Speakers

See who's speaking at BEOS.

Speakers at BEOS 2024

Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration and E&P Management Committee Member @ Total Energies

Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration and E&P Management Committee Member @ Total Energies

Kevin McLachlan, a graduate of University of Calgary (BSc, Geophysics, 1985) and INSEAD Business Program (2003), joined Mobil Oil in 1985 as an interpretation Geophysicist in Canada, working in Exploration and Development.

He worked in the United Kingdom with Mobil Oil on Exploration projects in the UK, Ireland and Norway until 2000. Kevin held various management positions in ExxonMobil in the Exploration and Production Companies from 2000 to 2005 in the UK and Canada. Kevin joined Nexen Petroleum in the UK in 2006, covering various management role in Exploration, and joined the Nexen Executive Management Committee in 2009 as Vice President Global Exploration based in Canada.

In 2013, Kevin assumed the position of Executive Vice President Global Exploration and Business Development at Murphy Oil in the USA. Kevin joined TotalEnergies E&P branch in 2015, as Senior Vice President Exploration, responsible for managing the Company’s global Exploration business and is a member of the E&P Executive and TotalEnergies Company Performance Committees.

He led the renewal of the company’s Exploration strategy, portfolio and programs, leading to TotalEnergies’ recent significant Exploration successes in Namibia, Suriname, Cyprus, Brazil, South Africa and the US Gulf of Mexico.

Graeme Bagley, Head of Global Exploration and Appraisal @ Westwood Energy

Graeme Bagley, Head of Global Exploration and Appraisal @ Westwood Energy

Graeme is currently Head of Global Exploration & Appraisal for Westwood Global Energy providing deep technical insight to help companies understand their exploration and appraisal performance and how to improve it. Prior to joining Westwood in 2017 Graeme was Head of Exploration Technology and Capability with Maersk Oil in Copenhagen and before that spent 30 years with BP in variety of subsurface technical and leadership positions in UK, Egypt and South America. Graeme is well known on the conference and webinar circuit and has presented at global events for the AAPG, SEG, EAGE, PESGB and Frontier Energy Network Graeme graduated from Oxford University with an MSc in Petroleum Exploration Seismology and is a Director of Exploration Excellence Ltd.

Alyson Harding, Technical Manager for NW Europe E&P @ Westwood Energy Group

Alyson Harding, Technical Manager for NW Europe E&P @ Westwood Energy Group

Alyson Harding did a BSc in Geology and an MSc in Palynology at Sheffield University and started working as a Palynologist at Robertson Research in Llandudno and then in Aberdeen. She then worked as an exploration geologist at Occidental, Norsk Hydro and Amerada Hess based in London and Oslo. Her work was mainly focused on the UKCS, along with work on the rest of Europe, Russia and the Far East. She had occasional stints offshore as a wellsite geologist when women working offshore was a rarity. She then set herself up as a geological consultant and worked for Atlantic Petroleum, Noble Energy and Endeavour Energy. She moved to a staff position for Atlantic Petroleum and was Exploration Manager for 12 years till 2016. She then set herself up again as a geological consultant in 2017 and worked for a number of companies including Cluff Natural Resources and Westwood Global Energy. She currently holds a staff position at Westwood as Technical Manager for NW Europe E&P.

Max Brouwers, Chief Business Development Officer @ Getech,

Max Brouwers, Chief Business Development Officer @ Getech,

Max Brouwers is a senior executive driving the energy transition. He works as Chief Business Development Officer for Getech, where he leads the growth for all of the company’s low carbon sectors: geothermal, green and natural hydrogen, critical minerals, CCS and energy storage.

Max started his career at Shell in 1996 and his last role there was Vice President Exploration for Europe, Russia and Caspian. He is also the chair of the AAPG Energy Transition Forum, member of the UK Subsurface Taskforce and has an MBA plus an MSc in Geology.

Simon Sjøthun, Partner @ Rystad Energy

Simon Sjøthun, Partner @ Rystad Energy

Simon Sjøthun is an Advisory Partner with Rystad Energy. He has over 10 year experience from numerous engagements across the energy sector. He has in particular been responsible for Rystad Energy's involvement in high profile North Sea, Mediterranean and Middle East infrastructure transactions. More recently he was also responsible for policy recommendation reports developed for European and Asian policy makers on how to navigate energy security in the wake the wake of Russian supply disruptions.

