Dr. Jennifer L. Miskimins

Associate Professor/Associate Department Head in the Petroleum Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines

Dr. Miskimins holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and has over 25 years of experience in the petroleum industry. Between her BS and graduate degrees, she worked for Marathon Oil Company in a variety of locations as a production engineer and supervisor. Dr. Miskimins started teaching at CSM in 2002 and was full-time until 2013 when she returned to industry. From 2013-2016, she continued to hold a part-time appointment at CSM, advising research and graduate students, while working for Barree & Associates. In 2016, she returned full-time to the university.

Dr. Miskimins specializes in well completions, stimulation, hydraulic fracturing, and associated production issues. She is the founder and current Director of the Fracturing, Acidizing, Stimulation Technology (FAST) Consortium and also co-directs the Center for Earth Materials, Mechanics, and Characterization (CEMMC). Her research interest focus on the optimization of stimulation treatments and the importance of such on associated recovery efficiencies.

Dr. Miskimins served as the first Completions Technical Director on the SPE International Board of Directors from 2016-2018. She was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2010-2011 and 2013-2014 on hydraulic fracturing in unconventional reservoirs. Dr. Miskimins serves on a variety of conference organizing committees, including the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technical Conference and Exhibition, and as a technical editor for various journals. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado (License #36193).

Dr. Behrooz Fattahi

AIME/SPE Honorary Member, President, The EnerTrain Institute, 2014 President, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), and 2010 President, Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPE)

Dr. Behrooz Fattahi holds Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University. After 37 years of working in the industry, he retired from Aera Energy LLC, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil companies in 2014.  He was the Heavy Oil Development Coordinator at Aera, and in his last position as the Learning Advisor, he taught internal company technical courses including topics on reservoir engineering and enhanced oil recovery.

Prior to joining the oil industry, he conducted research for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation, and taught a variety of courses in fluid dynamics and solid mechanics at Iowa State University. He joined the petroleum industry in 1977 by joining Shell International.

Dr. Fattahi is a past member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and American Association of University Professors. He served as the Executive Editor of the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal, and on the board of the Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPE) as the Director of the Western North America Region, President of SPE Americas Inc., SPE’s Vice President-Finance, and SPE Foundation Vice President. He served as a member of the United States National Petroleum Council. Dr. Fattahi is the recipient of AIME/SPE’s DeGolyer Medal for Distinguished Service to SPE, the profession of engineering and geology, and to the petroleum industry; AIME’s 2016 Presidential Citation, and is recognized by SPE as a Distinguished Member, “A Peer Apart,” and AIME/SPE’s Honorary Member.  He is a 2018-2019 SPE Distinguished Lecturer.

Dr. Fattahi served as the Chairman of the Board, and the 2010 President of SPE International. He was the 2014 President of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, AIME.  He is now the President of the EnerTrain Institute, providing petroleum technical training and consulting internationally.

Rod Sidle

Independent Consultant

Mr. Sidle is an independent consultant serving training provider PetroSkills, software provider Aucerna and other oil and gas industry clients. His industry experience, including 35 years with Shell Oil Company/Royal Dutch Shell, has primarily been in reservoir engineering and economics with a focus on reserves estimation. Rod is a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE), where he is currently the Chair of the Reserves Definition Committee, and a former member of the Board of Directors. He is also a member of SPE and previously served as SPE Distinguished Lecturer and member of the SPE Oil and Gas Reserves Committee (OGRC). Since retiring from Shell, Rod has worked as a lecturer on project evaluation at Texas A&M University in the Petroleum Engineering Department; a Director of Reserves at Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation; and the Reserves Manager for Sheridan Production Company, a privately funded oil and gas producer.  He has co-authored seven SPE papers, primarily on reserves related topics.

Rod Sidle

Independent Consultant

Mr. Sidle is an independent consultant serving training provider PetroSkills, software provider Aucerna and other oil and gas industry clients. His industry experience, including 35 years with Shell Oil Company/Royal Dutch Shell, has primarily been in reservoir engineering and economics with a focus on reserves estimation. Rod is a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE), where he is currently the Chair of the Reserves Definition Committee, and a former member of the Board of Directors. He is also a member of SPE and previously served as SPE Distinguished Lecturer and member of the SPE Oil and Gas Reserves Committee (OGRC). Since retiring from Shell, Rod has worked as a lecturer on project evaluation at Texas A&M University in the Petroleum Engineering Department; a Director of Reserves at Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation; and the Reserves Manager for Sheridan Production Company, a privately funded oil and gas producer.  He has co-authored seven SPE papers, primarily on reserves related topics.

