Young Distinguished Engineer 2023

Ruslan Filyukov serves as a reservoir engineer with Formentera Partners, an energy focused, private equity firm based in Austin, TX. Ruslan is focused on asset evaluation, business development and operations. He has over 13 years of oil and gas experience across 5 basins including substantial in-field service experience.

Ruslan was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia and moved to California with his family at the age of 12 in 1999. In 2001, Ruslan moved with his family to Dallas/Ft. Worth where he graduated from Coppell High School. In 2005, he enrolled at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, initially with the intention of pursuing a career in medicine. However, he quickly discovered that he was more passionate about solving complex engineering problems and transferred to Mechanical Engineering. While at Texas Tech, Ruslan balanced a full time job with his involvement in the Society of Petroleum Engineers, ASME, Greek Life, and Pi Tau Sigma. 

In 2009, Ruslan began his career as a Field Engineer with Baker Oil Tools, based in Corpus Christi, TX where he gained substantial in-field service experience. By 2013, Ruslan assisted in developing multiple districts across the Central US with focus in subsurface tool deployment/design, stimulation, whipstocks, casing exits, fishing, liner hangers, and wellbore design. During this time he held various leadership roles and moved between Corpus Christi, Williston, Oklahoma City, and Midland. In 2014, Ruslan took an opportunity with XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) as an Operations Engineer. For the next 4 years, he held various roles of increased responsibility in engineering, operations, and production while helping develop a new Delaware division and deploy over $700 million in annual capital spend. In 2018, he relocated to Houston where he led efforts on portfolio enhancement, divestments, trades, and acquisitions of over $5 billion in asset value as a senior business developer. In 2022, Ruslan joined Formentera Partners as a reservoir engineer focusing on business development, managing and forecasting oil and gas reserves to maximize the economic recovery, and portfolio strategy.

From 2013-2015, while working full-time and living in Midland, Ruslan graduated from Texas Tech University with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with a focus in Management and Leadership. During his time at Texas Tech, he served as the Permian lead for Young Engineering Alumni organization (Young Guns). Ruslan has co-authored several oil and gas publications and holds 2 oil and gas patents. 

Ruslan remains an active member of the Texas Tech community and has served on the Mechanical Engineering Industry Advisory Board (IAB) since 2016, most recently as the Board Chair. In 2014, Ruslan and his wife established the Filyukov Endowment Scholarship in Engineering to help provide other students with similar opportunities he had.

Ruslan and his wife, Alicia, have four children Rhett (5), Ambrielle (3), and 6-month old twin girls Aurora and Averleigh, and reside in Austin, TX. He enjoys Texas Tech athletics, basketball, football, spending time with family, traveling, and collecting unique and classic cars.