Arlie M. Skov, 87, passed away Dec. 23, 2015, at his home in Santa Barbara.
Skov was born Sept. 21, 1928, in Noble County, Okla., the eldest child of Arnold and Mary Skov, both long-time Noble County residents.
He married Luella L. Sloan, also a native of Noble County, on July 31, 1951, in Stillwater, Okla.
His education began at Oak Grove School, a traditional one-room, eight-grade country school east of Perry, Okla., in 1935.
He graduated from Sumner Consolidated High School in Noble County in 1946 (having skipped the second grade), and from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering (with special distinction) in 1956. He also attended the Basic Advanced Management Program at the University of Virginia in 1966.
Skov’s military service included three years in the Oklahoma national Guard (Company I, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division, based in Perry, Okla.) from March 1948 to March 1950, and active military service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, from Nov. 14, 1950, to Nov. 13, 1952, all in the continental U.S. and mostly at Fort Carson, Colo., with brief tours at Fort Belvoir, Va., and Fort Hood, Texas.
He also was enrolled in ROTC at Oklahoma A&M University between 1947-48 and served in the Army Reserve (Inactive) from 1952-56.
Following graduation from the University of Oklahoma, Skov began a 36-year career in petroleum engineering and management, initially with Sohio Petroleum Company in Oklahoma City, and later with various subsidiaries of British Petroleum including BP Alaska and BP Exploration, in California and Texas.
Early in his career, his work was primarily petroleum reservoir engineering in the U.S. mid-continent and West Texas areas, but in 1974, his job focus shifted to the north slope of Alaska and the huge Prudhoe Bay oil and gas field, working on equity ownership issues.
In 1977, he was named manager production planning in San Francisco, responsible for development planning of Prudhoe Bay field, including preparation and managing capital and operating budgets to $1 billion per year.
In 1980, he was named technical advisor to ANGTS, the proposed Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, and in 1981, became manager new technology development responsible for developing cost effective drilling, production and transportation capabilities in arctic pack ice and other environmentally hostile areas of operation.
In 1983, Skov was appointed director production technology in Dallas, responsible for research and development and technical services for all U.S. oil and gas production operations for British Petroleum.
From 1988 until 1992, Skov served as senior consultant to BP Exploration in Houston.
Skov was active in technical and professional societies including SPE (International Society of Petroleum Engineers), AIME (American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, one of the five engineering “founder societies” in the U.S.), API (the American Petroleum Institute) and Pi Epsilon Tau (the Honor Society of Petroleum Engineering).
Skov served as international president of SPE in 1991, and he and his wife traveled extensively from 1990-92, including many trips to Europe, South America, Canada the Middle East, Russia, Australia and China.
Skov has served two three-year terms on the SPE board of directors and one on the executive committee.
He is a past vice president of AIME and has served three terms on the AIME board of trustees.
Skov is also a member of the board of trustees of the SPE Foundation, and has served as on its executive committee as secretary, treasurer and president (2003-04).
He is a Distinguished Member of SPE, and in 1998 was named Honorary Member by both SPE and AIME, the highest honors these organizations bestow.
Skov was invited to serve on the National Petroleum Council by former U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O’Leary and by her next two successors, the Honorable Frederico Pena and Bill Richardson.
He has been listed in Who’s Who for many years.
For his early work on improved oil recovery, Skov was named an “Enhanced Oil Recovery Pioneer” at the SPE/DOE Eighth Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium in Tulsa, Okla., in 1992.
He also served as editor of an SPE book on Oil and Gas Reserves Definitions and Classifications.
Skov is a former national president of Pi Epsilon Tau. He is a Colonel in the Commemorative Air Force and a member of the advisory board to the Petroleum and Geological Engineering School at the University of Oklahoma.
After retirement from BP in 1992, Skov formed Arlie M. Skov, Inc., Petroleum Consulting, based in Houston, which remained active through December 2000.
He was a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma and Texas and lived in Santa Barbara, where he and his wife moved in 1995.
He is survived by his wife, Luella L. Skov, of Santa Barbara; three children, Gregory M. Skov of Austin, Jeffrey M. Skov of San Luis Obispo and Tamara K. Skov of Santa Barbara; and seven grandchildren in California, Texas and Wisconsin.
A sister, Ramona Mitchell of Seminole, Okla., preceded him in death.
A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara. Graveside rites will be held at Pleasant Valley (Sumner) Cemetery in Noble County, Okla., at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in Skov’s memory to the Santa Barbara United Way or the charity of your choice.
Arrangements entrusted to McDermott-Crockett Mortuary.