- Ron Hietala
- Art Bowman
- Dave Sprague
- Nick Steinsberger
Ron Hietala
Ron Hietala was a founding board member of Triangle Petroleum Corporation and served as President of both Elmworth Energy Corporation and Triangle USA Petroleum Corporation. Until his retirement from these positions effective June 30, 2008, Mr. Hietala was instrumental in building the Company’s strategy which resulted in two shale gas projects totaling 584,000 gross acres in the Maritimes Basin secured in 2007.
Ron entered the oil and gas business in 1973 with Imperial Oil Limited as a petrophysicist. During the period from 1973 to 1976 Ron was involved with Imperial's Western Canadian exploration and development programs including the active programs of the northern Mackenzie Delta. An active role was taken to develop an understanding of the reservoir production characteristics in the large production base at Imperial Oil. Ron joined Canadian Hunter Exploration Limited 1977 in the capacity of petrophysicist and reservoir evaluation specialist. He was a team contributor to the multitude of discoveries made by Canadian Hunter in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The multi TCF Elmworth gas field was a direct result of a targeted approach in the application of multi-discipline evaluations of well logs, pressures, drill cuttings and geological mapping. Over a 19 year period Ron held a variety of management and technical positions including Vice President and Director of Canadian Hunter. In 1996 Ron and other business associates from Canadian Hunter formed Petro-Hunt Oil & Gas Ltd. This private company established production in a number of areas in Alberta. Discoveries occurred in the Deep Basin, Alberta Foothills and shallow gas production areas of NE Alberta. In 2004 Ron and other industry associates founded Golden Eagle Energy Ltd. Major accomplishments include establishing 300 BOEPD of production in the first year of operation along with laying the growth foundation through a company controlled multi-well drilling program.
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Mr. Bowman received a BSc. from the University of Toronto in 1977. He began his geophysical career with Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. in Calgary as an interpreter on various projects in Alberta and Northeastern British Columbia. From 1984 to 1996, he held senior positions within Chevron including Exploration Supervisor of the Peace River District and Exploration Supervisor of the Northern Alberta Business Unit.
From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Bowman worked for Archer Resources. The key focus of this initiative was to develop a higher reserve “West Five” exploration portfolio. In this assignment he worked as both interpreter and exploration manager, to help create a successful company which was later acquired by Dominion Energy Canada Ltd.
Mr. Bowman was a founder of Defiant Energy Corp. The company commenced operations in 1998 and established production of 3,500 BOEPD until the company was sold to Advantage Energy Trust in 2004. Mr. Bowman acted as geophysicist, geophysicist and Vice President of Exploration
In 2005, Mr. Bowman formed a geophysical consulting practice, focusing on the Western Canadian Basin. The consulting practice will build on Mr. Bowman’s results-oriented exploration experience in delivering reserves with financially attractive finding and development costs. In addition to being a professional geophysicist, Mr. Bowman is a member of APEGGA, the SEG and the CSEG.
Back to TopDave Sprague is a Professional Geologist with 31 years of oil and gas industry experience. His career began with Chevron Canada Resources in 1976 as a summer student, and during his 21 year tenure with the company, he progressed through various roles including Team Leader, Chief Technology Officer and Exploration Manager.
From 1998 to 2001, he was the VP Exploitation for Numac Energy, responsible for 4 asset teams managing all of Numac’s core properties including exploration, exploitation, development, reservoir management, land negotiations and land administration.
Mr. Sprague joined Dominion Exploration Canada in 2001 as VP Exploration, where he was responsible for their exploration program, as well as geoscience and land input to their exploitation program.
In 2004, Mr. Sprague co-founded Brigantine Energy. As President and Chief Operating Officer until 2007, he was responsible for overseeing all operations of the company.
Mr. Sprague has a B.Sc. (Honors) in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo (1977).
Back to TopMr. Steinsberger received a Bachelor of Science (Petroleum Engineering) in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin. He began his career at Mitchell Energy in1987 and became Completion Manager of the Barnett Shale in 1995 at which time there had been 300 wells drilled. While at Mitchell / Devon, he was the first to recommend and try water fracs in the Barnett Shale, bringing the field from a marginal play to the largest gas field in Texas. He supervised the completions and restimulations of over 900 wells in the Barnett. Mr. Steinsberger was Devon’s Horizontal Team Leader responsible for completing the first 25 horizontal wells in the Barnett Shale.
From 2003 – 2004, Nick was the Vice President, Engineering at Republic Energy where he supervised drilling and completion of 2 – 3 rig horizontal program in Barnett Shale in Parker, Johnson & Hood Counties.
Since July 2004, he has worked as a Drilling and Completions Consultant for a variety of companies. In addition to his expertise in the Barnett, he has also consulted on West Texas, Fayetteville and Floyd Shale plays.
Mr. Steinsberger is a Registered Professional Petroleum Engineer in Texas, as well as an active member of SPE & AADE.
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