Speakers - 30th Annual Spring Symposium - SPE

Trisha Curtis, PetroNerds

A fireside chat discussing oil prices, economics, and geopolitics.

Trisha Curtis is the President and CEO of PetroNerds, LLC. She founded the company and began running it out of Denver, Colorado in 2016. She was formerly the Director of Research, Upstream and Midstream, at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) in Washington, DC. Since 2010, she has led extensive research efforts and major consulting projects and authored several reports on the North American upstream and midstream markets for government agencies, global think tanks, and corporations. She was also the Manager for Strategy and Analytics at Anschutz Exploration in Denver, Colorado from 2019 to 2020.

At PetroNerds, Ms. Curtis leads research, advising and consulting services. She is a macroeconomist with an expertise in US shale markets, geopolitics, and China. She is globally recognized for her knowledge of US shale and has been asked to speak and present at several academic, industry, and investor forums. She is also the host of the PetroNerds Podcast.

Ms. Curtis completed her undergraduate work at Regis University in Denver where she double majored in Economics and Politics, minored in Criminology, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She has a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the London School of Economics in International Political Economy and wrote her MSc Dissertation on Chinese National Oil Companies. Raised in northwest Colorado and southwest Wyoming, she grew up around pump jacks and has worked on oil and gas sites in Colorado and Wyoming with her father.

Shelly Lambertz, Continental Resources

Shelly Lambertz currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Culture and Administrative Officer for Continental Resources, the largest privately-owned oil and gas producer in the world.

Before joining Continental, she served as the Chief Operating Officer at Hamm Capital, a family investment and advisory firm based in Oklahoma City, from August 2011 to October 2018. Ms. Lambertz also serves as Director of the Harold Hamm Foundation. From 1999 to 2005, Ms. Lambertz was the Executive Director of the YWCA in Enid, OK. From 1996 to 1998, Ms. Lambertz was Director of Human Resources and Business Development Advisor for Hamm & Phillips Service Company. She began her career working for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. Positions there included Office Manager for Congressman Mickey Edwards (OK), Legislative Assistant for the Leadership Office of Minority Leader Bob Michel (IL), and Deputy Chief of Staff for Frank Lucas (OK). Ms. Lambertz holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University.

Ms. Lambertz is actively involved in her community, serving on the boards of the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma, Dean McGee Eye Institute, Scott & Kim Verplank Foundation and the Oklahoma State University Foundation.

Brad James, Enterprise Offshore Drilling LLC

Brad James is a seasoned executive in the offshore drilling industry, with over four decades of leadership experience. Mr. James graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He is currently serving as the founding President, CEO, and Board Member of Enterprise Offshore Drilling LLC since its inception in 2016, he has played a pivotal role in establishing and guiding the company’s strategic direction. Prior to his current role, Mr. James held the position of Senior Vice President – Marketing at Hercules Offshore from 2006 to 2016, where he was responsible for managing worldwide marketing activities for the company’s drilling divisions. Throughout his extensive career, he also held various leadership roles at Transocean Offshore (including R&B Falcon and Cliffs Drilling) and served as founding President of Field Drilling Company and Vice President of Southland Drilling.

He currently serves on the IADC Executive Committee, is a board member of the IADC DrillersPac, and is a former chairman of the IADC Houston Chapter. In 2024, he assumed the role of IADC Chairman, and in 2025 he assumed the role of Immediate Past Chairman of the IADC.

Nathan Luoma, Diamondback Energy

Mr. Luoma has served as Vice President of Production since February 2022. Prior to his current position with us, he served as Production Engineering Manager since joining us in September 2019. Before joining Diamondback, Mr. Luoma served in various production engineering, asset team lead and production engineering supervisory roles in SM Energy’s Permian region from September 2011 to September 2019. Mr. Luoma started his career in Midland TX in 2006 with Burlington Resources, who was later acquired by ConocoPhillips. He served in various completions, facilities, and production engineering roles in the basins across the Rockies as well as the North Sea. Mr. Luoma received his Bachelor of Science in General Engineering with a Mechanical Engineering option from Montana Tech University.

