Edʼs CV

Curriculum Vitae of
EDWARD WICHERT, P. Eng.

Edward Wichert, BSc., M.Eng., P.Eng., has a Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary. He has over 50 years of industry experience in oil and gas operations, including many years in sour gas production and processing. Ed has authored numerous publications dealing with sour gas production and processing. He has been instrumental in developing several practical correlations for predicting sour gas properties, and is the recipient of industry awards. He has presented courses in gas technology in Calgary and abroad for many years, and was Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary. In early 2016, he reduced his consulting practice, which specialized in sour gas technology, but still continues to provide courses on topics related to sour gas.

EDUCATION

  • Banff School of Advanced Management
  • The University of Calgary, M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering
  • University of Alberta, B. Sc. in Petroleum Engineering

CAREER SUMMARY

Edward Wichert has an extensive and well-rounded background in the oil and gas industry. This includes experience at the technical and senior management levels in Drilling, Production Operations, Facilities Design and Construction, and Reservoir Engineering. He has maintained an interest in continuing education throughout his career in the oil and gas industry. In this regard he has been associated with the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, and has contributed by being an occasional lecturer in gas technology. In 1996, he was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, from which he retired in 2005.

PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Supervised a staff of about 500 Operations and Engineering personnel responsible for operating the company’s oil and gas wells and treating facilities in western Canada, including the following:

  • 3000 wells,
  • 55,000 Bbl per day oil production,
  • 13 million m3 per day gas production,
  • 10 gas plants, including two sulphur recovery plants.

PRODUCTION OPERATIONS

As Production Engineer, was responsible for:

  • analyzing well performance and developing well workover programs,
  • debottlenecking production facilities,
  • developing maintenance programs for oil and gas production facilities,
  • supervising well drilling, completion and workover operations.

As Area Supervisor, was responsible for:

  • production operations of company’s wells in a major oilfield;
  • development of new oil discoveries, including drilling, facilities design and construction;
  • administration of personnel, training, safety and production accounting.

As Superintendent, was responsible for:

  • gas well production and operation of sour plant treating facilities,
  • maintenance scheduling activities,
  • design and construction supervision of compression facilities.

As Operations Manager, was responsible for:

All field activities for a medium-size oil company, including:

  • approximately 250 oil and gas wells,
  • 14,000 Bbl of oil per day
  • 8 million m3 of gas production and treating,
  • 125 office and field employees.
  • design and construction of pipelines and treating facilities,
  • well drilling, completion and workovers,
  • safety and loss control.

FACILITIES ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

Supervised a total staff of 100 technical personnel responsible for:

  • Engineering, design and construction of the company’s oil and gas treating facilities;
  • Laboratory and research support to Drilling, Production Operations and Engineering Departments;
  • Offshore productions system studies and analyses;
  • Initiated and executed capital facilities projects in the order of $ 30 million;
  • Completed construction and start-up of medium size sour gas plant.

RESERVOIR ENGINEERING

Supervised the Reservoir Engineering and Joint Venture Department in a medium-size oil company. Responsibilities included economic evaluations.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

  • Provides technical courses to the oil and gas industry
  • Consultant, 1998 to 2022
  • Operations Manager for small oil company 1991 - 1997
  • Oil and Gas Industry Consultant 1988 - 1990
  • Consultant with PCIAC 1987
  • General Manager, Facilities Engineering 1985 - 1986
  • General Manager, Operations 1982 - 1985
  • General Manager, Processing 1981 - 1982
  • Operations Manager 1979 - 1981
  • Production Manager 1975 - 1979
  • Superintendent 1970 - 1974
  • Plant/Field Engineer 1967 - 1969
  • Area Supervisor 1965 - 1966
  • Engineer 1958 - 1964

MEMBERSHIPS

  • Lifetime Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
  • Gas Processing Association Canada (GPAC)
  • Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGA), since 1961
  • Past member of Petroleum Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers
  • Past member of Canadian Gas Processors Association
  • Past member of National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE)
  • Past member of the Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT) Editorial Committee, Gas Processing Feature.

COMPANY REPRESENTATION

Served as Company Representative with the following industry organizations:

  • Director, Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd.;
  • Member, The Petroleum Recovery Institute;
  • Member, Sulphur Development Institute;
  • Alternate Director, Peace Pipe Line Company; and,
  • Director and Officer, Redwater Water Disposal Company.

FOREIGN EXPERIENCE THROUGH PETRO-CANADA INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE CORPORATION (PCIAC)

  • Participated in setting up the operations organization for the Barbados National Oil Company, in 1982/1983;
  • Analyzed technical assistance needs of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand regarding Engineering and Operations, in 1987;
  • Analyzed development requirements of the Risha gas field in Jordan, in 1990; and,
  • Presented Natural Gas Engineering courses in Colombia.

LECTURER

  • Was Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary from July 1996 to June 2005;
  • Was coordinator of Natural Gas Technology course ENCH 609 at the University of Calgary, as well as lecturer in the course, January - April, 1997;
  • Was coordinator of the PITS Gas Technology Course, held annually in Banff, Alberta, during 1971 to 1973;
  • Presented courses in Abu Dhabi, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Qatar, and the United States of America in natural gas technology;
  • Developed a variety of courses, dealing mainly with sour gas technology, and presented these courses to participants from the oil and gas industry in Calgary.

