Interview with SPE President Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa

source: http://www.laspe.org/petrotech/petrojfeb106.html



Biography:

AbdulJaleel Al-Khalifa has accumulated more than twenty three years of rich experience in the oil industry, including the last ten years as a Manager in Saudi Aramco. He was Manager of Saudi Aramco’s Reservoir Characterization Department for six years, then the Exploration Department for two years and finally Reservoir Simulation and Description Departments for the last two years. His areas of technical interest span a wide spectrum including exploration, reserves, reservoir characterization, modeling and field development. He is a public speaker in both the Oil Industry and in the Management & Leadership field.

Since Joining the Society in 1988, Mr. Al-Khalifa has received the SPE Regional Service Award in 1999 and was appointed an SPE Distinguished Member in 2001. His many SPE activities include serving as the Technical Editor of the Editorial Review Committee during 1990-92, Director of the Saudi Arabia Section during 1993-97, and SPE Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of “Reservoir Management of Giant Oil Fields in Saudi Arabia” during the 1989-99 season. He also served as a member of the SPE Forum Series in the Middle East Steering Committee and is the author of more than 25 technical papers. Mr. Al-Khalifa is also an EAGE 2005 Distinguished Lecturer. He joined the SPE Board in 2002 through 2005, and has been elected to be the 2007 SPE President.

After completing his BSc and MSc degrees at the King Fah’d University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Al-Khalifa graduated with a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University in 1988. He then joined Mobil Research& Development in Dallas for six months, before resuming his service with Saudi Aramco. Al-Khalifa has also completed several intensive leadership seminars including the Program for Executive Development (PED) at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2002.

"The People Imperative"

This is a talk given at Stanford University Petroleum Engineering (now Energy Resources Engineering) Department Seminar in Spring quarter, 2006.

I didn't get a chance to hear the talk. But based on the abstract, this should be a good one.

http://ekofisk.stanford.edu/seminar/Spring.../Al-Khalifa.htm

The People Imperative

Abstract: Since the inception of the oil era, people have always been at the heart of the oil industry. Oil finders worked hand in hand with business entrepreneurs to advance the prosperity of man kind. This had continued through the innovation of new technologies including computing, seismic, deep water drilling, giant simulation modeling, multi-lateral drilling and smart completions. Oil and gas continued to power the economy and wealth of industrial nations while supporting the people of the producing nations.

Recently, there is a wide debate about the future of the industry with a casting doubt that oil is peaking and sunset is happening soon. This had indirectly flared a lot of discussions among policy makers and strategic planners about the urgency of alternative energy sources. Is this a divine destiny and what can people do to extend the life of the oil industry?

Fossil fuels are abundant, but they are limited in nature due to their creation through millions of years of geological time. So far, a trillion barrels of oil have been produced and the remaining oil can range from one to two trillion barrels of conventional reserves. It is true that average ultimate recovery is only 35% while the finding success ratio is only 20%. These low numbers highlight the people imperative in improving the ultimate recovery up to 50 – 70% and the finding success ratio to 50%. A remarkable change in both ultimate recovery and finding success can only happen if people develop, deploy and embrace a new bread of innovations and frontier breaking technologies.

How can people achieve this higher bar of excellence?

People innovate at the highest level of their full engagement. The spark of innovation cannot happen when people feel that a lot of their potential is untapped. Therefore, engagement is very essential and should be the core focus of corporate management. Indeed, engagement is a behavior that depends on both the individual readiness and the external stimulus. The individual readiness depends on both his technical competency as well as his core beliefs and values (i.e. character). The external stimulus is the work environment with its visible systems and policies and its invisible part which is walking the talk (i.e. fairness, trust and integrity need to be emphasized not only by posted policies but most importantly through day-to-day actions).

How much are people engaged and how much potential are we leaving unexploited at this critical time of talent scarcity and escalating demand? This will be discussed in detail where industry surveys will be shared and practical solutions will be offered to remedy the situation.