History & Vision

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Our History

W. D. "Bill" Von Gonten, Jr., Founder & CEO, is the son of W. D. "Doug" Von Gonten, Sr.   Doug was a former department head and professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. His 25 years of service resulted in the remarkable growth of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M. The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University has been ranked as the best Petroleum Engineering department for its undergraduate programs for decades. A significant number of Petroleum Engineers in industry today either studied directly under Doug or took an industry class from him.

In 1995, Bill founded W.D. Von Gonten & Co. (WDVGCO), a Petroleum Engineering consulting firm. In 2006, WDVGCO became the first consultancy to volumetrically assess U.S. gas shales. In 2013, Bill formed his second company, W.D. Von Gonten Laboratories (WDVGL) and opened a core testing facility purpose-built for unconventionals. In 2015, WDVGL added Data Science and Frac Modeling to conduct 3D high-res frac models and proprietary data analysis.

In July 2022, the assets of WDVGCO and WDVGL were combined to form W.D. Von Gonten Engineering LLC (WDVGE) and National Energy Services Reunited Corporation (NESR) joined as a strategic partner expanding WDVGE's services to the Middle East and North Africa. The partnership combines WDVGE's experience and unique capabilities with NESR's superior service and technology deployments to provide valuable solutions to the next generation of complex reservoirs and challenging environments. WDVGE core evaluation services were introduced in the NESR facility in Dhahran Techno Valley in 2023.

Vision

WDVGE is an engineering and laboratory services company that specializes in low permeability, complex reservoir production modeling and analysis. The laboratory supplements the engineering services by providing rock and fluid data to create an improved subsurface model. Our work focuses on Landing Point Analysis, Geomechanics, Petrophysics, Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Engineering/Simulation to best optimize production from complex reservoirs across the world.

WDVGE has experience in virtually every basin worldwide. Over the years, WDVGE has evaluated over 50,000 producing wells, in excess of 5,000 logs and more than 1,000 cores. Our staff has published their findings and research in multiple respected journals and presented their findings at multiple industry/academia conferences.

