The Aberdeen section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) celebrated its half-centenary with a knees up in the Granite City’s Music Hall.
SPE chief executive Simon Seaton rounded out an evening of music, food and drink with an address to the audience.
Ahead of this, Seaton told Energy Voice: “Aberdeen is one of our biggest international sections, it’s also one of our oldest international sections. This is a tremendous milestone.
Guests in attendance at the celebration were greeted with a keynote speech from SPE Aberdeen section chair Stewart McIntosh.
The section chair talked attendees through the work his team of volunteers do to engage with the next generation of workers in the north-east.
McIntosh said: “In the 23/24 school year we reached 7,500 children, hundreds of parents, teachers careers advisors, providing relevant energy industry information to them.
“That figure is set to rise exponentially in the future with our involvement in the Educating the Next Generation project, pioneered by Energy Insider.
“We have also assisted in the creation of an energy pathway programme to further link young people to our industry.”
© Supplied by SPE Aberdeen
© Supplied by SPE Aberdeen
© Supplied by SPE Aberdeen
© Supplied by SPE AberdeenMcIntosh also shared that the section has awarded over half a million pounds in student bursaries since its inception.
Those who had previously benefited from SPE bursaries were in attendance and delivered testimonials in films shared with attendees.
The SPE CEO added: “Aberdeen people and Aberdeen products and technology impact the industry globally. It’s not just about the North Sea, the people here and the services here, you’ll find them all over the world.”
More than 200 people from across the energy sector were in attendance at the city centre celebration.
Aberdeen’s worldwide presence in energy
He also highlighted the events SPE Aberdeen hosts for industry, namely technical sessions, that provide information on “subjects important to the local energy industry and the North Sea basin.”
SPE hosts Aberdeen’s premier energy conference, Offshore Europe, every two years having celebrated 50 years of the event in 2023.
David Whitehouse, CEO of trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) was in attendance and highlighted the importance of the biannual event.
He said: “I am privileged enough to be a part of Offshore Europe 2025, that is an incredible event under the SPE banner that brings 40,000 people to visit Aberdeen and talk internationally about this brilliant sector that we work in and this brilliant evolving sector that I think has a fantastic future.”
On the closing day of Offshore Europe 2023 SPE announced that “around 30,000” people attended the event. This was the first Offshore Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The previous conference, held in 2019, was reported to 38,000 to Aberdeen’s P&J Live.
© Supplied by Kenny ElrickWith the talent in the north-east of Scotland that both attendees and SPE leaders discussed, there is a need to retain the region’s skills.
Recent reports for OEUK and other industry bodies have suggested that jobs in the industry are at risk due to an unstable political system and challenging fiscal policy.
Seaton explained: “The risk for the industry is we lose all of that talent, and we lose all of that ingenuity and we lose all of that experience.
“All of those skills that have been developed here have applications in the energy transition, whether we’re talking about geothermal, whether we’re talking about hydrogen, whether we’re talking about carbon capture or developing offshore wind facilities, the skillsets and the knowledge is really valuable we’ve got to preserve that.”
OEUK recently estimated that the UK government’s plans to raise the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas firms could cause a £13 billion hit to the UK economy and destroy 35,000 jobs.
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