2025 SPE President
Olivier Houzé is the co-founder and managing director of KAPPA. After four years as a well test field engineer with Flopetrol (SLB), he co-founded KAPPA in 1987. He was the original author of Saphir, now the industry standard software in pressure transient analysis, and has served as KAPPA managing director since 1991.
Houzé has been involved in many SPE summits, forums, and workshops. He coauthored the 2009 SPE Pressure Transient Testing Monograph and the 2016 Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE) Monograph 4–Estimate Ultimate Recovery of Developed Wells in Low Permeability Reservoirs. He was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2013 and served on the SPE Board as the Technical Director for Reservoir from 2012 to 2015. He was the recipient of the 2019 SPE Lester C. Uren Award and the 2022 SPE Honorary Award.
He holds an engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique (1982) and an MSc in petroleum engineering from Stanford University (1983).
2024 SPE Directors
Asia Pacific Regional Director
Hazli Sham Kassim is the CEO of Petronas Carigali Turkmenistan. With more than 28 years with the company, he has held many technological and leadership roles.
He began his involvement with SPE during his freshman year at Texas A&M University and continued throughout his career. His most recent member-elected position was as chair of the SPE Kuala Lumpur Section. He has also served on many SPE-related conference committees and as a keynote speaker. In 2017, he received the SPE Northern Asia Pacific Regional Service Award.
He holds a BS in petroleum engineering (honor, cum laude) from Texas A&M University and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Europe Regional Director
Pierre Emmanuel d’Huart, head of offshore technological development at Saipem, has more than a decade of experience in offshore projects across Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, Brazil, and the Middle East.
He has served on the SPE Young Professional Coordinating Committee and as the chair of the board of the SPE French Section. He also supports the projects, facilities, and construction technical discipline.
He received the 2012 SPE Regional Young Professional Member Outstanding Service Award, the 2021 SPE Giovanni Paccaloni Young Professional Service Award, and the 2021 Distinguished Membership Award.
d’Huart has authored several papers for the Offshore Technology Conference and articles about major industrial achievements in the field of production & facilities. He holds several patents, and has served as a visiting lecturer at IFP School for 3 years, sharing his knowledge and experience with students.
He holds an MSc in civil engineering from École Spéciale des Travaux Publics (ESTP) in Paris and an MSc in petroleum engineering from IFP School.
Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Director
Carlos Alberto Pedroso is a master completion engineer with Enauta, where he supervises well construction activities for the heavy-oil Atlanta field in the Santos Basin. He has also worked as a chemical engineer, a petroleum engineer, and a quality engineer. He joined Petrobras in 1987 where he held technical and managerial positions. He worked as a completion engineer on onshore and offshore projects in Brazil, South America, North America, and Africa.
Pedroso is a well-recognized specialist in sand control and stimulation, with dozens of publications and national and international awards for his contributions.
He served as a member and chair of several SPE committees, a moderator for PetroWiki for sand control, and technical editor of SPE Drilling & Completion, SPE Journal, and SPE Production & Operations, for which he also served as associate editor. He is the current president of the SPE Brasil Section and serves on the JPT Editorial Review Board.
Pedroso holds a degree in petroleum engineering from Universidade Estadual de Campinas and a degree in chemical engineering from Universidade Federal do Paraná.
North American Regional Director
Kim Oracheski (née Nguyen) is a data analyst at Strathcona Resources. Prior to her current role, her career experience was rooted in upstream oil and gas, with roles in drilling, completions, production, and well servicing with Murphy Oil, Devon Energy, and Trican Well Service.
She made a career pivot into data and analytics and is committed to bringing better data literacy and the use of data strategies to the oil and gas industry. As an engineer who takes a collaborative approach to meeting challenges, she leverages her technical background to help engineering groups make use of data workflows, while building out a data strategy that is appropriate for the business.
She has served on the SPE Calgary Section Board of Directors for 6 years, including as its president.
Oracheski holds BSc in chemical engineering and BSc in chemistry and mathematical sciences (double major) degrees, both from the University of Alberta.
