Case Histories of Tight Gas Reservoir Development

Stephen A. Holditch '69 was a faculty member of Texas A&M University from 1976-2019. He most recently held the titles of Professor and Associate Director of the Crisman Institute for Petroleum Research. He was previously the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Endowed Chair and head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University from 2004-2012. He was also the former head of the Texas A&M Energy Institute from 2011-2013.

While at Texas A&M, he taught 97 courses and served on more than 175 graduate committees during his tenure. Holditch received several awards from Texas A&M. He was elected into the Petroleum Engineering Academy of Distinguished Graduates in 1998, named a Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni in 2014, and named to the Corps of Cadet’s Hall of Honor in 2016. An endowed chair was also created to honor him in 2012 by many of his former students, the Stephen A. Holditch ’69 Department Head Chair in Petroleum Engineering, which is currently held by Jeff Spath.

Holditch held various leadership positions in SPE, including vice president–finance, member of the Board of Directors from 1998-2003, and SPE president in 2002. He received numerous awards in recognition of his technical achievements and leadership. In 1995 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering at the age of 49, and in 1997 he was inducted into the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He was elected as an SPE and AIME Honorary Member in 2006. He received some of SPE’s highest technical awards, including the Lester C. Uren Award, John Franklin Carll Award, and Anthony F. Lucas Medal. He published over 150 technical papers.

From 1999-2003, Holditch was a Schlumberger Fellow where he was a Production and Reservoir Engineering advisor to the top managers within Schlumberger. Holditch was President of S. A. Holditch & Associates, Inc. from 1977-99, a full service petroleum engineering consulting firm. His firm provided petroleum engineering technology involving the analysis of low permeability gas reservoirs and the design of hydraulic fracture treatments for various industrial and government clients. Holditch also has been a production engineer at Shell Oil Company in charge of workover design and well completions

Holditch received his B.S. in 1969, a M.S. in 1970 and Ph.D. in 1975 all in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.

John Spivey, as owner Phoenix Reservoir Software, LLC, develops reservoir engineering applications for low permeability gas and unconventional gas reservoirs. As owner of Phoenix Reservoir Engineering he consults, specializing in low-permeability gas, production data analysis, and pressure transient test interpretation. From 1997-2004 he served as senior reservoir engineer for Schlumberger. Prior to that from 1990-1997 he worked for S.A. Holditch & Associates. He is co-author on Applied Well Test Interpretation.

John Yilin Wang has served on the faculty in petroleum engineering and as director of 3S Laboratory for The Pennsylvania State University since 2009. He specializes in reservoir evaluation, well stimulation, and energy investment. Currently he also serves as associate professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering at the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering. Prior to this he worked as a petroleum engineer with a U.S. independent producer in Shreveport, Louisiana where he worked on reservoir evaluation and stimulation.