SPE International Oilfield Scale Conference and Exhibition

On behalf of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Programme Committee, it gives me great pleasure to welcome all delegates to the SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Oilfield Scale now in its twelfth year. I would also like to acknowledge all authors who submitted proposals to the conference. There was, yet again, a record number of abstracts submitted which made selection of papers and posters particularly challenging and led to a rich and exciting programme of presentations. To the authors and presenters I wish to extend my congratulations and gratitude for helping make this event a success. The overarching themes for this year’s conference are the oil and gas production growth megatrends. Scale continues to be a significant worldwide challenge for oilfield production and process systems. Pressure, temperature, and salinity boundaries continue to be extended as the industry develops reserves under more challenging conditions. Deepwater production and subsea fields are key growth trends in the industry and a new type of scale management has accompanied the boom in production from shale. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes have presented their own unique scaling issues. All of these new challenges have resulted in the industry having to evolve and diversify rapidly. Operators, service companies, and academia continue to respond with innovative and cost-effective solutions. This conference brings together a great depth of subject matter experts to share experience and knowledge on these challenges and solutions.