Richard W. Ball is vice president of Detring Energy Advisors in Houston. Ball previously was a development geologist for Chevron's Southern Africa Strategic Business Unit located in Houston. For more than eight years he has worked both conventional and unconventional reservoirs including onshore United States, Gulf of Mexico Shelf/Deep Water and West Africa Shelf. Ball served the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) as secretary of the Executive Committee 2013-15, vice chair and chair of the Student Chapter Committee 2007-12. There he worked with an incredible group of volunteers to add more than 100 student chapters worldwide. During this time he also served as vice chair of the Young Professionals Committee. As secretary of the AAPG he spoke to more than 500 students and young professionals worldwide regarding their leadership potential.
Ball is a proud graduate of Stephen F. Austin and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he earned his bachelor’s (2005) and master’s degrees (2007), respectively.
- 2007 – M.S., Geology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- 2007-15 – Chevron Training Program, including:
- Reserves and Uncertainty
- Software and Modeling
- Lean Sigma (Green Belt Certification)
- Field Studies
- 2005 – B.S., Geology, Stephen F. Austin State University
Detring Energy Advisors, Houston
- 2016-Present – Director, Detring Energy Advisors, Houston
- 2012-16 – Chevron Southern Africa Strategic Business Unit
- 2012-16 – Development Geologist-Angola Block 0
- 2010-12 – Exploration Geologist-Gulf of Mexico
- 2007-10 – Development Geologist-San Juan Basin
- 2006 – Contract Geologist, Chevron (Topp Knotch, Lafayette, La.)
- 2016 – “Improving Survey Accuracy by Using Continuous Directional Data and Drilling Parameter Settings,” Ed Stockhausen, Richard Ball, Pete Clark, Richard Mongan and Phillip Rice, Search and Discovery
- 2010 – “The Highs and Lows of Subsalt Exploration in Southeastern Green Canyon, Deepwater Gulf of Mexico – A World-Class Petroleum System,” Chevron Internal
- 2009 – “LIDAR Imaging Technology Used to Reduce Cycle Time and Costs While Increasing Safety and Stakeholder Alignment,” Chevron Internal
- 2009 – “Digital Regional Investigation of the Wilcox Group of Northern Louisiana: Application to Coalbed Natural Gas Evaluation,” GCAGS annual meeting
- 2007 – “Regional Subsurface Investigation: Coal Accumulation in the Wilcox Group, Northern Louisiana,” thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- 2006 – “Ore Petrographic Aspects of Recent Basaltic Andesite from Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica,” GSA annual meeting
(Other confidential presentations/publications include results from studies on geomodelling, geosteering, lean sigma application and offshore exploration.)