AWARDS

  • Recipient of the “1994 Award of Merit” from the Canadian Gas Processors Association.
  • Recipient of the “Lifetime Achievement in Hydrocarbon Measurement” Award from the Canadian Institute of Hydrocarbon Measurement, in 2003.
  • Recipient of the “Projects, Facilities and Construction Award” from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), in 2008.

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN NATURAL GAS ENGINEERING

  • Developed correlations for predicting the Z factor for sour natural gas, under the supervision of Dr. Khalid Aziz, at The University of Calgary. These correlations have been used worldwide in the sour gas industry during the past 35 years.
  • Developed a chart method for estimating the equilibrium water vapour content for sour natural gas.
  • Developed a chart method for predicting the hydrate temperature at elevated pressures for sweet and sour natural gas.
  • The above correlations and others are included in the 2012 Edition of the Gas Processors Suppliers Association Engineering Data Book in the following figures (with reference to the publications in brackets): Fig. 23-8 (3,4); Fig. 20-9 (18); Fig. 20-31 (9).

PUBLICATIONS

Authored or Co-authored the following articles:

  1. “The Windfall Field Cycling Project”, The Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Spring 1963, pp. 6-8.
  2. “How to Complete Sour Gas Wells”, World Oil, September 1963, pp. 57-60.
  3. “Compressibility Factor of Sour Gases”, The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, April 1971, pp. 267-273.
  4. “Continuing Education—What it Takes to be With It”, Paper presented at the 21st Annual Technical Meeting of the Petroleum Society of CIM, Calgary, May 1970. JCPT April-June, 1971, pp. 22-24.
  5. “Calculate Z’s for Sour Gases”, Hydrocarbon Processing, May 1972, pp. 119-122.
  6. “Multi-Phase Flow Measurement by Orifice Meter”, Paper No. SPE 4688, presented at the 48th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, October 1973.
  7. “Estimation of the Water Content of Sour Natural Gases”, Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal, August 1977, pp. 281-286.
  8. “Charts Help Estimate H2O Content of Sour Gases”, Oil & Gas Journal, February 6, 1978, pp. 76-78.
  9. “Control of Sulphur Products Emission from Sour Gas Plants”, Report of Committee A, International Gas Union, 16th World Gas Conference, Munich, June 1985, pp. 17-34.
  10. “Chart Gives Hydrate Formation Temperature for (Sour) Natural Gas”, Oil & Gas Journal, April 6, 1987, pp. 37-39.
  11. “Sour Gas Field Reflects Equipment, Operating Improvements”, Oil & Gas Journal, April 25, 1988, pp. 37-41.
  12. “SCADA System oversees Canadian H2S field, pipelines”, Oil & Gas Journal, May 25, 1992, pp. 33-39.
  13. “Chart estimates water content of sour natural gas”, Oil & Gas Journal, March 29, 1993, pp. 61-64.
  14. “Sulphur Disposal by Acid Gas Injection”, SPE Paper 35585, presented at the Gas Technology Symposium, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 28 April - 1 May, 1996.
  15. “Considerations for Acid Gas Injection”, paper presented at the 3rd International Petroleum Environmental Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 24-27, 1996.
  16. “Acid gas injection eliminates sulfur recovery expense”, O&GJ, April 28, 1997, pp.67-72.
  17. “Options for Small-Scale Sulphur Recovery”, SPE Production Facilities, November 1997, pp. 267-272.
  18. “Designing an Optimized Injection Strategy for Acid Gas Disposal without Dehydration”, paper presented at the 77th Annual Convention of Gas Processors Association, Dallas, Texas, March 16-18, 1998.
  19. “New Charts Provide Accurate Estimations for Water Content of Sour Natural Gas”, Oil & Gas Journal, October 27, 2003, pp. 64-66
  20. “New Charts Estimate Acid Gas Solubility in TEG”, Hydrocarbon Processing, January 2004, pp. 47-48
  21. “Orifice meters provide acceptable wet-gas measurements”, Oil & Gas Journal, April 5, 2004, pp. 47-53.
  22. “Water content affects low pressure acid-gas metering”, Oil & Gas Journal, January 2, 2006, pp. 44-46.
  23. “Gas Treating and Gas Processing”, Chapter 5, Volume III, Facilities and Construction Engineering, Petroleum Engineering Handbook, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson, TX 75080-2040, pp. III-185 to III-229, 2006.
  24. “Analysis of acid gas injection variables”, in Y. Wu, J. Carroll and Z. Du, Carbon Dioxide Sequestration and Related Technologies, Scriver Publishing, Salem, pp. 89-105, 2011.
  25. “Water Content Control in Acid Gas Injection Systems”, Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference, Norman, OK, 2013.
  26. “The Sour Gas, Sulfur and Acid Gas Book”, IngramSpark/Amazon, February 2019.