Jim Wallace has over 40 years of international petrophysical analysis experience and 22 years managing an integrated reservoir management & optimization team providing integrated, cost-effective solutions for clients world-wide.

Jim’s technical capabilities include deterministic and probabilistic integrated petrophysical evaluations, robust petrophysical property development for use in reserve studies, volumetrics and simulation modeling, fractured reservoir petrophysical assessments. Jim has developed AI models for flow zone permeability prediction, fluid flow prediction and fluid saturation modeling. Jim is also experienced at both open and cased-hole formation evaluation program design including contract design, bidding, and analysis, as well as petrophysical coaching and training.

Jim’s work experience includes three years with Schlumberger Well Services and 20 years with Mobil Oil Corporation working at the Mobil Exploration and Producing Technology Center as a petrophysicist. Jim left Mobil in 2000 after the ExxonMobil merger, to pursue his dream to co-own and operate a start-up company offering a wide range of technical services to the Oil and Gas Industry.

Jim and his business partner successfully managed a growing company (Hunt, Wallace & Associates) for 10 years until the partnership successfully ended in 2010. Jim launched a new international petroleum technical services company, Wallace International, LLC in January 2011 to continue serving his Global customer base and to expand in other businesses. Jim is the Managing Director of the Company.

Jim has published papers with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Society of Well Log Analysts, and the Indonesian Geologic Society. Jim holds a B.A. degree in Physics from the State University College at Oswego and an M.B.A. degree from Southern Methodist University. Jim has been an active member of both SPE and SPWLA for more than 40 years.

Data Management

Ronald (Ron) D. Moore
Ron is a data technologist with fourteen years of major oil company (Mobil) and twenty-one years experience with Wallace International, LLC in well data management. Ron’s most effective ability is to learn and implement new techniques rapidly. Versatility and flexibility are his key attributes. Ron’s skills include data room preparation and implementation, database administration, RECALL, and ORACLE log, core and geologic database support, and log data preparation and editing including: depth alignment, log data reconstruction, log normalization, SP Baseline and much more. Ron’s other functions include the preparation of hardcopy and digital data outputs required by clients, data back up, setting user permissions, and maintaining available disk space for project expansion.
Ron has utilized a variety of software packages in support of data needs for Formation Evaluation, Production Geoscience, and Reservoir Characterization.

Ron’s educational background includes attendance at Tarrant County Jr. College and is a graduate from George A. Ball High School, Galveston, Texas. Ron also is certified in RECALL database administration.

Production Geoscience – Geology

Margo J. Liss
Margo is a petroleum geoscience expert with more than thirty years experience worldwide in both production and exploration related disciplines.  Key contributions have been in reserves estimation and integrated studies, both as a project leader of multi-disciplinary teams and as a team technical expert. Margo possesses extensive computer applications expertise, and a strong technical background in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs. She is an effective bilingual mentor, instructor and course creator, with multi-cultural skills. Very active in local and international geoscience organizations.

Margo’s educational credentials include a M.Sc. Degree in Geological Sciences from the University of Michigan and a B.A. degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University. Margo holds a Texas Board of Professional License and is a AAPG/DPA Board Certified Petroleum Geologist.

Sharrie Pena Cawthon

Sherrie is a petroleum geoscientist with more than 20 years’ experience in characterizing domestic and international petroleum systems. Her key expertise focuses on exploration, field development, operations, reservoir characterization and 3D reservoir modeling. Sherrie has been involved in leading international and US exploration and development asset teams to optimize conventional and unconventional plays across Southeast Turkey (conventional new field discoveries), Texas (Edwards Carbonate Reef trend, Eagle Ford and Barnett Shales), Gulf of Mexico, and Nigeria (offshore deep water). She has extensive experience in utilizing well data, practical seismic interpretation, petrophysical evaluation, facies modeling, sequence stratigraphy, and 3D modeling/simulation to identify viable drilling prospects.
Sherrie has served as a Senior Geoscientist and Reservoir Modeler for Independent and Fortune 500 oil and gas companies like Pioneer Natural Resources, Trans Atlantic Petroleum and Comstock Resources. She is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in data integration and analysis, with high-level mapping skills using Petra, SMT/Kingdom, Petrel, Paradigm, Landmark Openworks, Geographix, Canvas, and ArcGIS. She obtained her M.Sc. Degree in Geosciences from the University of Texas at Dallas and a B.A. degree in Geology from Southern Methodist University. Sherrie also holds a Certification in Remote Sensing as well as in Permaculture Design. She is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).

