OUR SERVICES
Company Personnel

Marc Sterling

CEO

Marc has over thirty years of experience on a wide array of processing platforms in exploration, production and engineering applications. He has been actively involved in 3D processing and development for over twenty years. At Western Geophysical, he was the Group Leader of the “Research and Special Projects Group.” Following his years at Western, Marc moved on to work with Aspen Geophysical, Bolt Technology, Production Geophysical Services and Geosignal. In all cases, enjoying senior technical positions as well as management. Aside from production processing projects Marc has been instrumental in shear wave research and software development.

As CEO of STERLING, Marc’s technical support and involvement in all aspects of company operations are a result of his dedication to the customer and adherence to his own high standards of quality assurance. His shear wave and engineering experience has consistently lead to unsolicited work. He is a proven explorationist in both structurally complex and stratigraphic exploration provinces. He has consistently shown the ability to develop innovative processing sequences to better delineate exploration objectives.

 

Jeff Omvig

President, COO

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in the geophysical services industry with several industry-leading service providers. Prior to joining Sterling Jeff was the Manager of Land Program Development for ION’s (formerly I/O) Integrated Seismic Solutions (ISS) division, where his focus was on developing global onshore multi-client projects utilizing ION’s latest technology innovations. Previous to ION, Jeff spent the majority of his career with WesternGeco (Western Geophysical), where he served in various technical and management capacities including positions as geophysical analyst, project leader, processing supervisor, technical coordinator, center manager, regional DP manager, and manager of North America (NAM) DP.

As manager of NAM DP his responsibilities included P&L for WesternGeco’s largest business unit; operations management for processing operations in Houston, Denver, New Orleans, Calgary, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Bakersfield, Midland and Poza Rica, Mexico; DP training and technical support for the North America (NAM), Mexico/Central America (MCA), and South America (SAM) business units; and strategic management of input to the R&D cycle for NAM DP operations. Jeff’s processing experience and expertise includes 2D and 3D land and marine processing, and projects from most U.S. onshore basins, Alaska, GOM, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Jeff’s focus at Sterling is on new business development, strategic growth, and the development of new service offerings to add additional value to the Sterling client experience.

 

Bill Schorger

Senior Geophysicist

Bill has over thirty years of experience in the geophysical industry. He began with Seismograph Service Corporation (SSC) where he worked in both data processing and data acquisition. In Denver, he managed the Domestic Exploration Processing Center. He then moved on to Field Operations where he became the Area Supervisor for the Western United States. After seven and a half years with SSC, he started Echo-Tech, which he ran for three and a half years successfully developing and fielding speculative seismic programs in the Michigan Basin. He then moved on to work with Production Geophysical Services and Geosignal. Prior to STERLING Bill worked for Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for 5 years. At Saudi Aramco Bill handled projects ranging from multi-component VSPs, field crew and processing supervision to OBC acquisition and QC in the Arabian Gulf. His primary focus at STERLING is in marketing and client relations.

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Mark Glasshof

Mid-Continent Manager

Mark began his 30-year seismic career with Western Geophysical in Denver, CO. A large portion of his WG experience was spent managing and supervising land field crews operating in the Rocky Mountain states, West Texas, South Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan and California. In addition to Mark’s field experience he has an extensive background in data processing beginning in Midland, TX where he processed, supervised and managed 2D and 3D data sets throughout the Permian/Delaware Basin, South Texas and Oklahoma. His responsibilities over the last 10 years have been focused on managing the WesternGeco satellite processing office in Oklahoma City, as well as managing all aspects of Multi-Client program development and associated services for WesternGeco. Mark’s primary focus with STERLING will be to open and manage a state-of-the-art data processing center in Oklahoma City to provide high-end seismic processing services for STERLING clientele in the Mid-Continent region. Additionally, Mark will represent APEX HiPoint (a STERLING affiliated company) for fracture monitoring and VSP processing services in the OKC/mid-continent market.

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Zane Swope

Manager, Southeast U.S.

Zane has over 25 years of well-rounded experience in the geophysical services industry.  Prior to joining STERLING, his most recent venture was as a partner in Seismic Resources, LLP., developing multi-client 3D speculative programs.  Zane's previous experience includes senior positions in sales and/or management in data processing (Geotrace and Geokinetics), geophysical software (Landmark Graphics), multi-client data sales (SAI and Seismic Resources), seismic acquisition (Quantum Geophysical) and electronic invoicing and procure-to-pay solutions (Digital Oilfield).  He has spent the majority of his career with Geotrace, with his last role being Vice President of Reservoir Services in Houston.  He also played an active role in maintaining and growing Geotrace's reservoir business in Europe (London, UK).  Zane's role at STERLING is to build market share and manage STERLING's rapidly growing state-of-the-art Houston data processing center serving the oil and gas industry in the Southeast U.S.  Additionally, Zane will also represent STERLING's sister companies APEX HiPoint and HiPoint Reservoir Imaging for fracture monitoring and VSP processing services in the Southeast market. 

