Awards & Scholarships

Sunil Kokal is a principal professional (senior adviser) and a focus area champion of enhanced oil recovery in the Reservoir Engineering Technology team at the EXPEC/Advanced Research Center at Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Since joining Aramco in 1993, he has been involved in applied research projects on enhanced/improved oil recovery, reservoir fluids, hydrocarbon phase behavior, crude-oil emulsions, and production-related challenges. Currently, Kokal is leading a group of scientists, engineers, and technicians to develop a program for CO2 enhanced oil recovery and to conduct appropriate studies and field demonstration projects. He has written more than 100 technical papers and authored the chapters on Crude Oil Emulsions and Reservoir Fluid Sampling for the revised edition of the SPE Petroleum Engineering Handbook(2006). Kokal has served as associate editor for the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering and SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. Earlier, he served on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology. Kokal received the 2012 SPE DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, the 2011 SPE Distinguished Service Award, the 2010 SPE Regional Technical Award for Reservoir Description & Dynamics, and SPE Distinguished Member status (2008) for his services to the society. He also served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer during 2007–08. Prior to joining Saudi Aramco, Dr. Kokal worked at the Petroleum Recovery Institute (PRI), Calgary, Canada. Dr. Kokal holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada (1987) and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (1982).