SPE PRESIDENTS INTERVIEW

2012 SPE President Ganesh Thakur

John Donnelly, JPT Editor

Ganesh Thakur, vice president, global adviser, and fellow of Chevron

Energy Technology Company, is the 2012 SPE president. He will take
office during the 2011 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition
in Denver.
Thakur is a recognized leader in reservoir engineering and simulation,
secondary recovery, reservoir and well productivity improvement,
heavy oil, horizontal well technology, and enhanced oil recovery. He
is also known for his work in the emergence of reservoir management,
particularly waterflooding, as a key interdisciplinary practice. Thakur
has published and taught widely around the world. He has designed
and operated reservoir management programs, mentored technical
professionals, and served as an ambassador of technology to national
oil companies and government ministries.
Thakur is an SPE Distinguished Member and has served as technical
director of Reservoir Description and Dynamics on the Board of
Directors. He is an SPE Distinguished Lecturer, past chairman of the
SPE Reprint Series Committee, and served on the SPE Editorial Review
and Forum Series committees. Thakur was also a short course instructor
on integrated reservoir management and waterflood management. He
received the SPE Reservoir Description and Dynamics award in 2005, Pennsylvania State University Outstanding Alumni
Achievement award in 2006, and Orange County (California) Outstanding Engineer of the Year award in 1994.
Thakur earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering from the Indian School of Mines. He earned MS and PhD degrees
in petroleum and natural gas engineering, and an MA degree in mathematics, all from Pennsylvania State University. He
also earned an MBA degree from Houston Baptist University.

How did you get involved in SPE?

It was as a student member, in the late 1960s, when I was
going to school in India at the Indian School of Mines (ISM).
I became a student member, although I do not think the student chapter was even formalized yet by SPE.
I became more involved when I went to graduate school
at Penn State. I have remained active in student membership, local sections, the Editorial Committee, Distinguished
Lecturer Committee, Forums, Applied Technology Workshops, the program for the SPE Annual Technical Conference
and Exhibition, and more.
I have been working since 1973, the first four years for
BP/Amoco and SSI and 34 years for Chevron. I was with
Gulf Oil when it was acquired by Chevron in the 1980s.

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As an undergraduate, oil prices were low and people

asked me, Why are you studying petroleum engineering? You are a good student. They got me scared and
they thought oil and gas would run out in 30 to 40 years.
They were wrong, and today we will still have 30, 40, 50
or more years of oil remaining, especially as we go from
conventional oil and gas to unconventional oil and gas.
The sky is the limit, and we may have a whole new era
coming up.
This has been a very rewarding career for me, and that is
the kind of message I would like to send to young people
in this industry. This can be a very rewarding career, not
just in financial terms, but also because this is exciting
work where you can use advanced technologies. You get

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SPE PRESIDENTS INTERVIEW

to work all over the world, meet diverse people, and make
friends everywhere.
What has brought you the most
satisfaction in your career?
Most satisfying for me has been contributing technically to
my company and contributing to the industry. I have saved
and made millions of dollars for my company. In addition, I
have worked on projects that have added millions of barrels
of reserves and thousands of barrels of production. I have
always been business focused and am always looking for
business results from technology. When you use technology and see the benefits and the value that come from it in
terms of increased oil and gas recovery and production and/
or safer operations, for your company and for the industry,
it is very satisfying.
The brightest career achievement for me has been mixing
the technical strengths with the practical strengths that go
into operating a field. I have a strong technical background.
But what I enjoy most is using technology to make things
happen in the field. Another aspect is the opportunity I have
had to develop professional relationships with other professionals in the oil and gas business and to be able to exchange
ideas with them.
Being the 2012 SPE president means a lot to me because I
am now being recognized by my peers for a career that has
impacted my profession, and it is very humbling to me. I
have always viewed SPE as the highest professional association for engineers and scientists practicing in the profession
of oil and gas exploration and production. In what other
profession can you make a difference in the lives of millions
of people every day? What other profession allows you to
provide oil and gas, the most important form of energy today,
all around the world? I am committed to doing the best job I
can for my company and professional society on every project every day, and nothing less. I have a commitment to top
quality for those I serve.
What goals have you set for
your term as president?
The industry does face a challenge that I believe SPE can
help with, which is how to increase recoveries and get
more oil and gas out of existing fields. I would like to see
SPE more active in helping the industry squeeze more oil
and gas out of reservoirs and create more business value. I
would like to see the industry use different types of technologies such as 3D and 4D seismic technologies, horizontal well technology, multilateral well technology, enhanced
oil recovery or water injection or gas injection projects.
This could be in deepwater or onshore fields, whether
the field is brand-new or mature. Increasing the recovery
efficiencies of those fields is something that is close to my
heart and I would like to see the industry be more successful in that area. On average, right now our recovery
efficiencies for the fields all over the world are only in the
30% to 40% range. I would like to see that number double.
I would like to challenge our industry to try to increase
that figure to 70%. With innovative ideas and hard work, I
have seen many fields yielding recovery efficiencies of 60%
to 70%.

