From the President

Terry Palisch headshot

Terry Palisch
2024 SPE President

Vice President for Technology and Engineering at CARBO Ceramics and an SPE member for more than 40 years. His chosen focus as President is "Creating Our Energy Future." Full bio

SPE is Global: President's Travels

China delegation image
Terry Palisch, 2024 SPE President, and Mr. Hou Qijun, President of China National Petroleum Corp.
China delegation image
The SPE delegation with Mr. Jia Yong, assistant president of CNPC and director general of CNPC International Department, and Mr. Jiang Tongwen, director general of CNPC R&D Department.
Terry Palisch with Oman Section
Along with 2023 SPE President Med Kamal, Regional Director Hisham Zubari, and SPE regional staff, Terry visits with the leadership and members of the Oman Section and local SPE chapter students.
Terry Palisch with Aberdeen Section
The Aberdeen Section leadership hosted a meet and greet with new SPE CEO Simon Seaton and Terry. Also present were Board members Laura Precupanu, Robin Macmillan and 2022 SPE President Kamel Ben-Naceur, as well as several senior SPE staff.

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SPE President in the News

Journal of Petroleum Technology

President’s Column With Terry Palisch—Creating Our Energy Future-December 2023
01 December 2023
In this episode and transcript, Terry Palisch is joined by Simeon Eburi, an SPE Regional Director of North America, to discuss connecting members to technology and each other, and the importance of local sections. This transcript is an excerpt from the podcast episode.

President’s Column With Terry Palisch—Creating Our Energy Future-November 2023
01 November 2023
In this podcast episode and transcript, Terry Palisch talks about the impact of the energy transition on the industry and technology and how SPE is helping its members adjust to the shifting landscape.

SPE Hosts Forward-Looking 2023 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition
19 October 2023
Oil and gas professionals from 70 countries turned out for the 2023 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in San Antonio, Texas.

President’s Column With Terry Palisch—Creating Our Energy Future-October 2023
01 October 2023
In this podcast episode and transcript, Terry Palisch shares his thoughts about how SPE and its members fit into the energy transition and what it means for our energy future.

President’s Column With Terry Palisch—Creating Our Energy Future
01 September 2023
In this inaugural podcast episode and transcript, Terry Palisch, who will officially begin his 2024 SPE presidency in October, discussed his views of the challenges facing our industry and SPE members, his outlook for our industry, and what his goals will be during his presidency.

2024 SPE President Terry Palisch Leads Delegation to Beijing To Strengthen Global Energy Collaborations
02 August 2023
The trip’s core mission was to strengthen ties with key stakeholders in the Chinese upstream and energy sector while identifying potential avenues for SPE to extend support and add value to the industry's technical pursuits.

President's Column Graphic

December 2023

In this episode and transcript, Terry Palisch is joined by Simeon Eburi, an SPE Regional Director of North America, to discuss connecting members to technology and each other, and the importance of local sections. This transcript is an excerpt from the podcast episode.

I’m Simeon Eburi, an SPE Regional Director of North America and reservoir management advisor with Chevron. I’m pleased to join SPE President Terry Palisch to talk about the benefit of joining and being involved with your local SPE section. Thank you for inviting me to join you. As a regional director, I’m passionate about the sections and the work they do, as I know you are, Terry.

Thank you, Simeon, for joining me today and being part of the episode. I asked you to join because I know your passion and your experience with the Gulf Coast Section, and my goal today is to ensure our members recognize how being active in their local section can help their professional development. I thought you would be the perfect host.

I believe that when most people, both members and external, think about SPE they typically think about the local section. That is what most are exposed to, so I consider the local section the front lines of our Society, the key to SPE’s mission of connecting. I want to focus our members on how they can benefit by connecting with their local section or student chapter because I think the local sections can impact not only their education and career but also their energy future.

I agree with you Terry, sections are the front lines. I was very involved with my local section in Houston before I was a regional director on the SPE Board of Directors. For people who do not know about SPE sections, let’s start there. What are sections and what do they do?

Let’s start with statistics. We have over 200 sections worldwide located in 85 countries, so wherever you are there should be a section near you. The first section was the Mid-Continent Section in Tulsa in 1917 over 100 years ago; it was established before SPE was incorporated. The first international section was about 40 years later, the Western Venezuela Section in Maracaibo. One of the most recent sections is the Ukraine Section in Kiev established in 2022.

We continue to add sections and at times reinstate sections that may have fallen behind. This year we reinstated the Libya Section and the Tunisia Section. Our sections are wide-ranging in size. The two largest sections are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Coast Section with well over 8,000 members. What is interesting is that the average SPE section size is over 300 and the median is under 150 which means we have a lot of sections that are smaller than 150 members, which illustrates the idea of the sections being grassroots. Each section operates independently and somewhat autonomously; they are local in their local area. Each is unique in that they respond to the needs of their members, providing technical exchange, networking opportunities, and engaging with the community. They really are the face of SPE at the local level...

Read the full transcript on JPT.


About Terry Palisch

Terry Palisch is the vice president of technology and engineering at CARBO Ceramics in Richardson, Texas, and the 2024 SPE President. He began his career with ARCO in Alaska and Algeria, joining CARBO in 2004 where he currently leads the Research and Development team.

Palisch has been an active SPE member for over 40 years, serving in various roles, including past chairman of the SPE Dallas Section, past chair of the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) technical program and former SPE Completions Technical Director. He is an SPE Distinguished Member and has received multiple SPE regional and international awards including Distinguished Service.  He has coauthored more than 50 SPE technical papers and holds several patents.

Palisch holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from University of Missouri Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) where he was recently recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus.

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