Argus Rio Crude Conference

Decio Oddone

CEO, Brava Energia

Décio Fabricio Oddone da Costa is an electrical engineer graduated in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He studied petroleum engineering at Petrobras, the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and the Advanced Management Program at Insead (European Institute of Business Administration). Among other honors, he received an honorary doctorate in Education from the Universidad de Aquino.

He is former CEO of Petrobras Bolivia, President and CEO of Petrobras Energia, Vice-President of Braskem, Director of Prumo Logística and General Director of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) and CEO of Enauta Energia. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of the Americas (IoA), in the USA, and chaired the Bolivian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Argentine Chamber of the Oil Industry.

Armin Dorgathen

CEO, YPFB

He served as a Stagiere in Reservoir Simulation at Total E&P at the “Centre Scientifique et Technique Jean Féger” in France.

Armin Dorgathen Tapia is a petroleum and natural gas engineer with a degree from the Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB). He holds master's degrees in reservoir engineering and project management from the École Nationale Supérieure de Geologie in France.
He has solid technical knowledge in reservoirs and project management, along with experience leading teams. He served as a reservoir engineer in the Development and Production Department at YPFB. He was Head of Reservoirs at YPFB Chaco SA, where he was responsible for reserve quantification, hydrocarbon production forecasting, and reservoir simulation. He was later promoted to Development Manager at YPFB Chaco SA.

Alipio Ferreira

Vice President- Crude Oil Trading Brasil, Petrochina

Alipio Ferreira is a Petroleum engineer with a master’s degree in Administration, from Coppead-UFRJ. He currently serves as the Crude Vice President at PetroChina Brazil International Trading. With extensive experience in the oil industry, Alipio has held key positions both in Brazil and internationally. Notably, he has contributed to exploration and production, crude and products trading, distribution, and petrochemicals. His career spans roles such as Petrobras America Downstream VP, Petrobras Singapore Managing Director, BR Distribuidora Director, and Petrobras Head of Global Crude and Products Trading.

William Wilka

General Manager, PetroPar

Willian Wilka Materi joined Petropar in 1992, serving as an Assistant in the Treasury Department of the Economic and Financial Management Department.
In 1996, he was appointed Assistant to the Tax Section of the General Accounting Office. From 1999 to 2007, he served as Head of the Tax Section and the General Services Department, in charge of import clearance processing, Treasurer, Head of Accounting Operations, and Head of the Economic and Statistical Planning Department. He also held the position of Head of the Planning Office and served as Assistant to the General Manager. In 2010, he was appointed Interim Commercial Director and served on the URUPABOL Technical Committee. From June of that year to April 2012, he served as Foreign Trade Manager. He was an Advisor to the President and attached to the General Management. In 2014, he became head of the Corporate Planning and Development Office and later became director of the Business Management Department. He currently serves as General Manager of Petropar.He represents Petropar as a member of the Board of Directors of ARPEL and has completed various specialized courses in Senior Management and OLADE. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and earned postgraduate degrees in Engineering and Business Administration from the Catholic University and New York University.

Samir Awad

Director of Trading, PPSA

Holder of an Undergraduate Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Military Institute of Engineering (IME) in 1982, with a Master´s degree in Subsea Engineering (Cranfield University and Insead Business School), in England, and Postgraduate Certificates from Stanford (USA) and Insead Business School, in France, Samir Awad began his professional career at Petrobras, where he worked for over 30 years. Among the various activities carried out at the company, the engineer served as CEO of Petrobras Nigeria Ltd. (1999-2006); executive manager for the Americas, Africa and Asia, managing E&P and downstream projects in 17 countries (2007-2009); and CEO of Petrobras Netherlands BV. (2009-2016).

Juan Carlos Fonnegra

Crude Oil Trader-LATAM, Phillips 66

Juan Carlos has more than 18 years of professional experience with 12 years of commercial experience in the Americas and European energy value chains, with a strong focus in trading and commercial development in the upstream and downstream sectors including refining, logistics and supply. In 2005, he started his international career as a project engineer in the water treatment sector, working at Veolia Water in the US for 6 years. After finishing his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he joined bp in 2012 and spent 6 years working in Chicago and London in the commercial space. After more than 14 years abroad, he decided to return to his native Colombia and joined Ecopetrol in 2018 as the Global Head of Crude & Carbon Trading, leading the commercial strategy of Ecopetrol´s crude oil portfolio and commercial decarbonization. He currently leads P66's LATAM crude trading desk.