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What can SPE do to help the

industry improve recovery rates?
SPE collects, disseminates, and exchanges technology and
technical information, and it can promote the use of this
information as well as collaborate more in the industry
with academia, national oil companies, operators, and
service companies. Collaboration and trust building are
essential to develop any partnership, and it takes time to
achieve this.
Some of these things are happening now, but I would like
to see more well organized, collaborative efforts. More indepth discussions, for example, and developing more standard practices in surveillance and monitoring of fields. Right
now, there are pockets of excellence in the industry, but it is
not happening consistently all over the world. I would like
to see SPE take a leadership role in developing minimum
standards, or standards, in these areas. If those practices
were done in a more organized fashion, it would be a service
to the industry as a whole.
What other goals do you have?
The other area I would like to focus on is energy education.
It is already happening. We have Energy4Me, we have lots of
good information on the SPE website, and we have done programs at large conferences. But I think we have a long way to
go in terms of educating the public, such as educating high
school teachers and encouraging students to become more
interested in science and engineering, especially petroleum
science and engineering. As the industry grows, it will need
more people in the future.
I think we could do more with high schools and work
more with teachers, making educators and students more
aware of our business and its importance. Our industry is not
an old-fashioned, dying industryit is a very scientific field
that requires a high level of technology.
Sometimes we try to convey these ideas to the public, but
we talk more about our profession or technology, which can
become very dry. We need to communicate better. People
need gas for their car, air conditioning for their house, and
gas for cooking. Everyones livelihood depends on the use
of energy.
What do you think are the
biggest challenges facing SPE?
One of the biggest challenges facing SPE is education about
the industry, especially in North America and Europe. A lot
of people feel that the oil and gas industry is not a clean
industry, and there is a negative perception regarding our
safety standards and the industrys profitability. It is very
important for our profession that we convey an accurate
message. This industry is a very safe industry that cares
about environment and health and safety of individuals. We
should always strive for high performance with a relentless
focus on safety as it has to be the way of life in our society.
At times, profitability is high in this industry, but at the same
time investment is high as well. I believe SPE has a role to
play in this area.
The second challenge is that SPE must get more involved
in certain areas of technology. This includes how we apply it,
how the industry collaborates with academia, and how dif-

JPT OCTOBER 2011

ferent companies collaborate. Because SPE is a neutral and

nonpolitical organization, it has an advantage no other organization has. SPE is already taking a leading role in industry
reserves and resources classification, and I would like it to
continue that role.
SPE carries a lot of professional recognition and prestige.
Are we utilizing all of that recognition most effectively? I
would say we are barely scratching the surface, because we
have tremendous influence. We do not have much authority
globally, but the influence that we carry is tremendous.

get together and, rather than each company testing an idea

on its own and struggling through it, they could test ideas
as joint industry projects. SPE cannot do a lot on its own in
this area, but it could be a great facilitator to get people to
talk about these things together, which would get some of
these ideas implemented at a faster rate.
Testing technology through a collaborative effort can be a
winning model for the industry, in terms of increasing efficiency and testing an idea at a faster rate. If the idea fails, then
nobody gets hurt completely because everybody is contributing a small amount. SPE, being one of the primary technical
organizations in our field, has an important role to play.

