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Imperial College London SPE Student Chapter field trip

By Hamza Shaikh, Student Chapter President and Sean Peyton, Student Chapter Treasurer

Imperial College London SPE Student Chapter field trip By Hamza Shaikh, Student Chapter President and Sean Peyton, Student Chapter Treasurer At the end of 2011, as Europe was still struggling through the current economic crisis, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was removed from the list of Developing Countries by the OECD. We were two of 40 SPE Student Chapter members from Imperial College London who were fortunate enough to visit the Republic, in May, to discover first-hand the magnitude of this development.

Having just completed the highly-intense MSc taught course and finished our final exams (with only the thesis to follow), we arrived in the beautiful city of Port of Spain. Next day, at the Petrotrin Learning Centre, Deonarine Jaggernauth (Reservoir Engineering Manager, Petrotrin), provided an overview of the company’s complex organisational past and the history of petroleum in Trinidad and Tobago, which links back to the Pitch Lake discovery. This was followed by a drive-through tour of the Point-à-Pierre Refinery and a visit to the Pointe-à-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust - a non-government organisation dedicated to environmental education and the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl. We were fortunate to be welcomed there by Khalid Hossanali (President, Petrotrin), who described his journey from university to his current post. We then had a fascinating guided tour of the grounds, which included a number of nature-inspired life lessons.

Next morning, following a safety briefing, we visited two offshore production platforms at the Trinmar base. This was a great experience, as we could see live production of hydrocarbons and witness the separation processing facilities at first hand - something we had been studying only a few short days before! One of the key learnings from this experience was the importance of safety in the oil industry, which is maintained not only in the field but in the office as well. Back on dry land, we visited the University of Trinidad and Tobago campus, in San Fernando, where we met with the University SPE representatives. The evening allowed all of us from Imperial College to meet our future industry colleagues from Trinidad in an informal setting, and to learn of UTT’s Petroleum/ Reservoir Engineering programmes and the current SPE activities in Trinidad. Our next stop was the Petrotrin Beach Camp, where we were treated to a drive-by tour of some Petrotrin onshore facilities - including steam flooding and water injection. That was our third and last day with Petrotrin, who really were fantastic and generous hosts throughout. Then it was on to visit our next host, Schlumberger, where Regional General Manager Marr Bryan gave us an overview of the company, which was followed by presentations on some of the service lines, including Drilling and Measurements, Schlumberger Information Solutions, Data and Consulting Services, WesternGeco and Wire Line. During our tour of the base we learned about the equipment run downhole, thousands of feet subsurface, and seeing it up close excellently complemented our classroom theory.

Next stop: Pitch Lake, the world’s largest natural bitumen/asphalt seep deposit, located in southwest Trinidad, in the village of La Brea. It consists of black and viscous liquid asphalt with a semisolid surface, which we could walk on - but we learned from our guide that it’s possible to slowly sink if you stand on the surface too long!

Our final day in Trinidad was spent with Tucker Energy Services. Half of us went to the Wireline facility, in Otaheite, and the other half to the week in (highlyindustrial) Trinidad, we then hopped on the ferry and sailed to beautiful Tobago. Here we spent a couple of days relaxing, exploring the picturesque island and meeting some lovely local people. Some of us went scuba diving and snorkelling, enjoyed water sports, deep-sea fishing and kayaking, and even jumped (safely) from a waterfall!

The trip was an overwhelming success and on behalf of the entire SPE Imperial College student body we can say that the visit really did succeed in strengthening our classroom knowledge through first-hand experience of how the petroleum industry works. We are most grateful both to our hosts - Petrotrin, Schlumberger, Tucker Energy Services and the University of Trinidad and Tobago - and to our sponsors, Royal Dutch Shell, Hess Corporation, BP, Total S.A., OPC, Challenge Energy, iPoint LLC and SPE London, for their generosity in making the trip so successful.

Special thanks also to Meredith Chu Cheong for accommodating us in the splendid hotel, and to our coach drivers, Bas and Frankie, who were full of joy and made our journeys entertaining!