Professional societies supply a forum for like-minded individuals in which an exchange of ideas and information can take place. Joining a professional society, such as the SPWLA-India Chapter , is beneficial for engineers, geologists, and other professionals throughout their entire careers.

Besides keeping up with emerging technology, professional societies offer members the opportunity to establish contacts with other operating and service companies with whom they can share experiences and seek advice, not to mention building friendships with people who share common goals, concerns, and perspectives. Professional societies contain a veritable wealth of information available through conferences, meetings, online, publications, and presentations. Members may also publish papers to establish individual reputation and to stimulate discussion on topics of importance to the industry. Bottom line, professional societies allows members to excel in their performance and optimize profits for their employers and clients making membership a win-win situation for everyone.

History

SPWLA India, formerly known as Joseph Koithara Well Logging Society (JKWLS) was established in 1987 at Dehradun as India chapter of SPWLA. The objective of this society was to provide a platform to the fellow petrophysicists and log analysts to share their knowledge and experience and also to keep pace with the rapid technological growth in the field of well logging. The society, in its first major event, organized a conference named “30 Years of Well Logging” at Dehradun in 1990. A number of lectures were also organized at Dehradun to meet the objectives of the society. A newsletter ‘Sanlekh’ was started in 1997 with an aim to share the activities of the society with other work centers.

 The society, however, could not sustain for long, possibly because Dehradun was not the main centre of E&P activities and only a few people were involved in the core activities of the society. Therefore, in order to reactivate the society it was decided in 2005 to shift the central activities of the society to Mumbai which by then had become a major centre of E&P activities with a number of Indian and Global players choosing to establish their offices here. The redevelopment plan of Mumbai High and the onset of exploration activities in Deep Waters resulted in the deployment of new generation logging tools in a big way. This further pushed up the revival plan of the society with an aim to fill up the gap due to technological leap. The petrophysicists started feeling the need of a common platform wherein they can share their experiences and difficulties with their peers and also with their counterparts in other oil and service companies.

With this aim in mind, a new executive body with members from different companies was constituted in August, 2005 to revive the activities of the society and the first meet of the resuscitated society happened on 9^th August, 2005, which also witnessed a technology talk on production and recovery efficiencies by an industry expert. Since then there has been no looking back and the society has grown from strength to strength. The society arranges technical presentations on relevant topics by the industry experts once in three months. The society also conducts regular meetings of the executive committees in order to review its progress in achieving its objectives. All these presentations and meetings are then followed by a newsletter, which are sent to all the members by email. Recently, the society inaugurated its first newsletter in print form.

Although the main activity of the society is in Mumbai, the lectures and talks from industry experts are arranged in other work centers as well keeping in view the interest of members from these centers. The society has 250 registered members as on date from different E&P and service companies operating in India. There is also a sizeable number of student participation.

Profile Building at the Local, National and International Level

Participation in professional societies is important because of the profile that it creates for people. Publishing papers, participation at local society meetings, and making presentations help to reinforce and validate the quality of geoscientists.

Sharing Knowledge and Education

The primary purpose of SPWLA-India Chapter is to , is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among professionals in various aspects of formation evaluation, exploration, and production of hydrocarbons. This can be done through papers and presentations organized at regular meetings of SPWLA-India Chapter.

SPWLA-India Chapter firmly believes that  the main purpose and function of a professional society is the continuing education of it members. These societies are the mechanism to bridge the academic knowledge gained in a university to the applied as well as academic aspects of science and engineering. For the scientist and engineer, universities develop the tools necessary for each career path. Professional societies are designed to maintain the skill level and also to develop the knowledge of how to apply these skills.

 
In a Nut shell

" This industry is first and foremost about people, not the assets and reserves which they convert to products. Professional societies have broadened the perspective and enables to meet  many people. This network, over 30 years, has turned out to be the most valuable one. "