Craig Cipolla

Senior Technical Fellow

[email protected]

Craig Cipolla is a Senior Technical Fellow at ResFrac, providing hydraulic fracturing and unconventional reservoir engineering advisory services.

Craig currently supports select companies deploying industry-leading technologies and brings more than four decades of global experience across hydraulic fracturing, subsurface fracture diagnostics, geomechanics, geophysics, and fractured-reservoir modeling.

Craig retired from full-time employment after a 45-year career in the energy industry, with roles at Dresser Titan, CER Corporation, Union Pacific Resources, Pinnacle Technologies/Carbo, SLB, and Hess/Chevron. Throughout his career, he has focused on the application of innovative technologies and workflows to improve well productivity and maximize hydrocarbon recovery.

Craig is widely recognized for his contributions to hydraulic fracturing and completion optimization. He has co-authored more than 90 technical papers, served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on hydraulic fracturing, and received the prestigious SPE International Completion Optimization and Technology Award. He is also an SPE Distinguished Member and has chaired and served on organizing committees for numerous SPE conferences, workshops, and forums.

Craig'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.

Craig Cipolla

Senior Technical Fellow

Craig Cipolla is a Senior Technical Fellow at ResFrac, providing hydraulic fracturing and unconventional reservoir engineering advisory services.

Craig's posts

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