High-Grade Technical Sessions Feature of Houston Meeting

THE meeting of the Petroleum Division at Houston, Oct. 10-12-headquarters, Rice Hotel-was preeminently a technological success. Two hundred and twenty-five attended the Thursday morning session and approximately 200 attended the sessions on Thursday and Friday afternoons and Saturday morning. Harry Power, Chairman of the Division, in his opening remarks, credited Paul Weaver and M. Albertson, respectively chairman and vice-chairman of the local committee, with working long and prodigiously in organizing the program. The theme of the initial session was indicated by Mr. Albertson in a statement relative to the estimation of developed petroleum reserves. He said that the problem of securing more accurate estimates of developed petroleum reserves existed prior to curtailment of production. With curtailment, however, the problem became an acute one. Mr. Albertson gave some of the more important reasons for this situation. Since the decline-curve method became inapplicable, the volumetric method has become the chief one used. It depends on the factors of productive formation volume, porosity, saturation, and recovery. He briefly discussed the factors necessary for application of the volumetric method. P. P. Gregory discussed the estimation of petroleum reserves in prorated lime¬stone fields (see his paper in the October