Jason Jaskela, Headwater Exploration, Inc.

Jason Jaskela is a founder and CEO of Headwater Exploration and current Chairman of The Explorers and Producers Association of Canada. Former COO and founder of Raging River Exploration Inc. and VP Production and founder of Wild Stream Exploration Inc. He is a Montana Tech Graduate from Petroleum Engineering 2000.

Elliot Howard, Fervo Energy

Elliot began his career as a Drilling Engineer with Shell working on Unconventional Shale projects in the Eagle Ford, Haynesville, and Permian before supporting the Global Theme Office with international onshore projects. Elliot and his family then moved to Qatar where he designed and drilled the prototype appraisal well for QatarEnergy’s North Field Expansion before being seconded into Qatargas leading a team of engineers to drill the North Field Expansion development wells. Elliot left Qatar to join Fervo Energy as Drilling Manager, where he has led engineering and operations at Project Cape in SW Utah, the world’s first greenfield EGS development project.

Jim Sorensen, Energy & Environmental Research Center

James A. Sorensen is the Director of Subsurface R&D at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), where he is responsible for leading a multidisciplinary team focused on a wide range of subsurface topics, including the geological storage of CO2. As a Task Leader for the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Program, he was a principal investigator for regional characterization and field demonstration activities focused on CO2 storage, including field-based projects in North Dakota, Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia. Mr. Sorensen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and a Master of Engineering degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of North Dakota.

Chelsey Hillier, SVP Exploration, Arizona Lithium Ltd

Chelsey is a geologist with 14 years of experience working in oil and gas (CNOOC International) and 4 years of experience working in lithium brines (Arizona Lithium, Prairie Project). The technical skills and experience Chelsey has gained from working in the oil and gas industry are directly transferable to exploring for and developing lithium brine projects. Over the past 4 years the team at Arizona Lithium has been focused on advancing their Prairie Project in southeast Saskatchewan. This advancement includes acquiring a large land base, drilling 9 wells dedicated to lithium brine exploration and resource delineation, and publishing several technical reports at material stages in project development.

Tuba Firincioglu, NITEC LLC

Success and Failure Factors for Cyclic Gas Injection in Unconventional Reservoirs (SPE-DL)

Tuba Firincioglu is the Managing Director at NITEC LLC. Since joining NITEC in 1998 as a Reservoir Engineer, she has focused on the application of reservoir engineering technologies for the resolution of complex reservoir development programs. She has performed or managed over 100 reservoir studies involving dry gas, gas condensate, volatile oil, and black-oil fields; including modeling and design of many conventional and unconventional EOR applications. Her experience covers most geological depositional environments from fluvial sands to carbonates.

Dr. Firincioglu is an expert in numerical simulation of fractured reservoirs and hydrocarbon phase behavior under confinement. She has been involved in unconventional oil and gas resource plays since 2009 and has worked on all the major unconventional basins in North America including Monterey, Piceance, Bakken, Three Forks, Eagle Ford, Permian (Midland, Delaware), Barnett, Woodford, Meramec, Osage and Montney. During this period, she also designed and taught Unconventional Reservoir numerical simulation courses.

Dr. Firincioglu has served in technical committees of various SPE Conferences and has chaired sessions. She was invited Discussion Leader for three SPE Forums. She currently serves in the SPE Reservoir Advisory Committee and has co-authored 15 SPE papers. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Rocky Mountain Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award. 

Dr. Firincioglu holds a B.S. degree from Istanbul Technical University, an M.S. degree from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. degree from Colorado School of Mines, all in Petroleum Engineering.

Darren Gollehon, Oildigger Resources

Oil & Gas Deal Structures – An Overview of different oil and gas deal structures. Things you won’t find in a textbook.

