Lead Reservoir Engineer

Position Overview

Empire Petroleum Corporation (NYSE American: EP) is seeking an experienced Lead Reservoir Engineer to build and own the development program behind our Texas gas asset in the Fort Trinidad field, Madison County. This role is responsible for turning that subsurface data into a ranked, economically defensible, drillable development program.

This is a hands-on ownership role at a small, five-state operator where technical work moves directly to decision-makers — the SVP of Operations, President/CEO, and Board — without layers in between. The ideal candidate combines deep petrophysics and reservoir engineering fundamentals with fluency in economics, reserves reporting, and modern data/AI tooling, and is comfortable working with incomplete legacy data as well as high-temperature, high-pressure deep gas conditions.

• Perform petrophysical evaluation of the newly logged section, including formation tops, net pay, porosity, water saturation, TOC, and thickness by interval.
• Integrate sidewall core, open-hole log, and VSP data with reprocessed 3D seismic into a mapped, correlatable strati graphic framework across the acreage.
• Define the landing point and design parameters for the first horizontal lateral off existing vertical wellbores.

• Rank and sequence 100+ existing wellbores for recompletion and deepening, with type curve, EUR, capital, and economics for each candidate.
• Build type curves and production forecasts by interval from analog operator data and internal well results.
• Own the multi-year Texas development plan, including locations, sequencing, capital, and gas volume forecasts tied to compression and takeaway capacity.

• Build a reservoir data foundation consolidating production, log, core, pressure, and cost data into one queryable, source-traceable system.
• Apply machine learning and data-driven methods where they outperform conventional analysis, including analog well selection, type curve generation, decline/rate-transient workflows, and log property prediction.
• Use AI tooling to accelerate legacy data extraction, well file review, and analysis, while exercising judgment on where model-based outputs break down.

• Prepare full-cycle economics (PV10, ROI, payout, breakeven) on every development candidate prior to AFE.
• Support year-end SEC reserve reporting and the third-party reserve audit, owning the reservoir engineering component of that data package.
• Reconcile forecast to actual production monthly and flag underperformance early.

• Coordinate directly with drilling, completions, and production engineering on well design, completion targeting, and artificial lift.
• Monitor new gas volumes against compression and takeaway constraints to avoid stranded production.
• Provide engineering documentation and analysis suitable for reserve-based lending, investor materials, and Board review.

• BS in Petroleum Engineering or equivalent technical degree.
• 10–20 years of reservoir engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of a development program (inventory build, economics, and results) rather than participation in one.
• Deep gas experience, including HPHT wellbores and high-temperature reservoirs; comfortable working at depths of 20,000 ft and temperatures of 400°F+.
• Ability to independently execute petrophysical work — log-based net pay, porosity, and saturation analysis.
• Experience with SEC or PRMS reserves definitions and interfacing with third-party reserve engineers.
• Strong economics fluency, including PV10, payout, ROI, sensitivity, and probabilistic analysis.
• Working proficiency with Python or equivalent for reservoir data work, and practical use of AI…