JPT: People July 2006

Vol. 58 No. 7

July 2006

People

Wade Abadie, SPE, was named Chief Operating Officer of Deep Marine Technology. He has 30 years of experience in the remotely-operated-vehicle industry and previously held the position of Vice President–Business Development.

Burt Adams, SPE, was named to the ATP Oil and Gas Corp. Board of Directors. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Oil and Gas Rental Services; Chairman, Offshore Energy Center, Ocean Star Museum; and an Executive Committee member of the Natl. Ocean Industries Assn.

Lee Ahlstrom, SPE, joined Noble Drilling as Vice President of Investor Relations and Planning. Before this appointment, he served as Director–Investor Relations for Burlington Resources. Ahlstrom earned BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the U. of Delaware.

Bernard Brauer, SPE, was elected 2006 President of the Soc. of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Soc. of Independent Earth Scientists and the Engineering Foundation Advisory Council at the U. of Texas at Austin.

Kevin McEvoy, SPE, was appointed Executive Vice President of Oceaneering Intl. He has served Oceaneering for 27 years, most recently as Senior Vice President–Western Region.

Juan Pinzon, SPE, received the Meritorious Service Award from the Houston Chapter of the American Assn. of Drilling Engineers. A drilling engineer for BP, he is involved in planning and execution of wells in Texas and Louisiana. Pinzon earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering from U. de América, Bogotá, Colombia.

Gary Pope, SPE, received the Melvin R. Lohmann Medal from Oklahoma State U. for his fundamental technical developments, recognition by professional societies and peers, and leadership. Pope, a professor at the U. of Texas (UT) at Austin Dept. of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, is a member of the Natl. Academy of Engineering, and holds the Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering at UT at Austin and directs the Center for Petroleum and Geo-systems Engineering.

Mukul Sharma, a Distinguished Member of SPE, was appointed to the UT at Austin W.A. (Tex) Moncrief Jr. Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering. He is Professor and Chairman of the UT at Austin Dept. of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. Sharma earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Inst. of Technology as well as an MS degree in chemical engineering, and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering, both from the U. of Southern California.

Gyorgy Szabó, SPE, was named to the Falcon Oil and Gas Board of Directors. A Professor at Miskolc U., he oversaw the design and implementation of the deepest high-pressure/high-temperature well drilled in Hungary. Szabó is a recognized authority in the Hungarian and international petroleum industry.

Mary Wheeler, SPE, a professor in the UT at Austin Depts. of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and Aerospace-Engineering Mechanics, received an honorary doctorate during the 50th anniversary of Technische U. Eindoven in The Netherlands. Wheeler, who holds the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell Chair in Engineering at UT at Austin and is Director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling, is a member of the Natl. Academy of Engineering and is an adjunct professor at the UT at Austin M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Michael Yeager, SPE, was appointed Group President–Energy for BHP Billiton. Before this appointment, he was Vice President of ExxonMobil Development Co., with responsibility for joint-venture projects.

Member Deaths

Robert Leibrock, Midland, Texas
John Lung, Buenos Aires
Warren Paynter, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Marcio De Castro Pereira, Rio de Janeiro

Jan Geertsma, an SPE Distinguished Member, died May 11 in Maarn, The Netherlands. A member of SPE since 1957, Geertsma contributed significantly to the development of hydraulic fracturing theory and made a key contribution to the prediction of ground subsidence above compacting reservoirs, enabling the early assessment of possible structural and environmental effects. Together with Frans de Klerk, he used basic rock mechanic concepts to formulate a useful analytic model for the propagation of a hydraulic fracture. This model was initially known as the Geertsma-De Klerk model, and later as the Khristianovich-Geertsma-De Klerk (or KGD) model, to reflect the original Russian contribution to the idea. The model was influential in the early years of hydraulic fracturing, both in planning and interpretation. Fracturing models now generally involve numerical modelling, but the KGD analytic model is still used for quick order-of-magnitude calculations, colleagues said.

Geertsma received the 1981 SPE Distinguished Service Award, traveled as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer from 1981–82, and served as Netherlands Section Chairperson from 1968–72 and 1978–79. He also was a technical editor for SPE Production & Facilities. In 1978, he received the ASME Geoca Engineering Achievement Award.