OSUM

Management Team

Dr. Qi Jiang, P. Eng., EOR & Reservoir Engineering Manager
M.Sc., Ph.D., Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary

 

Dr. Jiang has over 20 years of industry and research experience in the area of heavy oil and oil sands development. He served most recently as an exploitation lead of thermal development at CNRL for over 8 years, where he was involved in thermal operations, reservoir modeling, strategic planning and acquisitions, technology development and field testing of new thermal and solvent related recovery processes. He also assisted in the submissions for the Kirby and Primrose East commercial applications, as well as gas over bitumen hearing. Prior to CNRL, he worked as a senior engineering advisor at GravDrain Inc., a Calgary based consulting firm specialized in SAGD and horizontal well technologies, and a reservoir engineering manager at PetroChina where he was involved in a number of thermal recovery projects. He has published over 20 technical papers on thermal and non-thermal recovery processes including SAGD, VAPEX, CSS and SAGP. He has been invited as a panel speaker at international conferences primarily on his experiences with SAGD and CSS development. Dr. Jiang conducted his Ph. D. and M.Sc. studies, which focused on development of SAGD and VAPEX processes, under the inventor of SAGD, Dr. Roger Butler.

 

Dr. Jen Russel-Houston, P. Geol., Geosciences Manager

Ph.D., Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University

 

Dr. Russel-Houston has 12 years of industry and research experience in Geology. She most recently was the subsurface team lead for the thermal development of the Peace River Heavy Oil Insitu project with Shell.  As a geologist and leader of this team since 2005, she has been involved in the delineation, appraisal, and development of the clastic Cretaceous-aged Bluesky Heavy Oil Reservoir.  This included drilling 32 horizontal cyclic steam stimulation wells, 28 geosteered horizontal primary wells, water disposal wells, and over 80 stratigraphic wells.  Prior to this, she was a geologist with Shell's Sable Offshore Development where she created 3D static models that integrated seismic, petrophysical logs, and core data in realistic geologic models of the Thebaud, North Triumph, South Venture, and Marmora fields.  Dr. Russel-Houston joined Shell in 2001 after completing her Ph.D studies, which focused on graptolite paleontology and carbonate sedimentology of a Silurian-aged carbonate ramp of the Cape Philips Formation in the Arctic of Canada.

 

Bruce Thornton, P. Eng., Development & Regulatory Manager
B.A.Sc. Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo

 

Mr. Thornton has 26 years experience primarily in production and operations engineering with Dome Petroleum, Amoco Canada and Canadian Natural. Over the past 17 years he has worked in thermal and primary heavy oil production operations in several areas in Alberta both at a supervisory and technical level capacity. Prior to joining Osum, he served as a Production / Development Engineer at Canadian Natural, responsible for the submission of the Primrose East Application and the subsequent drilling and completions program. Previously Mr. Thornton was also a key participant on the Amoco Canada Heavy Oil Strategy Team, which helped lay the foundation for their initial heavy oil operations in Canada. Mr. Thornton is a member of APEGGA and CIM.

 

Henry Gil, P. Eng., Facilities Engineering Manager
B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta

 

Mr. Gil is a diversified seasoned professional with more than 20 years experience in conventional oil and gas, in-situ SAGD production and development engineering, oil refining and gas processing, power generation, project management, operations and maintenance engineering. He has developed extensive refinery and upgrading experience through his lead engineering positions at Suncor Energy Services in Fort McMurray and OPTI Long Lake Upgrader. Mr. Gil has also led the EPCM of a number of oil and gas processing facilities and power generation facilities in Western Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Most recently, Mr. Gil acted as a senior advisor to Norsk Hydro Canada Oil & Gas in the evaluation of the Alberta oil sands.  Mr. Gil is a member of APEGGA, APEGBC, CIM, CHOA and SPE.

 

Jamie Carlson, P. Eng., Operations Manager
B.Sc. Petroleum Engineering, North Dakota State University

 

Mr. Carlson has 14 years of heavy oil and conventional oil and gas experience. Early in his career, Mr. Carlson gained extensive heavy oil experience with both PanCanadian and Petrovera Resources. This experience led to jointly receiving the "Dr. S.M. Farouq Ali Best Paper of the Year" for a paper on solvent gas injection published in the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology in 2003. Most recently, Mr. Carlson was the Area Coordinator for NW Alberta at Baytex Energy Trust.

 

Brad Braun, Environmental and Stakeholder Relations Manager
B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Calgary

 

With over 20 years experience, Mr. Braun comes to Osum from CNRL, where he served as Environment Manager and Engineer for the past 9 years. In this role, he obtained environmental and regulatory approval for CNRL’s Wolf Lake / Primrose thermal project expansion and developed long-term relationships with numerous key stakeholders in the Cold Lake area. Mr. Braun has been active in discussions and negotiations with regulators and other oil sands industry colleagues through work with key committees such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ Water Task Group and has been a board member of the Lakeland Industry and Community Association (LICA).

 

Dave Taylor, Drilling Manager

 

Mr. Taylor is a drilling veteran and brings over 33 years experience drilling hundreds of wells to Osum. He served as drilling coordinator for Phase 1 of Encana’s Foster Creek SAGD project, drilling and completing the initial 24 SAGD well pairs. Mr. Taylor has worked on many bitumen and heavy oil projects for numerous companies including Imperial (Cold Lake), Atlas Energy, Mobil Oil, Canadian Occidental, AEC Oil & Gas, and Aerostar Resources, where he served as VP, Operations and Production.