JUNE 1998 BROADSHEET - Visit to Schlumberger Research
Our visit to Schlumberger on 21st May was absolutely fascinating. To many the Big Top pitched in the corner of Madingly Road and the M11 is just a spectre which shines for miles in the gloaming. A Scot heads this French conglomerate which operates wherever oil is drilled and has English as its corporate language, even in France. We discovered that it also has several spin-offs involving measurement, petrol pumps, water meters, smartcards and their own brand of intranet.
Training Manager Bruce Christie welcomed us with a sumptuous buffet, which was followed by a talk by Art Bonnet, Marketing Manager. Cambridge is one of three Research Centres, the other two being in the States. Here work is concentrated on fluid flow problems associated with oil drilling and the mechanical stability of rock. The advantage of proximity to the University was well illustrated when Art had to dash off to King's College to entertain some Russian customers. He left us with Gary Oddy and Alex Alexander who demonstrated three phase flow and virtual reality respectively. The latter was mind boggling - crawling around inside a giant molecule whilst navigating with a 3D mouse. Seriously, although an exorbitantly expensive piece of kit, when loaded with the appropriate geological surveys, a team of experts can explore the caverns and rock faults of a potential oilfield and in five hours come to better decisions about where and how to drill than the same team would achieve by conventional means in a month.
Anyone at Schlumberger can be contacted on 01223 325200; Fax 311830 or e-mail: reception@cambridge.scr.slb.com
Very many thanks to all those who returned the Questionnaire for 1998/99. The response was tremendous and your committee had plenty of material with which to hammer out a tentative programme. We hope to gel this in the next few weeks, but in the meantime I can tell you that requests for visits topped the list so we are aiming to increase their number and try to combine subject talks with them too.
We would like ideas for the Garden Party at Trinity Hall on 23rd July. Do you think it ought to be a celebration of the year with all our speakers and sponsors as the club's guests? There may be others who have helped the club or individual members whom we would like to thank, and this could be a way of doing it. If you have any thoughts on this please e-mail me either direct or by using the form below. Names you have to suggest together with their addresses and telephone numbers will be most welcome.
Sorry about the corny month title, they were are on a freeby disk. In May it was opening and closing flowers and for those who missed it there's an opportunity of seeing it again; - just click here - May Broadsheet
The Club is very fortunate in benefiting from the sponsorship of the following organisations:-
There are also other companies who give us generous help with specific meetings and services.
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