Legends of Artificial Lift (July 2022)
Authors: JPT staff _ 
Published: August 2022

Legends of Artificial Lift

This year, the SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition–Americas will be held 23–25 August in Galveston, Texas, with the theme “Modern Artificial Lift–Adapting to a Changing Industry.” The event provides opportunities for technical professionals to gain insights into current trends and field experiences and explore innovative solutions. A special Legends of Artificial Lift Luncheon on 23 August will celebrate three individuals for their outstanding contributions to the technical knowledge in this field: Norman Hein Jr., Ken Nolen, and Gabor Takacs.

Norman W. Hein Jr.

Norman W. Hein Jr. has worked for 45 years in upstream production, his distinguished career spanning from research, development, and testing to ventures in production engineering, manufacturing, onshore and offshore project management, industry standardization, and the principles of artificial lift.

Hein joined the industry in 1977 as a research scientist with Continental Oil Company, where he learned about oil and gas production materials, failures, fatigue, and offshore construction. He then worked for Conoco and later ConocoPhillips in various engineering positions. In 2010, he joined the sucker-rod division of Norris Production Solutions as director of research, development, engineering, and quality; later at CONSOL Energy he was promoted to chief technology professional and senior advisor. Currently, Hein is president and managing director of Oil and Gas Optimization Specialists Ltd., which he established in 2003.

Kenneth B. (Ken) Nolen

Kenneth B. (Ken) Nolen for 62 years has been a key contributor to what he calls “the art and science of artificial lift.”

“My college degree in mechanical engineering was largely devoted to science,” he explains, “and that’s a branch of knowledge dealing with the physical world of facts and principles. Art, on the other hand, uses science to create new technology and products—in my field, that is to enhance artificial lift.”

His career in optimizing this art and science began after graduating from Texas A&M and serving his country in the US Air Force for a 3-year tour. Nolen joined Shell Oil Company as a production engineer before teaming up with Dr. Sam G. Gibbs to become co-founderand vice president of Nabla Corporation in Midland, Texas—a technical service company that specialized in artificial-lift diagnosis, optimization, design, training on pumping wells, and manufacturing pumpoff controllers and fluid-level sounders. “It was at Nabla that I pursued my long-held passion for optimizing production from artificially lifted wells.”

Gabor Takacs

Gabor Takacs joins the Legends of Artificial Lift as an internationally recognized consultant with more than 35 years of consulting and teaching experience in the fields of production engineering, with a concentration in artificial lift.

“The great honor of being nominated is an absolutely thrilling sensation for me,” he said. “It gives me a special satisfaction to be the first foreigner to join those wonderful people whom I have been privileged to meet and cooperate with during my career.”

Takacs is a professor emeritus at the University of Miskolc, Hungary, where he led the petroleum engineering department from 1995 to 2012.