David Peel, EVP Operations and BD @ New Age Africa

David Peel, EVP Operations and BD @ New Age Africa

David is a geologist by background with an MSc from Imperial College London (1986) and an MBA from Surrey University, UK (2001). Over the last 30 years David have worked for various  major  and  independent  oil and gas operators  including  Fina, Anadarko, Hess and Lukoil across the value  chain  engaged  and  leading  the drilling, exploration,  appraisal and  development of  numerous  oil and  gas fields across the globe but primarily in  Africa, Europe  and  Southeast Asia. In addition, has had business development and New Venture experience across the globe. He has held senior leadership roles for the last 10 years in primarily a technical capacity as Senior Manager, Director and EVP.  At New Age has functional responsibility for subsurface , engineering, business development, HSE and economics.

Rhiannon Jones, Senior Licensing Geoscientist @ North Sea Transition Authority

Rhiannon Jones, Senior Licensing Geoscientist @ North Sea Transition Authority

Rhiannon Jones is a geologist with over 10 years international experience in the oil and gas industry. She is a Senior Licensing Geoscientist at the North Sea Transition Authority, working on licensing matters on the UK continental shelf. She has recently been involved in the UK petroleum and carbon capture licence rounds.

Following a MSc in Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Manchester, Rhiannon spent time developing her carbonate sedimentology skills at IFP and Total with a focus on the pre-salt Atlantic margins. She later joined BP where she gained experience in exploration, particularly new ventures, prospect maturation, well planning and execution. She has worked on drilling campaigns in the North Sea, the Middle East, Africa and Asia with extensive offshore and onshore operational experience. She is on the AAPG European Council and is an Imperial Barrel Award winner.

Andrew Moore, Principal in Carbon Capture & Storage @ ERCE

Andrew Moore, Principal in Carbon Capture & Storage @ ERCE

Andrew rejoined ERCE as a Principal in Carbon Capture & Storage at the beginning of January 2024. Prior to this he was working for the UK North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) Carbon Transport and Storage Team. There, he was involved in designing and implementing the UK regulatory system for carbon storage, working on the technical and regulatory Stewardship of active UK carbon storage licences, conducting Early Risk Assessments workshops, and undertaking technical evaluations of license applications. He has been the lead author and collaborated on a number of technical, planning and regulatory Carbon Transport and Storage guidance documents for the UK industry.

He is a Reservoir Engineer by background with experience as a Subsurface Team Lead and has 15+ years’ experience in the oil and gas and CCS industries, working for operators, service companies, and regulators globally. He has in depth technical experience in both analytical and numerical reservoir engineering methods along with operational experience in field developments (reservoir management, drilling, and workovers) as well as reserves audits and expert work in an arbitration.

Jeremy Asher, Chairman & CEO @Tower Resources plc

Jeremy Asher, Chairman & CEO @Tower Resources plc

Jeremy Asher is Chairman & CEO of Tower Resources plc, and also serves as the Senior Independent Director of Block Energy plc, where he chairs the Audit Committee. During the last few years he has also served as a director of NYSE-listed Pacific Drilling SA, where he chaired the Remuneration Committee, and until 2014 Jeremy also served as Deputy Chairman of London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd, and as a director of TASE-listed Oil Refineries Ltd. Following several years as a management consultant, he ran the global oil products trading business at Marc Rich & Co (now Glencore AG) and then with partners acquired, developed and sold the 275,000 b/d Beta oil refinery at Wilhelmshaven in Germany. Between 1998 and 2001 he was CEO of PA Consulting Group, and since that time has been an investor and director in various public and private companies, including Tower, mainly in the Energy sector.

Joseph Court, Business Development Manager @ Onward

Joseph Court, Business Development Manager @ Onward

Joseph is a business development manager and client liaison for Onward. He has an MSc in Geophysics and has worked in upstream O&G for the past 14 years, spanning technical, commercial and subsurface climate-tech innovation positions. He joined Onward in April 2023 as a secondee from Shell.

