Steve Aust Email & Phone Number

United States

Senior Oil and Gas Budgeting and Forecast Analyst with a diversified background in Budget, Planning, and Forecasting, Risk and Decision Analysis, Engineering (Reserves) and Economic evaluations. Upgrading: Excel, Powerpoint, PowerBILearning: SQL, Pivot Tables, Lean Six Sigma

Software Testing of ProjectRA, Rose's software for the integrated probabilistic economic modeling of oil and gas unconventional projects. Test validity of formulas, reporting, and provide recommendation regarding intuitiveness and aesthetics of the final product.

Irving, Texas, Us

Coordinate and lead the quarterly Outlook and annual budget processes. Maintain open communication with data suppliers to meet expectations and deadlines, reducing overtime for all staff significantly.Build, compile and distribute the weekly Management Committee (MC) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports as supplied by multiple providers. Streamlined multiple overlapping reports into the two entities, reducing redundant slides and tasks, and limiting exposure of sensitive material. Automation of Excel models and Powerpoints reduced prep time from ~3 hours to ~30 min weekly. Through utilization of Microsoft Teams, updates were simplified and enabled reports to be published on time each week. Developed and streamlined multiple Excel tracking, variance, and reconciliation models for production, capital, and operating expenses.Developed and maintained Cost of Operations (COOP) and Capitalized G&A forecast models. Reduced the range of variance to less than 5%.Implemented stochastic production models to track actual results relative to ranges of potential outcomes. The tool enabled the decision makers to make scope changes, when needed, in a proactive rather than reactive manner.Initiated an Analyst community networking unit. Held "Coffee with Steve" sessions with 4-6 Analysts monthly, introducing them to fellow Analysts and other areas of the company. Lead the development of quarterly Analyst community sessions to share knowledge with the community.Mentored and guided junior Geoscientists and Engineers in the development of a risk matrix to assist the assessment of water injection wells.In 2019-20, co-led the Analyst Intern program, evaluating and hiring potential analyst interns from multiple colleges/universities. Heavily involved in project compilation and evaluation of final product(s). Successfully mentored an analyst intern who was subsequently hired.

Irving, Texas, Us

Coached and mentored 1-3 Budget and Planning Analysts, performed annual evaluations and made recommendations for promotion. Ensured team members were given challenging projects, the opportunity for growth and training. The team improved and streamlined reoccurring processes such as budget and quarterly outlooks, Schedule Change Requests, Weekly Production Report to increase granularity of the data, but also keep the reports intuitive and easy to generate.Actively participated in the annual calibration (promotions, raises, evaluations) of the Analyst community of approximately 120 Analysts. Worked with fellow Analyst supervisors performing interviews of their candidates, evaluating the candidates fit to the job and the company, and making recommendations to hire.Represented Budget and Planning as the Reporting Advisor to implementation of ERP.

Irving, Texas, Us

Build, update, and maintain a ten-year Asset Team production, capital, and operating expense forecast model in Excel, aligning with Corporate Finance reporting requirements. The model expanded in scope over time to provide granularity for the annual budget, quarterly outlook, and scenario planning. The tool enabled B&P to easily reconcile monthly cost incurred at various reporting levels, and reduced compiling time from 3 days to less than 1 day per month.Using 1-2 year forecasts supplied, responsible for generating the 10-year production, capital, and operating expense forecasts to meet forecast requirements, ensuring reasonableness and consistency. Mentored junior Engineers, Geoscientists, and Analysts in budgeting and forecasting as they rotated through the department. Budget process liaison between the asset team and Corporate Finance. Through improved communication and transparency, engagement of data suppliers improved significantly over the years to meet deadlines and improve forecasting accuracy.Developed a risk model evaluating the optimal number of pads given drilling and completion days and risks, relative to capital and production. Based on risk of day length the model showed 1 well per pad was optimal, but closer to 3 wells per pad was economically optimal.Successfully mentored two summer Analyst interns, both received and accepted full-time offers.Continued to be the SME for risk and decision analysis, held 1-2 training sessions per year. Guided a team in building a complex decision tree to highlight the low chance of potential issues occurring while completing longer length wells. Developed a stochastic model to assess options in 3D seismic options. Illustrated that there was only a 10% chance of value added to the company choosing one option over the other.

