Petroleum - Natural Gas Engineering Expert Witnesses: 4

Bryan Melan, PE, has over 40 years of experience in Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Project Management in the upstream and midstream oil and gas industries, including 30 years specializing in Pipeline Integrity Management and Engineering with Sunoco Logistics, Marathon-Ashland Pipeline, and Marathon Oil Company. He is a holder of two patents for a Pipeline Integrity Management Process. He also worked as a project engineer/manager for Amoco Production Co. and McDermott International. Mr. Melan was most recently Pipeline Integrity Subject Matter Expert for Marathon Oil's worldwide assets. Just prior to that, he served as Pipeline Technical Authority for Marathon Oil UK ltd. and Marathon Ireland. He is the chairman of the NACE task group responsible for standard SP-0102 (In-Line Inspection of Pipelines), former vice-chairman of the NACE ILI committee for In Line Inspection technical information exchange, and current vice-chairman of the NACE task group responsible for Publication 35100, the “In-Line Inspection State-of-the-Art” document.

Mr. Melan was also past chairman of the API workgroup which developed the API 1163, “In-Line Inspection Systems Qualification” standard, and past chairman of an ad-hoc committee established at the request of the USDOT Office of Pipeline Safety (currently PHMSA) in creating the frameworks for API 1163, NACE SP0102, and ASNT ILI-PQ (In-line Inspection Personnel Qualification and Certification). While on assignment in the UK, he participated in the creation of Parts 4 and 5 of British Standard PD8010 (Code of Practice for Pipelines).

Litigation Support - As a Pipeline Construction, Operations, and Maintenance subject matter expert witness, Mr. Melan provides services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. His In-line Inspection evaluation services allow him to evaluate pipes and pipelines using non-destructive examination techniques to detect and size internal and external damage.  He has been retained domestically and internationally. Mr. Melan's services include on-site inspections, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony.  

Areas of Expertise:  

In-Line Pipe (ILI) / Pipeline Inspection New Pipeline Construction Siting Pipeline / Pressure Piping Accident Investigation Root Cause Analysis / Causal Negligence

Pipeline Patent Infringement Pipeline Easement Rights Pipeline Construction Safety Codes / Regulatory Obligations Pipeline Route Evaluation

View Tide Water Integrity, LLC's Consulting Profile.

Florida Office:
Andrew Avalon, PE, PSP
Chairman
8633 Willow Kane Court
Orlando, FL 32835
aavalon@long-intl.com
T: (407) 445-0825     F: (407) 445-0821

Long International provides expert claims analysis, expert testimony, dispute resolution, and project management services to the process plant engineering and construction industry worldwide. Our primary focus is on petroleum refining, petrochemical, chemical, oil and gas production, mining/mineral processing, power, cogeneration, and other process plant and industrial projects. We also have extensive experience in hospital, commercial and industrial building, pipeline, wastewater, highway and transit, heavy civil, microchip manufacturing, and airport projects.

Richard J. Long, PE., P.Eng., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Long International, has over 50 years of U.S. and international consulting experience involving construction contract disputes analysis and resolution, arbitration/litigation support and expert testimony, project management, engineering/construction management, cost and schedule control, and process engineering.  As an internationally recognized expert in the analysis and resolution of complex construction disputes for over 35 years, Mr. Long has served as the lead expert on over 300 projects having claims ranging in size from US$100,000 to over US$2 billion.  He has presented and published numerous articles on claims analysis, entitlement issues, CPM schedule and damages analyses, cumulative impact claims, and claims prevention.

Rod C. Carter, CCP, PSP is President of Long International and has over 20 years of experience in construction project controls, contract disputes and resolution, negotiations, mediation, arbitration support, and expert testimony related to scheduling, loss of productivity, and quantum issues.  He has experience in entitlement, schedule, and damages analyses on over 30 construction disputes ranging in value from US$100,000 to US$7 billion concerning oil and gas, oil refinery, LNG, heavy civil, nuclear, environmental, chemical, power, industrial, commercial, and residential construction projects.  Mr. Carter is proficient in the use of Primavera P6 and P3 software, and he has extensive experience in assessing the impact to engineering and construction works of RFIs, change orders and other events.  Mr. Carter specializes in loss of productivity, cumulative impact, and quantum calculations, and had a lead role in assessing damages on more than a dozen major disputes.  In addition, Mr. Carter has developed cost and schedule risk analysis models using Monte Carlo simulations to address the uncertainty of estimates and claims.

