Arlie Skov

John Donnelly, JPT Editor

Editor’s Note: In recognition of SPE’s 50th anniversary this year, JPT is conducting interviews with several Society luminaries about their careers, their relationship with SPE, and the changes they have seen in the oil and gas industry and the Society over the past several decades.

What do you think are the most significant changes that have occurred in the industry since you joined it 5 decades ago?

There have been many changes, both dramatic and multidimensional. Foremost, I think, has been in technology, documented and disseminated wonderfully well by SPE. The industry has gone from simple vertical onshore wells to extended-reach, horizontal, and multilateral wells in water 2 miles deep and under permafrost or arctic pack ice, using digital 3D and 4D seismic, all of which was unimaginable 50 years ago.

Next, perhaps, is the dramatic increase in oil production outside the U.S. In 1956, the U.S. was producing nearly half of the world’s oil; now it is less than 10%. Past SPE leaders should be given great credit for making the painful, at the time, decisions that enabled SPE to become genuinely international.

Additionally, natural gas has gone from being essentially a waste product and priced as such to becoming the cleanest fuel available and in great demand worldwide. Also, the implied employment contract, between a professional and the company for which he works, has changed. Fifty years ago, the employer was much more paternalistic, and mutual loyalty between the professional employee and his employer was expected and respected. Now it is a much more competitive, and often even adversarial, environment. That has both good and bad features, but mostly it is just different and must be recognized and accepted as such.

Another huge factor worldwide is a greatly heightened concern for the environment, specifically the perception that global warming, caused in part by fossil fuel use, is a serious problem. Global warming is now center stage in the political arena, and the impact on the industry likely will be large and uncomfortable. But it will not now, nor in the foreseeable future, eliminate the world’s need for oil and gas.

What are the most significant changes that have occurred in SPE?

There have been quite a few changes. A significant one was the evolution of SPE from a branch of the American Inst. of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers to a truly independent Society 50 years ago, and then becoming a technical society that addressed specifically and broadly the burgeoning need for technology documentation and distribution within the oil and gas industry.

Next in terms of importance, perhaps, was the decision by SPE leaders to become genuinely international. As the focus of oil and gas exploration and production moved away from U.S. shores, so did the development of and need for technology. SPE’s mission to capture that technology, wherever it was developed, and to disseminate it to wherever it was needed, became global in scope.

Finally, I would cite the more recent decision by the SPE Board of Directors to enhance an expensive but vital worldwide electronic network, SPE.org, which is accessible anyplace in the world at any time by any and all professionals in petroleum technology.

Do you think SPE will look significantly different a decade from now?

Yes, I do. And I hope it will, too. The key for SPE remaining relevant is to constantly re-evaluate its purpose, its organization, and its mission in light of a rapidly changing world. The insatiable need for energy—and the technology to find, develop, and utilize it—will ensure a continuing need for new technology and newer approaches, and thus change. Change in the world is both inevitable and unpredictable, and the pace of that change is accelerating. SPE must continue to change, too—to adapt to new needs, new opportunities, and to the need for technology to address new sources and uses of energy. In short, it is change or die. But I am confident that the emerging young leaders of SPE are more cognizant of this need than I, and that they will make it happen.

Looking back, what SPE project or event that you were involved in do you think was most significant?

I would cite a few things that gave me the greatest personal pride at the time as well as things that, in hindsight, I now believe to have been the most significant for SPE itself. Some 35 years ago, I was General Chairman of the first Production Operations Symposium in Oklahoma City. It was a new experience to me and to the Oklahoma City Section, and it worked out well. I was quite proud of this achievement at the time, even though in the broader scheme of SPE affairs, it was a rather small matter. I am delighted to see that it is still a biannual event there.

Next, I would mention being SPE President in 1991, a job that I was very proud to have been chosen for and enjoyed immensely. I was supported enthusiastically by my employer, BP, and by BP’s senior management, specifically Jerry Bullock, Bill Johnson, and John Browne, who at that time was Chief Executive of BPX in London. Before becoming President, I had not really traveled much internationally. But as I met with local sections around the world, I discovered, somewhat to my surprise and to my absolute delight, that SPE members everywhere, in rich nations and poor ones, with both democratic and autocratic forms of government, are all very nice individuals and a pleasure to know.