Gustavo Hooper

Head of Trading & Shipping, PRIO

Gustavo Hooper is head of trading and shipping for Prio, the largest independent oil and gas production company in Brazil. He has more than 15 years’ experience in the sector, with international roles in multinational companies such as Shell, Raizen, Sinochem and PetroChina. Gustavo has a master’s degree from PUC-Rio and a BSc degree in economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Salamanca University in Spain. He is also a graduate of the Coppead Business School in Rio de Janeiro.

Todd Dillabough

CEO, Ocean Point Terminals

Todd has 40+ years of experience in the energy operations and financial restructuring sectors. He has served worldwide for Texaco, ExxonMobil, BNP Paribas and more. Todd has led two Exploration and Production companies as President and CEO and has a bachelor's degree in Geology from the University of Calgary.

Samantha Harkte

Head of Market Analysis-Americas, Vortexa

Samantha is Head of Market Analysis for the Americas region at Vortexa, driving market analytics and research strategy from our Houston office. She holds extensive experience analysing natural gas liquids markets, light ends, petrochemicals, as well as crude and natural gas trade flows across multiple geographies. Having observed the North American crude, refined and petrochemical space for close to 20 years, Samantha combines her proven track in research to produce special market reports and analysis briefings, offering a comprehensive overview of the North and Latin Americas markets at Vortexa. Samantha is a Northwestern University graduate with a MSc degree in Journalism, following her Bachelor’s degree from the Nanyang Technological University Singapore in Communication Studies.

Monica Lesmes Martinez

Manager- Crude Oil Trading, Repsol

Mónica Lesmes has developed most of her career in Repsol. After a 3 year period working for BP Chemicals in London, she joined Repsol Trading in 2003 as products Operator. She moved to Petrochemicals trading in 2007 and then Middle Distillates Trading in 2010. In 2015 she joined the Crudes Desk where she traded Sweet, Brazil and West Africa crudes. In 2018 Mónica was appointed Crude Oil Trading Manager. The team focuses on supplying the Refining System as well trading Brazil, WAF and Sour crudes.

Julio Faldin

Senior Vice President, Argus

Matt Smith

Head Analyst- US, KPLER

Matt started his career at Royal Bank of Canada in London, England, working his way up to portfolio manager in the investment management team. He then moved to the US and spent 8 years as a Global Commodity Analyst at Schneider Electric / Summit Energy, before becoming Director of Commodity Research at ClipperData for 6 years, leading a team of analysts across a variety of energy commodities.
Matt joined Kpler in September 2021, and as Head Analyst, US, he is focused on producing research and providing counsel to key clients on the energy market.

Vanessa Viola

Executive Vice President, Latin America, Argus

Vanessa Viola is the Executive Vice-President of Latin America at Argus. She rejoined Argus in 2011 as our Brazil Country Manager and is now working to expand the company’s business across Latin America. Vanessa initially joined Argus in 2001, working as Deputy Editor of the Argus European Products report and Editor of the Argus International LPG report before leaving in 2005 to work as an LPG broker with Gibson in London. Prior to her assignments in the UK, Vanessa worked as a political and financial correspondent for Reuters (Brasilia, Sao Paulo), as a financial reporter for Brazil’s leading news agency Agencia Estado and as a press relations officer with energy engineering company Asea Brown Boveri, also based in Sao Paulo. A graduate from Brazil’s Casper Libero University with a BA in social communications, Vanessa has a master’s degree in international journalism from London’s City University. In addition to Portuguese and English, she is fluent in Spanish.

Nicholas Watt

Freight Editorial Manager, Argus

Nicholas directs Argus’ coverage of ocean-going freight markets and leads the global editorial team that produces freight price assessments, market news, and analysis. Prior to joining Argus in 2015, Nicholas co-founded the Enerpo Journal, a publication run out of European University at St. Petersburg that focuses on global energy politics. He holds a master’s degree in international politics from European University at St. Petersburg and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Russian studies from Lawrence University.

Gus Vasquez

Argus Americas Senior Crude Editor, Argus

Gus Vasquez has been the Argus Americas Crude Editor since the beginning of 2008. Prior to that he was a member of Argus’ European crude team, based out of London, where he covered the North Sea, Mediterra¬nean, Russian and west African crude markets. Before joining Argus in 2006, he spent four years as a market analyst for Venezuela’s national oil company working out of their London office.

James Gooder

Vice-President, Crude, Argus

James is responsible for business development in southern Europe and Africa. James has been with the company since 2004 performing several editorial roles, including editing European electricity and emissions market publications. From 2007-10, he was the editor of the daily Argus Crude report, managing a global team of reporters and developing new crude price assessments. Prior to joining Argus, James worked as a teacher, speechwriter and journalist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature from Manchester University and a master’s degree in international journalism from City University, London.