Professional Qualifications

Dr. Settari is one of the leading experts in the area of reservoir engineering and computer simulation of petroleum reservoirs, and in the analysis of fracturing and geomechanical processes in reservoirs.  Over the last 35 years, he has been associated with a large number of engineering studies of petroleum recovery, has worked on or directed a number of R&D and software projects, supervised graduate students and taught industry and university graduate courses. He consults for a number of major and independent petroleum producers and founded and managed successful consulting and junior oil companies.

In the area of applications, he worked on a number of large engineering projects, including some of the world's largest reservoirs in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. He carried out the early thermal recovery studies in Alberta and pioneered the engineering of steam fracturing for tar sands in co-operation with Gulf Canada in 1970’s. From his past positions at Intercomp Ltd. and SIMTECH Consulting Services Ltd. (which he founded in 1982), he accumulated a wealth of experience with hundreds of field projects involving a variety of conventional and enhanced recovery processes, as well as with development of new specialized modeling techniques.

On the business side, Dr. Settari was a founder of SIMTECH Consulting Services Ltd., a successful private consulting firm with offices in Calgary and Denver. SIMTECH was sold to Duke Engineering & Services (subsidiary of Duke Energy) in 1996. He was also founder and Chairman of KH Resources, and served on the board of Rhodes Energy. In 2000, he founded TAURUS Reservoir Solutions Ltd., which specializes in coupled reservoir, geomechanical and fracturing modeling.

In a research capacity, he was one of the principal investigators in an early project on the use of new numerical techniques in reservoir simulation (during 1975-77). In 1978, he started an R&D project on the use of modeling in hydraulic fracturing.  Under his direction, this project pioneered the use of simulation in fracturing design.  In 1984, he initiated an industry-funded project for the investigation of complex processes in the in-situ thermal recovery in unconsolidated tar sands, with ultimate budget of $800,000. This project pioneered the use of coupled modeling in reservoir simulation. Currently his main research interest is in geomechanical and fracturing aspects of reservoir and production engineering (via coupled simulation).

In the academic capacity, Dr. Settari currently holds the Encana/Petroleum Society of CIM Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary where he has taught since 1975, and where he is the Director of the Encana Parallel Simulation Laboratory.  He has lectured at various universities, including Stanford U., UT Austin and MIT, and has been an invited speaker at SPE, CIM, CSFD, Int. Forum on Reservoir Simulation, EURO-Rock Physics and other conferences. He is the co-author of a classical textbook on Petroleum Reservoir Simulation and has written over 120 papers on various aspects of petroleum engineering.

Education and Professional Associations

Dr. Settari graduated from the Technical University of Brno, Czech Republic with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Steam and Gas Turbines) in 1965.  He also completed 3 years of coursework towards an applied mathematics degree during 1965-68.  His received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (with research in petroleum engineering) from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Calgary, in 1973.

He is a member of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Canadian Institute of Mining, and APEGGA. In the past he has served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Petroleum Technology and as Technical Editor of SPEJ.

Awards

Dr. Settari was selected twice as SPE Distinguished Lecturer and has been named Distinguished Member of SPE in 2003. In 2008 he was awarded the Anthony B. Lucas Gold Medal by SPE, which “recognizes those responsible for developing new technology and concepts and demonstrating distinguished achievement in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum”. In 2009 he was awarded the ENI Prize “Frontiers in hydrocarbons”, awarded to “the person or group of people that have achieved internationally significant results in the development of technologies for the efficient use of hydrocarbons with particular reference to the activities of exploration, production, transport, distribution and transformation”

Chronology of Experience

2001-present  Taurus Reservoir Solutions Ltd. President;

Responsible for management, development of new technology and software, and special studies.

University of Calgary. 

Professor and Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering. Director, EPSL parallel computing laboratory. 

1996 – 2000    Duke Engineering & Services (Canada) Inc. 

Technology Development Director, responsible for development of new technology, managing software development, advising consulting staff on the applications of new technology and supervising special studies.

1982 – 1996    SIMTECH Consulting Services Ltd. 

Established the company in 1982. Responsible for management, development of new R&D projects, and for directing consulting activities.  As President, served as an advisor for other staff members, and was the principal investigator in company's R&D projects.

Company grew to a total of 16 employees in Calgary and Denver. It was  sold to Duke Energy in 1996 and integrated into its subsidiary DE&S.

1973 – 1982    Intercomp Resource Development and Engineering Ltd.

Research Consultant, 1973-76, Manager of Special Projects, 1976-78, Calgary and Houston. Directing and performing R&D work in EOR, thermal recovery, fracturing, coordinating software support and maintenance.

Senior Vice-president of Technical Development, 1978-82, Calgary and London.  Responsible for planning and directing R&D activities of the two offices and development of R&D business.

1969 – 1973    University of Calgary.

Performed research in the field of numerical simulation of petroleum reservoirs and in the relevant topics in applied numerical analysis, under Dr. K. Aziz.  Also research in heat transfer under Dr. J.S. Venart.

1965 – 1969    Research Inst. for Power Plant Equipment,  Brno, Czech Republic.

Modeling Techniques Division.  Applied research work in solid mechanics and heat transfer for design of turbines and boilers.

Language Capability

English:      Excellent in speaking, reading and writing

French:      Fair in speaking and reading, poor in writing

Czech:        Excellent in speaking, reading and writing

German:     Poor in speaking, reading and writing

Publications (Books):

Petroleum Reservoir Simulation, Applied Science Publishers, New York & London, 1979, 476 p. (with K. Aziz), also translated into Russian and Chinese.

Topics in Reservoir Simulation, manuscript, 1993-2006, used as a text for U. of C. graduate course.

Reservoir Geomechanics, manuscript, 2007-9, used as a text for U. of C. and Stanford U. graduate course.

Publications (Papers):

Over 120 technical papers on reservoir engineering, simulation, hydraulic fracturing, geomechanics, and related topics.  List available upon request.