John Sharry Ph.D. (Advisory role only)
Dr. Sharry is a petroleum geologist with more than forty years’ experience in exploration and production. His considerable expertise includes project management, geological modeling using Petrel, database creation/management, and seismic interpretation. John has been involved in large, integrated reservoir and field development studies worldwide and has taught a number of courses to industry on reservoir characterization, map projections, directional surveys, and the use of the Internet by geoscientists. John is registered in Texas as a Professional Geoscientist (Geology).
Dr. Sharry has extensive experience as a consultant for various multinational, integrated petroleum companies, national oil companies, independents, and seismic contractors in various countries and regions worldwide including the former Soviet Union, India, eastern Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Prior to starting his consulting practice, John worked thirteen years with Gulf Research & Development Co. and Oryx Energy/Sun Oil Co. on a wide variety of assignments including projects in China, the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the western U.S. John has been active in various unconventional resource (shale gas / shale oil) plays worldwide. He has consulted for all of the major database vendors on the creation of directional survey databases.
He obtained a Ph.D. in Geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Geology from the University of Rochester and a B.A. in Geology from Carleton College. He is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Dallas Geological Society, the Geological Society of America (GSA), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). John has also published scores of papers and articles in various professional journals. Dr. Sharry is also a co-partner with Amigos Energy Advisors, L.L.C located in Dallas, Texas.

Mark E. Mathisen Ph.D.
Dr Mathisen is a petroleum geologist with more than forty years of extensive domestic and international experience in the Exploration & Production business. Mark has proven abilities in the successful development and application of geologic-seismic reservoir models and interpretations during exploration, development, enhanced recovery and horizontal drilling. Mark’s skills include geologic-seismic reservoir prediction and characterization, integration of reservoir geo-science with engineering and drilling technology, and fluent in German, Norwegian and Spanish.
Mark began his big oil tenure with the Mobil Oil Company. In 1996 Mathisen co-founded Sound Energy, LLC. and focused on geoscience and horizontal well consulting in domestic basins, and prospect generation along the Gulf Coast. In 2003 Mathisen founded Viking Geo Science Ltd. to generate seismic-defined high-impact prospects. Mathisen has published over 115 technical papers, presentations and company reports. He is a member of the AAPG, SEPM, EAGE, IAS, SEG, SPE, the Dallas Geophysical Society and the Dallas Geological Society where he has served as an officer and president. He is also a member, former officer and past chairman of the Dallas Chapter of SIPES, the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists. During the last year Mathisen was selected as a winner in the Best Geoscientist category of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) 4th Annual Texas Top Producers Awards Program.
Mark holds a Ph.D.,1981 and M.S., 1977 in Geology from Iowa State University and a B.A., 1974 in Geology from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.

Geophysics

Paul S. Cunningham
Paul is a geophysicist with over thirty years of international experience in project management, acquisition, processing and interpretation of various forms of geophysical data and implementation of new seismic acquisition technologies. Paul has worked worldwide on onshore and offshore conventional plays as well as unconventional resource plays. He is recognized for his ability to manage complex international seismic projects, balancing technical, business, operational and environmental requirements. Paul has substantial experience working with E&P companies ranging from major oil companies to large, mid-size and small independents, venture partners, and government entities (E&P and environmental regulatory agencies, national oil companies, indigenous affairs bureaus). He is a team player with demonstrated leadership skills managing and working with multi-disciplinary project teams. Paul is registered in Texas as a Professional Geoscientist (Geophysics).
Paul has an M.S. and a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Earth & Planetary Sciences (geophysics concentration). He is an active member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) serving on the Board of Directors (2016-2019), Council (2014-2016), Vice-Chair and Chair of the Meetings Review and Planning Committee (2006-2008), acting as Latin American coordinator for the SEG Global Affairs Committee (1995-2001) and on various other committees serving the geophysical community in a variety of ways. Paul was honored by the SEG in 2004 with a Life Membership. Paul is also a member of the Brazilian Geophysical Society (SBGF), the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Dallas Geophysical and Geological Societies. In 1999 he co-chaired the 6th International Congress of the SBGF in Rio de Janeiro. Paul has co-authored numerous published papers and technical presentations and is fluent in English and Portuguese and proficient in Spanish. Paul is the Founder and a co-partner with Amigos Energy Advisors, L.L.C located in Dallas, Texas.

