Utkarsh Sinha is an Associate Research Engineer at Xecta Digital Labs. He’s responsible for the R&D activities in unconventional reservoirs, serving digital solutions for the energy industry by fusing physics and data-driven methods for applications in solving reservoir and production engineering problems. Utkarsh is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and has served in several roles including advisory positions,chairperson, and technical committee member in industry initiatives, and authored published manuscripts on applications of machine learning in reservoir  engineering in leading journals and conference proceedings. He has a B.Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from VIT University, India, and M.Eng degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston.

Dr. Yuxing Ben is a reservoir engineer at Occidental, where she develops hybrid physics and data-driven solutions in the subsurface engineering technology group. She won the best paper award from URTeC 2019 and was selected as a SPE distinguished lecturer for 2021 on “Machine Learning Applications for Optimizing Real-Time Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing”. Prior to Oxy, Dr. Ben developed hydraulic fracturing models for Baker Hughes and Halliburton and was a postdoc at MIT. She has authored more than 30 papers and holds three US patents. She earned a BS in theoretical mechanics at Peking University, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Torbjørn Hegdal is the Manager, Business Development for NOV Completion & Production Solutions, Subsea. He has 30 years in the oil and gas industry, primarily working with Shell International, Enterprise Oil and other companies. He has held various Vice President, Asset and Business Unit Management positions, responsible for managing ownership in a number of offshore assets like Troll, Jotun and Valhall. Recently, he has worked commercializing new subsea technology, particularly related to subsea water treatment and water injection. The adoption of new disruptive technology has involved strategic discussions on subsurface and field developments with many operators across the world, including other business segments such as desalination and green hydrogen production.

He holds a master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Technology in Norway, and an MBA from the Norwegian Business School.

Patricia E. Carreras is the general director of the energy consulting company Blue Moon Strategies. She has more than 25 years of international experience leading and advising majors and independent energy companies on field development planning leveraging reservoir simulation. Additionally, she is a public speaker, mentor and coach on topics of sustainable development, leadership, D&I and cross-cultural effectiveness. She is the 2022–2023 chair of the SPE D&I Committee. Carreras is a past member of the SPE Business and Leadership Committee. She is the chair of the SPE Gulf Coast Section Continuing Education Committee, which received the 2022 Outstanding Committee award under her tenure. She received the 2021 GCS Exemplary Volunteer award.

Carreras holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Buenos Aires and a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University. She completed the Business Sustainability Management training from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in 2022.

Chris Fair received his BS in Chemical Engineering (1994) and his MS in Petroleum Engineering (1997) from the University of Houston. During his time in school, he worked in various positions in the chemical industry and oil patch. These included roles in process operations, project/design engineering, PVT and fluid mechanics research, sales engineering, process control and instrumentation, downhole nuclear tool testing (both in the laboratory and in the field), and laboratory instruction in process control, technical writing, and chemical engineering practices (basically, how not to get “blow’d-up” in a chemical plant). In 1997, he joined Data Retrieval Corporation (the SPIDR folks). While there he worked on expanding the range & types of wells that could be effectively tested from the surface, and worked on increasing the company’s markets, both in the US and overseas. In 2005, he started Oilfield Data Services, Inc., a reservoir/production engineering consulting firm that specializes in Automated Reservoir and Production Engineering Surveillance.  Outside of his “day-job”, he sings with the Houston Symphony Chorus.

Mathias Carlsen is the general manager for Americas at Whitson, a company that develops an all-in-one, web-based, petroleum engineering platform named whitson+. After earning his MSc, Carlsen joined Whitson, and has been a key developer, conceptual driver, and product manager of whitson+ for unconventional reservoir model management. Through Whitson, Carlsen has also supervised and consulted on projects for more than 50 E&P companies. In addition, he researches and teaches industry courses on well performance, advanced pressure, volume, and temperature (PVT) studies, phase behavior, and gas-based enhanced oil recovery. Carlsen holds a MSc degree in petroleum engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and was a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University.

Zach Aman is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chevron Woodside Chair in Long Subsea Tiebacks at the University of Western Australia, where he leads the Long Subsea Tiebacks laboratory and flow assurance research theme within the Fluid Science and Resources division. His research is focused on gas hydrate kinetics and transportability, interfacial phenomena in multiphase production systems, and environmental management of deepwater oil and gas releases. Zach received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Dr. Julie Morgan has over 35 years engineering experience, with more than 30 being spent working in the oil and gas business. She realized that she was a convert to flow assurance roughly 20 years ago and has been promoting the subject ever since. She has worked in the UK, Europe, USA, Africa and Asia-Pacific and is now the Chief Flow Assurance Engineer for Woodside Energy Ltd., based in Perth, Western Australia. Julie has a PhD, MEng and MA in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Olga Popova is a lead geologist at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy. She runs data collection and analysis on the domestic hydrocarbon market, production, and exploration. Prior to that, Olga worked as a research fellow with Carnegie Mellon University and as a natural resources program director with local governments. She earned a PhD degree in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. degree in information management from the University of Washington, and a BS/M.S. degree in geology and geophysics from Novosibirsk State University.