Onward is an innovation platform for the energy sector that can crowdsource solutions for hard to solve problems. We fuel a thriving ecosystem of thinkers, doers and investors committed to transforming our energy future. We believe in the power of collaboration to drive change and develop revolutionary energy and climate technologies. Building a net-zero future means solving the biggest energy production problems with best-in-class, scalable innovations for oil & gas, energy transition, and climate tech.

Dr. Anne McAfee , Chief Geologist  @ Core Lab

Dr. Anne McAfee , Chief Geologist @ Core Lab

Dr. Anne McAfee has 35 years industry experience, all with Core Lab, and is currently Chief Geologist in the UK Regional Studies Group. She holds a PhD in sedimentology from the University of Ireland. Anne specializes in reservoir description and regional geology, with particular expertise in the integration of rock data with other well data sets to provide regional geological models and detailed paleogeographic reconstructions of basin evolution.

Douwe van der Meer, Sr. Manager New Ventures Latin America  @ CNOOC International

Douwe van der Meer, Sr. Manager New Ventures Latin America @ CNOOC International

Douwe van der Meer, a tectonophysicist by background, and seasoned explorationist by profession, earned his M.Sc. at Utrecht University in 2002, specializing in plate tectonic processes. Following a transformational sabbatical at the Norwegian Geological Survey in 2009, he continued research on plate tectonics, which led to a Ph.D. cum laude in 2017 and was recently honoured with the IAGR Best Paper award and medal. With over 20 years of experience at Shell, Nexen, and CNOOC, Douwe has led various exploration New Ventures teams, being based in the Netherlands, UK, and USA. A passionate Earth System enthusiast, Douwe's work and research encompasses all continents and eras from the Archean to Cenozoic. Currently serving as Sr. Manager New Ventures Latin America at CNOOC International, Douwe continues to contribute his research expertise to the industry. His commitment to advancing understanding of Earth Systems, coupled with significant applications to the oil and gas sector, establishes him as subject matter expert in global exploration.

Dr Rachel Gavey, Co-founder – Commercial Director @ Sustain:able

Dr Rachel Gavey, Co-founder – Commercial Director @ Sustain:able

Dr Rachel Gavey is the cofounder of global ESG and emissions advisory company sustain:able.

With an extensive background in the oil & gas and low carbon energy industries, Rachel has worked for numerous service, operator, and research companies around the world. She is an active Board member of the Scottish Energy Forum, encouraging active debate and discussion across the energy industry.

Sustain:able supports organisations in the oil & gas, low carbon energy, shipping, mining, and other hard-to-decarbonise industries, to reduce their negative impact, optimise their operations, and honestly and transparently communicate their progress.

Rachel and her team guide companies through a thorough review and understanding of their ESG-related impacts and risks. This is used to inform new strategic approaches to the way organisations are run, helps set up emissions reduction and mitigation plans, all with the vital support needed for implementation.

www.esgable.com

Steve Jenkins, Chairman @ Viaro Energy

Steve Jenkins, Chairman @ Viaro Energy

Steve is currently Chairman of Viaro Energy which owns Rockrose Energy producing oil and gas in the UK and Dutch North Sea. As well as that he is Chairman of Evoterra oil and wind energy) and former Chairman of Savannah Energy (now NED). Steve held a previous roles as CEO of Nautical Petroleum and senior roles with Nimir and Ultramar.

Bryan Cronin , Principal Geologist  @ Tullow Oil

Bryan Cronin , Principal Geologist @ Tullow Oil

Bryan Cronin is a geologist with 33 years of technical experience with deep-water turbidites at outcrop, on the sea floor and in the subsurface. He is Principal Geologist in Exploration at Tullow Oil, in London, working on deep-water projects including Guyana, Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

He was an independent consultant (2005-2016), working on deep-water reservoirs in the North Sea, Western, Eastern and North Africa, SE Asia, Latin and South America, Bay of Bengal, the former Soviet Union and in other areas. He has run over 103 commercial field courses to the Alps, the Pyrenees, Alps, California, Ireland, SE Spain, UK, and Turkey between 1996 and 2019, and still runs them for Tullow and JV partners today. He instructed for Petroskills and Nautilus and ran week-long classroom-based courses on Turbidite Reservoirs, Sandstone Reservoirs, Basic Petroleum Geology amongst others. He is Honorary Professor at University of Aberdeen, The Robert Gordon University and Hangzhou Petrochina Institute for Petroleum Geology.

