Julie Tannehill has spent most of her career working in the oil and gas industry, achieving more than 13 years of expertise in various roles in reservoir engineering including completions engineering, operations engineering and as an engineering supervisor.

She joined Denver-based SCR Energy Inc. as a completion engineer in early 2017, a position where strong communication and problem-solving is key to her.

“If you can work on a team and bring forth creative solutions to problems, then this is a great industry to work in,” she said.

Raised in Pasadena, Texas, Tannehill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a petroleum engineering degree. Her first exposure to the major was as a high school student at an engineering fair at a local high school.

In 2004, she landed her first job with Swift Energy Co. in Houston. Her husband’s job relocated them to Denver in 2005, where she joined Williams Cos. Inc. from 2005 to 2013, with a focus on the Piceance Basin. From 2013 to 2016, she worked with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Wattenberg Field.

In her spare time she enjoys all the outdoors Colorado has to offer and raising her children.

Investor What do you enjoy about being a completion engineer?

Tannehill I work with an excellent group composed of landmen, geologists, production, regulatory and operations folks, and I am able to support them with completions engineering knowledge.

What’s exciting about petroleum engineering is how multifaceted the role is. As petroleum engineers, we are trained to know a little bit about chemistry, mechanics (fluids and structure), geology and economics. This comes in handy because when you enter the workforce, there’s so many opportunities to explore, whether it be on the operations side, modeling side, long-term planning or business development sides.

I don’t have a typical day, which also makes my world fun and exciting; every day there’s a new challenge or question that gets posed around designing new completions, troubleshooting well problems, interacting with other operators or service providers, exploring data trends and analytics, or understanding regulations. Because of that variety, I’ve been truly blessed to explore different facets and hone in on my favorite which has been well completions.

Investor What factors enable SRC Energy to keep being a successful pure-play in Wattenberg Field?

Tannehill First and foremost, we have an excellent team of individuals that are considered experts in their fields. We have a continuous acreage block around the town of Greeley, [Colo.], which enables us to concentrate our efforts around pure-play development of the multibenched Niobrara and Codell formations. With that land position, we’re able to take advantage of drilling and completing longer laterals, reduce our footprint, utilize concentrated gathering infrastructure and work responsibly with our Greeley neighbors.

Investor How is Wattenberg unique within the Rockies? Does it face any particular challenges or have any special attributes?

Tannehill Wattenberg Field is unique in the Rockies for a number of reasons. First, Wattenberg was first discovered in the 1970s, with almost 40 years of development utilizing vertical well drilling technology and an estimated 20,000 vertical wells in the field.

Secondly, the urban growth along Colorado’s Front Range has been incredible over the past 10 years. Today, more than ever, both oil and gas operations and urban areas have to coexist.

Although Wattenberg Field has its challenges, it is also very exciting with the innovations in technologies to enhance efficiencies, enhance safety and mitigate irritations around sound, odor and light.

Investor How does today’s drilling technology enhance or hinder a well completions engineer’s job?

Tannehill A well completions engineer’s job is challenged with horizontal drilling technology because we have a lot more complexity, time and capital associated with each well. For example, in my earlier career, we would typically design five to eight completion stages per vertical well, and now it’s more like 30 to 40 stages per well. It’s important that we get it right the first time; it’s very difficult and expensive to recomplete an existing horizontal well. Part of the excitement with this role is being able to make changes with fluid systems, chemicals, proppant designs, stage spacing and analyzing the production results.

Investor What advice would you give other young women considering a career in oil and gas?

Tannehill Everything is possible. It’s how much you want it—no one in this industry will hold you back but yourself. At the end of the day, we’re all here to solve technical and operational problems and work as the team. The best results come from collaboration.

The people in this industry are some of the most passionate, creative and caring individuals when it comes to oil and gas work and the community. The environment, nature, people, community are equally as important to us who work in oil and gas. We work, live and play here too.

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