About Us

Charles R. Vanorsdale, principal of Keystone Petroleum Consulting, has over 40 years of oil & gas experience, starting with Getty Oil Company in the late 1970s, including assignments with small, medium and large independents and consulting firms. 

Mr. Vanorsdale retired from Saudi Aramco in 2021 as Senior Petroleum Engineering Consultant in the Upstream Development Strategy & Reserves Department. In his 15 years at Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, he ensured compliance with PRMS guidelines in the annual reserves reporting and was a key player in Aramco’s 2019 Initial Public Offering, the world’s largest IPO to date at over $25 billion.

Prior to Aramco, he had been brought onboard at El Paso Corporation to bring their coalbed methane reserves into compliance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting rules. Mr. Vanorsdale has been focused on reserves assessment and guidelines since 1980 when he joined an international petroleum consulting firm.

Geographically, his reserves & resources assessment experience has encompassed all major U.S. Basins, both conventional and unconventional,  including:

• Permian
• Fort Worth
• Appalachian
• Delaware
• San Juan
• Williston
• Anadarko
• Powder River
• and others

He has also evaluated reservoirs in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, China, and Turkmenistan.

Mr. Vanorsdale served on the SPE Oil & Gas Reserves Committee from 2017 to 2021, was the Project Lead for the 2022 Guidelines for Application of the Petroleum Resources Management System, assisted in development of the 2018 Petroleum Resources Management System, and continues to serve the OGRC and SPE in various capacities.

He also has been a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE) since 1989. A registered professional engineer in the states of Texas and Oklahoma, he earned a BS in Petroleum Engineering and a Masters of Engineering Management, both from the University of Tulsa.