Meet our Staff
Dr. Hai-Zui Meng, President
Ph.D. Petroleum Engineering, University of Tulsa
M.S. Geophysics, University of Tulsa
B.S. Geology, National Taiwan University
Hai-Zui ("Hai-Ray") Meng has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry working in various technical positions. Hai-Ray created iReservoir.com, Inc. to provide integrated reservoir characterization and fluid flow simulation consulting services using state-of-the-art geoscience and engineering technologies. Previously, he was with Marathon Oil Company, Dowell Schlumberger and Flopetrol-Johnston Schlumberger. Dr. Meng has conducted numerous integrated reservoir characterization, reservoir simulation and reservoir management studies. Dr. Meng has extensive reservoir characterization experience including seismic attribute analysis, depth imaging, 3D faulted structural framework modeling, deterministic and stochastic AI inversion, 3-D geologic model construction, and 'very practical' geostatistical modeling for reservoir engineering problems. Dr. Meng has also conducted detailed reservoir management studies using both black-oil and compositional fluid flow simulation models that are constrained to honor the existing geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and engineering data. Dr. Meng has served on various Technical Committees for both the SPE and SEG as was author of the chapter "Design of Propped Fracture Treatments" in Schlumberger's 1987 textbook on Reservoir Stimulation.
Michael J. Uland, Director of Reservoir Technologies
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
Mike has over 30 years experience in the petroleum industry. Mike has 15 years of field experience covering a range of engineering positions: Drilling, Facilities, Downhole, Operations, EOR, Reservoir, and Acquisitions & Divestiture. Prior to joining iReservoir.com, Mike was most recently involved in multidisciplinary reservoir modeling studies at the Marathon Oil Company's Technology Center. These projects required the data integration of Geophysics, Petrophysics, 3-D Geo-modeling and Reservoir simulation for the creation of effective reservoir management tools. Mike is a registered PE, and a member of SPE, SPWLA, AAPG, SEG, and ISA.
Mike's current technical interests are 1) Cost-effective Reservoir Management using fit-for-purpose Reservoir Characterization Models, 2) Integrated 3-D Modeling using Geophysics, Petrophysics, Geology, and Engineering Data, 3) Optimizing the value of 'Integrated Technology Transfer' for Business Unit planning, 4) Application of New Technology for competitive advantage in New Markets, and 5) Creation of 'updateable' 3-D geo-models using collaborative workflow tools.
James R. Gilman, Director of Engineering
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Jim Gilman is iReservoir's Director of Engineering and has over 30 years experience in the petroleum industry. His expertise includes specialization in the area of application and development of numerical simulators for fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs. He was a co-developer of Marathon Oil Company's 3-D, 3-phase simulator for naturally fractured reservoirs and was instrumental in testing and debugging the dual-porosity versions of the commercial black-oil and compositional simulators for Marathon's applications. In addition to simulation expertise, Jim's work at Marathon Oil Company's Technology Center involved company-wide training and consultation in the areas of reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation, naturally fractured reservoirs, horizontal wells and production risk/uncertainty analysis. He was most recently Manager of Reservoir and Well Performance, a multi-disciplinary organization involved in 3-D geologic modeling, laboratory special core analysis, reservoir simulation and general reservoir engineering. Jim has authored or co-authored over a dozen articles primarily dealing with naturally fractured reservoirs or horizontal wells. He was instrumental in simulation of a large naturally fractured reservoir undergoing gas injection to improve gravity drainage and was recently invited to speak on fractured reservoir simulation at the 2003 International Simulation Forum in Germany and a 2003 Statoil Research Summit on Fractured Carbonates. He was a member of the SPE Editorial Review Committee from 1987-2000 and most recently served as an Executive Editor for SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering. He served as Chairman of the Twelfth SPE Symposium on Reservoir Simulation (1993) and on the program committees for the 1991 and 1997 symposiums. Jim has a MS in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines (1983) and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University (1978). Jim is a registered PE, and a member of the SPE and AICHE.
Reinaldo J. Michelena, Ph.D, Director of Geophysical Technology
B.S. Physics, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela
M.S., Ph. D. Geophysics, Stanford University
Reinaldo Michelena has 25 years dedicated to research, development, and application of innovative seismic methods to help reservoir delineation and characterization, from programming and testing of novel algorithms to integrated interpretation of field data results. He worked 18 years for PDVSA-Intevep, the research and technical services affiliate of PDVSA. He also completed a short research intership at Amoco Production Company’s Tulsa research laboratory and was visiting scientist at CGG Americas. Reinaldo has been project leader in the area seismic techniques for reservoir characterization and senior scientist for reservoir delineation and characterization. In 2003, Reinaldo joined iReservoir and since then he has worked in a variety of problems and geological settings where seismic data analysis results are used to constrain geological and flow simulation models. Reinaldo is principal author or co-author of over fifty papers published in internationally recognized journals and proceedings of national and international conferences. He is a member of SEG, AAPG, EAGE, RMAG and DGS. He served as Associate Editor of Geophysics and is current member of the Editorial Board of The Leading Edge.
