Dr Gerardo Sanchez-Soto coordinates the research, development and deployment of well, subsea oil and gas technologies.
Current activities
Dr Gerardo Sanchez-Soto was appointed Wells and Subsea Technology Capability Research Group Leader at CSIRO in 2007.
In his role Dr Sanchez-Soto coordinates a large research and development (R&D) budget involving several CSIRO divisions and relationships with international R&D centres and Australian universities.
Dr Sanchez-Soto defines research strategies for developing well and subsea technologies developed by CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering. He coordinates the research, development and deployment of the various technologies produced.
He is currently involved in several projects:
- natural gas hydrates in gas dominant pipelines looking at the dynamics of hydrates in gas pipelines
- gas-liquid compact separation technology and production monitoring and optimization technologies.
Background
Dr Sanchez-Soto was employed by Intevep, the research and development affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in Venezuela.
He performed a variety of roles in the Production Department for 14 years, gaining specific knowledge of interfacial physical-chemistry associated to bitumen in water emulsions and its formation and stability as well as mixing technology focused on improving the mixing of the bitumen-based fuel Orimulsion.
He also has experience in drilling fluids technology and dehydration process of heavy crude oil.
Dr Sanchez-Soto defines research strategies for developing well and subsea technologies.
Other areas he worked on to advance laboratory trials to pilot and commercial levels include:
Towards the end of his tenure at Intevep, Dr Sanchez-Soto's responsibilities also included a business development focus, evaluating and establishing strategies for business opportunities for technologies developed by Intevep and sourcing potential partners for joint ventures in new technologies.
Dr Sanchez-Soto continued to develop business development strategies as Senior Advisor for New Technologies during his employment with Copyrca, Venezuela, before joining CSIRO in 2005.
Academic qualifications
Dr Sanchez-Soto completed a Bachelor of Science at the Universidad de los Andes in Merida, Venezuela.
He continued his studies here, receiving a Masters in Science, Chemical Engineering. His thesis focused on catalytic process, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and physicochemistry.
In 1996 Dr Sanchez-Soto was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. His thesis was entitled Coalescence phenomena in turbulent liquid-liquid dispersions.
Achievements
Dr Sanchez-Soto has published a combination of 25 technical reports and papers in a broad range of areas from fuel formation and processing to scale up procedures.
He has been involved in the patenting of six technologies with two more pending.
Dr Sanchez-Soto has additionally supervised three undergraduate theses, a Masters thesis and has previously been the industrial supervisor of two Doctoral students.
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