Ageron Energy

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

BRUCE GATES

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Mr. Gates’ professional career began in 1987 as a Petroleum Geologist working for Bright & Company, an established family oil and gas exploration and production company. Following Bright & Company, he oversaw U.S. Enercorp, LTD for 20 years before reorganizing the company and forming Ageron Energy, LLC in 2015. Throughout his career, he has been involved in oil and gas exploration in the Tertiary trends along the Gulf Coast, Cretaceous and Devonian trends in the Rockies, and most recently the Austin Chalk, Eagle Ford and Buda trends in South Texas. Bruce Gates earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. 

BLAINE SPIES

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Blaine Spies joined the Ageron Team in 2014 as the Vice President of Operations. Mr. Spies has more than 30 years of experience working in extensive technical and managerial roles. Prior to joining Ageron Energy, Mr. Spies spent his career with Halliburton working on deep water projects with Shell in the GOM. He also has tight gas experience with Halliburton and Newfield Exploration in the Unita Basin along with experience in the Bakken with American Oil and Gas, which sold to the Hess Corporation in 2011. Mr. Spies graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1992 where he earned a Petroleum Engineering degree. He earned his MBA from Colorado Technical University in 2009.

FRANK TAO

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Frank Tao joined the team as the Chief Technology Officer in 2023. His career began at Schlumberger, where he worked as a consulting Reservoir and Geomechanics Engineer. He then worked as the Principal Geomechanics Scientist at Weatherford. Later, Frank started his own consulting business. As a consultant, he has provided valuable assistance to his clients in various areas, including reservoir evaluation, field development planning, hydraulic fracturing modeling and design. Frank developed innovative methods for production data analysis and Estimated Ultimate Recovery forecasting during his consulting work. Building on these advancements, he integrated these methods and developed a new software called PBEUR. This software provides functions for production data diagnostic analysis and accurate reservoir evaluation. Mr. Tao earned his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2010.

KATY RODRIGUEZ

PRODUCTION & RESERVOIR ENGINEERING MANAGER

Katy joined the team in 2004 and has nearly 30 years of engineering experience in the oil and gas industry. She is currently responsible for coordinating divestitures and P&A’s, oil and gas marketing, monitoring and reporting production, and calculating reserves and economics for Ageron Energy, LLC as well as filing all regulatory documents with the appropriate authorities. Ms. Rodriguez earned her B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 1994 and worked for Texaco as a production engineer and senior research technologist engineer before joining the Ageron team.

CASEY CADENHEAD, CPL

LAND MANAGER

Casey joined the team in 2020 with over a decade of experience as a Petroleum Landman. He began his career as an Independent Landman in South Texas. Following his field experience, he spent 5 years working/managing all mineral and surface responsibilities for an independent operator’s core Eagle Ford exploration prospect. He spent the next 5 years, prior to joining Ageron, as Senior Landman at Apache Corporation as the lead landman for New Ventures-Unconventional Resources, which included the organic acquisition of over 400,000 acres across multiple basins in the Lower 48 during his tenure. He has been an AAPL member since 2010 and past President (2013-2014) of the San Antonio Landman Association. Casey is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

CEZAR AMARANDEI

CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER

Cezar joined the team in 2014 and has worked in the oil and gas industry for over 8 years. With 16 years of experience in financial reporting across various industries and tax preparation, he has brought a wealth of knowledge to Ageron in his nearly 6 years as Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Amarandei earned a bachelor's degree in Finance and Banking from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.