Omar G. Angola, Technical Advisor
M. Eng. Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2002
M.Sc. Reservoir Geosciences & Engineering, IFP School, France, 2002
DEA Signal-Image-Parole, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, 1993
B.S. Computer Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela, 1987
Omar has over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. His early work was with a PDVSA Intevep Scientific Visualization group developing E&P software, including displays of reservoir simulation output, thin-sections image processing and laboratory measurements. In 1992 he was awarded with a scholarship to pursue studies in Signal Processing and Computer Science. His work included integrating and calibrating data from different sources and scales, geocellular modeling applications on constructing high-resolution reservoir models, assessing geospatial relationships, volume calculations and upscaling for numerical reservoir simulation. Examples of project work include:
- Geocellular modeling for Carito-Mulata Field and Furrial Field, Eastern Venezuela.
- Regional estimation for facies and reservoir properties using varying directions of anisotropy, Santa Barbara and Carito fields, Eastern Venezuela.
- 3D Geomodeling of Borburata Field, South-Western Venezuela.
- Data integration and structural modeling of 2 seismic horizons and more than 100 faults for North Monagas Integrated Project, Eastern Venezuela
Kevin Godbey, Ph.D, Technical Advisor – IT
B.S., Mathematics, University of Florida
Ph. D. Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Kevin Godbey earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Godbey, a .dot-com veteran, has worked as a software engineer in the transportation engineering, defense, Y2K, and hospitality industries. He has spent his last five years designing and developing distributed systems in Java using a variety of Internet protocols, paying particular attention to security and internationalization issues. Kevin is a member of the American Mathematical Society.
Huabing Wang, Ph.D, Reservoir Engineer
Chemical Engineering, Ph.D., University of Utah, 2008
Chemical Engineering, M.S., Brigham Young University, 2003
Chemical Engineering, B.S., Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 1997
Huabing joined iReservoir in 2008 after completing his Ph.D at the University of Utah. He has developed numerical methods for multiphase flow in discrete fracture networks (DFN) and has been involved in application of dual-media modeling for integrated reservoir studies. His most recent activity has involved simulation of a structurally complex, naturally fractured, gas-condensate reservoir and tight gas systems. On a project level, he is experienced with modeling and simulating various fracture systems: from crystalline basement to porous carbonate reservoirs. His current areas of interest include integrated reservoir studies on conventional and unconventional resources, naturally fractured reservoirs and EOR. Huabing is a current member of SPE, AAPG, SEG and former member of AIChE.
Patricia Rodrigues, Petrophysics/Rock physics
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Venezuela
Spec. Reservoir Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Venezuela
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Venezuela
Patricia has 15 years of experience in research and application of reservoir characterization technologies, specializing in petrophysics and rock physics. She is highly experienced in integrating petrophysical and seismic data through rock physics analysis as well as integrating engineering, geological, and petrophysical data to constrain geological modeling and prospect evaluation. She has experience in characterization of different types of reservoirs (carbonates, clastics, shales, fractured) in different basins in the US, Canada, Venezuela, and Brazil. She is currently pursuing PhD studies in geophysics/rock physics with a petroleum engineering minor at Colorado School of Mines.
Sepehr Fadaei, Reservoir Engineer
Petroleum Engineering, M.S., Stanford University, 2008
Petroleum Engineering, B.S., Sharif University of Technology, Iran, 2006
Mechanical Engineering, B.S., Sharif University of Technology, Iran, 2006
Sepehr started his professional career at iReservoir after graduation from Stanford in 2008. During the summer of 2007 he completed an internship for Occidental Oil & Gas Corp. which entailed field modeling by integrating Geostatistical modeling, flow simulation, production history matching and forecasting.
Sepehr served as a research and teaching assistant at Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting (SCRF). His Master’s thesis concentrated on the use of streamline information to assist in automated history matching of naturally fractured reservoirs using the probability perturbation method. For his bachelor’s thesis Sepehr reviewed thermodynamic modeling of wax deposition in gas condensate reservoirs.
Sepehr has been the recipient of achievement awards such as: the Miller fellowship award from Stanford University, the gold medal in the 33rd International Chemistry Olympiad (India, 2001), fifth place in the TIC Micromouse Robots Competition (UK, 2005), ranked first in his graduate class at Stanford, as well as, first in class as an undergraduate.
Sepehr's multidisciplinary background includes experience and use of multiple types of petroleum software programs. His current areas of interest include: simulation, history matching, Geostatistics and EOR.
Mr. Fadaei is a member of SPE and IAMG and former member of ASME.
Ann V. Givan, Geologist
Geology, M.S., Montana State University, 1983
Geology, B.S., University of Southern California, 1980
Professional Teaching License, California State University, 1990
Ann's previous oil and gas experience includes oil and gas exploration for Shell Oil Co. in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and deep gas exploration for Nance Petroleum in the Williston Basin. More recently she has worked in the Piceance Basin of Colorado, multiple basins in Wyoming, the Smackover formation in Arkansas, the Hugoton field in Kansas, offshore India and heavy oil in Canada.
Ann currently manages and performs quality control of client data and performs basic petrophysical analysis for several iReservoir projects. She manages iReservoir’s data base and gives support to iReservoir’s team of engineers, petrophysicists, geophysicists and geomodelers.
Ann is an active member of AAPG, AWG, NSTA, GSA, and local sections of industry related professional organizations.
