Chris Ponners

Reservoir and Completions User Success Lead

[email protected]

Christopher Ponners is a Senior Reservoir and Completions Engineer, as well as the Reservoir and Completions User Success Lead at ResFrac where he uses physics-based modeling to explore development projects with the dual goal of economic optimization and enhancing subsurface knowledge.

He brings a background in energy finance with experience in the mineral rights and mezzanine financing spaces, having conducted production forecasting, reserves evaluations, economic analyses, and the development plan appraisals in all major U.S. shale basins.

Prior to joining ResFrac, he served as Managing Director at Meadowood Energy Partners and as Reservoir Engineer at Tregan Energy Partners, mineral and royalty interest investment firms. Chris also has reservoir engineering experience with Apache Corporation and Netherland, Sewell & Associates where he performed extensive reservoir modeling, fracture characterization, and directional drilling optimization.

Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, graduating with Highest Honors and a certificate in Computational Science in Engineering. While at the University of Texas, Mr. Ponners authored a thesis on his research in Enhanced Oil Recovery technologies and studied petroleum geology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He resides in Dallas, Texas where he is a long-distance runner, musician, and DIY enthusiast.

Click here for a list of Chris’ publications.

Chris's posts

Abstract illustration with multiple outlined maps over a green-to-yellow gradient and light beams.

The influence of well configuration on water loss in Enhanced Geothermal Systems

Recently, ‘water loss’ has been a hot topic of discussion for EGS. Fervo reported that they have been producing only 70% of the fluid volumes that they have been injecting at their Project Red. The FORGE project reported a roughly 10% water loss rate. Because projects will have finite water rights, these results have led to concern that growth of EGS will be limited by excessive water consumption. This is a valid concern, and water availability is a legitimate factor in site-selection and project engineering. However, I believe that the problem has been overstated.

Large conference room with a speaker presenting a slide deck to an audience seated around circular tables.

2026 ResFrac Annual Symposium Recap

On June 25, 2026, we got the ResFrac community together both in-person at the ExxonMobil campus in Spring, Texas, and virtually around the globe for our Annual Symposium. With our community growing as fast as it is, the energy in the room was absolutely buzzing. We had a jam-packed day of operator case studies, deep-dive technical sessions, and some incredible geomechanical insights from industry legends.

ResApps FracTest interface showing a Stress interpretation section with an Auto-interpret button and contact options, next to a Stress Diagnostic Chart.

FracTest – An Online Tool for DFIT Interpretation

This week, we are releasing FracTest, a web-based application for interpretation of diagnostic fracture injection tests (DFITs). FracTest is available at resapps.resfrac.com, alongside our other two ResApps, StageOpt and IntTest. DFITs are small-volume fracture injection tests used to estimate stress, pore pressure, and permeability. These quantities form the foundation of the fracture and reservoir engineering work that we do in ResFrac, and so we view DFIT interpretation as one of the most important parts of our workflow.

Chris Ponners

Reservoir and Completions User Success Lead

Christopher Ponners is a Senior Reservoir and Completions Engineer, as well as the Reservoir and Completions User Success Lead at ResFrac where he uses physics-based modeling to explore development projects with the dual goal of economic optimization and enhancing subsurface knowledge.

Chris's posts

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