Former Team Members
Thank you for all your hard work, and all the best in your careers!
Research Associates (Post-Docs)
Dr. Jihoon Wang (jihoon.wang@nmt.edu.)
Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Petroleum Engineering Department at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He has three years of experience at Korea National Oil Corporation, where he focused on shale plays in North America and offshore natural gas hydrates as a reservoir geomechanist/reservoir engineer. His research areas are geomechanics related with reservoir development, such as wellbore stability, hydraulic fracturing, reservoir property alteration during fluid production/injection.
Dr. Lihua Zuo (lihuazuo@tamu.edu)
Dr. Zuo works as an assistant professor at the College of Business, Engineering and Technology, Texas A&M University-Texarkana. His research interests include Streamline-based Methods (especially using unstructured grids, local grid refinement and faulted grids), Production Forecasting by fracture modeling in shale gas and tight oil completion analysis, and Decline Curve Analysis using analytical solutions and fractional decline curves. He has published several technical papers in highly regarded journals and conferences. Lihua Zuo holds a PhD degree in Applied Mathematics from the Texas A&M University, Master degree from Fudan University and BE degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology in Applied Mathematics. He is an active member of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Dr. Wei Yu (yuwei127@tamu.edu)
Dr. Yu was a Research Associate in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research interests include reservoir modeling and simulation of shale gas and tight oil production, carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in tight oil reservoirs, and nanoparticles-EOR. Yu authored and/or coauthored more than 50 technical papers and holds one patent. He holds a BS degree in Applied Chemistry from University of Jinan in China, an MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in China, and a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He has summer internship experiences with Schlumberger, ExxonMobil, and Chevron. Yu is an active member of SPE.
Visiting Members
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- Visiting Professor: Dr. Yuwei Li (Fall 2017 through Spring 2018)
- Visiting postdoc: Dr. Rhodri Nelson (March 2016 and Feb 2018)
- Visiting Graduate Student: Arnaud van Harmelen (June -Aug 2015; Oct-Dec 2016 and March-April 2017)
Visiting undergraduate students:
- Anita Bressan Bocardo (Summer 2015)
- Maria do Socorro Cirilo Agostinho (Summer 2015)
- Waleska Rodriquez (Summer 2015)
In-Residence Students
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Title of thesis: “Visualizing Wellbore Instability and Fracture Direction by Application of Principal Stress Trajectory Analysis“ Research Interests: Wellbore instability, geomechanics, stress analysis, and probability theory Graduation Date: Spring 2017
Research Interests: Decline curve analysis in unconventional resources. Graduation Date: Dec 2018
Research Interests: Analytical models of unconventional reservoirs, and well interference caused by fracture hits. Graduation Date: Dec 2018
- Diego Blasco Flores
Title of Thesis: “Probabilistic Nodal Analysis and Economic Appraisal of Cascade & Chinook Deepwater Fields to Optimize Decision Making About Field Development Options“ Research Interests: Probabilistic nodal analysis and economic appraisal to optimize decision making. Graduation Date: Spring 2017
Title of Thesis: “Efficiency of Bolivian Hydrocarbon Resource Development: Case Study of a Mega-Field in the Context of Regional Markets and Policy Framework Incentives“ Research Interests: Production forecasting, fiscal regime evaluation and business engineering. Graduation Date: May 2017
Title of Thesis: “Economic appraisal, decision making, and corporate performance“ Graduation Date: May 2017
- Jia Zhai
Title of Thesis: “Economic Analysis of Trion development Options in the Perdido Fold Belt in the Gulf of Mexico” Graduation Date: December 2017
Distance Learning Students
- Pablo Rodrigues Watorek (ANCAP – National Oil Company of Uruguay)
Title of Thesis: “Probabilistic volumetric evaluation of potential turbidite prospects from offshore Uruguay.” Graduation Date: June 2019
- Rigoberto Lopez (BP)
Title of Thesis: “Optimize completions in the Montney formation in British Columbia” Graduation Date: December 2018.
- Matthew McElhaney (BP)
Title of Thesis: “Use of Regression, Machine Learning, and Visualization to Identify Future Drilling Locations” Graduation Date: December 2018
- Kunimitsu Ohashi (Summit Discovery Resources, Sumitomo Corporation)
Title of Thesis: “Key Performance Drivers and Sweet Spot of Eagle Ford Shale in Karnes County” Graduation Date: December 2018
Title of Thesis: “Probabilistic Remaining Life Assessment of Pipelines Subjected to Pitting Corrosion” Graduation Date: December 2017
- Daniel Westphal
Title of Thesis: “Economic Assessment of converting depleted Austin Chalk wells at the RELLIS Campus to Geothermal energy extraction” Graduation Date: August 2017
- Robert Anderson
Title of Thesis: “Review and Analysis of Production Optimization Opportunities for Existing Wells in the Barnett Shale Play” Graduation Date: May 2017
Title of Thesis: “Analysis of US Unconventional Producer Bankruptcies due to the 2014 to 2016 Commodity Price Collapse” Graduation Date: December 2016
Title of Thesis: “Shale Prospects in Jeopardy: Will First Lien Lenders Increase Exposure to the Sector?” Graduation Date: August 2016
Title of Thesis: “Viability of CO2 Enhanced Recovery (EOR) Projects under Different Business Scenarios using a reservoir model” Graduation Date: August 2016
- Kyle Haft
Title of Thesis: “Probabilistic Gas Reservoir Reserve Prediction Methodology” Graduation Date: August 2016