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Letter from the Chair. . .Vivian K. Bust We were honored to have the 2001 SPE President-elect Bruce E. Bernard speak at the February Forum luncheon and meet with the Section Board Members. We discussed the Sections efforts to provide more value to our members and their companies through the community outreach, scholarship programs and technical meetings. Bernard stressed that the changing needs and goals of the SPE membership are being driven by globalization of the society. SPE's 50,000 members are currently split at 50% domestic and 50% international. As a task force member, Bernard is analyzing the benefits of integration of the SPE with other professional societies. One goal of society integration would be to create efficiencies such as sharing costs for administrative, convention, web site or other services. Society integration would not mean merging with other professional societies. Bernard indicated that world-wide, there are now even higher expectations for the engineers and companies, and that the petroleum industry must create a workable partnership with the communities it operates in. Profitability will be based on the company's ability to handle a triple bottom-line encompassing business, social-community and environmental issues. The 2000 Western Regional Meeting, scheduled for June 19-22, 2000, will be held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Long Beach and will be the first-ever joint AAPG/SPE regional convention. The technical program can be viewed on our website at www.laspe.org. Our Section is excited about hosting this joint society convention. We need volunteers. To join us, please contact Glenn Swanson at (310) 979-4777 ext. 11 or gswanson@dukeengineering.com. To sign-up for Exhibit space, call Linda Smith at (310) 395-0185. continued at top of next column |
Remember, sign-up for our SPE Charity Golf Classic to be held on Friday June 23, 2000. Monies from this event are used to sponsor the Section's scholarship and community outreach programs. Because of industry popularity, the golf tournament is expected to sellout by the end of April. To reserve space, become a corporate sponsor or donate prizes, please contact Tim Liggett at (562) 981-6363 ext. 117 or at tim_liggett@wmiswest.com. Marriot Hotel, Long Beach Airport Wednesday, March 1st, 7:00 - 8:30 am Long Beach Petroleum Club Wednesday, March 22nd , 11:30 am West Coast Workshop Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys March 1 - 3, 2000 Anchorage, Alaska
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Petroleum Technology Forum John Thompson Chairman Gas Co. (562) 578-2641 LUNCHEON FORUM SPEAKER: Dr. Thomas C. Boberg TOPIC: "Status of Thermal Methods" Abstract: Thermal projects are primarily cyclic steam stimulation of steam drive. Because of cost and control difficulties in-situ combustion is practiced only on a much smaller scale. Despite difficult economics brought about by current low oil prices, steam projects are continuing a produce over 1 million barrels per day in the western hemisphere. This talk will deal specifically with key projects in the United States, Canada and Venezuela, which have most of the thermal projects. In the U.S. both steam simulation and steamflood operations are conducted primarily in heavy oil fields in California. The differences between these processes will be discussed. Project histories of a major steamflood and a large steam stimulation project will be presented. The total U.S. steam project production will be presented as a function of time. Canada has developed two steam processes to extract the high
viscosity oils present in large quantity in tar sand fields such
as Athabasca and Cold Lake. Imperial has the largest steam project
in Canada and Cold Lake. At Athabasca a consortium of companies
is testing the SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) process. continued at top of next column |
Other noteworthy thermal operations such as those in China (Liahoe) and in Indonesia (Duri) will also be discussed. Biography: Dr. Thomas C. Boberg spent 18 of his 33 years with Exxon engaged in research and simulation of heavy oil reservoirs in Canada, the U.S. and Venezuela. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1959 from the University of Michigan, he joined Exxon and made calculations that led to Exonn's first test of cyclic steam stimulation in Venezuela in 1961. He led the initial research team for Cold Lake, were in-situ oil viscosity is about 100,000 cP. He also led teams that made simulator predictions for several Venezuelan reservoirs and for Cold Lake. After leaving Exxon, Boberg has consulted on various U.S. and Venezuelan thermal projects. From 1972 to 1992, he taught an SPE short course on thermal recovery.
Mei Chang Memorial Scholarship Scholarship recipients must meet the following requirements: * High school senior entering college in the fall of 2000. The candidates will be evaluated on their scholastic achievement,
citizenship and community volunteer work. Preference will be
given to those students who are children or relatives of an SPE
member. Applications can be downloaded from the LA SPE web site
at www.laspe.org.
