Personality Sketch
William W. Fleckenstein was born in Denver, Colorado on June 15, 1963. He was awarded an appointment to the Air Force Academy but instead walked on the Colorado School of Mines football team, earned an athletic scholarship, including a redshirt year, and later an academic scholarship under the Colorado Scholar’s Program. This allowed him to pursue a lifelong interest in drilling and engineering that was fostered by his father’s work for Portadrill, a company that built small drilling rigs. He also worked offshore summers for Pennzoil in the Gulf of Mexico on several production platforms as a roustabout, before earning both Bachelors (1986) and Masters Degrees (1988) in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
Dr. Fleckenstein worked as a roughneck for Loffland Drilling, then joined Scientific Software, a leading provider of reservoir simulation consulting. In 1990, he joined Bechtel Petroleum as a Drilling Representative/Engineer, and was involved in the design and well site supervision of drilling, completion and workover operations on over 200 wells, ranging in depths from 1,000’ to over 17,000’. He coordinated well site selections to utilize existing infrastructure and minimize directional drilling requirements. He was the onsite operator representative overseeing operations performed by drilling, completion and workover rig companies and various subcontractors. His drilling experience includes PDC bits, directional, coring, foam, openhole fishing and multiple mud system experience. His completion and workover experience includes acid and fracture stimulation, foam operations, sand control, remedial cementing, cased hole fishing, on both flowing and artificial lift wells (rod pump, gas lift, ESP). He supervised numerous coil tubing stimulation and cementing operations. He was then promoted to Area Engineer, responsible for the reservoir and production engineering for the western half of the Northwest Steven’s Reservoir - 4,000 BOPD. He was credited with Elk Hills most successful workover, the conversion of shut-in water injector to a 1,400 BOPD well.
Dr. Fleckenstein left Elk Hills in 1995 to complete his doctoral program at the Colorado School of Mines. He researched wellbore stresses using finite element modeling and graduated with a doctoral degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2000 and a minor in Mathematics. He maintains an active practice in consulting, working in multiple basins in the United States, designing drilling, completion and workover programs, including an ongoing redevelopment program offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel. He has taught graduate, undergraduate courses and industry seminars in Completions, Drilling and Workover Engineering. He has attended numerous industry schools, technical conferences and symposiums as part of his continuing education.
Dr. Fleckenstein is an Adjunct Professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Petroleum Engineering, the Director of the PERFORM Research Group, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on the NSF Ice Coring and Drilling Services, advises the National Academies and the NSF on Antarctic Drilling and has 20 publications. Dr. Fleckenstein is a Principal in Fleckenstein, Eustes and Associates, a petroleum engineering consulting firm, providing drilling, completion and workover consulting services, industry schools and expert witness services. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the American Association of Drilling Engineers, Sigma Xi, Pi Epsilon Tau, and is a registered professional petroleum engineer in the state of California (#1666).