And I am very proud to have played a part, although a very small one, in the recent SPE Foundation fundraising campaign to help pay for SPE’s electronic network expansion program, SPE.org. Don Stacy and Dennis Gregg, the Cochairpersons, did the “heavy lifting.” Both deserve the highest accolades we members can give them; they are truly great and distinguished SPE members.

But to the more significant events that shaped and strengthened SPE, I would mention two, although I had no role in either. The first would be the conception of and continuing sponsorship and management of the Offshore Technology Conference. This has developed into a genuine milestone annual event that attracts the interest and attention of the oil and gas industry from all around the globe. This single meeting really put SPE on the world map for keeps.

Second, the opening of SPE offices outside the U.S., first in London, then in Kuala Lumpur, and now in the Middle East and Russia, too. These actions forever dispelled any perception that SPE was just a “U.S. outfit” and cemented its growing reputation as a worldwide champion of petroleum technology.

What has SPE membership meant to you, personally and professionally?

I was very fortunate to have a professor in college, Judge Cloud, and a boss early in my career, Linc Elkins, both of whom preached the importance of active participation in SPE. Though I was skeptical initially, this was excellent advice. I heeded it, spending many hours throughout my professional career doing volunteer work for SPE, often after very long days on my regular job. This included work at the local section level, then paper review and technical program committees, and, ultimately, on the SPE Board. The rewards from this extracurricular work far exceeded my expectations, not only greatly enhancing my own technical competence but also developing wonderful industry contacts worldwide and a better understanding of the oil and gas industry. I hope all young professionals receive the same good advice I did and that they heed it.

My SPE membership has brought me great joy and the opportunity to make a great many friends in the industry and around the world. Professionally, SPE helped me develop and continually polish technical and management skills, all of which I critically needed and very much welcomed.

What do you think are the most important benefits of membership in SPE?

They are two-fold. SPE membership enables any technical person to continually develop and update his or her technical competency through the many and varied programs SPE offers. Second, membership and active participation in SPE broadens your overall outlook immeasurably by developing professional contacts and friendships, by the opportunities to practice technical writing and public speaking, and by providing the chance to work with other members as part of a team managing various SPE activities, all skills that make us better citizens and employees.

How important is membership in a professional society to employees in the industry?

In the oil and gas industry, membership in SPE is to me an absolute necessity because SPE is the premier, overarching technical and professional society spanning essentially all of the important activities associated with oil and gas production. So SPE membership is crucial for anyone working in the industry. That said, there are several other technical and professional organizations that industry personnel can and should join as part of their overall education. I have found that attending local chapter meetings of the American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) pays dividends in a better understanding of geology. I was a long-time member of the Oklahoma City Geological Soc. and am currently a member of both the Alaska and California Coastal chapters of AAPG. And as I have a longstanding interest in petroleum economics, I am a member of the Soc. of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers. We should all join and be active in organizations we find of interest and which further our professional development.

Some believe the challenges currently facing the industry are more formidable than ever. Would you agree with that?

There is no doubt that many formidable challenges face the industry today—some old and ongoing, some completely new. However, they should be regarded as opportunities rather than problems. If I were to rank the challenges, I would put near the top the need for continuing, newer, more sophisticated technology. Technology, almost by itself, has the potential to solve most of the difficulties facing the industry, the nation, and the world. Technological advances come from many places—industry, government, university research centers, and from technology practitioners around the globe, in the office, and in the field. We must be sure that these types of thinkers continue to join both the industry and SPE.

Another really serious challenge is the rather widespread perception that the oil and gas industry is both a dying and a dirty industry. Not so! I am certain that oil and gas will be important sources, both of energy and as a feedstock for chemical plants, for at least another century. It is not a dying industry, but it is certainly a changing one.