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Steven Larson

Senior Geophysicist

Steven has over 35 years of experience in the acquisition and processing of seismic data. Prior to joining Sterling, he held several managerial and technical positions for various contractors. Steven's processing experience includes Controlled Amplitude/Controlled Phase (CA/CP) processing, Statics, Noise Attenuation and Surface Consistent processing. His Reservoir expertise includes Gather Conditioning, Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO), Seismic Attributes, Inversion and Fluid and Lithology Prediction. Steven received a BSc in Physics (Specialization Geophysics) from the University of Houston in 1987 and an MBA from Rice University in 2003. He is a member of the SEG, EAGE, AAPG, SPE and GSH.

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Karen Chevis-McCoy

Senior Geophysicist

Karen has 30 years of processing experience processing land and marine 2D and 3D data.  She started in 1981 with Tensor Geophysical in New Orleans.  She stayed when Grant Geophysical bought Tensor, and then moved to Houston with PGS when they acquired Tensor from Grant.  Karen most recently worked for Nutec Services and Geotrace before joining the STERLING team.  At Geotrace, she concentrated on large merge projects in South Louisiana and South Texas.  Her specialty has been producing seamlessly merged datasets while maintaining true amplitude for AVO analysis.  Karen employs a Controlled Amplitude/Controlled phase (CA/CP) processing sequence using different types of noise attenuation techniques customized for each individual survey. Her largest merge to date has been over 5600 square miles and encompassed 54 different surveys.

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Doug Carey

Senior Geophysicist

Doug began his 31-year seismic career with Western Geophysical in Denver, CO and progressed through various assignments as a data processor, group leader, and processing supervisor in charge of numerous processing groups. Data areas worked during this period of his career included all major Rocky Mountain basins as well as the Overthrust Belt and Alaska. In 1986 he moved to Bakersfield, CA to take responsibility for Western's Bakersfield Data Processing Center. This was Western's first remote processing location and served as a model for future remote operations worldwide. During his 25 years in California, he became familiar with all the major oil and gas production areas of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Because of the particular geology involved, working in California was a unique opportunity to gain insight into Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO) processing and interpretation. Additionally, dealing with several local clients that routinely worked internationally gave him the opportunity to gain experience with data from all over the world including South America, Europe and the Middle East. His primary focus at Sterling will be on 2D and 3D data processing utilizing his experience and expertise combined with Sterling's unique support infrastructure and protocol.

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Bob Nemecek

Senior Geophysicist

Bob has over thirty years of broad based experience in seismic acquisition and data processing with GSI, Sefel, Norpac and Western Geophysical. He had extensive field experience with GSI and Norpac. His 3D experience spans sixteen years and has taken him to postings in Denver, Houston, Midland, Bakersfield, Brisbane Australia and Bogata, Colombia. Through his travels in South America, Bob has also become fluent in Spanish. Joining Marc in 1995 as the first staff member at STERLING, Bob's international experience and data processing skills have been key factors in the success of STERLING. His extensive experience throughout the United States has proven invaluable to his numerous repeat clients. In recent years he has been active processing structurally complex 3Ds, many from the Permian Basin.

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Tim Michel

Senior Geophysicist

Tim has over twenty years of worldwide 2D/3D data processing experience. After graduating from Colorado School of Mines with a degree in Geophysical Engineering, he went to work at Vector Seismic Data Processing where he worked for 15 years. Before joining Sterling Seismic Services he was a processing geophysicist with GMG/AXIS in Denver. He has processed domestic 3D datasets from around the Rocky Mountin region, Texas, Mid Continent, California and Michigan. His international experience includes datasets from Venezuela, Portugal, Yemen, Russia and Indonesia.

Tim has extensive experience solving complex structural problems and statics issues. He spent his time at GMG/AXIS working with velocity anisotropy in fractured basins including the Barnett shale play in Texas. At STERLING in 2005 Tim processed an 1100 square mile nine 3D merge for Chevron in the Permian Basin through PSTM.

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Colleen Hodges

Senior Geophysicist

Colleen has been in the industry for thirty plus years starting with Gulf Oil in Houston in 1977. From 1979 to 1992 she worked for Sun Oil/Sun E&P/Oryx Energy. At Sun/Oryx she processed data from the Mid-Continent, Rockies, West Coast and various International data sets. Her varied experiences in processing for Sun included AVO, Inversion and Pre-Stack Depth Migration. While there, she also spent time as an interpreter involved in the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Basin, Bakersfield Arch, Williston Basin, Nebraska Paleo play and the Leo Sands of South Dakota.

