Dr. Speight has more than fifty years of experience in areas associated with the properties and processing of conventional and synthetic fuels. He has participated in, as well as led, significant research in defining the use of chemistry of tar sand bitumen, heavy oil, conventional petroleum, natural gas, coal, oil shale, and biomass as well as work related to corrosion and corrosion prevention. He has founded and/or edited several international journals, most recently the Proceedings of the Oil Gas Scientific Research Project Institute, Azerbaijan, and Petroleum Science and Technology (Taylor & Francis, until 2020).
Dr. Speight is an author/editor of several databases and encyclopedic works. He has also authored more than 95 books as well as more than 400 publications, reports, and presentations detailing these research activities, and has taught more than eighty related courses.