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.
Chapter 23: Economic Assessment of Applying Advances in Fracturing Technology
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Published:2020
G. W. Voneiff, S. A. Holditch, "Economic Assessment of Applying Advances in Fracturing Technology", Case Histories of Tight Gas Reservoir Development, Stephen A. Holditch, John Spivey, John Y. Wang, Stephen A. Holditch, John Y. Wang
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Copyright © 1994 Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc. Journal paper SPE 24888 was first published in vol. 46 (01) of J Pet Technol, pgs. 281–296.
SPE 24888 presents a case history of economic assessments of the cost and benefit of applying three new technologies in six tight gas formations in U.S. Voneiff and Holditch first discuss the necessity of new fracture technologies through in-depth analyses of fracture fluid problems with no quality control, fracture height overestimate or underestimate without accurate in-situ stress information, and the inadequacy of 2D fracture design models when a formation has multiple pay zones or when stress contrast is not large enough (> 1,500 psi) to contain a fracture. The authors then estimate the costs of applying each technology at three different levels (i.e., none with zero added cost; standard; and intense, with the highest added cost). They compile an “average” well with representative reservoir and fluid properties for each of the six formations using the approach discussed in Case Histories Chapter 9 of this book and compute an optimal fracture length and treatment size. From there, Voneiff and Holditch determine the probability of errors that may be encountered in fracture design and implementation, with and without applying the new technologies. They first compute the gas production and revenue for each possible outcome by use of a 2D reservoir simulation model, and then compute the benefits of applying new technologies. From this research, Voneiff and Holditch conclude the following:
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