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Vol. 59 No. 4

April 2007

People

 John Campbell, SPE, has published an autobiography titled A 20th Century Odyssey. An honorary member of SPE and AIME and a member of the U.S. Natl. Academy of Engineering, Campbell describes his experiences and observations during his 50-plus years in the global petroleum industry and with SPE. All royalties are being donated to support scholarships for engineering students.

 Craig Fox, SPE, was named Vice President in the Leveraged Credit Group of Guggenheim Partners LLC. Before this appointment, he was a petroleum engineer for Amaranth LLC. Fox earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M U.    

Neil C. Decker, SPE, was selected as one of the 2007 New Faces of Engineering by the Natl. Engineers Week Foundation. He is currently a reservoir engineer for BP in Houston, evaluating drilling prospects. He earned a BS in petroleum engineering from Montana Tech.

Joseph Gasca, SPE, was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoe Energy Inc. Before this appointment, he was President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Ivanhoe Energy. Gasca’s 27 years of experience includes senior positions with Texaco Inc. 

Mid-Con Energy Corp. reported two appointments. Robbin Jones, SPE, was named Vice President and COO. Before this appointment, he was involved in business development. Jones earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering from the U. of Tulsa. Rex McPhail, SPE, was named Vice President and General Counsel. He earned BS and ME degrees in petroleum engineering and a law degree from the U. of Tulsa.  

Stephen D. Kirton, SPE, was appointed Vice President, Technical Services for Urals Energy. He has 25 years of experience as a geologist and production engineer. Kirton earned a BS degree in Earth science from the U. of Waterloo.

 Ryan Lance, SPE, was named Senior Vice President of Tech-nology for ConocoPhillips. Before this appointment, he was Senior Vice President of Technology and Major Projects for ConocoPhillips. Lance’s technology group will be responsible for creating strategies and finding business development opportunities.

 Iain Percival, SPE, retired as Chief Petroleum Engineer from the Royal Dutch Shell Group. He is now a Senior Adviser for Schlumberger Business Consulting and consults with the Energy Centre of Robert Gordon U. and the U. of Aberdeen. Percival earned a BS degree in geology from the U. of Aberdeen, an MS degree in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt U., and an MBA degree from Brunel U. He is a board member of the SPE Netherlands Section.

 Meb Somani, SPE, was appointed Head of Oil and Gas for Actis. Before this appointment, he was Managing Director for Harrison Lovegrove & Co. Somani earned a degree in petroleum engineering from Imperial College, London, and an MBA degree from Henley Management College.

  John Barr, SPE, a pioneer in the field of polycrystalline-diamond compact (PDC) bits died 24 January 2007 in Cheltenham, England. As Technical Director of Drilling & Service (later ReedHycalog), he created some of the first commercially successful PDC bits for the North Sea.

Barr chaired the Intl. Assn. of Drilling Contractors committee that produced the first PDC-drill-bit classification system and established the first PDC-cutter manufacturing capability in the United Kingdom. The development team he created went on to make dramatic developments in the abrasion resistance of PDC cutters. Barr addressed the problems of directional control of drill bits by pioneering rotary-steerable drilling. The resulting rotary-steerable system proved commercially viable and set records for horizontal reach in the Wytch Farm field.

Before entering the oil industry in 1974, Barr worked for Sperry Gyroscope Co. developing inertial navigation systems and at Rank Taylor Hobson developing measurement systems and servocontrolled zoom lenses. He earned an engineering degree from Cambridge U. and an MS degree in mathematics from the U. of London. Barr held 43 patents.
  Bogdan Goricnik, SPE, one of the founding members and the first Secretary of the SPE Croatian Section, died 28 December 2006. An SPE member since 1978, he was Croation Section Chairperson during 1996–98 and held other positions in the Section Board over the years. Goricnik received an SPE Regional Service Award in 2005.

Goricnik worked during 1963–2003 at INA-Naftaplin, specializing in fluid and core properties. In 1974, he began teaching at the U. of Zagreb, where he later became a full-time professor after his retirement from INA-Naftaplin in 2003. Goricnik was the author of numerous technical and scientific publications. He earned a PhD degree in chemistry from the U. of Zagreb.
  Robert Charles Earlougher, an SPE Distinguished Member and AIME/SPE Honorary Member, died 17 January 2007 in Brighton Gardens, Tulsa. He began his industry career after earning a degree in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1936. Earlougher worked in a refinery laboratory and then in oil production with the Sloan and Zook Co. 

Earlougher and a partner bought Geologic Standards Co., which offered engineering consulting and core-analysis services. In 1945, he bought out his partner and changed the name of the company to Earlougher Engineering. Earlougher supervised program operations of mostly waterfloods in 10 U.S. States and in Peru, Indonesia, and Turkey. Earlougher also served as a special consultant to the City of Long Beach, California, for 35 years, helping to halt subsidence caused by local oil extraction.

In 1973, Earlougher Engineering became Godsey-Earlougher Inc. and Earlougher became Chairman and Senior Consultant. In 1976, Williams Bros. Engineering Co. bought Godsey-Earlougher Engineering and he became Chairman of the Petroleum Consulting Div. and acted as Senior Consultant to the division specialists.

Earlougher retired from Williams Bros. in 1988. He reactivated Earlougher Engineering Inc. to continue solo practice as a reservoir-engineering consultant in waterflooding and enhanced oil recovery for several years.

Earlougher was active throughout his career with SPE, AIME, American Petroleum Inst., and other industry-oriented groups. He was Mid-Continent Section Chairperson during 1945–46 and served on the SPE Board of Directors as Vice President in 1957 and as Director in 1953. Earlougher served on the Lester C. Uren Award Committee during 1978–81 and was Chairperson during 1980–81. He also was on the SPE Distinguished Member Committee during 1987–88 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 1973. Earlougher was awarded the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal in 1980, served on the committee during 1964–67, and was its Chairperson during 1966–67.

Earlougher was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Jeanne. He is succeeded by son Robert Charles Jr. and daughter-in-law Evelyn Robertson Earlougher; daughter Janet and son-in-law James Wilbur Hawkins; and daughter Anne O’Connell and son-in-law Gene Malinowski.