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Annual SPE BBQ & Easter Egg Hunt For tickets contact Jeff Blesener @DOP (562) 570-3905, Mike McCarter @ Thums (562) 624-3247, or Ed Santiago @ DOG (714) 816-6947. This year at the MEMBERSHIP DRIVE BBQ, we are offering a "Get-a-Member, Get-a-T-Shirt program". When you are successful in recruiting a new member to SPE, you will receive a L.A. Basin Section T-Shirt. If you successfully recruit more than one new member, then you will receive a T-Shirt for each. Plan on giving these to your co-workers, friends and family, clients, and kids. The proceeds from the annual BBQ are used to sponsor an EASTER EGG HUNT for over 150 kindergartners. They attend Long Beach International Elementary School which is located in a neighborhood with oilfield operations. The EASTER EGG HUNT will happen at DRAKE PARK in Long Beach the next morning on APRIL 20th at 9:00 am sharp. Arrive early to enjoy the kids having fun finding brightly colored EASTER EGGS filled with wrapped chocolate candies. Remember, it takes the kids less than a minute to FIND the eggs. Each child has their picture taken with the EASTER BUNNY. For further information, please call Ed Santiago at 714-816-6847.
SPE Western Regional Meeting Update Glenn Swanson, WRM Chairman |
Sponsorship of an FSEA Chapter Founded by George Westrom of Odetics, Inc., with the support of the Orange County Engineering Council, FSEA is now a national after-school program that promotes technology, science and engineering in Grades 4-12. For further information, please visit www.OCEC.org.
continued in Section 4 below..... Don't miss the computer tips! |
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USE STARTUP DISK TO REINSTALL In our last tip, we pointed out that the Windows 98 startup disk includes real-mode CD-ROM drivers (so that you can access your CD-ROM drive from a command prompt). To create a startup disk, open the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, select the Startup Disk tab, click the Create Disk button, and so on. Now the question is, how do you use the startup disk to access your CD-ROM drive? Let's assume you can't start Windows 98, and you've decided you want to reinstall it using the installation CD. Turn the system off. and with the startup disk in your floppy drive, turn it back on. In the list of startup options, select Start Computer With CD-ROM Support, then press Enter. When the A:\ prompt appears, insert the Windows 98 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive and type X:\setup where X is your CD-ROM drive plus one letter (in most cases--see the next tip for details). For example, our drive is E, so we would type F:\setup at the A:\ prompt. Press Enter, and the Windows 98 setup will begin. For our third and final tip in this series, we'll explain why your CD-ROM drive letter typically changes when you use the Windows 98 startup disk.
WHY THE STARTUP DISK CHANGES YOUR In our last tip, we showed you how to use the Windows 98 startup disk to reinstall Windows 98 (via CD) from the command prompt: Turn the system off'; pop the startup disk in your floppy drive; turn the system back on; select Start Computer With CD-ROM Support; press Enter; when the A:\ prompt appears, insert the Windows 98 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive and type X:\setup where X is your CD-ROM drive plus one letter (in most cases); and press Enter. Wondering why your CD-ROM drive letter usually changes? After you choose a startup option, config.sys loads a 2MB RAMDrive that contains a number of tools useful in diagnosing common problems. In most cases, this drive assumes your CD-ROM drive's letter. (Note: To confirm the letter used to represent this RAMDrive, watch the screen during the boot process.) (Tip: To view the contents of the RAMDrive, at the command prompt, type dirX: where X is, in most cases, the former letter of your CD-ROM drive; then press Enter.)
SAVED BY THE SCANREG, 6/25/99 PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we told you that a utility called ScanReg backs up your Registry every time you start Windows 98. We also mentioned that this utility only saves the five most recent backups. Want to increase this number--for example, to keep ten recent backups around? Just make a simple change to the Scanreg.ini file. In an Explorer window, open the Windows folder and double-click Scanreg.ini to open this file in Notepad. Replace the 5 in the line MaxBackupCopies 5 with any number from 1 to 99--in this case, 10--save your changes, and then close the Notepad window. From now on, restarting in MS-DOS mode, typing Scanreg/restore and pressing Enter presents you with the five OLDEST backups of those saved. (Tip-in-a-tip: To get to the newer ones, either move the older ones to another folder--by default, they're stored in Windows\Sysbckup and are numbered rb000.cab, rb001 .cab,...--or delete them.)
