Staff
Director - Cem Sarica
Contact: (918) 631-5154; Email Dr. Sarica
Cem Sarica holds B.S. (1982) and M.S. (1984) degrees in petroleum engineering from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and a Ph.D. (1990) degree in petroleum engineering from The University of Tulsa (TU). After serving as an Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering at ITU, he joined the research staff at TU in 1992, and was Associate Director of the Tulsa University Fluid Flow Projects (TUFFP) until 1998 when he joined the faculty at The Pennsylvania State University. He joined the Petroleum Engineering Department at TU in 2001. He is currently serving as Professor of Petroleum Engineering. His responsibilities include the directorships of both TUFFP, and the Tulsa University Paraffin Deposition Projects (TUPDP)
Cem's research interests are multiphase flow in pipes, flow assurance and oil and gas production. He has authored several publications on these subjects.
Cem is a member of both the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He served as an Associate Technical Editor of ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology (JERT) from 1998 -2004. He has previously served as a member of the SPE Production Operations Committee and is a member of the SPE Journal Editorial Board. He was one of the recipients of the SPE's Outstanding Editor Award in 2000. He is a member of SPE Facilities and Construction Standing Committee. He is currently serving as the Chair of SPE Facilities and Construction Award Committee. In addition to his SPE activities, he serves as a Technical Advisory Committee member of BHRg's Multiphase Technology Conferences.
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Associate Director- Dr. Eduardo Pereyra
Contact: 918-631-5107; Email Dr. Pereyra
Eduardo Pereyra received his M.S. (2006) and Ph.D. (2010) degrees in petroleum engineering from The University of Tulsa. He holds two B.S. degrees from the University of Los Andes: Mechanical Engineering (2000) and System Engineering (2000).
From 2000 to 2003, Eduardo worked for the R&D center of the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA-Intevep. In 2004, he joined The University of Tulsa as a Research Assistant. During 2006 he worked for Multiphase System Integration (MSI) in the areas of multiphase transport, facilities design, and multiphase flow metering systems. Eduardo continued to work as a Research Assistant at The University of Tulsa from 2007 to 2010. In summer 2005, 2006 and 2007, he worked as a Research Scientist Intern at Chevron's Advanced Production Technology Unit.
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Research Associate - Dr. Hamidreza Karami
Contact: Email Dr. Karami
Hamidreza Karami is a PhD graduate from the University of Tulsa and a research associate in TUFFP and TUHWALP. He received his B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran in July 2009. He joined The University of Tulsa and TU's Paraffin Deposition Projects (TUPDP) in fall 2009, and completed his MSc degree in Petroleum Engineering, with the thesis title “Investigation of Single-Phase Paraffin Deposition Characteristics under Turbulent Flow”. He then joined TUFFP in fall 2011 to pursue his PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering. His dissertation was completed in May 2015, with the title “low liquid loading three-phase flow and effects of MEG on flow behavior”.
As a research associate, he is currently involved in several projects, applying his experimental knowledge on multiphase flow through pipelines and tubing. Multiphase flow through venturi, foam lifting, plunger lift, and wet gas pipeline transportation are some of his areas of focus. He is also proficient in multiphase flow modeling and computational fluid dynamics.
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Research Associate - Robert Sutton
Contact: Email Rob
Rob Sutton holds BS and MS degrees in petroleum engineering from Marietta College and Louisiana State University at Lafayette, respectively. He recently retired from Marathon Oil and is serving as a Research Associate for TUHWALP and TUFFP.
Senior Project Coordinator - Kelley Friedberg
Contact: (918) 631-5110; Email Kelley
Kelley Friedberg holds a BA in Languages and Literature from the University of Oklahoma and received her MA in English at The University of Tulsa in May 2016. Kelley has worked at TU since 2002.
Kelley is currently responsible for executive team planning and monitoring of various consortia and projects; preparing and monitoring the various budgets; coordination of various sub-projects; and planning all aspects of two Advisory Board meetings per consortium per year. She is the primary representative of all consortia to consortia members. Kelley also is responsible for preparing business proposals to various entities to secure future research funding; preparing business reports for presentation to members; supervise Project Coordinator and part-time employees; assist in hiring of post-doctoral and other research associates, technicians, and other staff; oversee all consortia web presence (this is the main source of transferring deliverables to consortia members); and editing of project reports, theses, dissertations and papers for publication in various industry journals.
