In March 2004, the SPE board of directors officially approved the first SPE student chapter in Moscow/Russian Federation. SPE President-Elect for 2005, Giovanni Paccaloni had visited the Gubkin University in December 2003 together with Val Johnston-Jones, SPE Director for Europe/Russia/Caspian, Prof. Michael Economides, Prof. Ronald Oligney, Klaus Potsch, SPE director for Eastern Europe, and Reinhard Pongratz from the SPE Moscow section.