The SPE Podcast

This month’s column shares practical ideas gathered from professional sections and student chapters worldwide, including fresh approaches to communication and meeting formats as well as creative ways of building community and recognition. These real‑world examples highlight the diversity of SPE and offer plenty of “food for thought” for leaders looking to strengthen engagement and deliver more value to their members.

Production operations are evolving rapidly—from traditional SCADA monitoring to AI-enabled intelligence. In this SPE Live, the SPE DSEA Technical Director and the SPE Production and Facilities Technical Director explore how advances in data infrastructure, analytics, and machine learning are transforming operational decision-making, improving efficiency, safety and shaping the future of intelligent production systems.

Moderated by Silviu Livescu, 2020-2023 SPE DSEA Technical Director. Co-Founder and CTO at Bedrock Energy

Speakers:
• Sushma Bhan, SPE DSEA Technical Director. Former Shell CDO of Subsurface/Wells
• Greg Stephenson, SPE Production and Facilities Technical Director. Chief Production Engineer at Occidental Oil & Gas Co. (Oxy)

Production data is often treated as a direct measurement, but in practice, it results from a chain of transformations linking reservoir conditions to reported flow rates. Fluid properties defined by pressure, temperature, and composition govern phase behavior and physical characteristics such as density and compressibility. These properties directly influence how flow measurement technologies respond under operating conditions, regardless of measurement principle. The same fluid description is then used to translate measured quantities into engineering outputs such as phase rates, allocation, and well performance. As a result, any inaccuracy or inconsistency in fluid properties propagates through both measurement interpretation and reservoir analysis. As production conditions evolve, changes in fluid behavior can simultaneously affect measurement response and reservoir conclusions, even when the measurement system itself remains unchanged.

This panel will examine the chain from reservoir conditions to reported production data, focusing on how fluid properties influence each step and how inconsistencies propagate into engineering decisions. The objective is to clarify the sources of uncertainty and how to better align measurement and reservoir workflows in practice.

Moderated by: Lester Yi, Lead Instrumentation, Control, and Electrical (IC&E) Engineer at ExxonMobil

Speakers:

Muhammad Navaid Khan: Senior Specialist in Reservoir Engineering ad ADNOC

Amin Amin: Chief Operating Officer at Belsim Engineering

This month's podcast features an update on SPE’s path to financial sustainability: stronger revenues, new partnerships, and emerging opportunities—from geothermal initiatives to AI-driven licensing—are improving the outlook. While challenges remain, recent progress highlights a more resilient Society and a forward-looking strategy focused on long-term member value.

Join us for this SPE Live hosted by SPE’s Education and Accreditation Committee where our panelists will discuss how Petroleum Engineering (PE) education changes have been driven by technological innovations and the evolving energy landscape. We will examine how PE programs are integrating new topics while continuing to value traditional engineering skills. The session will showcase changes to educational curricula that address critical themes such as energy growth, AI advancements, and industry evolution. Please join this discussion on how PE education is shaping the future of geo-energy skills, and more importantly, explore how industry practitioners could be engaged in this process.

Moderated by Juliana Leung, SPE EAC Chair. Professor, Canada Research Chair in Data Analytics in Subsurface Flow Systems at University of Alberta
 
 
Speakers:

Siyavash Motealleh, Principal Reservoir Engineer at BP AGT

Peyman Pourafshary, P.E. Professor & Vice Dean of Research and Academic Affairs, School of Mining and Geosciences, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan    

Marshall Watson, Chair of Texas Tech Bob L. Herd Dept. of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech University