The Way Ahead is pleased to announce the addition of 19 new members to our TWA Editorial Board.
Comprising SPE young professionals, these dedicated volunteers play a crucial role by crafting articles or collaborating with energy industry experts worldwide to source insightful material.
TWA’s editorial focus spans a diverse array of topics including interviews with subject-matter experts, technical topics, emerging oilfield technologies, and what’s next in energy.
Abdulmalik Ajibade is an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions researcher at OSECUL Nigeria Ltd. He is a certified data analyst and volunteers as a machine learning (ML) engineer at Omdena. He is a winner of the SPE Nigeria Paper Contest for research work in improving production optimization with machine learning. Ajibade’s work focuses on research and development efforts for a machine learning predictive maintenance product, aimed at elevating asset reliability. With a commitment to applying AI workflows across industries, he channels his passion for data science and ML into solving challenges in the energy sector. He has served twice as the vice president of the SPE Nile University of Nigeria Student Chapter. He holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum and gas engineering from Nile University of Nigeria.
Mohamed Alzaabi is a reservoir engineering specialist at ADNOC Offshore based in Abu Dhabi. He has over a decade of experience as an engineer and researcher. He has worked on a variety of research projects from evaluating unconventional reservoirs’ potential to analyzing polymer injectivity in porous media and exploring strategies to reduce the carbon footprint in the oil industry. In his role at ADNOC Offshore Technical Center, he is currently exploring a sustainable energy future and decarbonization within the oil and gas sector. He holds a BSc in petroleum engineering from Khalifa University, an MSc from the Colorado School of Mines, and a PhD in petroleum technology and reservoir chemistry from the University of Bergen.
Aleeza Tahoor Asi is a borehole reservoir engineer in the analysis and interpretation business line at SLB. She specializes in formation testing and production logging. She holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum and gas engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore.
Adeshina Badejo is a petroleum engineering PhD student at Texas A&M University under the Texas A&M at Qatar Strategic Research Initiatives Program. He has a strong interest in reducing the environmental impact of the continued use of fossil fuels. His research focuses on flow assurance challenges of the CO2 value chain from the extraction point to the subsurface injectivity point with the integration of machine learning. Badejo has been actively involved with SPE since 2016 as a volunteer. He led the Heriot-Watt University PetroBowl team to the regional qualifiers in Zagreb, Croatia, and received the 2023 SPE Aberdeen Section Student Bursary Award. He also served as the 2018–2019 SPE Programs Chairperson during his undergraduate studies and co-initiated the inaugural edition of The Industry Discourse, a student-led energy conference. He holds a master’s degree in subsurface energy systems from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum and gas engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Natan Battisti is a petroleum engineer passionate about energy, economy, and politics. At Harbour Energy PLC, he coordinates the international planning and economics (P&E) area as a P&E adviser and acts as the STEM Ambassador London Chair coordinating activities that promote the importance of STEM and energy in schools around London. Before Harbour, he worked for Premier Oil, Origem Energia, and New Fields in Brazil. As a volunteer, he has been a member of SPE since 2013 where he has been a member and an active officer at SPE UFPel Student Chapter, SPE Macaé, Brazil, and SPE London Section. He is also a cofounder of the Até o Último Barril, an organization created to promote the role of students and YPs in the energy sector in Brazil. He also serves as the Sponsorship Chair for the London Section.
Anireju Emmanuel Dudun is pursuing a PhD in systems engineering with a concentration in petroleum engineering at the University of Louisiana (UL) at Lafayette. He has interned with Shell and the Department of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria. He has been an SPE member since 2012 and is presently a member of the UL Lafayette PetroBowl team. He was listed on SEG EVOLVE’s 2022 Wall of Fame for his work on subsurface characterization. Dundun has over seven peer-reviewed publications and serves as a technical reviewer for various industry journals. His current area of research includes CO2 sequestration, hydrogen underground storage, and reservoir modeling such as reactive fluid flow in fracture reservoirs. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from UL Lafayette, a second master’s degree in integrated petroleum engineering and production studies from Shell Center of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
Anaiz Gul Fareed is pursuing his PhD in energy science and engineering at the University of Naples. His research focuses on hydrogen storage and finding innovative solutions for industrial process optimization with a view to digital, ecological, and security transition. He has 8 years’ experience in both academia and the industry in Pakistan, in which he served as a lecturer in the department of petroleum engineering at Karachi University and worked as a renewable energy engineer and production engineer for an energy firm and exploration and production company. Fareed has authored multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. He holds a master’s degree in energy systems engineering and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering and is always eager to learn more about sustainable energy transition around the globe.
Piergiuseppe Fiore is a petroleum engineer at Eni. He is part of the reservoir management and production data analysis unit, working on injectivity issues, improved oil recovery, and carbon capture and storage. He has also specialized in CFD simulations, publishing several articles. Fiore is an active member of SPE and is part of the YP Board of the SPE Italian Section. He holds an MSc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Calabria and a second-level master’s in petroleum engineering at Polytechnic of Turin.