He is still involved in education and training with MSc and PhD students and oil company employees, most recently as joint PI with the PRACCS research group at the University of Aberdeen, working in southern Chile, Turkey, France, Argentina, Tibet and Mexico.
Professor Cronin was awarded the William Smith Fund by the Geological Society, London, in 2007.

He is over 60 published papers in most mainstream journals, on deep-water geology from outcrop, the modern sea floor and the subsurface. He has also co-authored or co-edited an AAPG Memoir, and several thematic issues of mainstream journals.

Iek Van Cruyningen, Director Strand Ventures @ Strand Hanson

Iek Van Cruyningen, Director Strand Ventures @ Strand Hanson

Iek has over 24 years’ experience in the investment banking industry, working in London, Singapore, New York and Los Angeles.

He has extensive experience in financing natural resources across the globe, covering exploration, development and production assets, including capital leasing of assets both upstream and downstream.
Iek worked for Oracle Corporation, on competitive threat scenarios across the petroleum and petrochemical industries to enable corporations to be more efficient with their ERP and database systems and was also a member of Oracle BMW competing in the America’s Cup.

He co-founded Libertas Capital, a renewables focussed bank where he joined to help establish the securities operations in London before becoming Head of Libertas Americas.
Prior to that Iek worked in various equity capital market roles at HSBC, Enskilda Securities, Merrill Lynch and Smith New Court.

Patrick Portolano, CEO @ EOSYS

Patrick Portolano, CEO @ EOSYS

Director and founder of EOSYS, France and coordinator of the Hydrogen and CO2 group of the French ACP-Energies Association, France.
Patrick has been doing independent and self-funded research on the necessary transition that faces the hydrocarbon sector and has made 3 communications with the support of the French ACP Energies Association:
• COP26 : Geological Net Zero (GNZ) (click on links)
• COP27 : ACP Energies (France) makes Six Recommendations for COP27
• COP28 : Three proposals for COP28 aimed at the" Fossil Carbon Complex“
• December 2023 : Recommendations to the French Government for its energy and climate strategy

In 1993, after 2 years of research in ocean climatology (IRD-France) and 5 years as a reservoir engineer (Beicip-Franlab/IFPEN-France), Patrick founded EOSYS, a geoscience company active in all sectors of underground resources development, carrying out geological, geophysical, and geochemical surveys and developing customized simulation and data processing tools. Projects have included mining and hydrocarbon exploration and development, geothermal energy exploration, natural hydrogen exploration, water resources exploration and development, geosurveys for underground storage and civil engineering works in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas.

Justine Tinker, Exploration Manager @ Tullow Oil

Justine Tinker, Exploration Manager @ Tullow Oil

Dr Tinker is an Exploration Manager at Tullow, currently overseeing exploration activity across 2 operated licences in Cote d’Ivoire. She joined Tullow Oil South Africa in Cape Town in 2005 and began as a development geologist working on the Espoir Fields in Cote d’Ivoire. In 2007 she transitioned to Exploration and played an active role in the discovery and appraisal of the Jubilee and TEN Fields, Ghana, before taking up Team Lead roles in Guinea, Kenya and Mauritania. In mid-2017 she reprised her role in Ghana exploration, moving from Cape Town to Accra. 2020 saw a move to London and since then she has led several Exploration teams delivering technical work programmes in Peru, Namibia, Argentina and finally Cote d’Ivoire. She holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Glen T. Penfield, Director @ Chicxulub Geosciences

