Success arises from many places, and this year’s Legends of Artificial Lift say their contributions to the industry would not be possible without mentorship.
Rajan Chokshi and Mike Poythress, honored as Legends of Artificial Lift during a luncheon at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition on 25 August, cited a common thread in their careers: being mentored and mentoring.
“There’s a saying in the West that you stand on the shoulder of giants. An equally positive saying in the East is that you learn at the feet of your gurus. And I see here lots of gurus and lots of giants, not only here. There are many more that are not here,” said Chokshi, who is an optimizer at Accutant Solutions. “I owe this honor to all these gurus at whose feet I have learned, as well as all the giants who allowed me to rest my hand on their shoulder.”
Over the nearly 4 decades of his career, he has focused on production optimization through artificial lift applications. Recent projects include real-time artificial lift analysis, failure prediction, virtual flow metering, emissions-reduction initiatives, and competency development for production engineering teams. A technical reviewer for SPE Journal, he has also been selected twice as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on artificial lift topics and has volunteered in multiple capacities for SPE, including on committees, technical conference programs, and in advisory roles. He also serves on the board of directors of the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC).
At the dawn of his career, an executive with ONGC lured him away from a chemical engineering job with the promise of being able to ride in helicopters for work. Over the years, mentors have trusted him, invested in him, taught him, and encouraged him, he said. He, too, has offered such support to young professionals. He has learned a lot from young consulting engineers, and they “ended up becoming my teachers also, as I was teaching them whatever little I knew,” he said.
Chokshi urges others in the industry to do two things in their careers: keep learning, and “share what you know.”
Poythress, who has retired from his post as principal production engineer at ConocoPhillips, said one of the reasons he was able to achieve what he has over the years is because people supported him along the way.
“I had this guy that didn’t know me from anybody else, and he said, ‘Let me help you,’” he said, adding that support gave Poythress the courage he needed to start doing presentations and writing.
He specialized in sucker-rod pumping design, diagnostics, optimization, and failure‑reduction strategies. He entered the industry in 1979 as a service technician for Axelson, starting his first day with a company truck and uncertainty over how to pronounce the company name. Over 2 decades with the company, he worked his way up the career ladder, an achievement facilitated by the rapid expansion of rod‑pumped horizontal wells in the Giddings and Pearsall Austin Chalk during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has also worked for Weatherford, NOV Wilson, and ConocoPhillips. He has presented and taught at the Southwestern Petroleum Short Course and served as the 2024 chairman of the Permian Basin Artificial Lift Conference, as well as general chair for the ALRDC Beam Pump Workshop. He is a 2026–2027 SPE Distinguished Lecturer for production and operations.
“Everybody in this room has the responsibility to reach out to the next generation. And whether that’s younger, it might be people that are your same age. You owe it to our industry,” Poythress said.
