Reader Feedback

Every year, JPT surveys its readership to help determine future coverage and to ensure that it is fulfilling its mission.

Every year, JPT surveys its readership to help determine future coverage and to ensure that it is fulfilling its mission. Along with other important SPE programs such as meetings, workshops, training programs, and other services, one of JPT’s major roles is to help SPE provide high-quality technical information to members and to the industry at large.

The emailed survey was sent to a representative sample that took into account the respondent’s company type, geographical location, age, and industry experience. A little more than a third of respondents classified themselves as engineers, with the next highest category managers at 20%. Approximately 42% of respondents reside in North America and 59% of them reported having at least 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.

Looking at the survey results, three-fourths of survey respondents rate JPT as “very good” or “excellent,” in line with survey findings of the past 2 years, and 96% of respondents ranked it as good to excellent. Of the various standing features in each issue of the magazine, the most read were Technology Update, articles describing how new technologies are being used in the field; summaries of selected SPE technical papers spanning 47 technical categories over the course of the year; staff-written feature articles about emerging technologies; and Technology Applications, short articles about newly commercialized technologies.

The synopses of technical papers presented at SPE conferences are selected by the 48-person JPT Editorial Committee as the best or most interesting in that particular category. The technical categories that attract the most reader interest are hydraulic fracturing, unconventional resources, reservoir performance and modeling, and field development projects. Also ranking high were mature fields and well revitalization, production operations, high-pressure/high-temperature challenges, completions, and horizontal and complex-trajectory wells.

Other Findings

Compared with other magazines serving the E&P industry, 80% of survey respondents rank JPT better or significantly better, slightly higher than the response to the same question in the 2013 survey. Although several respondents complained about the number of advertising pages in the magazine, others said they ranked JPT higher than other publications because it is less commercial and contains better and more reliable industry content. Other readers noted JPT’s relationship with SPE as the reason they consider the magazine more trustworthy and industry-relevant.

Among other findings in the survey: 90% of respondents find JPT somewhat or very useful to them in their jobs, and JPT is most read in print compared with other publishing platforms. Internet access ranks second, followed by tablet and smartphone app. JPT’s Editorial Committee and SPE staff will use the information in the survey to further improve the magazine and to ensure that it remains useful and relevant to its readers.