Russia and Caspian Regional Director
Alexey Borisenko is a Schlumberger senior engineer, responsible for the data-driven development and implementation of software solutions for oil and gas. He was previously the head of Lukoil’s EOR/IOR technologies division, and held several technical positions with Schlumberger in Russia and the US from 2007 to 2020 in the areas of engineering groups management, hydraulic fracturing design and evaluation, reservoir stimulation, well cementing lab operations, and HSE leadership.
Borisenko has served SPE in many roles, including president of Tyumen State Oil and Gas University Student Chapter and chair of the Tyumen Section. He served on the Membership Committee and Selection Committee for the Giovanni Paccaloni Young Professional Service Award, Russia and Caspian Region Award, Section Award, Student Chapter Award, and Regional Student Paper Contest. He currently serves on the PetroWiki Steering Committee and Data Science and Engineering Analytics Advisory Committee. He has authored more than 10 SPE technical papers.
He was named a 2021 TWA Energy Influencer for SPE’s The Way Ahead. Borisenko received the 2020 SPE Regional Completions Optimization and Technology Award, the 2017 SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award, and the 2015 SPE Russia and Caspian Regional Service Award. In 2008, he was selected as an SPE STAR Program student.
Borisenko holds a degree in petroleum engineering (with honors) and a degree in interpretation from Tyumen State Oil and Gas University. In 2021, he received a degree in data science from Higher School of Economics, Moscow.
Digital Science and Engineering Analytics Technical Director
Sushma Bhan is a director of the board at Ikon Science where she provides guidance on company growth opportunities and provides high-level product oversight. She also serves on Rice University’s Professional Science Master’s Board of Affiliates.
Previously, Bhan was the chief data officer of subsurface and wells at Shell, where she created business co-owned data strategies and accountability for global data accelerators, standards, and subsurface digital-value funnel. Her 30-year career at Shell included various roles including leading wells, reservoir, and facility management technical data.
She currently chairs the SPE Data Science and Engineering Analytics Technical Section. Bahn is passionate about maximizing value from data sciences and analytics, specifically supporting industry’s focus on low-carbon footprint, digital transformation, and enhanced production leveraging artificial intelligence and automation.
Bhan is a published author and was the recipient of 2020 SPE International and 2019 SPE Gulf Coast Section awards for Management and Information for distinguished contributions to the petroleum industry. She mentors young professionals and students locally and overseas.
She holds an MS from University of Delhi and an executive MBA from University of Houston.
How SPE Board Members Are Selected
SPE is governed by a board of directors comprising 20 member representatives from around the world, including three officers and 17 representatives of geographic regions and technical disciplines. Officers and directors are elected to a 3-year term, with approximately one-third of the board rolling off each year. Officers and directors include representatives of both geographic and technical constituencies, and three presidents (current, past, and elect).
Nominating a Candidate
The nomination period opened in October and ended in December 2022. Any SPE member may nominate a candidate for a position on the board. The process involves submitting an online nomination form and supporting documents such as a curriculum vitae, resume, and letters of support.
The Election Process
Candidate nominations submitted online are reviewed by the SPE Nominating Committee. Chaired by the immediate past president, the committee met in February to make recommendations for the available positions. These recommendations were submitted to the SPE International Board of Directors for approval at a meeting of the board held in mid-March.
Following Board Approval of Nominees
The Board of Directors reports the nominations in the Journal of Petroleum Technology ( JPT). SPE members will have the opportunity to review the board-approved nominees’ biographical information in the April issue of JPT and on www.spe.org.
Nominees approved by the board stand as elected unless SPE members nominate additional candidates by petition. The petition process must be completed no later than 45 days following the publication date (1 April) of the slate of Board of Directors’ approved nominees in JPT.
Board of Directors’ nominees for positions for whom no petition with the requisite number of signatures is received within 45 days following the publication date of the slate of nominees in JPT shall be deemed elected to such positions. Additional nominations require a petition from 1.0% of the voting members of SPE on petitions for president-elect, and 2.0%, or a minimum of 150 members, from the represented group for regional director and technical director positions. A ballot election will be held if any qualified petitions are received.
The Board Takes Office
If the board slate is elected, the person nominated as president would take office as president-elect at the close of the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. This year, the conference will be held 16–18 October, in San Antonio, Texas.