Representative Publications

  1. Chin, B., Ali, S., Mathur,A., Barnes,C., Von Gonten, Willian Jr., (2021). Core Effective and Relative Permeability Measurements For Conventional And Unconventional Reservoirs By Saturation Monitoring In High Frequency 3D Gradient NMR. Prepared for presentation at the Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MEOS), 28 November – 1 December 2021.
  2. Ali, M., Ali, S., Mathur, A., & Von Gonten, Willian Jr., (2021). Evaluate Wettability and Production Potential Of Tight Reservoirs Through Spontaneous Imbibition Using Time-lapse NMR And Other Measurements. Prepared for presentation at the Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MEOS), 28 November – 1 December 2021.
  3. Kias, E., Kumar, R., Abell, B., Mathur, A., Barnes, C., Chin, B., ... & Ali, S. (2021, July). Comprehensive Laboratory Testing for Screening Completion Fluids to Maximize Productivity of Hydraulically Fractured Reservoirs. In SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC)
  4. Mathur, A., Ali, S., Woodland, C., Hudson, K., Barnes, C., Von Gonten, W. D., & Belanger, C. (2021, July). Using NMR and Steady State Permeability Measurements to Study Drilling Fluid Invasion Into the Tight Mississippian Ratcliffe Carbonate and Its Impact on Oil Production. In SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC)
  5. Degenhardt, J. J., Ali, S., Ali, M., Chin, B., Von Gonten, W. D., & Peavey, E. (2021, May). Reservoir Scale Chemostratigraphy and Facies Modeling Using High Sample Rate Geophysical Scans of Whole Core. In SPWLA 62nd Annual Logging Symposium .
  6. Egor Dontsov, 2021. An ultra-fast single phase reservoir model for multi-well developments. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 196 (2021) 107826
  7. Roberto Suarez-Rivera, Rohit Panse, Javad Sovizi, Egor Dontsov. Heather LaReau, Kirke Suter, Matthew Blose, Thomas Hailu, Kyle Koontz, 2021. Multi-well Pressure History Matching in Delaware Play Helps Optimizing Fracturing for Subsequent Pads. SPE-204162-MS. SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference.
  8. Mathur, A., Ali, S., Barnes, C., Belanger, C., Treadwell, J., Chin, B., & Ravi, V. (2020, July). Permeability Measurements on Shales using NMR Spectroscopy. In SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC), 20–22 July 2020
  9. Barnes, C., Ali, S., Mathur, A., Chin, B., Belanger, C., & Treadwell, J. (2020, June). Liquid Steady-State Permeability Measurements on Shales in Conjunction with High-Field 3D Gradient NMR Spectroscopy. In SPWLA 61st Annual Logging Symposium .
  10. Dash, T., Ali, S., Ali, M., Chin, B., Mathur, A., Hartanto, R., & Ravi, V. (2020, June). Water Saturation in Unconventionals: The Real Story. In SPWLA 61st Annual Logging Symposium .
  11. Ravi, V. R., Ali, S., Dash, T., Ali, M., Chin, B., & Hartanto, R. (2020, December). Water Saturation in Unconventionals: Myth Busted. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, 20–22 July 2020 (pp. 1397-1408). Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC).
  12. Ali, M., Ali, S., Mathur, A., & Belanger, C. (2020, December). Organic Shale Spontaneous Imbibition and Monitoring with NMR to Evaluate In-Situ Saturations, Wettability and Molecular Sieving. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, 20–22 July 2020 . Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC).
  13. Mathur, A., Ali, S., Ali, M., Belanger, C., & Ravi, V. R. (2020, December). Measuring Hydrocarbon Gas Properties for Accurate Gas-In-Place Calculations For Unconventional Gas Reservoirs. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, 20–22 July 2020 (pp. 4479-4495). Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC: 3074).
  14. Ali, S., Barnes, C., Mathur, A., Chin, B., & Belanger, C. (2020, December). Impact of Completions Fluids Chemistry on Hydrocarbon Effective Permeability of Organic Shales. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, 20–22 July 2020 (pp. 405-417). Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC: 3158).
  15. Kumar, R., Ali, S. J., & Mathur, A. (2020, July). A Rigorous Workflow for Evaluation of Huff and Puff Recovery Efficiency of Immiscible and Miscible Gases in Unconventional Reservoirs by Integrating Core Tests with NMR and GC Analysis. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, 20–22 July 2020 (pp. 3104-3117). Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC).
  16. Abell, B. and Sassen, D. 2020. Mechanical logs for hydraulic fracture modeling – Honoring rock fabric with high-resolution data. ARMA 20–1703. US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, Golden, Colorado, USA, 28 June-1 July 2020.
  17. Mathur, A., Ali, S., Ali, M., Belanger, C., & Ravi, V. (2020, June). Hydrocarbon Gas Behavior in Nano Pore Confinement Organic Shale Systems. In SPWLA 61st Annual Logging Symposium .
  18. E.V. Dontsov, R. Suarez-Rivera, 2020. Propagation of multiple hydraulic fractures in different regimes. International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 128 (2020) 104270
  19. W.D. Von Gonten, 2020. Unconventional Measurements Bootstrap Reservoir Simulation. SPE Annual Technical Conference (2020) 201608
  20. Egor Dontsov, Andrew Bunger, Bradley Abell, Roberto Suarez-Rivera, 2019. Ultrafast Hydraulic Fracturing Model for Optimizing Cube Development. URTeC: 885. Unconventional Resources Technology Conference , Denver, Colorado, USA, 22-24 July 2019.
  21. Roberto Suarez-Rivera, Egor Dontsov, Bradley Abell, 2019. Quantifying the Induced Stresses During Stacked, Multi-Stage, Multi-Well Completions, to Define Stimulation Sequencing and Optimize Pad Productivity. URTeC: 892. Unconventional Resources Technology Conference , Denver, Colorado, USA, 22-24 July 2019.
  22. Suarez-Rivera, R., Degenhardt, J., Gonten, W. V., Graham, J., Ali, S., & Jegadeesan, A. (2016, August). Optimizing lateral landing depth for improved well production. In Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, San Antonio, Texas, 1-3 August 2016 (pp. 2267-2279).
  23. Suarez-Rivera, Roberto, et al. "Integration of Thermal and Solvent Extraction Methods for Improved Characterization of Hydrocarbon in Place and Producibility." SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference . OnePetro, 2016.

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