SAVED BY THE SCANREG, 6/24/99 PART 1 OF 2 Did you know there's a utility called ScanReg that backs up your Windows 98 Registry every time you boot Windows 98 successfully? That means if you ever make a mess of your Registry while editing it (and you didn't back it up first--tsk, tsk), you can still go back. Select Start, Shut Down; select Restart in MS-DOS Mode; and click OK. At the DOS prompt, type Scanreg/restore and press Enter. Select one of the five backups (probably the most recent), press R for Restore, and assuming you get the "Good Registry" seal of approval, press R for Restart. (By default, ScanReg saves only the five most recent Registry
backups. In our next tip, we'll show you how to increase this
number.) L. Twichell writes, "Back in November, you gave a list of keyboard commands using the Windows key. Is there a listing of all keyboard commands for Windows 98?" Microsoft has compiled a fairly extensive listing of Windows 95/98 keyboard shortcuts in their Knowledge Base. Rather than list them all here, we'll just point you to the correct URL: http ://support.microsoft. com/support/kb/articles/q126/4/49.asp W. Klosinski writes, "Whenever I start my computer, Scheduled You can turn off Scheduled Tasks entirely using one quick (To turn Scheduled Tasks back on, follow the steps above,
but Wish you could see file attributes right next to each file, as you could back in the days of Windows 3.x? You can, as long as you have the window in which you're viewing the files set to Details view. Open any Explorer window and select View, Folder Options. Click the View tab and in the list under Advanced settings, select Show File Attributes In Detail View. Click OK. The next time you open a folder in Details view, you'll see a brand new Attributes column on the far right. (You may need to widen the window to see it.) What's more, if you're viewing the folder as a Web page (select View, As Web Page), you'll see the attributes for any selected file on the left side of the window.
WEB, CLASSIC, OR In our last tip, we showed you an easy way to switch between single- and double-click icons: Open an Explorer window; select View, Folder Options; and select Web style (for single-click icons) or Classic style. We also pointed out that there are other settings that go along with the Web style or Classic style desktop. For example, choosing Web style places an underline under each icon title. If you want to combine settings from both of these desktop styles, select the third option under Windows Desktop Update, Custom, Based On The Settings You Choose; then click the Settings button. You'll now see the Custom Settings dialog box, where you can pick and choose your settings. For example, if you've selected the Web style desktop, but don't want all your icon titles underlined, select Underline Titles Only When I Point At Them. Select any other settings, as desired, click OK, then click Close.
THERE'S MORE TO CALCULATOR When you need to do some fancy calculations, do you write off the Windows 98 Calculator in favor of a more advanced method (like that old pocket model in your desk drawer)? Actually, Calculator packs a lot more punch than you'd think. Open Calculator--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Calculator--and select View, Scientific. Whoa!
BRIEFCASE HELPS WITH Reader J. Emler writes: "I don't think Windows Briefcase gets the attention it deserves, so I would like to share my use for it. I have a CD rewriter that I use to back up data files. I use Briefcase to make sure the files are kept up to date. "Every directory that I want to back up to CD has a duplicate copy in a briefcase on a rewritable CD (that I leave in the drive). I have shortcuts to each briefcase in a desktop folder. At the end of the day, I open the folder and double-click each shortcut. The corresponding briefcase opens up and tells me if it needs updating. Very handy! I never have to worry about whether or not I remembered to back up a data file." Good idea! Thanks for sharing, J!
STOPPING STARTUP PROGRAMS 08/11/99 Is there a program that starts whenever Windows starts--one that drives you crazy because you don't need it, but can't figure out how to turn it off (such as AOL Instant Messenger)? The Windows 98 System Configuration Utility allows you to turn off any auto-start program with the click of a check box. Select Start, Run. Then type msconfig and click OK. In the resulting System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the Startup tab to display a list of all programs that start whenever Windows 98 starts. Deselect the one that's been bugging you (making certain you know which one it is), then click OK. The next time you start Windows, that program is nowhere to be found.
PLUS! 98: PICTURE IT! Do you like to send people scanned photos (or photos developed on disk) via e-mail? Before sending them off. touch them up a bit with Picture It! Express. For example, you can do things like crop a picture into a heart shape, soften its edges, and remove red eye. To open a picture in Picture It! Express, select Start, Programs, Microsoft Plus! 98, Picture It! Express. Click Get Picture, and in step 1, click the down arrow and navigate your way to the folder that contains the picture you want to use. Previews of all pictures inside that folder will appear. Drag one or more pictures down to the filmstrip, click Done, then double-click any picture (in the filmstrip) to display it on screen. >From there, just use the buttons under Workbench to edit your picture as desired. When you're done, click Save, Print & Send, and select an option.
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