Glen T. Penfield, Director @ Chicxulub Geosciences

Glen has 45+ years in energy and mineral exploration and discovery. A third of this was spent with E&P companies such as PEMEX, CONOCO, and South Atlantic Petroleum, where he was GM of Exploration. Two thirds was spent with Western Atlas International, Carson Aerogravity, Fusion Petroleum Technologies, and his own Chicxulub Geosciences. After his discovery of the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico in 1978, he contributed to two PEMEX rank-wildcat discoveries. In oil industry downturns he ‘ground truthed’ the Japanese JERS-1 radar satellite, was a French Spot-1 satellite Co-Investigator, published with Alcoa on satellite bauxite exploration, and located gold placers in Mexico with airborne geophysics. Other projects were several World Bank funded National Resource Assessments (NRA’s). A High-Honors Geology grad of Oberlin College, he relaxes to Mozart’s K179 and considers Libreville, Gabon his ‘spiritual birthplace’; Soli Deo Gloria.

Valerie Allan, Partner @ CMS

Valerie Allan, Partner @ CMS

Valerie is a Partner in the infrastructure, construction and energy disputes team at CMS, based in Scotland but with a practice that extends across the UK and overseas. Valerie has over 20 years’ experience specialising in dispute management and resolution in these sectors.
Valerie is dual qualified in England & Wales and Scotland and has extensive experience in managing complex multi-party and expedited proceedings in the High Court. She is also known for her expertise on the oil & gas industry’s new regulatory regime and is often consulted on compliance issues in that regard.

Valerie is recognised as a key lawyer for Oil & Gas in Scotland in Legal 500 and individually ranked Band 3 in Chambers for Energy & Natural Resources Disputes (UK-wide). She is an Acritas-Start rated lawyer and recommended there by clients specifically for her industry knowledge and understanding. As a trained mediator, she is senior DPLP tutor for mediation at Aberdeen University.

Valerie co-authored the recent book “Maximising Economic Recovery – a new approach to regulating the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry” with Judith Aldersey-Wiliams. Valerie also contributed to the third edition of Gordon, Paterson and Usenmez, “UK Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends” (Volume II: Commercial and Contract Law Issues), as well as the CMS Guide to Arbitration and the CMS Guide to Consequential Loss in the Energy Sector.

Judith Aldersey-Williams , Of Counsel @ CMS

Judith Aldersey-Williams , Of Counsel @ CMS

Judith is Of Counsel to the CMS Energy & Climate Change Team, with 25 years of experience in upstream oil and gas contracts and regulation. She advises energy industry clients in the UK and internationally on their joint venture, project and procurement contracts and has worked on projects from Angola to Trinidad (please let her know if you need help on a project in Zambia). She also advises on regulatory issues and on competition/antitrust matters in the oil and gas industry.

She has regularly supported Offshore Energies UK on industry initiatives including its negotiations with the UK Government over the introduction of ground-breaking contracts to guarantee tax relief for decommissioning. Other career highpoints have been advising the Subsea Well Response Project, a group of nine multinational oil companies, on contracts for the development and funding of innovative equipment which is now available to allow operators around the world better to respond to well control incidents like Macondo.

She is rated by Legal 500 as a Leading Individual for Oil and Gas in Scotland and by Chambers as among Senior Statespeople for Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas. According to their referees "Judith is the ultimate oil and gas guru. If anything hard needs to be considered, she is the go-to."

Judith co-authored the recent book “Maximising Economic Recovery – a new approach to regulating the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry” with Valerie Allan. Judith also contributed chapters on decommissioning security and on competition law in oil and gas to the third edition of Gordon, Paterson and Usenmez, “UK Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends” (Volume II: Commercial and Contract Law Issues).

Damon Neaves, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer @ Finder Energy

Damon Neaves, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer @ Finder Energy

Damon has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles as an oil and gas executive responsible for overall company performance and growth in both private and ASX-listed companies. Damon has extensive international experience in oil and gas projects in the Asia Pacific, African and European regions. Damon brings an active approach to business development with significant transactional experience in the energy sector in mergers, acquisitions, new ventures and farmouts as well as project management experience.