Darren Gollehon serves as President and CEO of Oildigger Resources, LLC. Prior to founding Oildigger Resources LLC, Darren was a Senior Petroleum Engineer with Ballard Petroleum Holdings in Billings, MT working the Powder River Basin. Darren was a Senior Completions Engineer for Hess Corporation in Minot, ND before relocating back to Montana. He began his post baccalaureate career with Merit Energy Company as an Operations Engineer in Dallas, TX.

Darren has been fortunate enough to work both onshore and offshore including stints with Baker Oil Tools, Unocal and BP America in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. He has amassed experience in drilling, completions, production, reservoir, midstream and business development across the Western Gulf, Permian, Anadarko, Fort Worth, Arkoma, Williston, and Powder River Basins.

Darren holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Montana Tech and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from The University of Montana. He is a registered Professional Engineer.

Mathias Lia Carlsen, Whitson

Harnessing Physics-Based Models to Increase ROI

Mathias Carlsen is General Manager for Americas at Whitson, a company that develops an all-in-one, web-based, petroleum engineering platform named Whitson+. After earning his MSc Carlsen joined Whitson and has been a key developer, conceptual driver and product manager of Whitson+ for unconventional reservoir model management.

Through Whitson, Carlsen has also supervised and consulted on projects for more than 50 E&P companies. In addition, he researches and teaches industry courses on well performance, advanced pressure, volume and temperature (PVT) studies, phase behavior and gas-based enhanced oil recovery.

Carlsen holds an MSc degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and was a Fullbright Scholar at Stanford University.

Paul Button, TerraStor Energy

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES): Using Proven Energy Technology to Enable the Energy Transition

Paul Button is a 1997 Petroleum Engineering graduate of Montana Tech, he has spent his entire career as a reservoir engineer. He started working with Marathon Oil Company in the Yates field in West Texas. He did a short stint with Kinder Morgan CO2 after the sale of Yates. In 2005 he found his way back to Montana with a job working for Nance Petroleum later SM Energy working the early Bakken in Richland County and legacy water flood and EOR projects in Wyoming. When SM Energy shifted focus to Texas, he co-founded Poplar Resources and currently works as VP of Resource Development on an IGF flood of Poplar Dome. He also co-founded and CTO of TerraStor Energy Corporation which focuses on electricity storage with a giant mechanical battery.

Indira Saripally, Occidental Oil & Gas Co.

Overlooking Value? An Optimized Approach to Revitalize Mature Fields

Although new discoveries and developments often take the limelight, mature fields, also known as brownfields, are considered the “backbone” of the conventional side of the oil & gas industry. These fields experience declining production. Thus, require innovative and unconventional approaches to maximize their potential. Nonetheless, mature oil fields contribute to nearly two-thirds of the world’s oil production. While the benefits from revitalizing these fields may not always match the so-called "green" opportunities, the returns are often attractive due to the relatively lower capital requirements.

This presentation features case studies from onshore and offshore fields, highlighting successful revitalizing efforts in vastly different operating environments. The key takeaway for the audience is understanding how optimization, innovation, and precise timing of revitalizing activities are critical in sustaining and enhancing an asset's ability to generate free cash flow.

Indira Saripally is a Reservoir Engineer Senior Advisor at Occidental Oil & Gas Co. (Oxy) with over 17 years of experience in the industry. Throughout her career, she has held a variety of roles within reservoir engineering, including reservoir management, international business development, and specialized technical positions, such as simulation modeling in fields employing water and CO2 injection for secondary and tertiary recovery. Her expertise spans both the U.S. domestic energy sector and the Middle East. Currently based in Houston, she manages deepwater fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Her key technical interests are reservoir surveillance and field development planning.

Indira has a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from Stanford University, and a Bachelor’s degree, also in petroleum engineering, from Indian Institute of Technology. She is actively engaged in Stanford’s Alumni Mentoring program and chairs the Outreach Alumni Link in Qatar. She has been involved with regional SPE chapters since 2005. She is currently a member of the Editorial Review Board of SPE’s flagship publication, JPT. She is a technical reviewer for SPE Peer-Reviewed Journal. She is also an advisory member of the SPE publication The Way Ahead.

