The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is the largest prestigious gathering on earth for drillers and explorers of oil and gas.
With around 164,000 members, SPE is important for the industry as the main body that collects, disseminates, and exchanges technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources. The society recently elected Sami Al-Neaim of Saudi Aramco to be its president for 2019. He spoke to Arab News about his new role.
What will you bring to SPE as its president?
I come to this prestigious position with more than 30 years of diversified experience, which includes working in the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, teaching and research engagement at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), along with 30-plus years of active and successful service and support to the biggest non-profit professional association serving the global upstream industry i.e. the SPE. I intend to put all of this to build another successful pillar to this great society.
What are the challenges SPE and the upstream industry are facing?
There are several challenges facing the SPE that may jeopardize its leadership role in collecting and disseminating upstream technical information especially during a downturn and relatively low oil prices. But one of the biggest challenges will be the environmental wrong perception and a global lack of interest among university students to become petroleum engineers. That could cause a future generation gap in the upstream industry. I will work to encourage more students to join the industry.
What will you do at SPE to address the environmental challenges that the upstream industry is faced with?
SPE has a comprehensive health, safety and environment (HSE) strategy where tens of annual technical HSE events and conferences are organized. Part of my role as SPE president is to encourage and advertise the industry’s efforts to protect HSE and promote the industry’s efforts in energy efficiency and the use of clean fuels, including renewables, to complement fossil fuels, especially in power generation. There is so much being done by the industry; for example, developing more efficient engines, cleaner fuel types and even sequestering CO2 from mobile and stationary sources.
What is the future outlook for SPE and the upstream industry?
All energy studies show an increasing global demand (for) energy. They also show that oil and gas (upstream) will continue having the lion’s share in the current and future energy map. Accordingly, the upstream industry will continue through its great leaders and strategies, with the help of SPE, to innovate and develop technologies to discover more hydrocarbon resources, cost-effectively develop these resources and maximize its ultimate recovery to continue meeting the global short, intermediate and long-term energy demand. As the global upstream industry, we have never failed, and will never fail in meeting the demand on hydrocarbon energy sources.
What does SPE think of shale oil and other unconventional oil resources?
SPE adopts a global technical upstream prospective on any type of oil and gas (conventional and unconventional). SPE looks at it through pure global geographical-unbiased and technical lenses. No doubt that shale oil today is a factor in the global oil mix. Accordingly, SPE offers several technical venues and events to its members to collect, disseminate and exchange knowledge and technologies related to its development.

Source: Arab News