About

Founder-led AI engineering for upstream oil & gas.

Petropt is operated by Groundwork Analytics LLC. Founder-led, with specialist support brought in per scope — built for operators, lenders, and M&A buyers.

Founder

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Dr. Mehrdad Shirangi

Founder, Petropt

Former AI Transformation & Technology Leader at Baker Hughes (upstream service lines), then senior AI leadership at Cisco — Head of LLMOps & Evals and Head of AI Innovation for Manufacturing Operations. Stanford PhD in energy systems optimization; dual BSc Mechanical + Petroleum Engineering at Sharif University.

Founded Petropt to bring AI engineering to upstream oil & gas under a founder-led, NDA-bound model — defensible decisions, on a deadline, for operators, lenders, and M&A buyers.

LinkedIn →
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Ehsan Shafiee, PhD

Principal AI Engineer

Co-founder & Lead Data Scientist at App0 (via acquisition of Assistalong) — built technology that drove ~10× engagement and ~40% revenue lift for pilot merchants. Former VP, Applied AI/ML Lead at JPMorgan Chase leading a 7-person team on hierarchical Bayesian models. Earlier: LeanTaaS and Walmart Global Tech.

Brings senior AI engineering experience to confidential upstream decision work. PhD ECE, UIUC; MS Econometrics + dual BSc Electrical Engineering (Control) + Petroleum Engineering at Sharif University.

How we operate

Domain depth over generic AI

We start from upstream engineering workflows, not a horizontal AI playbook. The technical work has to be right; AI only helps move it faster.

Private by default

Operator data, decision context, and workflow specifics stay under NDA. Public pages show enough to evaluate fit; engagement work happens privately.

Specialists per scope

Senior engineers, reservoir consultants, and domain experts are brought in when the engagement needs them. No fake bench. No anonymous handoffs.

Work with us

Tell us what you’re working on.

30-minute scoping call. NDA-bound.