Foued Badrouchi, Montana Tech

The Shift in Drilling Landscapes: Lessons from the Well Factory Approach

The unconventional world demands speed, efficiency, and adaptability. "The Shift in Drilling Landscapes: Lessons from the Well Factory Approach" explores how thinking of oil and gas like a factory, focused on delivering wells with minimal waste and continuous improvement, is reshaping the industry.

Dr. Foued Badrouchi joined Montana Tech in 2024 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Petroleum Engineering Department. With a diverse background spanning academia, industry, and consulting, Dr. Badrouchi brings a wealth of experience in drilling, reservoir, and production engineering.

Born and raised in Tunisia, Dr. Badrouchi completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Petroleum Production Engineering at the University of Boumerdes, Algeria, before earning his PhD in Petroleum Engineering from the University of North Dakota. His doctoral research focused on hole cleaning optimization and cuttings transportation in drilling operations, supported by innovative large-scale experimental setups he developed.

Dr. Badrouchi has held various positions, including Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota and LeNorman Endowed Leadership Associate Research Scientist at the University of Wyoming. He has also worked as an Engineering Advisor at Hess Corporation, where he led projects on drilling problems, EOR simulation, and drilling data analytics.

Dr. Badrouchi is an international consultant providing technical training and services to oil and gas companies across the world. He is known for his Production Systems Optimization training as well as other areas.

Cody Danielson and Doug Rubick, Petroleum Consultants, LLC

The Ugly Side of the Learning Curve

Technical presentations tend to focus on celebrating the end results of successful projects. The bulk of the learning, however, comes from the challenges, pitfalls, and failures encountered throughout the project. This presentation will provide several case studies of engineering projects with an emphasis on the challenges/failures faced, the implications/costs of those issues, and the mitigation. Our goal is that this presentation will lead to more open dialogue in discussing failures (both during the Symposium and hopefully into the future).

David DiCarlo, University of Texas Austin

Water Production in Unconventionals

Dr. David DiCarlo is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a PhD in Physics from Cornell University, and has worked as an Acting Assistant Professor at Stanford University and as a Physical Scientist with the Agricultural Research Service. His research focusses on applying advanced experimental techniques to understanding fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. In particular, this research touches on three-phase flow (water, oil, and gas), water invasion and production from unconventional reservoirs, compositional displacements, flow stability, gas hydrates and CO2 storage. He is the author of over 100 refereed publications, and 40 conference proceedings papers

Bo Sears

Helium Hunting in Montana.

Helium occurrences are well known throughout the State, but risk dollars have not been spent in its pursuit - until now. The geological conditions throughout the State are ideal for helium generation, migration and accumulation.

Bo Sears is the CEO of Helix Exploration PLC, a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He has been in the oil and gas exploration field for over 30 years and in the helium exploration field for over 25 years. Sears’ exploration pursuits now are solely in Montana where he is bringing the Rudyard Field back to life as a helium producer out of the deeper Devonian and Ordovician strata. He is the author of the book, Helium - The Disappearing Element and has testified in Congress regarding producing helium on Federal Lands.

Justin Weinkauf and Mariam Djibril, Precision Drilling

Utilizing Battery Energy Storage Systems to Reduce Diesel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Drilling Operations.

During drilling operations, concerns about potential blackouts often lead to running multiple generators, even when not necessary, resulting in reduced fuel efficiency. This presentation demonstrates how BESS technology contributes to reduced diesel consumption and significant GHG emission reductions, aligning with the industry's goals for sustainability and operational efficiency.

Jordan Jackson, Ovintiv

Craft Frac'ing the Cube

The presentation will cover simultaneously hydraulically fracturing multiple wells at one time all while placing different designs in multiple benches in the Permian Basin.

