Company researcher takes SPE honors

MUSCAT, OMAN, ---

Mohammed H. Al-Khaldi from our EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) won first place at the 2nd GCC Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) young professional paper contest recently.

The event was organized by the Omani SPE section in Muscat.

Al-Khaldi, a laboratory technical supervisor, presented his paper before judges and a large audience of petroleum engineers. Many abstracts were submitted by young professionals from throughout the Gulf countries; however, only nine made the final cut by the SPE judging committee. The papers presented a range of innovative petroleum engineering topics with an emphasis on the application of basic and engineering sciences to the finding, development and recovery of oil and gas.

His paper, “New Insights into the Removal of Calcium Sulfate Scale,” highlights a novel approach to identifying the cause of low injectivity in a sandstone well after conducting two acid treatments. It also illustrates the details of Al-Khaldi’s technical solution to restore well injectivity.

Al-Khaldi is now designing well-stimulation treatments, formation damage mitigation and conformance control. Active in SPE since 2001, Al-Khaldi has published more than 15 SPE papers and seven journal articles, and has two patents.

“Our laboratory technicians and scientists engage in strong teamwork and function in a multidisciplinary environment,” said Khalid M. Al-Arfaj, general supervisor of EXPEC ARC’s Operations Services Division. “They provide in-house expertise and advanced analytical services that foster innovation in upstream research at Saudi Aramco.”