David (Dave) S. Behrman
Dave is a geophysicist with over forty years of extensive international experience in 2D & 3D seismic acquisition survey design, project management, on-site quality control, field processing and seismic imaging QC: PSTM, PSDM and Elastic Wave Inversion. Dave is a recognized expert in quality assurance for seismic operations in all environments, including jungle, difficult terrain, poor signal areas, transition zones, deserts and marine. He can draw upon skills in both geophysics and engineering to ensure the imaging objectives are being met and the data quality is optimum. He is providing support and consulting skills for R&D projects relating to marine seismic sources and new methods. Dave is an expert in geophysical software systems (design, processing and geophysical interpretation) and has a solid understanding of recording systems. Dave has extensive in-country experience in various parts of the former Soviet Union, particularly in the Caspian Basin area, North and South America, North and West Africa, and Indonesia.
Dave has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and has conducted post-graduate studies in Geology at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is an active member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and from 1994-1998 was chairman of the Geometry and Acquisition Special Interests Groups of the ProMAX Users Group, an organization of over 300 users. Dave is also a co-partner with Amigos Energy Advisors, L.L.C located in Dallas, Texas.

Petrophysical Modeling & Analysis

Mark Poweski, P.E.
Mark Poweski, P.E. has more than 40 years of experience in providing integrated petrophysical evaluations of both domestic and international projects. Mark’s skills include extensive experience in conventional petrophysical analysis, integration of core analysis results to improve petrophysical modeling, reservoir simulation, well testing and reserve estimation.

Mark is also experienced in reserve auditing, international operations including contract administration and bidding, non-operated property administration, and petrophysical training.

Mark’s work history includes three years with Schlumberger Overseas, ten years with Sun Oil Company working as a petrophysicist, reservoir simulation engineer, and international reservoir and completions engineer. He has also worked as an associate with several consulting firms including Netherland and Sewell and as a consultant to several oil companies and the Florida DER. Mark holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas.

Mark is a 40+ year active member of both SPE and SPWLA and has served several years as an exam editor and author for NCEES and as a local SPWLA chapter president.

James P. Wallace
See About section above

Reserves & Reservoir Simulation

Mohamed El-Mandouh Ph.D.
Dr. El-Mandouh is a result’s oriented technical team leader/manager with forty years’ experience in North America and Internationally in integrated project optimization and asset management, simulation technology and its applications and field operations. Significant expertise in property evaluation including economic and reserve certification, acquisition and development. Proven leadership qualities, excellent interpersonal skills, effective communication and negotiation skills applied to numerous projects worldwide.

His educational credentials include a B.A. in Mathematics/Physics from Cairo University, a M.A. in Pure Mathematics and an M.S. in Mechanics from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Michigan State University.

Alaa Helali
Alaa is a Senior Reservoir Engineering Specialist with over forty years of experience in the upstream Oil & Gas industry. Alaa’s experience spans across conventional and unconventional reservoirs with the focus on Field Development, Reservoir Simulation, and IOR/EOR, Secondary Recovery, and Thermal Recovery, for oil and gas reservoirs, onshore and offshore, in the Middle East (Qatar, Kuwait, U.A.E, Oman, and Egypt), India, Nigeria, and USA. Alaa is an expert user of the following suite of software: CMG (IMAX, GEM & STAR), ECLIPSE (E-100 & E-300), PVTi, Petrel RE, Pipesim, Saphir and VFP, Graf, Grid and Fortran language.
His educational credentials include a B.S. and M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Cairo University, a M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a diploma of professional engineer, APEGA from Alberta, Canada.

