First SPE President from the Middle East
Posted: 20 June 2005
Dr. AbdulJaleel A. Al-Khalifa, Manager of Saudi Aramco Reservoir Description and Simulation, has been elected 2007 president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPE).
 He is the first SPE member from the Middle East to be elected president of the organization. A committee of senior international company executives, industry experts and SPE board members approved Al-Khalifa's election based on his international reputation, scientific qualifications and leadership skills.
The SPE opened its first international section in Dhahran in 1959, and today there are SPE sections in more than 60 countries. The SPE has more than 65,000 members throughout the world, of which 800 are in Saudi Arabia .
The society's role is to disseminate technical knowledge and nurture human talents through technical meetings and international conferences. The largest meeting is the Offshore Technology Conference, which is usually attended by more than 50,000 professionals.
Each year, hundreds of Saudi Aramco professionals attend conferences held by SPE International, where they present research papers. Those papers are available for SPE members' reference and are often selected to be published in the Society's internationally recognized magazines.
As the SPE president, Al-Khalifa's agenda will include visiting more than 60 countries to speak at SPE sections, inaugurate conferences and oversee SPE's four offices in Dallas , London , Dubai and Kuala Lumpur .
He also will work to open new offices in Russia , Africa and Latin America . "I will attempt to focus on human shared values and their effects in promoting the oil industry, such as fairness, integrity and trust. These values will tap the hearts and the minds of the workforce and will advance both innovation and technology," Al-Khalifa said.
"I hope to make the Society a vital bridge to transfer technology to the Kingdom and other Middle Eastern countries."
Al-Khalifa graduated from King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals with bachelor's and master's degrees in petroleum engineering. He earned his Ph.D. with high honors from Stanford University in the United States . Al-Khalifa has published dozens of scientific and administrative research papers and lectured at several international conferences.
In 1998, he was the first Saudi national to be elected a SPE Distinguished Lecturer, and he visited more than 20 SPE sections. In 2002, he was elected a member of the SPE board. He also was elected by the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers as a distinguished lecturer in 2005.
Al-Khalifa joined Saudi Aramco in 1979 and spent more than 10 years working in Reservoir Management and Simulation and in Pr oduction Engineering.
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