New appointment
Samer S. Al Ashgar appointed executive director of Exploration
Al Ashgar had most recently been general manager of Characterization and Field Development Geosciences.
Samer S. Al Ashgar was appointed as Saudi Aramco’s executive director of Exploration, effective Oct. 1, 2022. Prior to this appointment, he held the position of general manager of Characterization and Field Development Geosciences in Exploration, from late 2020. He was previously appointed as general manager, Southern Area Gas Producing, handling all gas production and its surface facilities from 2019.
Beforehand, Al Ashgar had moved to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Energy in early 2017, where he established and led the Policy and Strategic Planning Deputyship responsible to support the development of the Kingdom’s long-term energy policies and strategies.
Al Ashgar was previously the president of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), an independent global energy economics research center, based in Riyadh, moving there in 2014.
In 2009, he was the manager of the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center – Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC), leading upstream research, and developing key upstream subsurface technologies for Saudi Aramco.
Al Ashgar began his career as an engineer within oil operations and has held several management positions. He has broad oil and gas industry experience spanning from facility operations to production and reservoir engineering and exploration.
Al Ashgar has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa, an M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