Completions Engineering & Production Optimization

Christopher V. Chow, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Chow has a broad base of technical expertise from 16 years’ experience on a mix of research, development, technical service and consulting projects, 13 years with Mobil Oil Corporation, focusing on experimental rock and fluid mechanics, sand control, perforation, completion performance, and integrated systems analysis. He has extensive experience working with integrated teams for international and domestic assets, serving in roles as a leader and as a team contributor. The breadth and balance of his technical and interpersonal skills have enabled him to successfully deliver value on a variety of projects over the entire asset lifecycle. He is registered in Texas as a Professional Engineer.

In his current role as an independent consultant, Chris has worked on a variety of projects for international clients, focusing on completion design and optimization in sandstone formations for new and developing assets, production optimization for producing assets, and systems analysis using Integrated Production Models (IPM) for new, existing and mature assets. He designed and led a project to develop perforation optimization analysis tools and process (ongoing.) He has consulted on projects for assets located in the US (onshore and GOM), Nigeria (shelf and deep water), Indonesia, North Sea, Qatar, South Africa, and Australia. He also designed and chaired SPE’s North American Forum Series on Reconciling Real-Time Reservoir Management and Production Optimization.

Chow spent 13 years working for Mobil Oil, where he held several key positions. Chow is an industry expert in completion design and optimization in sandstone formations, particularly in the areas of sand production risk, perforating systems design, sand control completion design, sand management and systems analysis using integrated production models. He either led or contributed as a team member on studies in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, East Coast Canada, North Sea (both UK and Norway), Middle East, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South America, Australia, and US (onshore and GOM.)

He had key technical leadership roles on several research and technical service projects in the area of innovative well completion design. In particular, Chris led two successful research projects through the full technology cycle form conceptual design through the stages of fundamental theoretical development, experimental testing, field trial application, and in-house training and consulting to institutionalize the technology within Mobil. One project to assess sanding risk saved Mobil over 50MM$ in completion costs and generated over 1B$ incremental value from accelerated production over a period of 6 years.

Chow holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (with highest honors) from the University of Illinois at Urbana, IL.

He worked for Mobil Oil Corporation after receiving a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has a broad range of experiences related to E&P ranging from technical services for production problems, reservoir engineering, to special core analyses (SCAL) to fundamental research.

Material Science & Corrosion

Mimoun Elboujdaini, Ph.D., FICF
Dr. Elboujdaini is a Senior Research Scientist with over 30 years in material R&D and management and coordinator of projects on engineering materials, in particular their properties and performance in various service environments. The projects covered oil & gas, pipeline, aluminum base alloys, stainless steels, mining industry, and aerospace materials, etc. Dr. Elboujdaini consults in engineering, failure analysis of metallurgical components and in providing corrosion forensics and material selection. Delivered numerous training courses for personnel involved in the pipeline activities: SCC, hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), sulfide stress cracking (SSC) and hydrogen embrittlement, on pipelines and other structures. Root cause analysis and Fracture mechanics. Dr. Elboujdaini is an adjunct professorship at the University of Alberta and has extensive publications with over 200 in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
His educational credentials include a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Technology of Compiegne, France, a M.S. in Physical Metallurgy/ Engineering from Ecole Polytechnic of Montreal, and a Ph.D. in Metallurgical & Chemical Engineering from Laval University, Canada.

Magdy Girgis, Ph.D.
Dr. Girgis has over 30-year experience in Operations and Central Engineering support to project teams and assets in materials selection, corrosion engineering & management, inspection and integrity assessment in upstream/downstream/heavy oil obtained with several oil production and services company; Brenntag (Travis), BJ Services, Core Laboratories, Shell Canada and as Shell Seconded at Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO), Shell technical advisor for Qatar Gas, Shell joint venture and ETSA program with Kuwait Oil Company.
His educational credentials include a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Technology of Compiegne, France, a M.S. in Corrosion from Cairo University, Egypt, and a Ph.D. in Metallurgical & Chemical Engineering from Laval University, Canada. Dr. Girgis currently serves as ACME –Co-president – Past Senior Materials & Corrosion Advisor, Shell Canada Consulting Support.