Summary
Dr. Brian Toelle retired as a Professor of Practice in Energy and Petroleum Engineering from the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Wyoming
in Laramie in July, 2024. His appointment with the university was made after he had served in the
capacity of a Visiting Professor with the department, teaching various
courses for a year and a half starting in Aug. 2015. During 2018 and 2019 Brian served as the department's Interim
Department Head. He specialized in and conducted research into the
following areas:
- Unconventional Reservoir Analysis.
- Seismic Attribute Analysis for porosity detection and characterization.
- 3D Petroleum Systems Modeling in Wyoming geologic basins
- Flare Gas Mitigation
- Re-purposing petroleum industry methods for wildfire mitigation.
For more information on these research areas please see the "Research" section.
Previous to his appointment with the university Brian was an Advisor for Schlumberger PTS (PetroTechnical Services)
in the fields of Petroleum Exploration and Geophysics. Schlumberger is a
Global 500 company specializing oilfield services which, at the time,
employed 120,000 people in 85 countries. Brian
has assisted Schlumberger's clients since 1997 by providing
geoscience-focused, consulting services for various projects, providing
guidance to project teams worldwide and teaching industry courses. These
projects have included exploration and field development projects,
underground gas storage projects, CO2 sequestration projects and shale
reservoir development projects. He has developed course materials and
taught classes on shale reservoirs and structural geology for open
industry classes and closed classes for specific clients.
Brian has more than 33 years of continuous experience in the oil
industry, specializing in exploration geology and geophysics. In the
past he has worked for one of the largest major oil companies in the
industry (Texaco, 9 years) and the largest National Oil Company in the world (Saudi Aramco, 5 years). He also worked for Schlumberger, the largest oilfield service company in the world, for nearly 18 years.
Brian is an Adjunct Professor for the Department of Geology and
Geography at West Virginia University where he has held half-day
workshops on shale reservoirs. Previously Brian was on the adjunct
faculty for Wright State University where he taught a number of 1 hour
seminars in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
During his career in the oil and gas industry Brian was presented with a
number of awards for his work. These included Saudi Aramco's
Exploration's Personal Achievement Award and Schlumberger's "Performed
by Schlumberger" Awards. Additionally, Brian was named a "Distinguished
Lecturer" by the Society of Petroleum Engineering. Most recently Brian
was awarded the 2019 Steve Champlin Memorial Award by the Wyoming
Geological Society for the poster he presented at the AAPG's Rocky
Mountain Section conference in 2019. See the "Education, Honors and Memberships" section.
As of this posting Brian has been fortunate enough to have visited 38
countries around the world. Many of these countries he has visited
multiple times due to various work related projects, however, Brian and
his family enjoy traveling and a number of these have been visited
during various family vacations. To see Brian's travel log click here.
To see my Linked-In Profile click here.
To see my Academy.edu page click here.
To see my Mendeley page click here.
To see my ResearchGate Profile click here.