Salim Taoutaou

Cementing and Well Integrity Technical Advisor, Schlumberger (Paris)

Mr. Taoutaou manages the global development of the well integrity cementing domain strategy, providing optimal well integrity cementing solutions for clients. Through his 21 years in the oil and gas industry, he has held various positions in the North Sea region, the Middle East and Asia. He has authored more than 46 international journal and conference papers, he is the holder of six patents and was the recipient of the SPE 2014 Asia Pacific Regional Technical Award in Drilling Engineering. Salim Served as the SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the 2017-2018 season. He received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Guelma University, Algeria.

Vinicius Girardi

Business Development Manager, ESSS

Mr. Girardi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechatronics Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and Petroleum Engineer Degree at PUC-Rio. Vinicius’ experience spans over 10 years in the use of simulation for engineering applications, ranging from 1D multiphase flow to reservoir modeling. Vinicius has worked at ESSS since 2011 and has fostered partnerships between Oil & Gas companies, Universities, Research institutions and ESSS in order to develop R&D projects related to simulation and new software technologies.

Kalpesh Patel

Speaker

Mr. Patel began his career in 1992 as an Instrumentation & Control Engineer before getting involved in Advanced Process Control and Optimization (APC) in upstream, downstream and petrochemical processes.

He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering with specialization in Control Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India.  He has worked in a number of countries including India, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the USA during his twenty plus year career in APC. 

Mr. Patel holds a patent related to oil processing in unconventional oilfield and has filed another patent related to oil processing in conventional oilfields. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) in Canada, and the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) in Saudi Arabia.  Kalpesh is also certified as an Automation Professional (CAP) by the International Society of Automation in the USA.

Brian Kraus

Global Managing Partner for Safety Transformation Services, ERM

Mr. Kraus specializes in the design, development and deployment of large scale programs and initiatives to drive rapid transformations in HSE culture and performance. He has been instrumental in developing a range of innovative approaches to deliver sustained behavioral change on the frontline, coaching leaders on practical actions they can take to deliver up to 80% reductions in incident and accident statistics, and broader operational performance improvement. Brian has worked closely with senior leaders of the world’s most successful companies, their leaders on the frontline and HSE professionals over 20 years working in this field. He has written widely on HSE performance improvement and delivered inspirational keynote addresses on this topic at seminal events. He is a graduate engineer with a Masters of Business Administration from London Business School. He previously worked in industry and as a strategic management consultant.

Trey Shaffer

Senior Partner, ERM

Mr. Shaffer helps clients with a broad range of sustainability, environmental and safety challenges. Trey was elected to the SPE International Board of Directors as the HSSE-SR Technical Director from 2014 to 2017.  During his term on the SPE International Board of Directors, Trey chaired the SPE Climate Change Task Force and assisted the Board of Directors in developing a Climate Change Strategy for SPE. In 2016, Trey was elected as Vice Chair of the SPE Gulf Coast Section and completed his term as Chair in August 2017. He will serve the Gulf Coast Section as Past Chair through August 2019. In 2010, he was recognized by the SPE Gulf Coast Section and received the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Petroleum Engineering in the area of HSSE-SR. He was the co-chair of the SPE International 2016 HSSE-SR Conference in Stavanger, Norway. Trey supports numerous SPE activities globally and is a frequent speaker on environmental and sustainability topics. He earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 1987. He lives in Texas with his wife and three daughters.

Patricia E. Carreras

Business, Management and Leadership Committee

Ms. Carreras main interests are reservoir engineering, field development planning, reservoir simulation, mentoring and coaching. She has worked for more than 25 years for major, independent and consulting oil and gas companies. Ms. Carreras has a vast international work experience developed in Houston, Ciudad del Carmen (Mexico), and Buenos Aires, among other locations. She is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, currently serving in the Business, Management and Leadership Committee, and volunteering as a mentor for the eMentoring program. Ms. Carreras holds a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires, and a ME degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Marisela Sanchez-Nagel

President, OilField Geomechanics LLC

Dr. Sanchez-Nagel is currently President of OilField Geomechanics LLC, a women-owned business focused on petroleum geomechanics training and consulting. Sanchez-Nagel has nearly 25 years of industry experience having worked for Intevep, the technology arm of PDVSA in Venezuela; as President of Global GeoSolutions, an independent geomechanics consulting company in Latin America; for GMI; and as General Manager and President of Itasca Houston from 2007 to 2014. She has been President of OilField Geomechanics since its founding in 2014. Dr. Sanchez-Nagel is a 2012-2013 SPE Distinguished Lecturer, serves as a director for the SPE Geomechanics Technical Section, and has been active in both SPE (serving on the program committee for the recent SPE Forum on Geomechanics in Drilling and Completions) and ARMA (serving in multiple positions). Sanchez-Nagel has worked on many geomechanical projects around the world, and has presented at numerous geomechanics schools, especially in Latin and South America.