Engineering a Global Career, One Challenge at a Time

August 6, 2026

Long before his career took him around the world, Arie Bernal, Senior Technical Advisor, Greenhouse Gases, was drawn to science, engineering and the challenge of understanding how things work. Growing up in Venezuela, he paired that curiosity with two other passions — soccer and classical music — and has carried lessons from all three into a career built on problem-solving.

Arie grew up in Caracas in a somewhat unique family with South American and European roots; his father was from Chile, his mother from France.

“My parents really encouraged me with music. I began playing the piano when I was very young but grew to love it when I was able to master more complex pieces, such as Chopin’s Scherzos or Liszt’s Mephisto, which express more complex emotions.”

That discipline carried over into his studies, where Arie excelled in science. When it was time for post-secondary, he decided to pursue a degree in chemical engineering given his passion for science and the importance of this industry in Venezuela. Despite a busy academic schedule, he continued to play piano throughout his engineering degree and was even offered a chance to go professional.

“I actually had the opportunity to drop my studies as a chemical engineer and join a conservatory to train as a concert pianist. In the end, my rational side convinced me it made more sense to continue with engineering and I’m happy I did,” Arie says, laughing.

After completing his first degree, Arie went to College Station, Texas and then Paris, France to pursue graduate degrees in petroleum engineering and petroleum economics to expand his understanding of the oil and gas industry and be more competitive in the job market.

That investment paid off when he decided to accept a position at French multinational TotalEnergies. He started as a production engineer in southeastern Venezuela, until the government ended up taking control of the operation. He then relocated to West Africa to support the start-up of a new offshore platform off the coast of Angola.

“Working in the field was an invaluable experience for me, especially in different parts of the world,” says Arie, who speaks French, English and Spanish fluently and can “get by” in Italian and Portuguese. “TotalEnergies wound up asking me to take on a management position in Paris to oversee a subsea pipeline we were building. I was the youngest field operations manager in the company’s history on a very challenging project managing a combined budget of more than $60 million. I appreciated the confidence they put in me to build a team, oversee the budget and see the project through to completion.”

Arie found his way to Calgary when he accepted an assignment to work on the company’s Joslyn oil sands project. While TotalEnergies wound up selling off the project and divesting its Canadian assets, Arie had very good reasons to stay in Alberta.

“While TotalEnergies was exiting Canada, I was looking for opportunities to remain. My wife is from here and we love our life in Calgary. It’s a beautiful city and I’ve made a lot of friends as well as having a family here,” says Arie, who has two sons aged six and four. He’s also had the opportunity to pursue one of his biggest passions – playing soccer, serving as midfielder for an O45 league in Calgary.

“I’m the youngest player on the team so I do most of the running! I’ve never played more soccer in my life than I have here in Calgary!”

So, with lots of great experience and the desire to stay in Canada, Arie made the decision to join COSIA, the innovation arm of Oil Sands Alliance.

After two decades learning how to get oil out of the ground and using his economic acumen to support senior management in making high-stakes decisions, Arie’s current role is about finding ways to improve greenhouse gas emissions intensity by reducing the emissions in the production of a barrel. It’s a challenge he relishes.

“The conversation about the issue has changed compared to five years ago but there are compelling short and medium-term reasons for pursuing technologies to capture and store greenhouse gases for our industry and others as well,” says Arie. “I believe it’s important to pursue solutions. There are eight billion people who live on this planet and that number has almost doubled in my lifetime. That has an impact on our environment.”

While his training as an engineer helps Arie evaluate technologies on scientific merit and cost, he has also learned transferable skill playing soccer. Those skills help him work with the member companies in finding the right solutions.

“When you are part of a team, everybody has a critical role. If you want to succeed, you need to work together,” he says. “My role as Senior Technical Advisor is to evaluate technologies that can work on a big scale and are economically viable. Similar to when I’m playing midfield on the soccer pitch, my role is to cover a lot of ground, whether it’s working with academic researchers, large industrial groups or innovators working out of their garages. It’s important not to overlook anyone because you never know where the next big idea is going to come from.”