Philip Dimmock, Adviser @ Oando Energy Resources Inc

Philip Dimmock, Adviser @ Oando Energy Resources Inc

Philip Dimmock has served as Advisor to Oando Energy Resources since 2012, particularly on its deepwater assets. He became the CEO of Equator Exploration when Oando gained control of it in 2009. Prior to that he was the COO. The first half of his career was spent with BP in a variety of senior positions, including manager of the Forties oil field. His subsequent executive roles include VP International/MD UK at Ranger Oil Ltd/Canadian Natural Resources and VP Operations at Vanco Energy. Since 2005, he has served on public company boards as a non-executive director, starting with Nautical Petroleum Plc, then Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd as Senior Independent Director. He became Non-Executive Chairman of Block Energy PLC on its listing on AIM in 2018. He is a champion of HSE management. Philip has an MA in Physics from the University of Oxford.

Dee Patterson, President @ Moyes & Co

Dee Patterson, President @ Moyes & Co

Dee Patterson is President of Moyes & Co and has over forty-three years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He joined Moyes & Co. as a Managing Director in 2000. His experience covers reservoir engineering, operations, construction, commercial, finance and economics and he has been involved in over 400 projects in over 20 countries. The projects range from acquisitions, E&P startups, exploration field development projects, producing field redevelopment, LNG processing and re-gasification, Gas to Liquids, oil and gas infrastructure projects, risk assessment and economic analysis. He has been involved in unitizations, negotiating production sharing agreements, production handling agreements, processing gas transportation, joint operating agreements and purchase and sale agreements.

Randolph Hiscock, Uruguay Managing Director @ Challenger

Randolph Hiscock, Uruguay Managing Director @ Challenger

Randolph (Randy) Hiscock has been with Challenger Energy and its predecessor for 8 years and is currently the Uruguay Managing Director for Challenger. He has 35 years of global energy expertise with specific focus on Latin America & the Caribbean and a proven track record of discovering hydrocarbons, deal/acreage delivery and offshore exploration management in Guyana, Columbia, Brazil and Atlantic Canada. He was Shell’s General Manager for the Americas New Venture and Business Development for approximately 10 years based in Houston. Prior to Shell, he was EnCana’s South American VP of Exploration.

David Went, Senior Geological Advisor @ TGS

David Went, Senior Geological Advisor @ TGS

Dave is a petroleum geologist with a broad interest in exploration and development and skills in sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, seismic rock properties and inversion.

Duncan Rushworth, Vice President Commercial and Subsurface  @ Tower Resources

Duncan Rushworth, Vice President Commercial and Subsurface @ Tower Resources

Duncan Rushworth is currently Vice President Commercial and Subsurface at Tower Resources, a position held since late 2020. Previously, he was Vice President of Business Development of Africa-focused Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB. During his time with Svenska he was responsible for exploration new ventures and portfolio management at the privately-owned E&P.

He is a geologist by background and had previously worked with Hardy Oil and Gas and Lasmo in a variety of international technical roles. Duncan has also worked in a commercial advisory capacity, most notably with Anadarko and Deloitte where he specialized in transaction support and strategy development for International Oil Companies, National Oil Companies and Private Equity firms.
Duncan holds a Master of Law degree with Distinction in Petroleum Law and Policy from Dundee University. He also holds a MSc with Distinction in Sedimentology and a BSc in Geology from the University of London.

Stephen Molyneux, Subsurface Manager @ Harvester Energy

Stephen Molyneux, Subsurface Manager @ Harvester Energy

Stephen has been part of several successful oil and gas exploration teams that have found greater than 5 billion barrels of oil and gas since 1989 to present - Enterprise, PanCanadian, Oilexco, Premier, Origin, Carnarvon. He now consults for various companies as a technical advisor for oil and gas exploration in Australia and beyond: Harvester Energy, Pivotree, 3DOil, Origin, Beach, NZOG, MGPalaeo to name a few. Stephen also chairs the Australia Oil and Gas Scout Group where the industry communicates on energy company matters every 3 months and also helps run the BasinsWorkshop - an annual Australia wide Petroleum Systems workshop involving upto 50, 10 minute talks early December each year. He is best recognised for his contributions as Exploration Manager at Carnarvon Petroleum in the discovery of the new Middle Triassic Petroleum System offshore WA as encapsulated by the Dorado oil and gas discovery in 2018. He began his interest in geology while collecting glacial erratics on his parents farm in Scarisbrick, Lancashire at the age of ten and watching the soap opera Dallas and imagining one day he might be J.R.Ewing finding oil gushers just like him.

