FIELD SESSIONS
PEGN 315 — California, led by Dr. Linda Battalora
Thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of our many alumni and friends, the 2019 PEGN 315 California Field Ses- sion was a great success. Myself, Mark Miller, Kayla Boster, three teaching assistants (Dan Croce, Kirt McKenna, and Ayush Rastogi) and 32 students enjoyed an action-packed session in Southern California.
Our first field tour was hosted by Aera Energy in Bakersfield. Mines alums Peter Ashton, Nick Clausnitzer, Matt Er- bes, Laura Lunsford, Linda Mohammad, Christine Moran, Max Moran, and Tanner Ottaway hosted us for breakfast, a tour of field operations, vendor services, and lunch. We also enjoyed a presentation by AERA’s Belridge Vice Presi- dent of Operations, Jeff Dittman. Thank you AERA and PE alums for providing an informative and exciting first day in the field!
California Resources Corporation (CRC) and Mines alum Jeff Quintana arranged our second day in the field. Our day began with a safety meeting and presentation on the history and operations at Elk Hills followed by a compre- hensive site tour including the Consolidated Control Facility. We traveled to the West Kern Oil Museum in Taft for a delicious BBQ lunch hosted by Fred Holmes ( Holmes Western Oil Corporation ), with assistance by Josh Yurkanin (PE alum). During lunch, Joe Nahama (PE alum, President of PetroRock ) provided thought provoking career advice including a rap song performance based on the Broadway musical, Hamilton . After lunch, we drove to Paso Robles for a tour of Scientific Drilling International’s (SDI) Applied Technology Center, where all manufacturing, research and development are performed for MWD/LWD tools, Gyro surveying tools, and Cased Hole Services Tools. This
tour was led by Carl Healy MS ‘21 and Austin Pile
(PE Alum). Many thanks to Jeff, Fred, Josh, Joe,
Carl and Austin for a memorable second day in
the field.
Miller Newlon, Aera Production/Process Reli- ability Engineer and PE alum, coordinated an educational and interactive third day tour at AERA’s San Ardo Field. The students enjoyed learning about production problems, solutions to the problems, and fishing tools. A “food truck” lunch was enjoyed by all. We are very appreciative of Miller’s time and effort to lead this field tour. We also thank AERA for their sup- port (Belridge Field and San Ardo Field tours) throughout the field session.
The group enjoyed their coastal geology field trip.
22 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
What’s a more California experience
than playing beach volleyball?