Brun Hilbert

Principal Engineer

Exponent, Inc.

Dr. Brun Hilbert has been consulting at Exponent since 1996 in the fields of mechanical and petroleum engineering. He has worked in the oil and gas industry for 45 years. He has testifying experience in state and federal courts, intellectual property, and international arbitrations. He has expertise in oil and gas well design and integrity, hydraulic fracturing, well production and wellhead equipment, blowouts and well control, drilling mechanics and directional drilling, reservoir geomechanics, reservoir reserves estimation, and offshore platforms. He also has experience with natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon storage in solution-mined salt caverns and depleted hydrocarbon formations. He has expertise in evaluating the structural integrity of oil and gas wells in compacting or deforming reservoir rocks, in the stability of underground storage structures, and nuclear waste repositories. Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Hilbert was employed at Exxon Production Research Company, where he performed applied research in drilling and well design engineering, and taught courses in Well Completions and Workovers in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, and North America.

He was appointed to the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Connector Reliability for Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Operations in 2017. This committee was assembled to investigate the causes and prevention of the premature failure of critical bolts on subsea BOPs and wellheads. He was a Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer for 2015-2016. He lectured on the topic Well Design and Integrity: Importance, Risk, and Scientific Certainty.

Dr. Hilbert holds a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Minerals Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Orleans.