Robert F. Shelley, PE
Mr. Shelley has over 40 years of experience with well completion, hydraulic fracturing design and reservoir evaluation working on numerous well completion projects worldwide including Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. He has multi-fractured horizontal completion experience as well, which includes working the Bakken, Barnett, Bone Springs, Eagle Ford, Fayetteville, Granite Wash, Haynesville, Marcellus, Monterey, Montney, Niobrara, Osage, Utica and Wolfcamp.
He has developed a practical low-cost diagnostic test to predict proppant placement and estimate the relative impact of formation discontinuities such as natural fractures on hydraulic fracture propagation. This test has been utilized on thousands of frac treatments performed worldwide to identify problematic proppant placement conditions. He was also an early adopter of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to better understand the interaction of the completion design with the reservoir. In one instance, this type of approach supported completion design modifications which resulted in twice the Granite Wash Gas Production for less cost.
Bob has served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer twice, sharing his knowledge of North American Basins with the world. In 2020-2021, he presented on the topic "Completion Design using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning – Case Histories". In 2015-2016, Bob lectured on the topic "Optimization of Multi-Fractured Horizontal Completions; A New Industry Challenge". In addition, he served on the SPE ATCE Well Completion Committee and was Chairman twice. Bob has published over 40 technical papers, many as lead author, and holds more than 10 patents.
Mr. Shelley has a BS in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University and Business Training from the University Of Oklahoma and East Tennessee State University.