Robert C. Martinez currently serves as SPE’s North American Regional Director and has nearly 25 years of varied professional and technical experience developing and optimizing oil and gas assets throughout the United States. His experience includes conventional assets, multi-rig unconventional horizontal shale development programs, and deep enhanced oil recovery projects. Robert is currently President of Chimney Rock Energy, an energy advisory firm and was founder/CEO of Titan Rock Exploration & Production, a private Dallas-based oil and gas operator with assets in Texas. Concurrently, Robert was President of Alpine Gas with operations in Mississippi.

Prior to this, Mr. Martinez held key leadership roles at public and private operating companies such as XTO Energy, EXCO Resources and Compass Production Partners. He also worked for service companies, such as Schlumberger and internationally with Repsol-YPF prior.

Mr. Martinez has a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and is registered professional engineer in the state of Texas. Robert currently serves as the North American Regional Director for the Society of Petroleum Engineers International, on the Texas Energy Council Board, on Texas A&M's AggieSTEM board as well as on the Boys Scouts - Circle Ten Council Executive Board.

Phil Stockton is currently Director and Head Consultant at Accord Energy Solutions which he co-founded in 2010.

Mr. Stockton graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Chemical Engineering and worked as a process engineer for over 30 years but has more recently specialized in allocation engineering with an emphasis on simulation and use of mathematical techniques.

Mr. Stockton has previously presented papers on subjects associated with measurement and allocation, including: process simulation, uncertainty, game theory, application of estimation techniques, uncertainty based allocation, measurement error detection and data reconciliation to reduce meter uncertainty.

Amin Amin joined Belsim Engineering in 2018 after 32 years with Schlumberger where he held operations and management positions in field operations, strategic marketing and R&D, and 6 Years engineering consulting specializing in multiphase, wetgas, VFM, production allocation systems and Data Validation and Reconciliation modeling.

He is an active member of API Committee on Production Measurement and Allocation (CPMA), and board member of SPE Flow Measurement Technical Section (FMTS).

Amin has Diplôme De Maîtrise from Université de Nice, Master of Engineering from Supélec-Paris and Master of Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University-Edinburgh. He holds an Executive MBA from Sloan School of Management-MIT Boston.

Pejman Shoeibi Omrani is a senior scientist at TNO (Dutch institute for applied sciences) and has a degree in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics from Delft university of technology. His current work is focusing on the production optimization and digitalization in the energy sector and the application of machine learning and AI for the geo-energy systems. Currently, he is leading and coordinating several projects on the topics of digital twin, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the energy sector and process industry. In addition, Pejman is the SPE Netherlands digital officer since 2021. Pejman is the chair of the SPE production optimization workshop and has served as a committee member for several conferences including ATCE, offshore Europe and SPE geothermal workshop.

Shohreh Amini is a Data Science manager at the Big Data Center of Excellence at Halliburton-Landmark. She joined Landmark in 2016 as a Data Scientist, and in her current role she is leading a multi-disciplinary team of data scientists to deliver data science solutions to the customers, as well as internal organization. She has more than 10 years of experience in application of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques in various domains of petroleum engineering such as reservoir modeling, production foresting, anomaly detection, proxy modeling, etc. She has previously worked as a reservoir engineer for a National Oil Company. She holds a master’s and a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Delft University of Technology in Netherlands and West Virginia University in US, respectively. She has been a SPE member for the last 20 years and has served as a volunteer in multiple roles within SPE.

Jennifer Terrell is the Content Processing Manager for SPE’s Technical Publications group. She is responsible for managing SPE’s conference paper publication process, PetroWiki and oversees the technical paper education webinars for ATCE.

Dr. Tao Yang is a chief professional at Equinor, holding a position as a senior specialist in reservoir technology. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA). Dr. Yang has worked extensively on PVT and reservoir fluid analysis, gas-based improved oil recovery, and advanced data analytics. Due to his innovation in real-time fluid identification, Dr. Yang received the "Best Data Management and Application Solution Award" of the World Oil Awards in 2022.

