First Lunch Meeting -- Swimming Upstream:

“Flow Assurance addresses the petroleum extraction process from the reservoir sandface to surface process facilities and beyond."

Issues in this focus area include key aspects of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, oil field chemistry, and process instrumentation and control.  It is important that we can predict fluid pressure and temperature as a function of reservoir behavior over field life, the performance of energy boosting methods and means of reducing pressure and temperature losses.  We need to manage corrosion, erosion, wax deposition, scale deposition, and hydrate formation.  The effect of unsteady flow on the stability of process controls and equipment continues to limit the operating range of subsea systems.” (OTC-18381, Flow Assurance Field Solutions (Keynote) Norman D. McMullen/BP America, Inc., 2006).

This is all fine, but just how does one acquire the necessary breadth and depth in such a broad scope of skills?  And what about the “Big Crew Change”?  Is it already too late to learn from “the great masters” who have done so and are now leaving the oil industry?  What steps might one take to move into this career path that is so highly valued by the oil industry?  What kind of formal training should one possess? Is this a rewarding career path?

By drawing on a number of stories about projects and events in his 40-year career, Norm McMullen will address some of these concerns.