Irving, Texas, Us

Developed and maintained the Exploration risk analysis process, tools and methodology to ensure consistent evaluations across the company. Became the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for risk and decision analysis at the company.1) Incorporated a number of reality checks into the prospect evaluation software to red flag poor or bad inputs.2) Facilitated the development of a third-party software (PREEMO) to move the process from a flat Excel file to a frontend Access database. The database structure enabled easier maintenance of the prospects and reduced the file sizes significantly. The frontend Excel template simplified the input process for the user, and ensured the user was using the most recent version.3) Worked with Rose and Associates in the early development of UCRA (now Portfolio RA) and was recognized by Rose for my input improvements.4) Initiated, developed material and exercises, and presented an internal risk class, Introduction to Risk Analysis: Estimating Under Uncertainty. The class was 1-2 days long, depending on content, and was presented to over 300 employees over 15 years. The material evolved over time as the company shifted from conventional exploration to unconventional.Compiled, analyzed, and presented the quarterly Exploration results to the teams and management. The lookbacks helped the company become a learning organization to help reduce and eliminate repeating errors. Coached a junior Reservoir Engineer in the development of a stochastic methodology for estimating reserves for undrilled vertical wells. The methodology was subsequently approved by the SEC as a viable means of undrilled well reserve estimates, and initiated a significant change for the industry,Tasked to develop a 10-year stochastic Geoscience headcount/rig model to identify potential future staff requirements. With the volatility of the industry, the easy-to-update model guided management to make decisions as scenarios changed.

Irving, Texas, Us

Hired to develop, implement and oversee an internal standardized reserve and economic processes for the asset. The project was completed successfully and on time. Streamlined quarterly and annual budget processes, eliminating redundant or unnecessary tasks, enabling the Engineers to focus on their expertise.Compiled, analyzed and presented quarterly and annual production, reserve and economic results.I ran and evaluated budget exploration project economics to identify the best opportunities to be used in the annual budget.I mentored a junior Analyst in economics, reserve estimating and budgeting. She assumed my role when I transferred to the USA.

Compiled and developed production, capital and operating expense forecasts for the annual budget and quarterly reviews for each team. Ran project economics for three asset teams concurrently.Performed the annual well Estimation of Ultimate Recovery estimations for approximately 2000 wells.Working with a production accountant, developed a statistical process to predict pumpjack failures. The work enabled the team to generate better forecast timing of capital allocation.Initiated a stochastic horizontal well reserve study, developing a methodology for estimating reserves and production forecasts for horizontal wells drilled in undrilled areas for the Lower Cretaceous formation of Southeast Alberta. The study showed a mean of ~169 MBOE per well, A lookback in 1997 performed on the 10 wells drilled in 1995 estimated a project recovery of 1,685 MBOE or 168.5MBOE/well, validating the original methodology utilized. Built an Excel model for Manitoba assets to allocate Unit production to each well to properly allocate royalty payments.Represented Chevron on the Merak PEEP, Portfolio and Decision Tree steering committees. Created and presented material for internal PEEP economic modelling to employees, mainly Engineers.

Promoted from Tech to Analyst and became the company economic model advisor for Merak PEEP (Petroleum Evaluation and Economic Program) and Decision Tree. Became a Power User of the products, represented the company on various economic and decision analysis software steering committees.Performed project and budget economics for the Exploration team, including drilling of wells, seismic purchases, and possible land purchases.

Working with IT, built a production forecast spreadsheet tool to eliminate the mainframe requirements. The spreadsheet was more intuitive to the user and made it easier for the budget team to compile forecasts at various levels. Provided monthly production accrual volumes to Accounting. Revised the process to reduce the variability of actuals to booked volumes from 10-20% per month to <5%.Assumed responsibility for the reserve evaluation and recommendations of minor interest properties of the company, many of which had not been reviewed in several years. This work enabled Chevron to add millions of barrels to the reserve books, and in one instance, recover millions of dollars due to missing override payments.Eliminated two positions on the team through streamlining and/or elimination of processes, taking on the maintenance of the production history database and the filing of well status change reports when the people responsible for the tasks left the group.