Mr. Frantz is a shale gas, tight gas sand, and coalbed methane specialist. He has worked on unconventional reservoirs for 18 of his 24 years in the industry. His areas of experience in unconventional reservoirs include project management, exploratory and development evaluations, well test and production data analysis, reservoir simulation, reserve studies, hydraulic fracturing, and horizontal well evaluations. He is also experienced in gas storage projects.

Mr. Frantz joined Unbridled Energy from Schlumberger Data and Consulting Services (DCS) where he served as the Consulting and Solutions Operations Manager for their Pittsburgh, PA and Oklahoma City, OK offices. This position permitted him to utilize his extensive experience in managing people and projects in unconventional reservoirs. Over the past few years, Mr. Frantz has helped lead projects in the Fayetteville, Barnett, Woodford, Floyd, Conasauga, Marcellus, and other emerging U.S. shale plays.

Prior to this, Mr. Frantz served as Operations Manager of the Pittsburgh Holditch-Reservoir Technologies Consulting Services office where he, primarily, focused on the dissemination of state of the art evaluation practices on shale reservoirs to industry. He was responsible for all of the office projects and participated in studies on most of the shale reservoirs in the U.S., in addition to numerous studies on coalbed methane and tight gas sand reservoirs in the U.S. and internationally.

From 1990 to 1997, Mr. Frantz worked as a consultant for S.A. Holditch & Associates, Inc. He served as a Senior Petroleum Engineer, and later VP and Division Manager of the Pittsburgh office. He managed and was a team member for many Gas Research Institute shale gas projects in the Ohio, Antrim, New Albany, Barnett, and Lewis Shales. These roles made Mr. Frantz an expert in the analysis of multi-layered, naturally fractured, unconventional formations.

From 1982 to 1990, Mr. Frantz worked for Getty Oil and Texaco in Bakersfield, CA and Houston, TX in the drilling, completion, stimulation, production, reservoir, and research/development groups. He served as Reservoir Engineer, Drilling/Production/Operations Engineer, and Senior Petroleum Engineer.

Mr. Frantz has recently been selected, by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, for appointment to the Department's Unconventional Resources Technology Advisory Committee (URTAC).  The URTAC, consisting of 23 members, will advise the Secretary of Energy on carrying out a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of technologies for onshore unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resource exploration and production, as well as addressing the technology challenges for small producers, safe operations, and environmental mitigation (including reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration of carbon).

Mr. Frantz has authored and co-authored extensive publications and is a frequent lecturer at many shale gas industry conferences. He has taught industry schools on shale gas reservoirs, coalbed methane reservoirs, well test and production data analysis, hydraulic fracturing, and steamflooding. He received his B.S. degree in 1981 in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and is a Registered Professional Engineer. Mr. Frantz is active in SPE. He was Chairman of the Pittsburgh Petroleum Section, co-Chairman for the 1998 Eastern Regional Meeting, and on the Board of the San Joaquin, CA Section. He has served on many SPE committees including the Journal of Petroleum Technologies Special Series Committee, the Distinguished Authors Committee, and the Education and Accreditation Committee. He has also served the SPE ATCE and Regional Meetings by participating on the Gas Technology, Well Stimulation, and various Technical Paper committees.

Robert P. Pryde
Vice President of Exploration

Robert (Rob) Pryde has joined Unbridled Energy Corp. as Vice President of Exploration. From 2004 to mid July 2006, Mr. Pryde served Encana Corporation as Geological Advisor of their Unconventional Natural Gas Group; a position with specific emphasis on gas shales and coal bed methane (CBM) in Western Canada. Mr. Pryde reviewed and vetted technical aspects of all unconventional prospects, set budgets, dealt with manpower issues and mentored junior staff.

From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Pryde  was employed as Exploration Manager by Tom Brown Resources, with a primary focus on initiating exploration prospects, setting goals and targets within the department with a special focus on achieving higher technical standards and results. Prior to this, Mr. Pryde was Group Leader/Senior Exploration Geologist at the former Alberta Energy Company and also held positions as Senior Exploration Geologist for Norcen Energy Ltd. and Gulf Canada Resources Ltd.

Mr. Pryde obtained a Bachelor of Science in Geology in 1982 from the University of Calgary and is a member of CPSG, AAPG, APEGGA and GSA.

J. Michael Scureman
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Scureman’s experience includes 13 years in the natural resource industry. Most recently, he served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for the Allegheny County Airport Authority of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is responsible for the operation and management of Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County Airport.  In this position, he had direct management responsibility for finance, human resources, purchasing, information technology, risk and cash management, and business administration.  This included establishing policies and standards for development, maintenance, operations and evaluation of the Authority’s treasury management including over $600 million in bond debt, investment analysis and evaluation, risk management and internal audit activities, providing leadership, coordination, oversight and strategic direction in the administrative, business planning, finance, accounting and budgeting efforts of the Authority.

From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Scureman served Degussa Metals Catalysts Cerdec Corporation (Dmc2) in Washington, Pennsylvania, advancing to Vice President, Site Manager from Controller, Treasurer and Vice President of Finance & Materials Management. 

Mr. Scureman worked with Continental Reserves, Inc. from 1980 to 1993, advancing from Controller to Vice President Finance to President & Chief Financial Officer where, in addition to being responsible for all financial matters, he focused on supervising field operations of over 250 wells in West Virginia, including establishing annual budgets and monitoring plans to actual on a monthly basis.  

Mr. Scureman is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Pennsylvania and has a BS Accounting from the Pennsylvania State University.