Jordan graduated from Montana Tech in 2009 with a BS in Petroleum Engineering. He has worked for Encana/Ovintiv for ~16 years primarily in Drilling and Completions. He has worked multiple basins including the Jonah field, Deep Bossier of ETX, Haynesville Shale, Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Eagle Ford Basin, and is currently the Completions Manager over Ovintiv’s U.S. Operations covering the Permian and Anadarko Basins.

Jeff Dyk, Total Stream

The importance and impact of Operational Asset Management

The presentation will address the impact of Operational Data Management and Integration to Financial and Reservoir Forecasting elements of an oil and gas company. We will discuss the important part engineers play in quality data management and the impact they have on the success of the company.

Jeff Dyk has served 42 years in the oil and gas industry as an operations engineer manager and 30 of those years as founder of two separately successful operations data management platforms. He has worked with over 120 different mid-sized oil companies to enable their quality data management for operations with integrations to financial.

Bryan McDowell, Sabata Energy Consultants

Finding Oil & Gas in the File Room with Data Science and AI

As top-tier acreage continues to be drilled out in unconventionals, the hunt for more well inventory and new oil & gas plays is ramping up across the continental US. Unfortunately, these new plays are likely to be harder to find, smaller in size, and/or more technically challenging than anything we have tackled before. Finding new prospects of meaningful size is increasingly difficult in basins with 100+ years of continuous exploration and relies just as much on new technologies as it does on geological understanding. So where do we go next? The current trends generally fall into three buckets: (1) stick to existing acreage and explore targets either above, below, or adjacent; (2) re-enter “failed” unconventional plays; or (3) good old-fashioned wildcatting. During this talk, we’ll review examples of each including the Barnett/Woodford shales in the Permian basin, Green River/Wasatch formation in the Uinta basin, and Cherokee Shale in the Anadarko basin, respectively. We will also address the real elephant in the room – how do existing data science workflows and, especially, the rapidly expanding AI industry fit into the new landscape? The cost of entry into commercial datasets and software is at an all-time low, allowing even small players to compete with a little bit of cash and know-how. With competition so high, small advantages in data models, data sources, and database structure are likely to have outsized outcomes.

Bryan McDowell is a reservoir engineer and geologist specialized in integrating and visualizing datasets for exploration and development in oil & gas reservoirs. He founded Sabata Energy Consultants during the COVID-19 layoffs and bought its first oil & gas library in December 2020. Since then, him and his partners have built the company into one of the largest private data holders in the oilfield, including 2 million digital files and 4 million physical documents. Bryan received a Bachelor’s in Geology from Texas A&M University in 2010 and a Master’s in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 2018. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in Geology at Colorado School of Mines and has worked in unconventional reservoirs since 2011.

Brent Bundy, Ballard Petroleum Holdings LLC

Maximizing Hydraulic Fracture Intensity to Optimize Shale Development in the Powder River Basin

The progression of horizontal development in shale plays continues to show what new technologies and innovations can provide. But there is still an immense amount of optimization to be achieved. This includes considering the key components of hydraulic fracture intensity, lateral placement/wine-racking, and parent/child interaction mitigation to name a few. This presentation will review a recent three well infill development in the Niobrara and Mowry formations, detailing optimization efforts, analyzing results, and discussing go forward plans utilizing the learnings.

Brent Bundy is a Senior Reservoir Engineer for Ballard Petroleum Holdings LLC in Billings, MT, focused on development optimization in various unconventional reservoirs in the Powder River Basin. Prior to Ballard Petroleum, Brent held reservoir engineering positions with Callon Petroleum, Crestone Peak Resources, SM Energy and Samson Resources. Brent has 30 years of conventional and unconventional experience in over 10 basins in the lower 48 in production, completions and reservoir engineering. Brent began his career as a production engineer in 1994 with Unocal Corporation at the Geysers geothermal field outside of Santa Rosa, CA. Brent holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Montana Tech.