Charles Bare, 1979 SPE President and an Honorary Member of the Society, died 25 October. He was 88.
Bare graduated from the University of Oklahoma in petroleum engineering and began his career at Magnolia Petroleum Co. in 1954. He joined Conoco as a research scientist in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 1961 where he developed computer applications. He was transferred to Houston in 1969 and worked in the engineering department and then in the production department where he held various engineering and management positions with responsibilities for international production operations in Libya and Indonesia. He was the exploration and production operations manager for Russia and held managerial positions in Conoco UK for 6 years. He retired from Conoco in 1992.
Since the late 1970s, Bare took several major initiatives to expand SPE programs worldwide. He played a key role in the formation of the biennial SPE/US Department of Energy Symposium on enhanced oil recovery. He guided the establishment of SPE Europe as an organization to represent SPE’s interest in the UK and throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He was the primary SPE representative who secured SPE’s interest in the Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition in Aberdeen. The event was founded and sponsored by Spearhead Exhibitions. While working at Conoco’s London office, Bare led negotiations on behalf of SPE to purchase a 50% interest in the event.
His presidential year can be considered a watershed for SPE’s increased international focus. During his trip through the East Asia SPE sections, the Chinese Petroleum Society requested further cooperation between the two organizations, with SPE presenting technical seminars to Chinese engineers on a broad range of technical topics. Bare was successful in emphasizing and succeeding in holding an exhibition of industry technology along with the technical seminars. While recollecting his presidential year achievements for JPT, he said, “I was very pleased to attend this joint meeting, which was held 17–24 March 1982. It was by all measures a success, with 1,000 overseas visitors and an estimated 150,000 Chinese in attendance.”
Another hallmark of his presidency was SPE’s active involvement in the development of reserves definitions. In 1979, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started focusing on reserves volumes reporting with a more technical basis. SPE was active in advising SEC by providing the talent and resources required to meet these goals.
Bare served as a member of the board of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and was elected an AIME Honorary Member in 1992. He was also a SPE Distinguished Member and recipient of the SPE Distinguished Service Award. Bare was awarded the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal in 1992 for more than a quarter-century of noteworthy contributions that markedly enhanced standards of the petroleum engineering profession and for his work encompassing all aspects of SPE programs.