Marel Sanchez

Senior exploration geoscientist and technical leader with 30+ years of international experience in basin-to-production evaluation, seismic interpretation, petroleum systems, reservoir characterization, opportunity screening, and investment risk assessment. Track record across Latin America, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, West and East Africa, integrating subsurface science with commercial decision-making. Co-founder and technical lead in the development of U3D, an AI-ready geoscience intelligence environment that structures basin, field, and reservoir, production, GIS, and analog data for scalable analytics and decision support.

Co-Founder & Technical Lead at U3 Explore (2019-01 – Present)

• Lead the technical vision and development of U3D, a web-based subsurface intelligence platform integrating global field and reservoir analogs with basin, for opportunity screening and asset evaluation.
• Lead U3D Venezuela Direct development of AI-ready geoscience data structures that convert fragmented legacy information into standardized, contextual, machine-readable knowledge suitable for advanced analytics, semantic search, and future AI-assisted workflows.
• Coordinate geoscientists, reservoir specialists, GIS/data professionals, and business advisors to define data models, technical standards, quality-control workflows, analog frameworks, and decision-support applications.
• Direct CAMGOM regional integration across the Caribbean, Atlantic Margin, and Gulf of Mexico, linking tectonic evolution and petroleum systems with exploration analogs and regional opportunity assessment.

Founder & Managing Director | International Geoscience Advisor at Actus Veritas Geoscience, LLC (AVGEO) (2016-01 – Present)

• Lead international geoscience consulting and technical advisory engagements for operators, investors, and stakeholders evaluating frontier and mature upstream opportunities. Specifically, since 2022 in Somalia and East Africa.
• Build and lead fit-for-purpose multidisciplinary teams and strategic technical partnerships, translating complex subsurface information into clear exploration strategies, opportunity rankings, and decision-ready recommendations.
• Provide independent technical leadership across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, including emerging-market evaluations, data-room reviews, exploration strategy, and project framing.

Chief Geophysicist & Vice President of Technology at Coastline Exploration (2022-01 – 2024-12)

• Led offshore Somalia technical strategy, basin-scale 2D seismic interpretation, play-fairway mapping, lead identification, and integrated petroleum-system evaluation.
• Directed planning for 3D seismic acquisition and coordinated geological, geophysical, environmental, and stakeholder inputs for prospect de-risking and portfolio evaluation.
• Managed technical content of the virtual data room and represented the company in engagements with authorities, regulators, national oil companies, partners, and investors.

Senior Geophysicist at Murphy Oil Corporation (2013-01 – 2016-12)

• Led regional and prospect-scale 2D/3D seismic interpretation and integrated geological frameworks across the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Suriname, MSGBC, Equatorial Atlantic margins, and West Africa.
• Performed basin, block, play, and prospect assessments using integrated geoscience interpretation and GIS workflows.

Senior Geophysicist at Repsol YPF (2010-01 – 2012-12)

• Developed regional geological and seismic frameworks for offshore Colombia and Venezuela and supported basin, block, play, and prospect evaluation.

Senior Geophysicist at Petrobras (2004-01 – 2009-12)

• Supported exploration wells, seismic interpretation, and regional opportunity assessment across Venezuela, North/West Africa, Turkey, and Angola, including Blocks 26, 15/06, 18/06, 17/06, and 6/06.
• Integrated geophysical interpretation with basin and play analysis to support technical committees, acreage evaluation, and exploration decisions.

Geophysicist at PDVSA E&P (1994-01 – 2003-12)

• Executed seismic acquisition, processing, interpretation, well-location support, and integrated subsurface studies in the Eastern Venezuela and Barinas basins for exploration and production growth.

M.S. in Geological Sciences – The University of Texas at Austin (1999-01 – 2001-12)

Geophysical Engineer – Universidad Simón Bolívar (1989-01 – 1994-12)