Q&A with Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa

Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa is 2007 SPE President-Elect and Manager of Reservoir Description and Simulation in Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He is also serving as Program Chairperson of SPE’s first International Petroleum Technology Conference, to be held 21–23 November in Doha, Qatar. Before his current assignment with Saudi Aramco, Al-Khalifa was Manager of Characterization–Exploration, and served as Assistant to the Vice President of Petroleum Engineering and Development, and he has held several division head assignments in the Reservoir Management and Simulation departments. In 1998–99, he served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on “Reservoir Management of Giant Oil Fields in Saudi Arabia.” In 1999, he received the SPE Middle East Regional Service Award, and in 2001, he was named an SPE Distinguished Member. Al-Khalifa’s participation in SPE includes serving as a Director-At-Large on the SPE Board of Directors, 2005 Chairperson of the Board Committee on Technical Programs and Meetings, Director of the SPE Saudi Arabia Section during 1993–97, Technical Editor of SPE Formation Evaluation during 1991–92, and Chairperson of the SPE Annual Technical Symposium in Saudi Arabia during 1990–92. He also served as Technical Editor of the Arabian Journal of Science and Engineering during 1993–94. Al-Khalifa earned BS and MS degrees from King Fahd U. of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Stanford U. As Program Chairperson of the first International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) in Doha, can you offer a preview of some of the highlights of the conference? This is the first international conference sponsored by the four premier societies: SPE, the American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Soc. of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and the European Assn. of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE). A very intensive program with broad appeal has been carefully designed by a talented team made up of members of the four societies to address the most challenging issues in today’s energy environment.