Society of Oxford University Engineers

The alumni society for Oxford engineering graduates

August 2003: Jenkin Day 2003 Invitation

S.O.U.E. Jenkin Day 2003

Our Annual Meeting this year will be on Saturday 18 October, with a lecture at noon, followed by lunch. The change from a Friday evening lecture, followed by a dinner, is experimental, and was foreshadowed at the AGM last year.

The Jenkin Lecturer this year is Paul Martins, Pembroke 1972-5, and now with BP. His title is:

Oil Production: from Nitroglycerine to Fibre-optics

After reading Engineering Science at Pembroke, Paul Martins spent three years as a Civil Engineer with Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, and then did a Ph.D. in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College. He moved to BP in 1982, where he spent eight years working on the hydraulic fracturing of oil-bearing rocks, to accelerate their yield. He subsequently held key positions in the Prudhoe Bay oil-field in Alaska and in the Magnus field in the North Sea. He is now BP's company-wide 'Head of Discipline' for Wells. He has won many prizes for his work, culminating in the Royal Academy of Engineering's highly prestigious MacRobert Award in 1992, for the development of hydraulic fracturing technology. His synopsis of his lecture reads: I will provide a brief overview of the 'subsurface' technologies that have transformed the 'Oil' industry over the past few years, with a particular focus on the engineering of wells. As the industry seeks to develop fields in very deep water (> 1500 metres), the costs (individual wells can cost up to $50 million), risks, and the rapid expansion of computer processing power, are causing us to re-think our approach to field management. I will briefly discuss my Company's view of the 'Field of the Future'.


The day's timetable is:

1045-1115 : Coffee in the Thom Building foyer

1115 : Annual General Meeting in Lecture Room 1
a) Head of Department's Report
b) Secretary's Report
c) Treasurer's Report
d) Membership of the Committee (there are several vacancies - any proposals should be made to the Secretary before the meeting)
e) Any other business

1200 : Sixteenth Jenkin Lecture (as above) in Lecture Room 1

1330 : Buffet lunch at St. Anne's (only a few minutes' walk from the Thom Building)

Lunch will cost £18, and there will be a cash bar.

Parking. There is an underground car-park at Gloucester Green. On-street parking in central Oxford is mostly metered and limited to 2 hours or less, but there are areas north from Norham Gardens where on Saturdays there is a 3-hour limit up to 1 pm and thereafter it is unregulated. Parking in Bardwell Road (½ mile up the Banbury Road from the Department) and northwards is largely unregulated. But we also recommend the Park-and-Ride (60p to park + £1.70 return for the bus). Buses go from the Park-and-Ride car-parks at Pear-Tree and Water-Eaton (on the Woodstock and Banbury Roads respectively, about ½-1 mile north of the A40 by-pass), every 10 minutes or less, and stop close to the Department. There are also services from the south, east and west.

Please complete the cut-off slip below if you are coming (and certainly if you would like lunch!) and return to: Nikki Johnson
Department of Engineering Science
Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3PJ

Peter Lund, Secretary
23 August 2003


Reply slip (please delete as appropriate)

I will/will not be attending the Jenkin meeting on 18 October 2003

I will be bringing ...... guests

I would like to book ...... places for lunch at St. Anne's, and enclose a cheque for £...... (£18 per head), payable to the SOUE.

Name :

College :

Years at Oxford :