From 1994 to 1999 she worked at several processing centers in Denver including Veritas. During this period she processed data from the Ohio Basin, Appalachian Thrust Belt, Rocky Mountains and Venezuela. She worked for Blackhawk Geometrics from 1999-2000. At Blackhawk her primary focus was on processing engineering data. Her years of experience add what we insist upon at STERLING, the background necessary to produce a superior product. Her experience in interpretation as well as the diversified processing background have proven to be valuable assets to STERLING.

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Lee Hakim

Senior Geophysicist

Lee has over eighteen years of worldwide 2D/3D data processing experience. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in Physics, he went to work at Vector Seismic Data Processing where he worked for 13 years, four of which were spent in their Houston offices. Before joining STERLING he was a processing geophysicist with GMG/AXIS (GX Technology) in Denver. He has processed domestic 3D datasets from the Rocky Mountain region, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. His international experience includes datasets from Canada, Yemen, Offshore Ghana, Colombia, and New Zealand. Lee has extensive experience solving complex structural problems and statics issues. Additionally, he spent three years working with velocity anisotropy to visualize fractures in the Powder, Wind River, Green River, and Big Horn Basins in Wyoming.

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Steve Powell

Senior Geophysicist

Steve has twenty eight years of geophysical experience in data processing. He has worked for Aspen Geophysical, Bolt Technology, Production Geophysical Services and STERLING. Steve’s professional focus for the last ten years has been on Refraction Statics and Geometry QC/Correction. At Sterling Steve currently provides essential quality control functions and manages the front end processing group for all land based projects through his expertise in utilizing GMG “Fathom” and Renegade Geophysics’ “Seismic Studio” 2D and 3D refraction statics packages. His function of providing quality control, refraction statics solutions and geometry verification/correction at the initiation of each project has been critical to our success at STERLING. Steve’s talents are certainly part of the reason that Renegade selected STERLING as a development site for their “Seismic Studio” package.

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Steve Saindon

Senior Geophysicist

Steve began his career in the oil industry with Amoco Production Company in 1977, working as a seismic analyst in Amoco’s Denver office. While in Denver, Steve processed seismic data from most domestic basins. In 1990, Steve moved to Houston where he gained considerable international processing experience. He spent several months in Russia both processing data and developing Amoco’s approved vendor requirement criteria for processing contractors, requiring extensive research into Russian hardware, software, and occupational ideology. In 1994, a surge in seismic acquisition in the Rockies and Mid-Continent provided Steve a ticket back to Denver where he worked for Amoco, through the acquisition by BP, until 1998. Steve co-founded Axis Geophysics in 1998 where, as a leading processing geophysicist, he contributed heavily to its growth and success. Steve left Axis Geophysics (a.k.a. I/O, GX Technologies) in 2004 to pursue other opportunities. His most recent venture was Converge Geo which was acquired by Sterling Seismic in 2008. With a wealth of experience processing large 3D surveys as well as 2D data domestically and internationally, Steve possesses expertise in processing both high-resolution stratigraphic targets as well as complex structural plays. Steve has exceptional knowledge of most Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent basins as well as international zones of interest.

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Russell Kappius

Senior Advisor, Geophysics and Development

Rus has over 25 years of experience in the geophysical industry covering research, software development, and production. Prior to joining STERLING, Rus was partnered with Steve Saindon as owners of Converge Geo, which was acquired by STERLING in 2008. After graduating from the Colorado School of Mines with a degree in Geophysical Engineering, he spent from 1985-1990 at Western Geophysical as a Geophysical Analyst learning the ropes processing, and became a part of the special projects group. From 1991-1996 he was a Senior Research Programmer at Golden Geophysical (now part of Fairfield) where he worked on algorithms and application development in velocity analysis, AVO, Q Compensation, DMO, as well as system design. He architected the first in-house processing system for Golden. Rus later went to Green Mountain Geophysics as a Project Lead, where he was hands-on and a project lead in software for survey design, ray tracing, and layer based model building. When GMG was acquired by Input/Output and merged with AXIS Geophysics, he again began writing more seismic processing code including azimuthal anisotropy algorithms and a prestack time migration encompassing azimuthal anisotropy. Rus earned the 2004 technology innovator of the year for Input/Output and is author of several patents.

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Craig Matsunaga

Geophysicist

Craig joined Sterling Seismic Services in February 2007 after 11 years as a processing geophysicist Pulsonix, Inc. His experience includes extensive 2D processing in the Western United States as well as data from Australia and New Zealand. He is primarily concentrating on 2D front end processing quality control including geometry and refraction statics. He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1993 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and was introduced to the Oil & Gas Industry via Western Geophysical.

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Nick Grenfel

Geophysicist

Nick graduated 2006 with a B.S. in Geology from the University of Montana. Currently Nick works for Steve Powell in the front end at STERLING. His emphasis is on refraction statics, data QC, loading data and building geometries. Nick is in charge of the archive program for all the processors.

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