Speakers

Speaker Valerie Jochen, Schlumberger
As a Schlumberger Fellow Valerie Jochen holds the position of Technical Director, Unconventional Resources where she has been involved in the areas of reservoir description and production data analysis of unconventional resource.  Jochen has 36 years of diverse experience having worked for The Superior Oil Company, Mobil Exploration & Producing, …

As a Schlumberger Fellow Valerie Jochen holds the position of Technical Director, Unconventional Resources where she has been involved in the areas of reservoir description and production data analysis of unconventional resource.  Jochen has 36 years of diverse experience having worked for The Superior Oil Company, Mobil Exploration & Producing, S.A. Holditch and Associates, and Schlumberger.  Dr. Jochen received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University where she has taught courses including a graduate level class on reserve analysis of Unconventional Reservoirs and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor. Along with her duties at Schlumberger overseeing the Unconventional Resources R&D development program, she currently serves on the RPSEA Unconventional PAC and on several SPE committees. Dr. Jochen is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.



 

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Speaker Simon Leary, Statoil
Simon gained his undergraduate degree in Geology at the University of Liverpool, England in 1996 before graduating with a Master of Science postgraduate degree in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2001. Simon began his career as a consultant geologist working for Ichron Limited in England working …

Simon gained his undergraduate degree in Geology at the University of Liverpool, England in 1996 before graduating with a Master of Science postgraduate degree in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2001. Simon began his career as a consultant geologist working for Ichron Limited in England working with exploration and production projects for oil and gas companies around the globe from 2001 – 2006. In 2006, Simon moved to Trondheim, Norway to work for Statoil as at their research centre as a reservoir geologist. Simon gained experience working in several IOR projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf together with business development projects in China and the Carbon Capture and Storage project at In Salah, Algeria. Simons focus switched to unconventional resources in 2011 and in early 2012 he relocated to Houston to take up the position of Head of Reservoir Management for the newly established Shale Oil and Gas team in Statoil’s Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) organization. Simon heads a diverse group of geoscientists and reservoir engineers working with technology development aimed towards Statoil’s operated onshore shale assets in North America.

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Speaker Sid Mebarkia, Chevron

Dr. Sid Mebarkia is the Subsea Pipeline Technical Lead with Chevron. He has over 20 years experience in subsea pipelines design and construction. He is currently supporting a wide range of projects across Chevron worldwide businesses and helping develop new technologies for subsea pipelines applications.

Speaker Mariano Gurfinkel, Hess
Mariano Gurfinkel is currently the Planning Manager for Portfolio Evaluation for the Global Onshore Business Unit of Hess Corporation.  At Hess he has served in multiple roles within Global Exploration and New Ventures organizations. Prior to joining Hess, he worked at the Bureau of Economic Geology where he contributed to …

Mariano Gurfinkel is currently the Planning Manager for Portfolio Evaluation for the Global Onshore Business Unit of Hess Corporation.  At Hess he has served in multiple roles within Global Exploration and New Ventures organizations.


Prior to joining Hess, he worked at the Bureau of Economic Geology where he contributed to the National Petroleum Council’s 2007 study on energy “The Hard Truths”.


Before working at the BEG, he held positions of increasing responsibility at PDVSA-Intevep, the R&D affiliate of the Venezuelan national oil company.  His focus was on the production, handling and in-situ upgrading of extra-heavy crude oil.  Trained as a Mechanical Engineer (Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas) he also obtained a MSME and PhD from MIT.  He holds three patents.


Active within the SPE, he has been a member of the Editorial Committee of the JPT, multiple SPE conferences and Forums and is currently the Chair of the R&D Technical Section of the SPE.

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