The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) has recognized and honored three outstanding individuals for their contribution to the Australian oil and gas industry.
APPEA said on Wednesday that Australia’s longest-serving Minister for Resources and Energy, Ian Macfarlane , has received APPEA’s highest honor – the Reg Sprigg Medal – for outstanding service to the industry.
The APPEA Board awards the Reg Sprigg Medal, named after the APPEA’s founding Chairman, to recognize an individual’s outstanding service in promoting the Australian oil and gas industry’s objectives.
The award was announced at the APPEA 2016 Conference dinner on Tuesday evening in Brisbane by APPEA Board member and Buru Energy Executive Chairman, Eric Streitberg . He said that Macfarlane has been an energetic and effective advocate for the Australian oil and gas industry.
Streitberg said: “Ian Macfarlane has earned the respect of both sides of Parliament and of the Australian business community,”
“Ian Macfarlane played a major role in developing the positive policy environment that attracted more than $200 billion to develop a new generation of world-class Australian oil and gas projects. Because of this, Australia will soon become the world’s leading LNG exporter, and the nation will enjoy decades of export income and tax revenue.”
During its 2016 Conference, APPEA also presented a life membership to Chevron Australia’s outgoing managing director Roy Krzywosinski . He is returning to the US to assume the position of vice-president of engineering in Chevron’s Houston office.
APPEA Chairman, Bruce Lake , said that in the eight years Krzywosinski spent as head of Chevron Australia, he had contributed immensely to Australia’s oil and gas industry.
Lake said: “Under Roy’s leadership, Chevron has committed massive levels of investment in major Australian oil and gas projects,”
“Just as importantly, it has helped raise the importance of Australia’s oil and gas industry to the Australian economy.“
APPEA also presented the KA Richards Scholarship to Jon McCullough , a Ph.D. student at the University of Queensland’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. The organization further stated that McCullough’s thesis on heat transfer in hydraulic fracturing fluids is the kind of ‘groundbreaking research that will be crucial in providing reliable energy to the world over the next few decades’.
The KA Richards Scholarship is granted for Masters or Doctoral studies in Petroleum Engineering or Petroleum Geoscience.