Awards and Achievements

December 17, 2017 0 comments ISMAANA Admin Categories Patrika Q4 2017

Honorary Membership
Honorary Membership is conferred on individuals for outstanding service to SPE and/or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in fields encompassed in SPE’s technical scope. Honorary Membership is the highest honor SPE confers upon an individual and is limited to 0.1% of SPE’s total membership.
This year two IIT(ISM) alumni received this prestigious award – Akhil Datta-Gupta and Anil Kumar.
Akhil Datta-Gupta is a professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University. He worked for BP Exploration and Research from 1986 to 1990 and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1992 to 1994 before joining Texas A&M in 1994. Datta-Gupta was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2012 for “developing the theory and practice of streamline simulation for fluid flow in heterogeneous reservoirs.”
Datta-Gupta received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2001 and several other honors from SPE, including the John Franklin Carll and Lester C. Uren awards. He was named an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 1999–2000, a Distinguished Author in 2000, an outstanding technical editor in 1996, and was awarded the Ferguson certificate in 2000 and 2006. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed technical papers and 4 books, including an SPE textbook. Datta-Gupta holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas.

Anil Kumar, recipient of SPE Honorary Membership Award, is the founder and president of Omak Technologies LLC in Plano, Texas, which provides petroleum engineering consulting services. He is a pioneer of pressure derivative technology, which has become a significant technology platform in transient well testing. He served as chairman and associate professor of petroleum engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology and helped found the institute’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center. Kumar has worked in senior positions at Gulf Oil, Chevron, Mobil, Devon Energy of Indonesia, and Petro China International Jakarta. As a senior vice president at Reliance Industries, he built a 60-member subsurface team for India’s first deepwater development in KG Basin Block-D6. He has published numerous papers, supervised theses, and coauthored several books, including Gas Well Test Analysis Under Water Drive Conditions.

Kumar is a recipient of the SPE Reservoir Engineering award in 1997, the SPE Formation Evaluation award in 2013, and the SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas award in 2015. He received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2001 and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in 1995–1996. He has served on the SPE board, the JPT editorial board, and on numerous SPE committees and events boards as chairman, co-chairman, member, and as a keynote speaker. Kumar has presented numerous technical short courses for SPE and PetroSkills.
Kumar holds a BSc with top honors from the Indian School of Mines (now Indian Institute of Technology), an MS from Louisiana State University, and a PhD from Stanford University, all in petroleum engineering.

Mr. Sidhartha Sur receives SPE Distinguished Membership from Society of Petroleum Engineers at SPE’s Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held 9-11 October in San Antonio, TX. Sur is being recognized for his instrumental leadership in the development of technically and economically viable, safe thermal EOR methods of in situ combustion, cyclic steam stimulation and steam flood for increasing recovery from the heavy oil belt of India and Colombia.

Mr. Sur is currently Executive Director – Head of Institute of Reservoir Studies in ONGC at Ahmedabad, India. Earlier he was Chief of Corporate Planning & Strategy. In ONGC, he has been responsible for development activities for all fields of ONGC encompassing conventional & EOR means. He obtained Bachelor of Technology in Petroleum Engineering from Indian School of Mines, India in 1980.

Mr. Sur was instrumental in placing ONGC and India in particular on the world map of EOR through successful application of In Situ Combustion process in Balol & Santhal fields. During 2010-12, he served as CTO and CEO of Mansarovar Energy Colombia Ltd, a JV of OVL and Sinopec involved in heavy oil exploitation through Steam injection.
He served as SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the year 2009-10. In 2012, he was awarded with SPE Latin America & Caribbean Regional award on Completion Optimisation & Technology. He was awarded in 2016 “Distinguished Alumnus Award” of IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, India. He has numerous publications to his credit in SPE & in other National & International forums, mainly in Air Injection, Steam Injection and Gas Injection processes.

Aman Gaurav, an undergraduate student, represented IIT(ISM) and presented his research paper on “Microbial Profile Modification: Application of Biotechnology in Improving Oil Recovery” during the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 9-11 Oct at San Antonio, Texas, USA. Aman was awarded second prize amongst the regional contest winners from 14 different regions across the globe. Aman also won the SPE South Asia Regional Student Paper Contest at the Undergraduate level, held during SPE Oil and Gas India Conference and Exhibition, 4-6 April at Mumbai, India.
(Reference:https://www.spe.org/en/events/atce/media/atce-international-awards/)