Project Engineer - Scott Graham
Contact: (918) 631-5147; Email Scott
Mr. Graham is a Project Engineer for The University of Tulsa (TU) serving primarily the TU Fluid Flow Projects (TUFFP) and TU Paraffin Deposition Projects (TUPDP) consortia within the Petroleum Engineering Department. This consortium consists of sixteen international oil companies and focuses it's studies on fluid flow and paraffin deposition. His responsibilities include working with Master and Ph.D. students to develop innovative measurement systems and sensors; plus teach and transfer practical instrumentation and control knowledge to students. He has an Associates Degree in Electrical/Electronics and has over 23 years of experience in the application and development of instrumentation devices and systems. He is currently working on his Bachelors in Political Science. Prior to coming to TU, Scott was the Program Coordinator for the Electrical/Electronic program of study at Oklahoma State University (OSU) – Okmulgee. In addition to the administrative responsibilities of his position, he served as the advisor to the ISA student section and taught the Process Measurement and Control classes. He served in that position for five years.
Scott began his career working as a roustabout for Conoco NGP in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Later as an instrument technician Scott designed and installed automation systems for gas processing plants. He also performed new electrical construction and assisted in putting together an electrical/instrumentation training program classes for Conoco's associate engineers in New Mexico and West Texas.
In 1992 after working for Conoco and gaining experience elsewhere, his career lead him to operate his own company based in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Through Panel-Tek Inc., he designed, manufactured, and marketed chemical injection equipment, and electronic controls for the petroleum industry. From this work he holds several patents related to measurement of crude oil and related processes. The products produced included such items temperature and pressure measurement devices, flow computers, and data acquisition equipment. In 1997 Emerson Electric purchased Panel-Tek where he stayed on as Operation Manager for two years.
Scott enjoys working with students to help them to develop and master the technical skills needed to function in today's marketplace.
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Research Technician - Craig Waldron
Contact: (918) 631-5131; Email Craig
Craig has 20 years experience working as a research technician in labs and pilot plants for Du Pont and Conoco prior to coming to work at The University of Tulsa in April 2001.
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Research Technician - Don Harris
Contact: (918) 631-2350; Email Don
Research Technician - Franklin Birt
Contact: (918) 631-5140; Email Franklin
Franklin Birt is an electronics technician joining the Fluid Flow group after working for the Hydrates group for the past 3 years. Before coming to The University of Tulsa, Birt worked for more than 20 years in the electronics industry. At Time Mark Corporation, he worked as an engineering technician and draftsman, designing and mass producing custom industrial controls and three-phase power monitoring equipment. He was recruited from Time Mark by Panel-Tek Inc., a design and development company specializing in oilfield related electronics and equipment, to serve as an engineering technician, circuit board designer, and customer service representative. He then moved to Control Devices Inc., an industry leader in pipeline pig locating and tracking equipment, Birt worked as a circuit board and electronics packaging designer and championed the development of innovative manufacturing processes and practices. He then moved to Tucker Technologies, the technology division of Tucker Energy Services, as a circuit board designer and later as the Manufacturing Group Leader where he supervised the Manufacturing and Test departments. Tucker Technologies designs and manufactures state of the art downhole logging tools and software.
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Research Assistant - Jayanth Nair
Contact: (918) 631-5119; Email Jayanth
Jayanth Nair joined the TUHWALP team to pursue his PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering in spring 2014. He obtained his M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Tulsa in fall 2013. During the completion of his Master’s degree, Jayanth worked with TUCoRE research group. His work involved developing a novel gas well deliquification technology using venturi nozzles and foamers; and to experimentally study the efficacy of this method. He received a Bachelor’s degree (B.Tech) in Petroleum Engineering (2011) from Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, India. While pursuing his Bachelor’s degree, he completed several projects based on artificial lift systems and their design. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He is currently working on the application of gas lifting in horizontal wells and also studying the effect of pipe diameter on horizontal well flow behavior.
Research Assistant - Carolina Barreto
Contact: Email Carolins
Carolina Vasconcelos Barreto received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. During her studies, Carolina had the opportunity to do an internship as a process engineer in a Brazilian engineering company, Promon Engenharia, where she worked as an engineer for 4 years after she graduated. Her work would consist mainly of the elaboration of engineering and safety documents, such as data sheets, process flow diagrams and process and instrumentation diagrams and equipment calculation sheets. Several of the projects she worked at were for the biggest Oil & Gas Company in Brazil, Petrobras.
