Carlos Garibaldi

Cofounder and Chairman

Houston – Buenos Aires

Pet Eng / MSc / MBA / M&A Banker, Mgmt Cons

Professional background

Carlos is the Executive Secretary of ARPEL. Prior to cofounding Plata Energy, Carlos worked in  engineering, commercial and executive positions in Amoco, Plains Resources, San Jorge,  Chevron, co-cofounded G&G Energy Consultants, Tecpetrol, Ecopetrol, Harrison Lovegrove, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Arthur D. Little, focused on the Americas.

Education

BSc in Chemical Engineering (U de Buenos Aires, Argentina), MSc Petroleum Engineering (U of Tulsa), and MBA (Rice U).

Max Torres

Cofounder and Board Member

Houston – Bogotá

Geoscientist / MSc

Consulting focus

Exploration new ventures, processes, corporate transformation and management; field development; asset acquisitions.

Professional background

Besides being the cofounder of Plata Energy, Max is the CEO and founder of Selva Energy and has worked in exploration and executive positions for Astra, Bridas, Repsol, and Ecopetrol, where he was VP of Exploration. Deep experience in LatAm, Europe , North Africa, the Middle East and the FSU. Currently serving as VP Exploration PetroTal Corporation.

Education

BSc in Geology (U of Tucuman, Argentina), MSc In Stratigraphy (Georgia State U).

Diego Diaz Baldasso

Managing Partner

Houston

MBA / Kellogg School of Management / Physicist, Balseiro Institute

Consulting focus

Oil and Gas Development, Subsurface Management, Development Management, Integrated Project Management, Project Execution, Reserves Reporting. Petroleum Economics, Oil and Gas Business Strategy, Operations Management, General Management.

Professional background

Diego, Managing Partner at Plata Energy, oversees the firm’s day-to-day operations. He is also the founder of Orion Energy Consulting, a consultancy firm specializing in the Oil and Gas and Energy sectors, offering reservoir studies, asset evaluations, business and technology consulting, and manpower services.

Diego has held various technical and executive roles in leading E&P companies, including Repsol, Maxus Energy Corp, YPF, and Astra in Argentina. He served as President of Repsol Bolivia, E&P General Manager in Peru, and Managing Director for Akakus Oil Operations, a 350,000 bopd operation in Libya. Additionally, Diego led the technical evaluation for Repsol’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Shenzi, a major deepwater oilfield in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Education

BSc, MSc in Physics, Instituto Balseiro, Argentina. MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Carlos Vargas

Bogotá

Pet Eng

Consulting focus

Corporate transformation, control of capital deployment in projects, operations management, drilling, & completion.

Professional background

Carlos worked in engineering, management and executive  D&C positions in BP, Pan American Energy and Equion Energía in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and other world regions.  He was recently VP of Transformation for Ecopetrol, achieving US$ 3.2 B in structural and sustainable cost optimizations through three consecutive years.

Education

BSc in Petroleum Engineering (U de América, Colombia).

Ivan Terez

Houston

Pet Eng / PhD Geosciences / MBA

Consulting focus

Exploration/appraisal and field development for onshore and offshore (shallow and deep), new ventures and assets, portfolio optimization; reservoir engineering advisory, conventional and unconventional EOR recovery, reserves management, economic and financial feasibility studies; decision-making, asset restructuring.

Professional background

Ivan is Founder and CEO of Renascent Energy  and has held management and technical advisory positions in Chevron, Eni and Casa Exploration LP.   He has broad experience in LatAm, GoM, UKNS, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

Education

BSc/MSc in Mechanical Engineering (MIPT, Russia),   MSc in Petroleum Engineering  (U of Houston), PhD in Environmental and Geosciences (Texas M&A), MBA (AFW Wirtschaftsakademie Bad Harzburg, Germany).

Adriana Hilal

Rio de Janeiro

MBA / DSc Admin / Academic / Mgmt Cons

Consulting focus

General management; negotiations; strategic planning; decision theory; organizational behavior; leadership development; cultural change; international business and cross-cultural organizations; post-transaction M&A (post-merger integration).

Professional background

Adriana is a professor and an independent management consultant.  She was until recently the Halliburton Chair of Behavioral Studies and International Management at the COPPEAD Graduate School of Business (U Federal de Rio de Janeiro), formerly also Associate Dean, and also Global Partners Director with Georgia State U and La Sorbonne. She is trilingual English-Spanish and Portuguese.

Education

BSc in Business Administration (U Cándido Mendes, Brasil), MSc in Marketing and MBA (U Católica de Rio de Janeiro,Brasil), DSc in Administration (U Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil).

Myriam Juritz

Seattle

Chem Eng / Dr Pet Eng / Mgmt Cons

Consulting focus

Reservoir engineering, integrated reservoir management, simulation, EOR, exploration new ventures, economics, international management and strategy, organizational performance, process improvement.

Professional background

Myriam is an independent petroleum and management consultant and has been a lecturer at Texas A&M. She gas worked for INTEC Engineering, San Jorge International, Tecpetrol, Accenture, Oliver Wyman, The Scotia Group, Arthur D. Little and Holland & Davies.

Education

BSc/MSc in Chemical Engineering (U of Buenos Aires, Argentina), International Petroleum Management Degree (Texas A&M) and Dr of Engineering on Petroleum Engineering (Texas A&M).