What are your thoughts about

membership growth?
If you include everyone, including students, SPE member- What do you see as the value of SPEs
ship is about 97,000 today. So membership has grown, and technical paper archive?
continues to grow, tremenI see remarkable value in
dously. There is no reait. There is not a single
son we cannot continue
project that I work on
to grow all over the world;
where I do not do a litI have always viewed SPE as the
there is going to be more
erature search on SPE,
energy demand around
using OnePetro, before
highest professional association for
the world in the future,
beginning to work on it.
so there is no reason why
The benefit is that you
we cannot double our curcan see what kind of work
engineers and scientists practicing
rent membership. In 10 to
has already been done
20 years I see that hapin an area. So, first, I do
in the profession of oil and gas
pening, with SPE reachnot have to reinvent the
ing global membership of
wheel. Secondly, I can
exploration and production. In what
150,000 to 200,000. SPE is
learn from what has been
a very vital, well-run, and
done and apply it. In my
well-respected organizaopinion, the archive is one
other profession can you make a
tion around the world.
of the most valuable assets
Some things SPE does
that SPE has for its memdifference in the lives of millions of
extremely well such as
bers. Some of us are utilizmeetings and forums. But
ing the library to its full
there are some areas where
extent, but I believe it is
people every day?
we can focus on more such
not highly utilized everyas training and education.
where in the world at this
That is one area where SPE
time. I am not sure all of
is already making great efforts, and I see even more growth our members, especially student members, are fully taking
opportunities in that area. As membership grows more in advantage of this capability.
developing countries, there will be more demand for training
and standards.
Do you think members have
Certification is another growth area for SPE. Many univer- an obligation to contribute to the
sities around the world are not accredited, and many stan- technical paper archive?
dards around the world are not at the same level as in other Of course they do. We all do. I have contributed many
countries. But people are hungry to improve their standards, technical papers myself. How did these papers get generso that is another area of growth that I see in the future.
ated? Petroleum engineers, members of SPE, are the primary
contributors. What we are doing here is contributing indiWhat do you think SPE can do
vidually and benefiting collectively. If we stop contributing
to encourage use or acceptance of new
papers, then the technology knowledge is not going to
technology, or emerging technology?
advance any more. The more we contribute, the more the
Compared with other industries, ours takes a relatively lon- industry gains.
ger time to adopt new technology from the inception of an
When we contribute something, our peers get a chance to
idea to complete implementation. It takes approximately 10 look at our ideas. When you get something critically evaluto 15 years or even longer. It is important for us to shorten ated by your peers and pass that test, it tells you that the
that time, and I believe SPE can take a leadership role in contribution you have made is valuable and credible. I think
this area. Some technologies should be developed in a col- the technical paper archive as well as the peer review process
laborative way, and SPE is fertile ground to nurture that and the critical review process are processes by which we
collaboration. SPE can create an environment where people professionally grow.

JPT OCTOBER 2011

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SPE PRESIDENTS INTERVIEW

That is a traditional way of contributing to the
industry. What do you think of social media
and its potential?
It can certainly make a contribution. We are barely scratching the surface in this area. Many other industries are taking
more advantage of this. This type of communication is more
informal, and at the same time very rapid, whereas the oldfashioned approach is more methodical. Social media communication is not reviewed that well so you have to take it at
your own risk, but it is a fast way to communicate.
I would emphasize that whether it is the old-fashioned
way, or a new approach, or using different media, we should
never forget about the quality and professionalism of what
we contribute and what we write. After all, SPE exists and
has been successful because professionally we are sound and
we have been fair and ethical in how we have done things.
How has your career prepared
you for the SPE presidency?
I have been a volunteer member of SPE for more than 40
years. I have held all types of positions in SPE, starting at the
bottom, and have been a technical reviewer, a Distinguished
Lecturer, and served in all types of ways including on the SPE
International Board of Directors. SPE has given me a lot in
professional growth and experience, and I want to give back.
I feel any professional should give something back to his
organization or profession.

sales@cwuk.com www.cwuk.com

How do you see the future of

the oil and gas industry?
The outlook for the future of the industry is bright and
healthy. Today, we are producing about 85 million b/d and
the forecast is that by the year 2030, production is going
to grow by 30% to 40%. World energy demand is going to
increase, so there is a growing demand for professionals in
our industry. The outlook for this industry is bright for the
young professionals and students coming into our business.
I would encourage young professionals to become active and
take a leadership role, and I would encourage college and
high school students to join the petroleum industry because
this a very important industry and it is going to be here for
the next 30, 40, 50, or even more years.
I see a very robust oil and gas industry in the future.
However, in my opinion, we need to change our message
when we communicate with others outside of our industry.
Our point should be to describe briefly what we do, and focus
more on the value of our profession, like providing energy for
light, heating, air conditioning, driving, running machines,
airplanes, etc., by exploring, drilling, producing, refining,
and transporting oil and gas and the derivative products for a
variety of usage. If we stop these activities of exploration and
production of energy, the whole world will come to its knees.
So, what we do is an integral part of our society, and todays
young engineers and scientists are going to play an even more
JPT
important role than my generation played.