ON DEMAND: Reservoir and Production Engineering Surveillance & Management

Chris Fair received his BS in Chemical Engineering (1994) and his MS in Petroleum Engineering (1997) from the University of Houston. During his time in school, he worked in various positions in the chemical industry and oil patch. These included roles in process operations, project/design engineering, PVT and fluid mechanics research, sales engineering, process control and instrumentation, downhole nuclear tool testing (both in the laboratory and in the field), and laboratory instruction in process control, technical writing, and chemical engineering practices (basically, how not to get “blow’d-up” in a chemical plant). In 1997, he joined Data Retrieval Corporation (the SPIDR folks). While there he worked on expanding the range and types of wells that could be effectively tested from the surface, and worked on increasing the company’s markets, both in the US and overseas. In 2005, he started Oilfield Data Services, Inc., a reservoir/production engineering consulting firm that specializes in Automated Reservoir and Production Engineering Surveillance. Outside of his “day-job”, he sings with the Houston
Symphony Chorus.

Don Nguyen currently serves as the senior reservoir engineer at Esperanza Capital Partners, a firm that focuses on the acquisition of high-quality energy and infrastructure assets located in the U.S Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Nguyen is responsible for the reservoir engineering evaluation of exploration, development, and production activities at the firm. Prior to joining ECP, Mr. Nguyen worked at Oilfield Data Services, Inc. as a senior petroleum engineer. There, he conducted reserve analysis, completion evaluations, well surveillance, production optimization, and field development. Mr. Nguyen has experiences in various regions, including the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Austral-Asia, the North Sea, and U.S unconventional. Mr. Nguyen also co-authored SPE 202385- The Propagation of Depletion – The Inclusion of Inertia in the Derivation of the Diffusivity Equation. He received a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Venera Zhumagulova currently serves as a GOM Surveillance Engineer at OXY. Prior to joining OXY, Ms. Zhumagulova worked at Oilfield Data Services, Inc. as a Senior Reservoir and Production Engineer supporting the GOM and North Sea Region. Ms. Zhumagulova also co-authored SPE 202385 – The Propagation of Depletion – The Inclusion of Inertia in the Derivation of the Diffusivity Equation. She received a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston in 2015 and an Applied Data Science Degree from Dartmouth College in 2021.

Hieu Q. Le is a petroleum engineer with Oilfield Data Services. Hieu specializes in Reservoir & Production Engineering for both onshore and offshore wells, including deepwater.  Areas of expertise include reserve estimation, production and reservoir surveillance, reservoir boundary identification, and well flowbacks.  Hieu holds both a BSc and MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston and is a member of SPE as well as Tau Beta Pi and Pi Epsilon Tau, both honorary engineering societies.