March 15, 2006
Bob Merrill Joins Ammonite in Houston
Dr. Robert Merrill
Ammonite is pleased to announce that Dr. Robert Merrill has joined Ammonite in Houston as a Senior Exploration Consultant. Bob recently retired from the Samson Companies and has over thirty years experience in worldwide petroleum exploration and production. He is an experienced prospect generator and evaluator, and exploration manager. His expertise includes both conventional and unconventional clastic reservoirs, including fractured reservoirs and tight gas sands, as well as carbonates. Areas of expertise include the Rockies, West Texas Permian Basin, the Midcontinent, Gulf Coast onshore and offshore, and many international areas, including Central and Southeast Asia, Australia, the North Sea, and Latin America. Dr. Merrill is experienced in applying probabilistic methods to prospect evaluation and reserves estimation, and using this information for comprehensive portfolio management. Additionally, he has been involved with evaluating and optimizing geological and geophysical workflow to reduce cycle time from the origination of an idea to prospect drilling. Bob has taught courses on a range of subjects including structural geology, basin analysis and plate tectonics and geology for engineers.
Prior to becoming a consultant in 2005 and forming Catheart Energy, Inc., Dr. Merrill worked for the Samson Companies, Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was Technical Manager of Geology from 2000-2002, and then Exploration Manager of Samson International from 2002-2005. From 1989-2000, Bob was employed by the Unocal Corporation, lastly as Chief Geologist 1997-2000 of Unocal’s Spirit Energy Division in Sugarland, Texas. As Chief Geologist of Spirit Energy he was responsible for quality assurance for a $600 million capital budget for the Deep Water Gulf of Mexico, Shelf and Onshore Gulf of Mexico and the Permian Basin. Prior to joining Unocal, Bob worked as an exploration geologist for the Cities Service Oil and Gas Corp. and then OXY USA, Inc. between 1974 -1989 in the Rockies, Permian Basin, and Midcontinent.
Dr. Merrill has a PhD and MS in Geology from Arizona State University and a BA in Geology from Colby College. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, a Chartered Geologist with the Geological Society, and has served on committees for the American Geological Institute. Bob has served as Secretary and President of the American Institute of Professional Geologists and is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, where he co-edited the Giant Fields of the Decade 1990 – 2000 book and edited Source and Migration: Processes and Techniques for Evaluation. Other publications include papers on risk analysis; deep, over-pressured gas in the Green River Basin; and origin and migration of oils, Wyoming/Utah/Idaho Overthrust belt. He was the Technical Coordinator for the 2006 AAPG National Convention in Houston.
Bob’s first assignment as an Ammonite consultant was to work with Dr. Richard Bishop in preparing a probabilistic analysis of the undeveloped reserves of a potential $55 million acquisition of a mature producing field offshore Texas. The engagement was on behalf of a major private equity fund to assist one of its portfolio companies in evaluating the acquisition. Bob and Dick Bishop reviewed field geological and seismic data; audited the deterministic reserve estimate of a major Houston-based engineering firm that had been prepared for the seller; identified the production and reserve risk variables; loaded and ran a Monte Carlo simulation of the PUD reserves; and then compared our probabilistic (P10-Pmean-P90) analysis with that of the engineering firm. This work has led to Ammonite’s retention by the operating company to advise them in setting up a probabilistic reserves and economic model for their portfolio of developed and undeveloped oil and gas properties.
From left to right- Dr. Abdulsamme Bahbahani, VP Exploration and COO; Ms. Sara Akbar, CEO; Skip Hobbs, Ammonite Resources; Husain Kothari, CEO, Zahra Group Holdings; Dr. Manssour Aboukhamseen, Chairman, Zahra Group Holdings; and Firas Al Amiri, Manager Engineering.