SPE News
Major increases in hydrocarbon production require both incremental and revolutionary technologies, industry leaders said during the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference.
The newly named MTS brings together the full methane ecosystem, end to end—connecting technology, data, operations, and assurance across upstream, midstream, and beyond.
From JPT to SPE Journal, OnePetro to technical guidance documents, SPE’s publishing portfolio is broader and more dynamic than many members may realize. In this column, I unpack the Society’s current publication options, explore how AI and open access are reshaping scholarly publishing, and share what SPE is doing to strengthen paper quality, transparency, and impact …
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Curtis G. Blount, SPE, senior fellow engineer-advisor for global wells technology at ConocoPhillips and former SPE Distinguished Lecturer, died 12 May in Katy, Texas. He made significant technical contributions to coiled tubing and well intervention research and applied technology development for more than 25 years. Blount began his career at Dresser Atlas in 1977. He… -
Tom Blasingame is the nominee for 2021 SPE President. He and four others make up the slate of nominees recommended for positions open on the SPE Board of Directors.
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Dennis Hahn, SPE, former chair of the SPE Canada Board, the SPE Calgary Section, and director of the SPE Canadian Educational Foundation, who was active with SPE at both the section and international levels, died 2 March in Bolivia, where he was teaching a completions course. Hahn, a completions manager at Repsol based in Calgary, was an expert in high-pressure/high-t…
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Sam Gibbs, the inventor of the wave equation method used in the rod pumping diagnostic and predictive software, and an SPE Legend of Artificial Lift, died 17 February. Gibbs earned his BS in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University in 1954 and worked for Shell Oil Company briefly before being drafted into the US Army. Upon returning, he took a leave of absence f…
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Last year, the SPE Board of Directors approved a new 5-year Strategic Plan, a blueprint to provide guidance on how the association can meet the needs and expectations of its members and the industry over the next several years.
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Rui Vasco Sitoe, associate professor in the petroleum engineering department at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Maputo, Mozambique died 23 February. He was the primary faculty member for the drilling discipline. Sitoe was one of the founders and coordinators of the master’s of science in petroleum engineering program (MSPE) at UEM, the first of its type in …
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J.G. (George) Savins, SPE, an SPE Legion of Honor member and technology inventor in the field of rheology, died 11 January. Awarded a BS in chemistry in 1949, Savins started his career as a chemist at the FRL Research and Development Group. His career then gradually evolved to cover diverse research interests and saw significant technical achievements in fluid flow an…
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Ben H. Caudle, SPE, professor emeritus and former chair of The University of Texas at Austin’s Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and a former member of the SPE Board of Directors, died 6 February at the age of 95.
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Charles Oliver (Doc) Stokley, longstanding SPE member and innovator in the field of oil and gas packer technologies, died 3 December. His design achievements in oil and gas packers left a lasting impact on the industry and improved the safety of well completion operations. Stokley began his career at Schlumberger as a field logging engineer in Texas. He later worked a…
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It is an honor for me to serve as the SPE president for the next 12 months. Without hesitation, I knew that I would devote my year as president to a theme related to energy sustainability.