Germán Forero

Calgary

Geoscientist / MSc

Consulting focus

Seismic interpretation; static and dynamic modeling; regional studies; offshore exploration; new ventures; exploration upside in asset acquisitions.

Professional background

Germán is an expert interpreter having worked for Shell, Ecopetrol, PdVSA, Schlumberger, Repsol, CGX, Aries, AGR FJ Brown, Cayros and Selva Energy in LatAm, with strong emphasis in Mexico and Colombia.

Education

BSc In Geosciences (U Nacional de Colombia), MSc Petroleum Geology (U del Zulia, Venezuela) and post-graduate degree in Project Management (IT de Monterrey, México).

Aníbal Cáceres

Buenos Aires

Production Geologist

Consulting focus

Reservoir geology, petrophysics, reserves estimation, project evaluation, development planning, field testing and completion operations; new ventures.

Professional background

Anibal has worked in multidisciplinary technical and managerial positions for YPF, Halliburton, Bridas, Petrobras and Repsol, focusing on development and reservoir geology in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Education

BSc In Geosciences (U Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina), and post-graduate degree in Petroleum Geology (U. de Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Martin Volpacchio

Buenos Aires

Data Scientist / MSc

Consulting focus

Data Analytics applied to diagnoses and preventive failure analyses, production optimization, generalized decline curves, water injection in layered reservoirs, exploration drilling; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  Developed ACD TM (automatic chart diagnosis), a unique solution to sucker rod pump failure prediction.

Professional background

Martin co-founded Analytics Solvers, a  pioneer in Latin America on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, consulting for several oil companies and other industries.  He was in charge of Data Analytics in Telefonica Argentina and is Professor of DA, AI and ML at the Universidad Austral, Argentina.

Education

BSc In Agricultural Engineering (U Católica Argentina) and MSc in Mathematical Economics (U de  Buenos Aires, Argentina).

William Hitters

Houston

Chem Eng / MBA / MA

Consulting focus

Unconventional hydrocarbons, logistics and supply chain, in particular frac sand and water management projects.  Patented slurry-line and wet frac sand-management technology.

Professional background

William is the founder of Luxmath Consulting and has worked in technical and managerial positions for Imperial Chemical, Dow, Allied Signal, Honeywell, Advanced Organic Materials, Tenaris and Unimin in USA, Brasil and Argentina.

Education

BSc in Chemical Engineering (IT Buenos Aires, Argentina), MBA (U of Texas), MA International Relations (U of London).

Libia Landaeta

Bogotá

Petrophycisist

Consulting focus

Petrophysical interpretation for exploration, development completion and recompletion, integrated field studies, static modeling, field geology, operations geology.

Professional background

Libia has worked on a senior capacity for  PdVSA, Petrotrin-Trinmar, Halliburton-Landmark, Repsol, Metapetroleum, CPVEN and Pacific Energy in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Trinidad-Tobago, Mexico, and  Guatemala.

Education

BA in Geological Engineering (U. Central de Venezuela).

Lucas Santimoteo

Buenos Aires

Petroleum Engineer

Consulting focus

Unconventional resources, strategic planning, reserves and resources estimation and certification, reservoir management, and production optimization.

Professional background

Prior to joining Plata Energy, Lucas worked in production and reservoir engineering,  strategic planning , development planning, reservoir management and operations, exploration new ventures, M&A, reserves, and unconventional  oil positions in Chevron and Vintage Oil Argentina, in Vaca Muerta (Argentina), Permian and Woflcamp (US), and offshore  positions in the North Sea.

Education

BSc Industrial Engineering (Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Post graduate in Reservoir Engineering (U de Buenos Aires, Argentina), and MBA (U Austral – IAE, Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Kenneth Kibodeaux

Houston

Petroleum Engineer / PhD

Consulting focus

Reservoir engineering focus in conventionals and unconventionals (including shales and heavy oil), Enhanced Oil Recovery methods, reservoir performance prediction and optimization, reservoir characterization.

Professional background

Kenneth is co-founder and CTO of Renascent Energy, having held technology development and deployment positions in Texaco, Shell, and Saudi Aramco, and consulting work for PetroChina, with experience in US, Canada, China, Trinidad, Venezuela, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. SPE Distinguished Member.

Education

B.S. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin), M.S. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin), Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin).

Joselin Hernandez García

Madrid

Senior Geologist

Consulting focus

3D geo-cellular models, reservoir geology, integrated field development, seismic interpretation, reserves estimation, training, and coaching.

Professional background

Joselin is a senior geologist having worked for Halliburton (Landmark) and Schlumberger (SIS). Strong experience providing support to O&G exploration and development projects in Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Perú. Proven experience delivering G&G training worldwide.

Education

BSc in Geoscience (Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogotá).

Diego Diaz

Quito

Economist / MBA

Consulting focus

Companies’ productivity optimization and sustainable value creation. Identifying the root cause of process gaps and implementing best practices and available solutions to drive excellence in leadership, cultural change, and innovation.

Professional background

Diego  held management positions for technical, strategic, and administrative departments in prominent organizations such as ENAP, Occidental Petroleum, Central Bank and Banco Popular del Ecuador, with work experiences in Ecuador, Oman, Egypt, the Bahamas, and the United States.

Education

BSc in Economics (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador), MBA (University of Notre Dame)