist and amongst themselves.
DownUnder Geosolutions Career Talk - 21 November 2019
The hiring manager of down under geo solutions Julian sheriff along with a senior geophysicist who had previously studied Petroleum geoscience at Imperial came in to give a talk about working for DUG and what it entails. Also, 2 recent interns spoke about their personal experiences (work life and social life) at the company. The audience was shown what recent work the company was doing and the application process.
Term 2
Movie & Games Night
To kick off the second term, we hosted a second movie night along with some games! This was a ticketed event acting as our first fundraiser for the SPE Imperial student chapter.
CCS Tour – 22 January 2020
The SPE chapter arranged a visit to the carbon capture and storage (CSS) pilot laboratory within the chemical engineering department at Imperial College London. This is the UK’s largest facility of its kind.
The pilot facility focuses on the separation of carbon dioxide gas from other gasses produced as emissions from industrial processes. The aim is to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of this separation technique to make CCS more economically viable allowing it to be upscaled.
This tour raises the concern of carbon dioxide on environment and enlightens the cutting-edge technology in industry. Although the target of zero carbon emission cannot be achieved completely by CSS, it is an effective and economic way to reduce carbon.
Energy for Me visit to Primary School – 29 January 2020
The Society of Petroleum Engineers, Imperial College Student Chapter conducted an Energy for Me program on Wednesday, 29 January 2020 at Hallfield.
A group of 11 Masters students comprising the society’s committee members and volunteers visited the school to enlighten the years 4, 5 and 6 Key Stage 2 pupils about sustainable energy, the role of petroleum in the global energy mix, and the challenges for meeting global energy demand in efficient ways and with significantly reduced emissions.Primary School, Bayswater, London.
A presentation was delivered to the kids, who all displayed keen enthusiasm and participation. This was embedded with demonstrations to highlight reservoirs storage of oil and gas using a simple kitchen sponge; the process of drilling, and producing petroleum using soda and straws; and a simple analysis showing the impact the differences in reservoir depth and viscosity between fluids can have on production, using syrup, olive oil, and soda.
Additionally, the kids participated in exciting group activities and quizzes, and learned about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers.
Overall, the visit was an interactive exercise, with the kids asking intelligent questions about science and energy and working in teams to solve the various exercises and games presented.
The Society of Petroleum Engineers has always been committed to educating the leaders of tomorrow through its ‘Energy-for-Me’ program, and at the core of the Imperial College chapter, we believe that every interaction is an opportunity to make a positive impact on others, and it was great to inspire and enlighten the future generation about solving the world’s energy challenges.
Thanks to the SPE Imperial College committee members and volunteers; and the pupils, teachers and management of Hallfield Primary School.
SPE New Year Dinner – 29 January
Our second social event of the new year was an evening dinner in Notting Hill, London. 
Equinor Technical Presentation – 4 February 2020
We were joined by Hannah Mary Goodland from Equinor. Having completed the petroleum masters here at Imperial, she went on to become a geologist for Statoil. In 2017, she transitioned into the new energy solutions business sector and now works as a principle consultant in asset management at Equinor.
The transition to more sustainable energy solutions has become an imperative global objective, and Hannah shared insights into her experience while transitioning from her role in the subsurface development of a giant UK oilfield to now working as an operational asset manager developing new offshore wind projects internationally with Equinor.
This event was in collaboration with the Imperial College EAGE and AAPG student chapters.
Fundraising Bake Sale – 11 February 2020
We set up a pitch during our local farmers market to sell an array of baked treats as part of our fundraising efforts for the society. The bake sale was a huge success with high praises for out committees homemade baked brownies and cupcakes from customers.
IHS Markit Technical Lecture Series – 12 February 2020
Layla Mahmood, a technical sales engineer for IHS Markit presented two lectures as part of an afternoon lecture series. Rate Transient Analysis or RTA helps you get the most value from your production data. It utilizes both rates and flowing pressure data to determine key reservoir properties such as permeability, skin, drainage area and fracture half length, using some great tools such as Type curves and Flowing Material Balance, and all without having to shut in the well. We will take a look at some of these RTA tools for both oil and gas, while also delving deeper into some of the corrections required when analysing gas wells.
This was an informal lecture session as questions and conversations regarding the content were encouraged throughout the lecture.
Thank you to those that attended and for your participation!
Diversity and Inclusion; The SPE and International Women’s Day
SPE Imperial College London chapter celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020 on 4 March by organising a forum towards encouraging females to undertake leadership roles as students and in their careers.
The SPE Women Leadership Symposium had 58 people in attendance and commenced with a keynote address delivered by Professor Ann Muggeridge, the Chair in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College. She was thereafter joined for a panel session by Axelle Brière and Elizaveta Poliokova, who are Head of Human Resources, Tax & Contracts and Reservoir Engineer at Trident Energy Management Limited respectively.
Overall, there was positive feedback from the audience, who participated ardently in the panel session, won freebies during a fun trivia game and received goody bags, thanks to the event sponsor: Trident Energy Management Limited.