Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's

I didn't have classes this weekend (thankfully) so I was able to fly up to Colorado for a 31-hour visit to celebrate Valentine's day early with Brianna. We had a "fancy date" - dressed to the nines, dinner at a nice restaurant followed by the symphony.


(I had a really great time)

Monday, February 7, 2011

Production Technology and Solutions

I am in Houston for the next four weeks for my third technical course with Schlumberger: "Production Technology and Solutions." Per the course description: 
The Production Technology School is designed to give petroleum engineers a very strong introduction to the Schlumberger Production Optimization workflows and software applications required to successfully identify enhancement opportunities and determine the optimal solution, from a client point of view, to enhance under-performing wells, taking risk and economics into account. The course does not detail all aspects of production technology but rather provides very practical bases in the key areas of candidate recognition and single well performance analysis and optimization. It is the intention, that for detailed design of solutions (detailed frac design and pumping sequences for instance), the production engineer will work with the appropriate segments’ engineers, or will attend further detailed advanced training or Cross-training.
The drive over from Midland was pretty smooth. Eight hours of actual driving time. Gotta love the 80 mph speed limit in most of West Texas. I'm staying at the Doubletree, about a mile away from the Schlumberger office. It's definitely a nice hotel suite, with a kitchen, sitting area and bedroom, but I suspect I'll be tired of it after four weeks.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Unrest in Egypt

Absolutely crazy. I was there a few months ago.

Egyptian special forces secure the main floor inside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on Monday, Jan. 31. Would-be looters broke into the famed museum on Saturday ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging some artifacts before being caught and detained by army soldiers, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said the prized collection is secure from thieves and under military guard. (Tara Todras-Whitehill/Associated Press)#
More photos from Egypt (via the Boston Globe).