About COPA

Mission

The mission of the China Overseas Petroleum Association (COPA) is to facilitate networking among our members; to contribute to the local community; to promote continuing education among overseas Chinese-heritage communities; and to enrich life for the members.  It can be simplified as:
1. To Facilitate Networking: 加强联谊
2. To Contribute to the Community: 奉献社会
3. To Promote Continuing Education: 交流信息
4. To Enrich Life: 丰富生活


Organization

The establishment of COPA was initiated in 1993 by the overseas alumni of China University of Petroleum, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Southwest Petroleum Institute, and Jianghan Petroleum Institute.  It has extended its membership to anyone who has worked or studied in the fields of petroleum, and there are currently over 1000 overseas members around the world.  In 2018, COPA was expanded from Alumni to Association, and the Association provides an umbrella to the Alumni organizations and other professionals in petroleum and related industries.  COPA is a non-profit and non-political organization governed by the Board of Directors who are elected at the annual member meeting.  The Board consists of one President, five Vice Presidents and twelve additional board members.  Each member institute must have at least three persons serving on the Board. Our members’ expertise covers various technical areas such as Petroleum Exploration and Development, Petroleum Production, Management/Energy Economics/Investment, Information Technology and e-Commerce, Oil & Gas Transportation and Pipeline, Refining and Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Electrical Power, and New Ventures.


History

COPA (China Overseas Petroleum Alumni) was founded in Houston Texas in 1993.  Its members were from the overseas alumni of all main Chinese Petroleum institutes, including Huadong/Beijing Petroleum University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Southwest Petroleum Institute, Xi’an Petroleum Institute, Jianghan Petroleum Institute, and etc.  Now COPA has extended its membership to anyone who has worked or studied in the petroleum industry or related areas, and thus COPA (China Overseas Petroleum Association) was established in 2018 to accommodate to the new membership.   There are three major developmental periods in the history of COPA, pre-2000, post-2000 and post-2020.  In the pre-2000 period, COPA’s main activities included organizing SPE annual conference dinners and some other networking activities.  In 2000, COPA formalized the by-law.  In the post-2000 period, COPA organized various new events including New Year Party, Seminar, Spring/Fall Picnics, etc.  Post 2020, since COPA had been expanded to the Association as a 501(c)(3) organization, COPA starts to take on additional activities to help junior professionals with career development and to help our children learn about the petroleum industry.  So far COPA has over 1000 members.

Mailing Address

China Overseas Petroleum Alumni
5905 Sovereign Drive
Houston, Texas 77036
U.S.A