Email

alvarez1@ualberta.ca

I'm a principal researcher and the lead of the steam processes team at InnoTech Alberta. I joined InnoTech Alberta (previously known as AITF and Alberta Research Council) in 2005. Before that, I  worked for the Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA-INTEVEP (research arm of PDVSA) for almost 20 years, obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996 and 1998, respectively.

Research Areas:

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR): SAGD, Steam plus additives, Solvent injection, Heavy-oil waterflooding, Foam injection.

Research Interests:

Impact of geology on SAGD, expanding SAGD to challenging reservoirs (e.g. reservoirs with lean zones, top/bottom water, IHS) impact of geology and operating parameters on recovery mechanisms such as capillary pressure in heavy-oil waterflooding, developing post-CHOPS processes by exploiting the wormholes generated in CHOPS.

Courses Taught:

IPG 516 (Petroleum Production)

PET E473 (Fundamental Reservoir Engineering)

PET 477 (Modelling in Petroleum Engineering)