Two environmental issues are paramount. The industry has been guilty of oil spills and other insensitive environmental behavior in the past, and we must be absolutely certain that we end that behavior. We must become “squeaky clean.” That is a given, and it can be done. Second, although a consensus seems to be building that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are contributing to global warming, the need for oil and gas is simply too vital to stop using it. Two likely solutions are CO2 sequestration and the use of CO2 to increase recovery from oil fields. And who is better prepared, by both background and technology, to do that than a petroleum engineer?

If you had to do it all over again, would you join the oil and gas industry? Why or why not?

Absolutely! Looking back over the past half century, I cannot imagine a career more exciting, more challenging, or more fulfilling. I first felt the excitement of oil and gas as a career in 1950, as a “boll weevil” floor hand on morning tour on a drilling rig in the Snyder Boom in west Texas after I had 1 year of college and 2 years on construction jobs. When I returned to college in 1953, after 2 years in the U.S. Army, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I knew that petroleum engineering was the route for me to take.

After graduation, I began working on rig floors again, logging and running casing now instead of wrestling with tongs and elevators. I also worked on frac jobs, compressors, and pumping wells in the 1950s; reservoir engineering, automation, numerical simulation, and enhanced oil recovery in the 1960s; Prudhoe Bay unitization and development in the 1970s; and a diverse variety of managerial, technical, and consulting challenges along the way. I enjoyed it all. Lots of travel was a necessity, including “red eye” flights to and from Alaska and helicopter trips to such disparate places as the pipeline route in Alaska, the Ma’rib Desert in Yemen, the geysers north of San Francisco, and over arctic pack ice in the Beaufort Sea.

I think that the young professionals now entering the oil and gas industry are not only far better prepared technically than I was, but also face broader, more interesting, more difficult, and more exciting challenges than I did. I wish them well, and I also envy them.

What advice would you give to our younger members?

The best advice I could give would be: Invest in lifelong learning programs to continually hone, update, and change your skills and competencies. In today’s world of global competition, each of us must always be as well qualified as possible in our chosen professions, not only for job satisfaction but also for just plain survival. Every individual’s technical development is his or her own responsibility—not the employer’s or the government’s. Becoming an active member of SPE is a genuine necessity and can satisfy a major part of one’s lifelong learning needs. In turn, active participation allows every member a chance to improve SPE’s programs, which itself is a learning experience and contributes to the welfare of the entire profession.

Most of our younger members will face, at some point in their careers, the option of essentially abandoning their technical professions and entering the ranks of management. Often that is a one-way street, and often it is also a frightening prospect. One must leave a technical career that has been comfortable and enjoyable and chart a new course into the uncertainty of managerial responsibilities. My advice would be to think about it well ahead of time and prepare yourself by studying economics, finance, accounting, and management arts in general, in addition to the new technical skills you must acquire. Knowledge is power, and the decision, when and if the opportunity arises, can be best addressed by preparation. You are the only person who can make the decision that is best for you. All of us are different. Do not feel obligated to enter the management ranks just because you are offered the chance. At the same time, do not cling to your current specialty just because it is comfortable.

Arlie Skov began his oil and gas career in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, in 1956 with Sohio Petroleum Co. He moved to Oklahoma City in 1958 and became Manager Special Projects for the company in 1966. Skov moved to San Francisco in 1975 as Manager, Production Planning, for BP Alaska’s giant Prudhoe Bay field on Alaska’s North Slope. After stints on the Alaska Gas Pipeline project and as Manager, Frontier Research, he moved to Dallas in 1983 as BP’s Director of Production Technology. Skov moved to Houston in 1988 as a Senior Consultant with BP and worked there until his retirement in 1992. He then formed his own consulting company, Arlie M. Skov Inc.

Skov has long been active in SPE, serving as President in 1991. He has been named a Distinguished Member and an Honorary Member, and was inducted into SPE’s Legion of Honor. Skov earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering with special distinction from the U. of Oklahoma and attended the Management Program at the U. of Virginia. He served on the U.S. Natl. Petroleum Council from 1994 to 2000 and is a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma and Texas. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, and is a frequent writer and speaker on energy matters.