R&D Study Group: Panel Discussion – Future Trends in Oil & Gas Research & Development

Bill Kline is Manager of the Drilling and Subsurface Function of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company.  He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan.  An ExxonMobil employee since 1980, Bill has held a variety of research positions, as well as assignments in Drilling Operations and Drilling Technology Applications.  Bill is a co-founder of Pumps & Pipes, a symposium series that brings together oil & gas, medical aerospace, and other professionals to explore common interests and opportunities for collaboration.  Bill and his wife Karen are the proud parents of five children, whose career directions include teaching, art, music, and ministry, all enabled by Bill’s association with the arts of well construction.

Tony graduated with a BSC in Geology from University College of Wales and has a post graduate diploma from Harvard Business School. In June of 2011 Tony became the VP of Automated Drilling with the objective of delivering an automated drilling solution for NOV and our industry. Tony Recently became the VP of services for a new division of NOV where he is responsible for drilling automation and optimization. Tony has published and presented 7 SPE/IADC papers and the most recent was presented at the IADC Drilling conference in Dubai this year.

Rustom K. Mody, P.E., is VP/Chief Engineer - Enterprise Technology for Baker Hughes Inc. Rustom holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration in Finance. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. USA. He holds 16 patents and is the author of over 55 articles, technical presentations  and publications. He has won numerous Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation. In all, he has more than 35 years of experience in drilling and completion. Rustom is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), American Association of Drilling Engineers, International Association of Drilling Engineers (IADC), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and serves on various sub-committees of all three organizations. He also serves on the Board of Advisors – University of Oklahoma Engineering Department, University of Oklahoma Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geologic Engineering Industry Advisory Board and Texas A&M TEES Executive Board.

Ben van den Brule graduated cum laude as a Mechanical Engineer and obtained a PhD in Applied Physics.  He worked at the Philips Research laboratories from 1982 to 1991 when he joined Shell in Rijswijk.  He worked in the general research group and was part of the team that started Shell Gamechanger.  He was the Burgers Professor as the TU Delft where he held a chair in Rheology between 1995 and 2000.  In 2000 he returned back to Shell full time and joined the management team of Shell’s upstream R&D.  In 2007 he moved to Houston to become the manager of Research and Engineering of the Unconventional Oil directorate.  Currently he is the Vice President for Unconventional Technologies in Shell’s Innovation, Research and Development Organization.