It probably comes as no surprise to learn that we think producing a world-class magazine for the upstream petroleum industry is the most important thing we do. Having accepted that fact, you may be asking, what's in second place?
That's an easy one to answer. Serving as custodians for The Meritorious Awards for Engineering Innovation (or the MEAs, as they are known around here in office shorthand) is a job we take very seriously.
With their long and illustrious history, the MEAs can legitimately claim to be the Oscars of the petroleum industry. Now in their 36th year, the MEAs were begun by our predecessor publication, Petroleum Engineer International, in 1971, and for most of that time they were the only broadly noted recognition of achievement in the industry. Since their founding, the MEAs have celebrated almost every significant engineering advance in the business.
We mention all this because, as you may suspect, the 2007 MEA call for entries and judging season is arriving shortly. As we have in the past, E&P will invite entries via advertisements and emails (and columns in this magazine).
For one reason or another, not of all the most promising candidates enter the MEAs. That is why we are introducing a few procedural changes. Because a great deal of upstream petroleum technology comes to our attention during the course of the year, it makes a lot of sense for the E&P editors to have the option of nominating candidates for MEAs that have not entered. Note that this means nominate and nothing else. The nomination process simply means making the judges aware (if they are not already) of what we think are achievements worthy of their consideration. As has been the case over the last thirty-five years, judging will be done exclusively by a well-qualified panel of independent industry experts.
The number of categories has also been reduced and simplified, and the number of awards given has been allowed to "float." We're looking for meritorious engineering achievement. If that means more than one award is given for advances in one category and none in another category where no entry scored highly enough to be considered an engineering achievement in the true spirit of the awards, then so be it. There is one qualification for entries: the product or service must be available for sale and delivery.
We're also lowering the barriers to entry, so to speak, by simplifying the entry requirements, and we are emphasizing the use of electronic files over paper. This will make the process faster, more efficient and more able accommodate a larger volume of entries. The use of electronic files containing animations, for example, will also help to increase our entrants' effectiveness in describing their engineering achievements. And finally, as always, there is no charge to enter.
In any event, we expect no shortage of candidates, if only because innovation in the upstream petroleum industry continues at a feverish pace. For a business with a reputation among some as slow adopters of new technology, a lot of new stuff is coming to market these days. You can thank the perfect storm of sustained and growing demand, more challenging reservoirs and the Great Crew Change, among other reasons.
From where we sit, the industry has never seemed reluctant to try new technology that has a realistic prospect of working, and for us it's a pleasure to celebrate the outstanding engineering achievements that we see every year. We hope you are benefiting from them.

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