Maria Angela Capello
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| Membership | Life Member |
|---|---|
| MSc | Geophysics |
| MSc university | Colorado School of Mines |
Maria Angela Capello is an awarded advisor and leader for the oil and gas industry, expert in reservoir management and transformational management and leadership strategies. She has more than 33 years of experience, growing a solid knowledge of NOCs and service companies in the Middle East, United States, and Latin America. She is currently an executive advisor in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), champions the standardization of reservoir management best practices across the company, and is the champion of the technical training programs advanced by three assets of KOC with Shell. She is also the lead advisor of the KPC Professional Women Network, advancing the professional women in the nine companies of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation holding.
Capello is recognized for implementing innovations in reservoir management, training, and diversity and inclusion. She was the first female supervisor of geophysical field operations in the jungle of Venezuela, in Pdvsa, progressing to be general manager of several oil assets. Later, she was subsurface and operations manager for Halliburton in Latin America and the northern Arabic Gulf. With more than 57 publications, she recently authored the book “Learned in the Trenches – Insights on Leadership and Resilience” (Springer, 2018). She believes that improving an individual, team, or corporation starts with clear strategic goals, communicated in simple and appealing ways.
Capello was Vice President of SEG, an SEG Honorary Lecturer, Lifetime Member, Chair of the SEG SEG Women’s Network Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors for the SEG Advanced Modeling (SEAM) Corporation. At the SEG 2018 Annual Meeting, she received the 2018 SEG Special Commendation Award. She also volunteers extensively for other societies, and is a Distinguished Member, Distinguished Lecturer, and international Distinguished Service awardee of the SPE. She is the Chair of the SPE Public Service Award Committee, an Associate Editor for the Journal of Petroleum Technology and is an advisor of SPE “Women in Energy”. She is the founder of the Lean Energy Chapter for the Middle East. In 2018, she won the international “GRIT” PinkPetro Award for The Difference Makers in energy. Capello holds an MS from the Colorado School of Mines.
2025 SEG Latin America Honorary Lecturer
Rocking Sustainability: Geophysics’ Role in a Greener, Prosperous, and Socially Conscious Latin America
This Honorary Lecture will showcase how geophysicists are driving sustainability and making a significant impact, particularly in Latin America. Attendees will gain insights into innovative practices and initiatives shaping a sustainable future, as highlighted in the report led by the lecturer: “Geoscience in Action: Advancing Sustainable Development,” co-published by UNESCO and AGU, with 18 examples from around the world. The critical role of geoscientists in decision-making processes related to natural resource management, environmental stewardship, economic prosperity, net-zero pathways, and social consciousness will be central to the discussion.
Designed to empower and motivate, this session will provide a clearer understanding of sustainability frameworks, performance measurements, and resources for analyzing, quantifying, and communicating progress about geoscientists advancing sustainability.
2023 SEG Presidential Award
Maria Angela Capello is someone who has brought her huge passion, energy, and creativity to multiple roles in SEG. Maria Angela continuously brings unique perspectives and ideas to SEG’s activities. From multiple committees to taking a leading role with Geoscience in Action, sustainability atlas Maria Angela is a consistent force and outstanding contributor to the SEG.
2018 SEG Honorary Lecturer, Middle East and Africa
The evolving challenges of geophysicists – From amplitude mappers to partners in drilling and water search
The exploration geophysicist is already a stereotype that needs to be left in the past, giving space to a refreshed professional with new skills and equipped with the language of reservoir engineers, drillers, and ecologists. This is key for sustainability strategies in global energy supply and for enabling the planet’s ecosystem preservation guidelines.
Over the decades, geophysicists have faced an ever-evolving rollercoaster, generally but not always tied to oil prices, that has placed them in high-salary oil-and-gas-sector jobs. The originally indispensable roles of geophysicists as key workforce components in exploration departments of operating companies has now shifted immensely. Earlier, they were tasked with finding important volumes of oil and gas reserves. There were no rivals in supporting corporate expansion strategies for joint ventures or acquisitions other than the knowledgeable geophysicists, able to present the secrets of the subsurface as colorful answers, worthy of approvals. Today however, the exponential growth of unconventional reservoirs and maturation of oilfields worldwide that require enhanced production schemes, in conjunction with more ecologically friendly government policies that impose useful constraints, have pushed a clear shift in the skills and focus needed for geophysicists not only to survive but to thrive in new energy scenarios.
The purpose of this lecture is to analyze how the main milestones and recent developments in the energy market have challenged and continue to challenge geophysicists in industry and in academia. The focus of the lecture is to explain how the new field development strategies of the main actors in oil and gas inevitably will impact the utilization of geophysicists. Several flags will be raised about the increasing need for ensuring availability of industrial and potable water as well as prevention schemes with respect to contamination, flooding, earthquakes, and volcanoes and their impacts on urban areas.
Is academia preparing geophysicists for current and future challenges? Is the energy sector sufficiently engaged in maximizing the use of geophysicists? How aware is society as a whole of the value of geophysicists in urban disaster prevention plans? These topics and more are explored in this lecture.
