James Pappas has been Global Technology Coordinator, Facilities Engineer in the DW/International Well Engineering & Facilities Division, DW Project Coordinator for Devon Energy in the past, and Production Engineer in the GOM Division for Devon, and Santa Fe Snyder. He has also held drilling, completions, production, operations, reservoir, and A&D positions with Fina, UPRC, and Amoco. 

He’s been active in SPE for 34 years. He is a past SPE International Production & Operations Technical Director and SPE Technical Programs/Meetings Committee Chair, and a former chair of the SPE-GCS Scholarship Committee, General Meeting, Drilling SG, and SPE-CGS Board of Directors. He is a member of the Awards/Nominating Committee, and past chair of the SPEI Production & Operations Award Committee. He has served on several technical program committees for the OTC, ATCE, LACPEC, SPE R&D Conference, and P&O Conference.

He is co-chair of the Marine Technical society (MTS) OTC Program Subcommittee and is a past Private Industry Practice Chair and Executive Committee member of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. James has authored over 60 technical papers and spoken at conferences on various technical and professional topics. He is an advisor to the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy.

James earned a BS in Chemical Engineering and BA in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979, and an MBA with highest honors from the University of Texas at Tyler in 1993.

He’s earned the SPE-GCS and SPE Gulf Coast Region Service Awards, the SPE Distinguished Service Award, as well as both the Houston Area Engineer of the Year in 2007 and Texas Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers in 2008. He was selected as a Distinguished Engineer in Texas by the Texas Engineering Foundation in 2008 and an SPE Distinguished Member in 2012. He’s been a Registered Professional Engineer (Texas) since 1985.