The SPE Drilling Engineering award was established in 1984 and recognises outstanding achievement or contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in the area of drilling engineering technology. Candidates are nominated by their professional colleagues and selected by committees appointed by the SPE Board of Directors.

The SPE Drilling Engineering Award winner is recognised at the annual SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition and the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE).

Paul Pastusek

Paul Pastusek worked for Baker Hughes for 30 years in Research and Development, Marketing, and Engineering.   He started a consulting company in 2008 and joined ExxonMobil in 2009. He is currently a Drilling Mechanics Advisor in the Wells Technical organization at ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions.   Paul has 42 years of experience working on redesign of drilling processes and tools to the economic limit. His areas of expertise are: automation, drill string dynamics, steerable systems, borehole quality, bit applications, cutting mechanics, rig instrumentation and control systems, and failure analysis.

Paul is a member of the Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section, and has been active in the Drilling Study Group, Gulf Coast Section, and the R&D Technical Section.  He received the GCS Regional Drilling Engineering award, and has received several Outstanding Instructor awards at ExxonMobil.  Paul has a BSME from Texas A&M University and a MBA from the University of Houston.  He is a Registered Professional Engineer, holds 42 US patents, and has given numerous talks and written 27 papers on drilling technology.