Fernando Gutierrez

Fernando Gutierrez

Technology and Analysis

Upstream
 
United States, South America, Europe

1. What is your profession? Or if you are retired, what was your profession?

Data Analyst

2. What are your areas of expertise?

Upstream: Operations

Upstream Areas: Onshore

3. Current Employer:

Top secret information

4. Previous Employers:

Biota Inc and Halliburton

5. How did you end up in the Energy Industry?

It was serendipity. I was working for a small exporting company when I received a call from an individual claiming to be affiliated with Pemex, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company. He said, “a mutual acquaintance recommended you guys. He says that you can find the fishing equipment that I'm looking for”. I asked the caller to hold on the line while I told my boss about this unusual request. You see, we exported heavy equipment and parts, not fishing equipment. Also, why is Pemex buying fishing equipment? Maybe Pemex executives are going fishing in the GOM area, we thought. I asked the caller to send us more information about his request. Well, it turned out he was referring to fishing tools for overhauling oil and water wells. This discovery, in turn, sent me out on a fishing expedition of my own to find out more about the energy industry. A few years later, I would find myself in Colombia working for a start-up and analyzing data to characterize unconventional reservoirs.

6. Why do you like working with Start-Ups?

Start-Ups are always a great place to learn, grow, and possibly reinvent yourself professionally.

Okay, now for some fun things about Fernando…

7. What are three of your interests outside of work?

  • Data Science

  • Physics

  • Geology

8.  What are your top 3 accomplishments (personal or professional)?  Don’t be shy!  Give ‘em to us.

  • As an analyst, you need to know how to use data to enable an organization to make better decisions. In some cases, however, the data is not readily available. And I have always made it a personal goal to find solutions when such problems arise. In a previous position, for instance, I enrolled in an online course to learn a programming language that would help us organized the data more efficiently. I also reached out to management to make them aware of the issue and recommended possible solutions. In the end, and with support of our operations management, our company shifted some its IT resources to build a database application. Consequently, this data is now monetizable, used for further research, and ready for quick access.

  • At the start of a 40-million-dollar project in Colombia, the shipping company in charge of delivering our equipment was having trouble clearing customs. This meant we would lose at least a week of production and a quarter million dollars in revenue per week. As a team lead in operations, my role was to collect data, but faced with this setback, I took over the responsibility to manage the logistics of moving our samples from Colombia to our headquarters in Houston. Fortunately, taking the initiative to pivot my role allowed us to quickly catch up with our production quotas and revenue.

  • Our R & D department needed to conduct more research to validate our results. Given the specific requirements of the task, it could only be done at the Argonne National Laboratory, a research facility that is unique in the world. I was not part of the R & D group, but I believe my work ethic, interest in science and dedication were the deciding factors that persuaded them to choose me and join their research team in that occasion. The data we acquired at the Argonne National Lab helped us fine tune our results and improve our product. I am proud that I was part of that effort.

9.  If I were a superhero, my superpower would be               .

Modify my DNA at will.

10. When I was 5, I was pretty sure I'd be a                 when I grew up.

Taller person

11. If I weren't so damn good at what I do now, I'd probably be                 .

Physicist

12.  My favorite song is               by            .

I do not have a favorite song.

13.  If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd          .

A Science Education Organization in areas with poor access to education. It would be a sort of gym for little scientist. Kids could learn basic concepts of physics, chemistry, electronic, math, and applied statistics, but actually perform experiments and see their creations.

14.  The best piece of advice I've ever been given is                              .

Don't eat all the chocolate.