Xupeng He is a petroleum engineer with EXPEC Advanced Research Center of Saudi Aramco. His research focuses on modeling fluid flow in fractured rocks and developing machine learning workflows for geoenergy applications. He has authored and coauthored 15 peer-reviewed journal papers, over 30 conference papers, and 12 granted and filed patents. He has received several awards from different organizations, including the 2023 EXPEC ARC Newcomer Award, 2022 Dean’s Award from KAUST, and was a finalist for the Oil and Gas Middle East Young Professional of the Year Award. He holds MS and PhD degrees in earth science and engineering and energy resources and petroleum engineering, respectively, from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Khawaja Hasnain Iltaf is enrolled in a PhD program in earth and environmental sciences, with a focus on geochemistry and petrophysics, at The University of Texas at Arlington. His research is primarily focused on the investigation of rock properties, fluid-rock interactions, and geochemical analysis leveraging core data. During his master's program, he has conducted comprehensive facies and petrophysical characterizations of tight sandstone reservoirs employing a blend of stochastic and deterministic methods. He has also held roles as an intern and research assistant across various exploration and production companies and academic institutions. He has authored or coauthored 13 research papers published in international journals, alongside 15 poster presentations and published abstracts at international conferences and workshops. He also serves as reviewer for three peer-reviewed journals and served as technical program reviewer for five international conferences. He served as a PetroBowl Volunteer in 2017 and as a Student Chapter Award Judge in 2018.
Saket Kumar is a reservoir engineer at SLB. He previously worked at CMG Ltd., Telesto Energy, and DrillinkTech International. His interests include dynamic reservoir modeling, classical reservoir engineering, and field development planning. He is particularly active in enhancing the accuracy in measurement and interpretation of special core analysis laboratory and pressure/volume/temperature experiments.
Xiliang Liu is a senior academic researcher at the China University of Petroleum-Beijing with 7 years of research experience, and associate editor of the Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering Journal. He is a visiting scholar at the University of Alberta, conducting research in the surface laboratory. His research focuses on CO2–EOR and CO2 sequestration. Liu has published more than 20 papers in Chemical Engineering Journal, Applied Energy, Energy, Fuel, and Petroleum Science. He holds more than 10 Chinese and US patents and has participated in about 20 international academic conferences with invited speakers and oral presentations. He is the recipient of six international, China national-level, and provincial-level academic awards.
Vu Nguyen is a doctoral candidate in the petroleum engineering department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His research focuses on cement and zonal isolation, reservoir simulation, enhanced oil recovery, corrosion in the oil and gas industry, carbon capture storage, machine learning, and computational fluid dynamics. He has published several papers in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society, Sustainability, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, and Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. Besides research, he likes teach students. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and a master’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Florida.
Habib Ouadi is an oilfield operations specialist at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota. His work focuses well drilling, logging, coring, and production, enhanced oil recovery, carbon capture, utilization, and storage, saltwater disposal, geothermal extraction, and facilities and well completion for both conventional and unconventional fields. He has authored and coauthored numerous research publications. Ouadi is a PhD candidate in energy and petroleum engineering at the University of North Dakota and holds an MEng degree in petroleum engineering from the University of North Dakota and MS and BS degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Boumerdés, Faculty of Hydrocarbons, Algeria.
Rahul Roy is a digital oilfield technology consultant at IPCOS, based out of Houston. Roy has been involved in the digital transformation journey of several major oil and gas clients across North America. He has over 12 years of experience in the design, development, and deployment of physics-based and data-driven models, engineering workflows, and analytical dashboards for petroleum engineering processes and applications. His proficiency extends across a spectrum of areas, including well and network modeling, integrated production modeling, production optimization, hydrocarbon accounting, well test analysis, automated model creation, and calibration and the configuration of analytical dashboards. He holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India, and is currently pursuing a master’s of science degree in analytics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Saransh Surana is a reservoir engineer at ExxonMobil based in Bangalore, India. His skill set includes reservoir engineering and management with an emphasis on reservoir surveillance and production optimization. He also has work experience in the field of GIS and applications of machine learning in oil and gas. He is the author of an international research publication on this subject. He was the SPE Regional South Asia Student Paper Contest winner in 2021 and has been associated with various SPE student chapter and section activities. Outside of professional life, he enjoys traveling, sports, and writing blogs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad.
Maria Jose Cruz Tun is an artificial lift field engineer at SLB based in Villahermosa, Mexico. In her current role, she executes offshore and onshore jobs in electrical submersible pumps, horizontal pumping systems, and progressive cavity pumps. She participated as speaker at the 2021 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Dubai. She received the 2023 SLB MCA Excellence Award in the Diversity Booster category for actively participating in women’s and inclusion activities in the field. She is an active member of SPE where she collaborated as Mexico’s Student Chapter Liaison Assistant from 2018 to 2021 during which they won the SPE Student Chapter Excellence Award in 2020. She holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Universidad Veracruzana.
Chiamaka Linda Uchegbu is a commercial operations analyst at Seplat Energy in Nigeria. She also serves as the secretary of the operations and terminals committee under the Oil Producers Trade Section. She began her career as a health, safety, and environment advisor before transitioning into her current commercial role. With over 6 years of industry experience, she has received numerous recognitions for her contributions and actively participates in the SPE Lagos Section. Outside of work, she enjoys hosting events, traveling, staying fit, and engaging in community initiatives. Currently, she is pursuing an MBA program. She holds an MS degree from the University of Ibadan in environmental chemistry and pollution control.
Andrew Yule is a cofounder and managing partner of Pontem Analytics, a global consulting company in the energy industry specializing in flow assurance, production chemistry, and digital solutions. Yule has 13 years’ experience in the energy industry, where he has contributed to a diverse range of projects spanning both offshore and onshore. He has been a member of SPE since 2011 and is a member of the Young Entrepreneurial Council. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a master’s degree in data science from Southern Methodist University.