SPE News

2024–2025 SPE Distinguished Lecturers

Speakers from various disciplines and professions focus on industry trends, challenges, technology applications and advances. Scheduled DL events are in-person meetings only.

Distinguished Lecturer Logo Outlined

Completions

Erich Kerr
SM Energy Company
Integrated Geoscience and Engineering To Improve Hydraulic Fracturing and Field Development

Leen Weijers
Liberty Energy
Making Unconventionals Competitive—Minimizing the Cost per Barrel Oil

Martin Rylance
MEDCO Energi and THREE60 Energy Ltd.
Tip Screen-Out (TSO) Fracturing: An Enduring Technology (How We Started, What Has Been Achieved, and Where It Is Going)

Muhammad Arsalan
Saudi Aramco PE&D EXPEC ARC
New Frontiers in Intelligent Completions


Data Science and Engineering Analytics

Aarti Dange Bhat
Emerson
Profitable and Sustainable Production Operations in Oil and Gas With Scalable Digital Transformation Roadmaps

Drilling

Adam Donald
SLB
Insightful Geomechanical Measurements for Converting Existing Hydrocarbon Reservoirs to Carbon Storage

Ashley Johnson
SLB
Characterizing and Mitigating Drilling Dysfunction: High-Frequency Torsional Oscillation (HFTO)

Jonathan Lightfoot
Oxy Oil and Gas Corp.
Recommended Practice for Safe Well Positioning, Separation, and Surveying

Robert A. Estes
Retired—Halliburton, Baker Hughes, SLB
Technology Keystones: Mainstreaming MWD and Rotary Steerables for New HT Geothermal Development

Waldemar Szemat
SLB
Well Construction Transformation for a Digital and Intelligent Future
  

Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainability

Christiaan Luca
Community Wisdom Partners
ESG for Petroleum Engineers—Without the Hot Air (What the International Capital Markets Expect From the Oil and Gas Industry)

Dwayne Purvis
Purvis Energy Advisors
Economic Surprises of Late-Life Production

Management

Behrooz Fattahi
The EnerTrain Institute
A Leadership Approach to Management

Bez Hoxha
CyberWorx Energy
What Does the Energy Transition Actually Mean for the Oil and Gas Industry?

Chee Phuat Tan
PETRONAS Research Sdn. Bhd.
Geomechanical Risks Mitigation—A Must for Safe, Long-Term CO2 Geological Storage

Mike Gunningham
SGS Subsurface Consultancy
Low-Cost, High-Profit Rejuvenation of Mature Fields

Paul Lyford
Santos Ltd.
CO2 Storage Resource Management System—Application and Learnings From World’s First Booking

Projects, Facilities, and Construction

Andy Watt
Woodside Energy
No Longer a Sunk Cost: Innovation and Collaboration for Decommissioning Subsea Infrastructure

Brian Twomey
Reverse Engineering Services Ltd.
Liability Is Forever: Risk Elements in the Implementation of Decommissioning and Well P&A

Steven Allan Canny
Well DecomMISSION: Develop Sustainable Approaches To Decarbonize and Repurpose Wells

Productions and Operations

Courtney Lucente
Tre Altamira Inc.
InSAR for Asset Integrity: How Satellite Data Can Provide Critical Insights for Oil and Gas and CCUS

Juliane Heiland
SLB
Geomechanics for Field Development and Production Management—Experience From Two Decades of Reservoir Geomechanics Studies 

Kyle Murray
Murray GeoConsulting LLC
Pathway for Recovering Valuable Elements of Interest From Subsurface Brines and Oilfield Produced Waters

Ryosuke Yokote
Eni Australia Ltd.
Well Dynamic Simulation—Challenging the “Just Do This” Approach


Saketh Mahalingam
ARAMCO Overseas Co.
Multiphase Metering—A Digital Tool for Decarbonization

Santiago Hässig Fonseca
SLB
Coiled Tubing: The Journey Toward Automation and Beyond

Reservoir

Erdal Ozkan
Colorado School of Mines
CO2-EOR and Sequestration: Challenges on Pore Scale

Jorge Acuna
J Acuna Consulting LLC
Fractional Dimension Rate Transient Analysis (FD-RTA): A Key to Unconventional Wells and Complex Fracture Networks

Kåre Langaas
Aker BP
Designing Optimal Wells With Inflow Control Technology

Kourtney Brinkley
Devon Energy Corp. E&P
Redefining Recovery in the Eagle Ford: Refracs and Infill Development Lessons Learned From the Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site 1 (HFTS) Phase 3

Marie Van Steene
SLB Saudi Arabia
Logging a Well? It’s About Time! Effect of Time in Logging Data Program Design, Acquisition, Interpretation, and Integration


Distinguished Lecturers are nominated by their peers and selected by the Distinguished Lecturer Committee based on the quality, timeliness, and relevance of their presentations. SPE solicits nominations from around the world to cover all disciplines.

Nominate someone to be a Distinguished Lecturer.Nominations open for the 2026–2027 season on 1 September 2024.