Michael J. Vallez, P.E., MBA, LEAN SIX SIGMA is a Senior Principal with Long International, and has over 40 years of hands-on and leadership experience in project management, engineering/construction management, cost and schedule control, change management, claims, and dispute resolution.  He has served in executive management roles for both the owner and contractor working on world-class oil and gas, power, and international mining projects.  Mr. Vallez has a proven ability to organize, integrate and manage the work of multi-disciplined technical specialists and project construction teams to achieve corporate financial goals and objectives of return on investment, safety, reliability, availability, maintainability, cost, and time.  In all, he has provided leadership on several billion dollars’ worth of projects in the chemical, heavy civil, mining, power, oil and gas, industrial, and commercial sectors.  Mr. Vallez has written several books on the subjects of construction management, safety, and effective project leadership.

James P. Langley is an independent Energy Consultant with over 45 years of experience in his field. His practice focuses on business analysis related to Refining, Transportation, and other facets of the Downstream Industry. Mr. Langley holds a BA in Chemical Engineering and an MA in Business, with emphasis in marketing and finance. He has worked extensively on the international scene, traveling to over 40 countries 

Background Experience: Building on hard core plant operations, Mr. Langley's career moved into operations planning and strategic analysis. The money side of the industry analysis led into mergers and acquisitions, CFO of a specialty refining and chemical company, and, for many years, the industry subject matter expert for the financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. In that role, Mr. Langley traveled the world to guide PwC consultants and auditors in the nuance of the petroleum industry. Critical in that assignment was bridging knowledge between functional expertise in many areas, including litigation and arbitration support.

Later, Mr. Langley provided engineering, operations, and maintenance knowledge to the benchmarking of natural gas pipelines and processing facilities in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Africa.

Litigation Support: Jim Langley has worked and consulted in almost every aspect of the downstream industry, and can explain past and current practices. He has worked in operations, supply and trading, marketing, finance, accounting, and taxation.

Mr. Langley has been successful in helping attorneys quickly understand the commercial, technical, operational, and broad business practices of their clients' industry. He provides a detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the opposition's position, and includes suggested interrogatories. In written reports, he offers insights that clarify underlying issues in the dispute, and quantify the economic impact on clients. In deposition and testimony, Mr. Langley explains these issues in a way that is easily understood by the judge or jury.

He has spoken on industry issues on several occasions and taught an annual symposium course for 18 years at UT Dallas to international oil company finance and accounting executives.

Case Examples:

Crude Royalties Pipeline Throughput Maximization Pipeline Losses in Transit Valuations Based on Projected Event

Energy Trading Investigations Refining Business Valuation Refinery Lost Profits Suitable Fuel Availability

Chet L. Sandberg received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. He is a professional engineer in the state of California and an IEEE Fellow.

Background Experience - Mr. Sandberg joined the Chemelex Division of Raychem Corporation where he managed technology projects for 30 years. He held various positions at Raychem including Engineer, Product Manager, Consumer Products Division Manager, and Chief Engineer. For the next 6 years, Mr. Sandberg managed the development of a downhole, self-regulating electrical heater technology for Shell Oil. In 2009, he founded C L Sandberg & Associates, a consultancy specializing in Energy Projects.

Mr. Sandberg is now associated with Electrical Energy Storage EPRI, ESA, Sandia, and PNNL, as well as providing due diligence expertise for venture capital and private equity companies on their technical prospective investments. He has been granted 30 United States Patents and has authored over 70 technical papers on energy usage, electric heat tracing, ground fault technology, fiber optics, sensor technology, and personal computers as design tools.

Litigation Support - Mr. Sandberg is a Heat Transfer Expert with successful litigation in Steam and Electrical Heat Tracing. He has written papers on thermal insulation, LNG tank protection, heavy oil production, and appliance heat transfer. He has court room experience, including testifying before the ITC in Washington DC. Mr. Sandberg is available to attorneys for both plaintiff and defendant.

Areas of Expertise:

Novel Battery Technology Energy Storage Electrical Ground Fault Protection Powerline Carrier Technology Heat Transfer Backup Power Supply Oil Field Heating and Instrumentation Engineering Safety Requirements in Nuclear Power Generation

Hazardous Safety of Explosive Gases Process Control Software Instrumentation Hardware Fiber Optic Data Transmission Fiber Optic Sensors Nitinol Heat Tracing Economic Analysis of Energy Usage