Neal B. Nagel, Ph.D.

Dr. Neal Nagel, who is currently Chief Engineer and Principal at OilField Geomechanics LLC, has more than 30 years of industry experience, having worked with ConocoPhillips for 20 years as a world-wide geomechanics specialist in areas such as compaction/subsidence, drilling and completions and cuttings reinjection, as well as having worked with Itasca Houston where he was Chief Engineer and Vice President of Engineering for 5 years. Dr. Nagel has taught extensively throughout his career as well as given many invited presentations – including serving as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2004 and again in 2016/17. Among other industry activities, he was the chief editor of the SPE Monograph on Solids Injection and is the current chairman of the SPE Geomechanics Technical Section.

Dr. Nagel’s recent work has focused on the geomechanics of unconventional plays, particularly the geomechanical issues around completions (hydraulic fracturing) optimization in naturally fractured shale formation. In addition, he has investigated salt cavern behavior and modeling as well as the causes of earthquake activity associated with salt water injection. He has authored or coauthored more than 55 technical papers, with more than 20 of these addressing the geomechanics of unconventional plays. He gave a recent Key Note presentation at the 2014 Hydraulic Fracturing Technical Conference as well as made numerous AAPG, SEG, SPWLA, PTTC, and SPE invited presentations from 2013-2017.

Dr. Nagel currently serves as the chairman of the SPE Geomechanics Technical Section (GTS), was co-track lead of the Petroleum Track of the 2018 ARMA Confererence, and gave an invited presentation during the ARMA session at the 2018 URTeC Conference in Houston.

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Marisela Sanchez-Nagel, Ph.D.

Dr. Marisela Sanchez-Nagel, who is currently the President of OilField Geomechanics LLC, has more than 20 years of industry experience, having worked with PDVSA, the Venezuelan national oil company, for 15 years as a geomechanics specialist in areas such as reservoir and drilling, as well opening the Itasca Houston office and serving as President and GM for 7 years. She has taught numerous courses throughout her career, often in Spanish.

Among her industry activities, Dr. Sanchez-Nagel was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2013 on the geomechanics of unconventional plays, is a member of the ARMA Future Leaders program, is on the 2014 Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering conference (LACPEC) program committee, serves on the program committee for the SPE Applied Geomechanics in the E&P Industry workshop, and is on the 2015 ARMA conference committee. She has authored or coauthored more than 20 technical papers.

Dr. Sanchez-Nagel is a current director for the SPE Geomechanics Technical Section and was co-editor of the recent publication “Women in Hydraulic Fracturing”.

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