Mathematical Programming Models for the Optimal Development of Shale Gas and Oil Resources in Argentina   

Join us for a tech talk by Scott Institute Visiting Senior Fellow and Associate Professor at the Chemical Engineering School of the National University of Littoral (UNL) Diego Cafaro.

Lunch available at 11:45 a.m.

Date and Location

Abstract

The recent irruption of shale resources in the oil and gas industry has dramatically changed the paradigm for managing operations. Unconventional production is largely driven by drilling new wells, yielding a much larger scale of material and service flows that need to be efficiently planned and coordinated.

This tech talk is aimed at presenting several optimization models and tools based on mixed-integer programming for the design of integrated supply chain networks and planning operations in modern oil and gas companies. Real‐world case studies from the oil and gas industry in Argentina will illustrate challenges such as prediction of production levels, logistics of drilling and transport operations, and water management, which are faced by unconventional projects (shale gas and shale oil) in developing countries to make them competitive. The presentation will show how enterprise-wide optimization concepts and tools have become a must for the cost effective and environmentally responsible development of shale oil and gas resources.

Biography

Diego C. Cafaro is an Associate Professor at the Chemical Engineering School of the National University of Littoral (UNL), Argentina, and Independent Researcher of the National Scientific Research Council (CONICET). He is the current Director of the Industrial Engineering Program at UNL. He joined the Center for Advanced Process Systems Engineering at the Institute of Technology for the Chemical Industry (INTEC) in 2003. His main research contributions have been in the area of planning and scheduling the transportation of multiple refined products through oil pipeline networks, and more recently in the optimal development of shale gas resources.

Since 2014, Cafaro has been actively collaborating with YPF, the most important energy company in Argentina, in the optimization of the supply chain network servicing oil and gas fields in the Vaca Muerta region (the world’s second-largest shale gas deposit). His work in this field started in 2013, when he first visited CMU as a Fulbright scholar, under the supervision of Ignacio Grossmann. Cafaro is currently visiting the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation as a Senior Fellow, and he is collaborating on research projects with faculty and graduate students in the technological development of optimization methods for the sustainable planning of shale gas infrastructure.

Directions

The Sherman and Joyce Bowie Scott Hall is located on the west side of Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus between Hamerschlag Hall and the FMS building, and adjacent to the west wall of Wean Hall. We recommend you park at the East Campus Garage on Forbes Avenue and walk to Scott Hall following the directions below. VIEW PARKING RATES