Section members,
I hope you are having a great week and were safe and warm through the ice storm.
Today, I would like to acknowledge two of our section members for their contributions to the SPE community.
Please join me in congratulating Oscar Gabaldon, Drilling Technologies Development Manager with Blade Energy Partners, as our 2023 Engineer of the Year. Oscar is recognized for expanding the technical knowledge base of the SPE community, specifically in the field of drilling engineering. He has published six technical papers with topics ranging from casing and cementing to drilling fluids and materials since 2020. Thank you, Oscar, for your contributions to SPE.
We are also proud to acknowledge Anjali Jha, Sales Executive with DistributionNOW, as this year’s Young Engineer of the Year. Anjali serves as the Programs Chair and has done a tremendous job bringing in a variety of topics to our technical program events. We are grateful to Anjali for her dedication and contributions to the section.
I encourage all of you to reach out to both Oscar and Anjali and personally congratulate them for their achievements and dedications to SPE.
Here are the bios of our Engineer of the Year and Young Engineer of the Year:
Oscar Gabaldon is the Drilling Technologies Development Manager at Blade Energy Partners. After leading Blade’s global Operations Group for eight years, Oscar is now tasked with linking the developments from the engineering group with the day-to-day operations, integrating operations into Blade’s R&D program, as well as overseeing Blade’s advanced training programs.
After earning an Agronomical Engineering degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela, Oscar started his career in the oil and gas industry over 25 years ago with M-I Drilling Fluids and then with Weatherford, mainly in Underbalanced and Managed Pressure Drilling projects. With Blade, Oscar has led research, development, planning, and implementation of non-conventional drilling technologies in cutting-edge projects in land and deep water with a focus on MPD and Well Design optimization and has recently been involved in geothermal and CCUS projects. Over the past 14 years, Oscar has taught more than 65 UBD and MPD design and operations classes, contributing to advancing the career development of over 800 O&G professionals.
Oscar has authored and co-authored multiple industry papers, recently with an emphasis on MPD, well control, and well design, and is a technical peer reviewer for journal publications for SPE. He has served continuously since 2009 in the IADC UBO&MPD Committee, including Chairing the Committee twice in the past. During this time, Oscar has contributed to shaping industry best practices, including API RP92U, API RP92M, and API RP92S, and currently leading the development of Riser Gas Handling Guidelines. Oscar holds two US patents for technology improvement designs for optimizing non-conventional drilling techniques in deep water.
Oscar lives in Frisco and is just about to celebrate his 24th wedding anniversary with his wife Dulce. They have two wonderful kids (well, no longer kids!), Joaquin (21) and Marcela (18), who enjoy family outdoor outings with a preference for beach trips and playing lots of board games. When he is not working, Oscar enjoys cooking and woodworking at home, and taking on ambitious (according to Dulce) construction projects.
Anjali Jha is a Sales Executive at DistributionNOW. She provides technical feedback to clients as they make product selections for the upstream market while maintaining customer relationships throughout the DFW area. Anjali started her career as a field engineer, where she was exposed to fracturing in south Texas. Her experience began in Texas, routed her through the Rockies, including the frozen Bakken, and finally moved to Dallas in 2020. While her experience has been in engineering, Anjali quickly found that the skills she learned while being in the field along with her outgoing personality were a perfect mesh for sales.
As a native of Denver, CO she graduated in 2012 with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. Anjali's family has always had a strong engineering background. Her dad, brother, several cousins are engineers, and she even married into an engineering family.
Anjali knew at a young age she wanted to be an engineer but more importantly, a leader in the community. Anjali was very active while at Mines with the local Girl Scout Troops, especially during Introduce the Troop to STEM Day, where the troop would perform science projects and see women in industry. She also volunteered with other minority organizations on campus to tutor inner-city students in math and science. Being a natural-born leader, Anjali completed her MBA from Texas A&M in 2020. At DistributionNOW, Anjali currently serves as the Co-Chair for the Women’s ERG and for the last year is the Dallas SPE Programs Chair.
Anjali married her longtime boyfriend, Jonathan, in 2020. Her best friend is her dog, Pepper, a Sheepadoodle. You'll always catch Anjali with a smile on her face and an inviting hello, unless you catch her coaching CrossFit, then she'll make you work hard but leave with a smile. Her activities include all things health and fitness, reading, CrossFit, Yoga, cheering on the Broncos, and international travel.