Damir Horvat

Damir Horvat, SPE, is general manager oil & gas, onshore & offshore upstream for DEM–Government of South Australia. He has more than 25 years of experience in drilling systems, completions, upstream conformance, cementing, well engineering, R&D, technology implementation, operational execution, and well-integrity management systems serving geothermal, conventional, and unconventional upstream onshore and offshore oil and gas sector.

Previously, Horvat was drilling engineering technical authority, senior engineering manager D&C, wells engineering manager, wells compliance manager, and principal drilling and completions engineer with Shell-PetroChina. He has authored or co-authored numerous SPE technical articles and presentations and served as SPE Queensland Section director, technical editor for SPE Drilling & Completions journal, co-chair of the Unconventional Reservoirs Technical Interest Group, member of the JPT Editorial Committee, and various SPE subcommittees. He is also a fellow of the Mechanical, Structural, Leadership and Management College of The Institution of Engineers, Australia, and recently appointed to serve on the Well Decommissioning Advisory Committee of the Curtin University Oil and Gas Innovation Centre.

Horvat holds an advanced certificate as master driller from School of Mining and Chemical Engineering, Croatia; an advanced diploma in drilling management and qualified drilling industry assessor from the Australia Drilling Industry Training Committee; and an ME degree in petroleum engineering from Ecole Superieure Robert de Sorbon, France; Horvat can be reached at Damir.Horvat@sa.gov.au.