Dr. Yang was selected as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the 2017-2018 season. He received the SPE North Sea Technical Award for Reservoir Description and Dynamic in 2011 and the SPE Distinguished Membership Award in 2019.

Bob Pearson, P. Eng.,is an independent Petroleum Engineering Advisor. He has extensive experience includes Field Development Planning and Production Engineering for onshore, shelf and deep-water projects, as well as completions design for Conventional and Unconventional Wells. 

After working for 13 years for major Operators (Shell International and Petro-Canada (now Suncor)), he has spent the last 40years working as a consult with APA Petroleum Engineering and RPS Energy, as well as his own independent companies in Singapore, Australia & Canada. He currently dividing his time between Canada and the UK. He provides advisory and peer review services through Glynn Resources Ltd.

Bob Pearson has a BSc. (Hons) in Mining Engineering from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the U.K. and is a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA in Alberta, Canada. He joined the SPE in Aberdeen in1975and was the 2019-22 SPE Technical Director for Production & Facilities, as well as being a former SPE Distinguished Lecturer.

Maritza Vargas is a sustainability strategic advisor, public speaker and author.

She started her career as Mechanical engineer in the O&G industry. After a few years in the field, she studied PgD. in Environmental Economics and MSc in Sustainable Development, Environmental Analysis.

With over 20 years of international experience as sustainability and environmental consultant -for both private and public sectors -she has been working for multinational companies and private organizations leading global programs through engineering consultancy, sustainability reporting, energy and Carbon management, training and social response projects.

She has also acted as an advisor for local governments, municipalities and public institutions on circular economy, environmental and sustainability matters.

She is volunteering for SPE SDTS, SPE GAIA Tree Program and SD PetroWiki.

Ross has been working in the Oil and gas industry for the last 30 years working for different service companies, and is now the head of wellbore surveying and telemetry in Schlumberger.

Ross has been involved with the SPE for the last 20 years, previously with the SPE Aberdeen chapter and as the SPE Wellbore Surveying Technical Section Chairperson. Ross has published 30+ SPE papers and holds multiple patents with others pending.

David Gibson is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur. He owns and manages Gibson Reports, a MWD and Directional Drilling market research firm as well as a partner and board member for several start-up companies. Launching his oilfield career as a UTA-trained Mechanical Engineer, David has a 15-year track record of working for both major and independent service providers in global and domestic onshore and offshore capacities operating a wide range of tools from survey-on-connection to offshore penta-combos.

Serving in leadership roles ranging from Sub-Committee Chair to Board of Directors in several professional oil and gas associations like IADD, SPE, AADE and IADC, David is a public speaker and has been featured on 25+ different industry podcasts and livestreams to date.

Dr. Lee is a professor, at Texas A&M University, where he holds the DVG Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering.

With over 50 years of petroleum engineering experience, John brings a wealth of knowledge to the industry. He has specialized in reservoir engineering aspects of hydraulically fractured wells and integrated reservoir studies, as well as unconventional gas resources development.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Lee has taught at Mississippi State University, the University of Houston and Texas A&M University. He has worked at ExxonMobil, and later as a consultant for S.A. Holditch & Associates. From 2007-2008, John served as an academic engineering fellow with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to modernize SEC rules for reporting oil and gas reserves.  

For SPE, Dr. Lee has authored four textbooks and received numerous awards, including the Lucas Medal, the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal and Honorary Membership recognition.

Dr. Soliman is the chairman of the Petroleum Engineering Department at the University of Houston.

After earning his PhD, in petroleum engineering, from Stanford University in 1979, Dr. Soliman embarked on a career in both industry and academia. Throughout his profession, he has focused on various aspects of fracturing, including diagnostic testing, analysis of fracturing data, and numerical simulation of fracture propagation in geothermal and unconventional reservoirs. More recently Dr. Soliman and his team are investigation the area of plasma stimulation/fracturing as a method of waterless stimulation.

With the unique combination of both industrial and academic experience, Mohamed has authored and co-authored more than 250 technical papers and holds 40 US patents. He is the first author of "Fracturing Horizontal Wells", published in 2016; and the co-author of "Optimization of Hydraulic Fracture Stages and Sequencing in Unconventional Formations", published in 2018. Dr. Soliman is a distinguished member of SPE.

Karen Olson is a senior completions advisor for Well Data Labs and an independent consultant. She previously was technology director for Southwestern Energy Company. Olson has been a completion/ reservoir engineer for more than 37 years, starting her career as a fracturing engineer for The Western Company of North America. She has also worked at S.A. Holditch and Associates, Mobil Oil, and BP.