The interest in the interface between chemical and petroleum engineering was what drove Carolina to pursue a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering. After being awarded the Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program scholarship, Carolina is pursuing her M.S. in Petroleum Engineering at The University of Tulsa, where she is currently working for TUHWALP projects. Her M.S. thesis is focused on an experimental analysis on foam lift in horizontal wells.
Research Assistant - Rodrigo Acosta
Contact: Email Rodrigo
Mr. Rodrigo Acosta received a B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering, both from Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires (ITBA). During his studies at university, Rodrigo had the opportunity to do an internship in both Downstream and Upstream Industry: Buenos Aires Refinery (owned by SHELL) and El Trapial Field (owned by Chevron).
Mr. Acosta has worked as a process and project engineer in several Engineering & Construction companies for over 4 years. After that, he began his professional career in the Oil & Gas Industry for an independent operator named GEOPARK LTD. Rodrigo worked as a Reservoir Engineer in Corporate Headquarters in Buenos Aires for 2 years, and later he was relocated to Chilean Asset as an Operations Reservoir Engineer in the field. He has acquired hand-on experience in field operations for almost 2 years.
In 2013, Mr. Acosta was awarded the BEC.AR-Fulbright Scholarship to pursue his M.S. in Petroleum Engineering at The University of Tulsa, where he is currently working for TUHWALP projects. His M.S. thesis is focused on experimental and theoretical analysis of plunger lift, as a method to avoid liquid loading.
Research Assistant - Cikida Gcali
Contact: Email Cikida
Cikida Gcali completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa. During her studies she was involved with numerous student organizations including the Golden Key Honorary society, which honors the top 15% of students in the university, and also the Wits chapter of the Engineers Without Borders society. Whilst completing her undergraduate program, she got the opportunity to intern at DRA minerals, which is an international minerals company specializing in the production of platinum group metals (PGMs). The work she did was focused at using chemistry analytical methods to determine the grade of PGMs within ground samples obtained from mines. Upon graduation she worked at the globally renowned firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers, commonly known as PwC, as a Management Consultant in their prestige graduate program called Foundations for the Future. During her tenure at PwC she worked closely with South African government agencies consulting on various oil and gas projects. Her highlight in this regard was being the Project Coordinator for the PwC 2015 Africa Oil and Gas Review, being the youngest member on the team to compile this publication.
Seeing the growth potential of the petroleum industry, particularly with the Shale gas revolution, Cikida was driven towards studying a Master's degree in Petroleum Engineering. As a grantee of the flagship Fulbright scholarship, she is now pursuing her M.S. in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tulsa, working as a research assistant within the TUHWALP where she specializes on Foam Assisted Lift (FAL) applications in horizontal gas wells.
Research Assistant - Ade Oyewole
Contact: Email Ade
Ade Oyewole obtained his B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Tulsa in 2015. In his undergraduate studies, he was a Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Petrobowl Winner in 2014, and his paper on “The Extension of the Gray Correlation to Inclination Angles” won the 2015 SPE Mid-Continent Section Student Paper Contest Competition (Undergraduate Division) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Ade worked as a Research Intern in the summers of 2014 and 2015, at the TUFFP and TUHWALP groups respectively. Currently pursuing his M.S. in Petroleum Engineering at The University of Tulsa, Ade will be developing an Inflow Performance model for Unconventional Reservoirs and studying the effects of Multistage Completion in horizontal wells with the TUHWALP group. He is also responsible for improvements to the TUHWS v2.0 Software.
Research Assistant - Deng Pan
Contact: Email Deng
Deng Pan received his B.S. Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa in May, 2015. He worked as a research helper for TUFFP during the following summer where he gained interest in the university’s research group. Then he joined TUHWALP in September 2015 to pursue his M.S. degree. His research involves plunger lift and it is a follow up study of Mr. Rodrigo Acosta’s plunger falling period (Ongoing). He is currently working on the plunger rising and after flow period. Deng had various internships each summer during his undergraduate study. His responsibilities were mainly based on operating commercial software, such as Pipesim and Wellflo (Weatherford, Ltd), to construct models.