Additional Resource
A recording of the lecture is available.[1]
SEG 2018 Special Commendation Award
Maria Angela Capello has a distinguished record of service to the scientific community and the profession. She has long been a promoter of geophysics in Venezuela and organized a joint society workshop there on reservoir characterization. She served as chair of the SEG Women's Network Committee, is well known as a coach and mentor, was a member of the Global Affairs Committee advocating equitable dues worldwide, and coordinated career panel discussions in Abu Dhabi, Al-Ain, Barcelona, and Oman.
Biography Citation for the 2018 SEG Special Commendation Award [2]
By Anna Shaughnessy and Leon Thomsen
Maria Angela Capello is a geophysicist with numerous achievements in several areas of field development and reservoir management. Beyond this, she has been a leader in the empowerment of women and development of talent for the oil industry in different regions of the world. She currently works for Kuwait Oil Company, as executive consultant to the deputy CEO for North Kuwait.
Maria has propelled essential initiatives for SEG, with technical as well as membership objectives. She has been a leader of many SEG activities, committees, conferences, programs, and research initiatives related to seismic interpretation, seismic modeling, and 4D seismic. She was chair of the first symposium in Latin America for reservoir characterization. She launched the first-ever symposium for reservoir characterization in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela (coorganized by SEG, AAPG, and SPE), and the first SEG Giant Oil Fields Workshop in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She is currently an active Board member of SEG SEAM.
In the membership arena, she has worked to advance young, female, and non-U.S. members. Most importantly, she is chair of the Global Affairs Committee and Young Education/EPIC committees. Maria is one of the founding members of the SEG Women's Network Committee, which she has chaired twice. She steered an expansion of activities to benefit women members in the form of workshops, networking opportunities, liaisons with sister societies, and through social media.
In 2017, she proposed a new SEG award that is now the Craig J. Beasley Award for Social Contribution. This award acknowledges the need for SEG to serve society as a whole, in addition to its members. Maria was elected vice president in 2005 and was honored with SEG Life Membership in 2009.
It is not only SEG that has benefitted from Maria's volunteerism. SPE has bestowed her with Distinguished Service (2017), Regional Service (2015), and Distinguished Membership (2014) awards. Maria is also a distinguished lecturer for SPE (2018).
This year, she coauthored her first book, Learned in the Trenches, a compilation on leadership and resilience that projects her innovative multicultural leadership in a traditional business context.
In summary, Maria has propelled the prestige of SEG and geophysics, with a dedicated volunteerism that sets a wonderful example for new generations of young geophysicists and professionals in the energy sector. SEG is a better organization due to the work done by volunteers, and Maria shines as a volunteer that elevates SEG to new heights.
2009 SEG Life Membership Award [3]
María Ángela Capello received SEG Life Membership for her dedicated work in the Global Affairs Committee (of which she was a cofounder) and her service to the Society as Vice President in 2005–2006. She has served as an officer on the GAC and has served as regional co-coordinator for Latin America.
Biography Citation for 2009 SEG Life Membership
By Mike Batzle
Energy, dedication. These two words are an excellent description of María Ángela Capello and her work. Her Life Membership is a well-deserved recognition of her efforts to expand SEG’s global outreach and render it a more inclusive organization. Those who know María Ángela will all agree that she possesses enough energy to power a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Fortunately for mankind, this energy has been focused on opening opportunities for geophysicists and students around the world. María Ángela is also an excellent role model for young women just entering the profession.
I came to know María Ángela and her husband Herminio during her graduate studies at the Colorado School of Mines. She investigated the influence of rock and fluid properties on reservoir monitoring as part of The Reservoir Characterization Project. This awoke her interest in reservoir development and management in general. She has gone on to be an active participant in technical societies, organized meetings, and promoted educational exchanges.
María Ángela has been deeply involved with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists for many years: as vice president on the 2005–2006 Executive Committee, committee member, and educational facilitator. Her viewpoint has always been global, and as an active member of the Global Affairs Committee, she has been instrumental in developing SEG into an international organization. In Venezuela, María Ángela worked enthusiastically with the Venezuelan Society of Geophysicists, SOVG, to bring in international participants.
She became deeply involved in education at the Universidad Central de Venezuela soon after her return to Caracas. I was involved with the exchange she arranged for students from UCV to attend the field camp at CSM. It was obvious that all the students benefitted from both the scientific and cultural exchange. She also introduced the 3D interpretation exercise produced by the SEG Geoscience Center to graduate students at UCV. One of her most innovative efforts was her dedication to the development of a joint university-industry training facility (PetroUCV). In this program, a small oil field was turned over to UCV so that students could gain first-hand knowledge on how to collect, reduce, and interpret field data; they then proposed and implemented solutions in a pioneering partnership effort. She is now in Kuwait, and, in this country, she is now applying her efforts in promoting SEG among students and geophysicists.
In conclusion, this life membership award to María Ángela Capello not only recognizes her energy and efforts, but is also an affirmation of the global viewpoint she has fostered at SEG.
References
- ↑ https://doi.org/10.1190/e-learning_20180806
- ↑ The Leading Edge Volume 37, Issue 11
- ↑ The Leading Edge Volume 29, Issue 4
External links
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