Salih Saner joined the Near East University in September 2019 as Professor in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department. Before this, he served as a Professor and the Program Coordinator of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Program in the Middle East Technical University-North Cyprus Campus, since 2009.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Istanbul in 1977 he joined the Exploration Group of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation. Then he moved to the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in 1981. Following 26 years of service as a professor (Senior Research Scientist) at KFUPM, in 2007 he joined Schlumberger Dhahran Carbonate Research (SDCR) Center as a Senior Research Scientist.

Dr. Saner is specialized in petrophysics and managed many petrophysical projects at the Research Institute of KFUPM and at SDCR for companies such as Aramco, Shell, Bapco, Sino and Luksar (Luk Oil). He was honored with the Prince Mohammad Ibn Fahd Award for Scientific Excellence in 1990 and he was also awarded with the OAPEC First Prize in the field of EOR in 1991.

Dr. Saner is a member of AAPG, SPE, SPWLA, and Society of Core Analysts. He served in Formation Evaluation Technical Committees of SPE – ATCE for eight years. Dr. Saner published many papers in international journals. Since 2009 he is involved in exploration and geopolitics of Eastern Mediterranean hydrocarbon resources.