Mike Lakin, Managing Director @ Envoi

Mike Lakin, Managing Director @ Envoi

A geology graduate from Cardiff University in 1981, Mike
worked for independent oil and gas companies involved in the UK, Europe
and West Africa until 1989. Mike then joined an London advisory group as a
geologist specialising in international upstream project A&D (Acquisition &
Divestment) and portfolio management activities, becoming group General
Manager, until leaving to establish his own Upstream Energy A&D Advisory
company, ENVOI Limited at the end of 1999 with whom he remains MD.
ENVOI has now spent 24 years advising upstream clients on the ‘buying,
selling and portfolio management’ on over 320 energy projects around the
world and is currently marketing numerous upstream energy opportunities
including geothermal and SMR projects. Envoi is also the nominated advisor
to Staatsolie’s third consecutive offshore Licence Round.

Dr Andrew Racey

Dr Andrew Racey

Thirty seven years international E&P experience including seven years in service companies, 20 years with a major operator (BG Group) and the last ten years as an independent consultant. Broad global G&G experience in 94 countries across most geological settings. Key skills include frontier basin evaluation, creation of new play concepts, carbonate geology, fieldwork and, geoscience problem solving. Involved in the discovery and/or development including several oil fields in Brazilian presalt Cretaceous carbonates (Santos Basin); Palaeozoic carbonates in Kazakhstan (Caspian Basin); gas fields in thrusted and fractured Devonian sandstones in Bolivian thrust belt; gas discoveries in Oligo-Miocene fluvial-shallow marine sediments in Thailand (Bongkot) and biogenic gas in Pleistocene turbidites in Trinidad. Seventy six publications in peer reviewed journals on various aspects of petroleum geology including 33 papers on Southeast Asia and 14 on Oman.

Shane Westlake, Technical Director @ Finder

Shane Westlake, Technical Director @ Finder

Shane is a petroleum geophysicist with over 20 years’ experience in executive management roles in the energy sector. Joining Finder in 2007, Shane has led the management team in building Finder’s high-quality acreage position and has overseen significant value-accretive transactions, including farmouts with leading industry peers. He is an experienced and seasoned oil and gas explorer across multiple disciplines, including new ventures, prospect maturation and drilling, with extensive experience working in Australia and around the globe on projects in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. Shane is the author and co-author of a number of technical papers, an expert in his field of work and a proven prospect generator with a track record of finding oil and gas and executing commercial deals.

Andrew Monk, Chief Executive Officer @ VSA Capital

Andrew Monk, Chief Executive Officer @ VSA Capital

Andrew has enjoyed a successful investment banking career spanning 30 years, during which time he has nurtured strong relationships with many major UK and International institutions as well as Corporate Clients. He was employed by Hoare Govett ABN AMRO for 11 years before founding Oriel Securities (with the backing of Vitol) from scratch as Joint CEO. Oriel grew under his leadership to employ nearly 100 people, and have a valuation of approximately £40m when he sold his stake. Andrew later became CEO of Blue Oar Plc, where he successfully turned around its UK securities operations and its private client division as well as starting an asset management division. During his period as CEO, Blue Oar Plc made three successful acquisitions.

VSA Capital was acquired in August 2010 as a trading name and Andrew has rebuilt it into a successful Investment Bank and brokerage firm with a focus on Natural Resources and the Battery market and also Asia. VSA has quickly established itself as being exchange agnostic, having a global client base and working with many different funding partners such as Traders, Royalty firms and Private Equity, as well as the Equity-focused Institutions. VSA also has a fixed Interest Asset Management capability.

Gavin Elliott, Exploration Geologist @ Genel Energy

Gavin Elliott, Exploration Geologist @ Genel Energy

Gavin is currently an Exploration Geologist at Genel Energy working on their African assets. Prior to Genel, he has held Senior Geoscientist positions in Lukoil and NewAge working in both asset exploration and business development roles focused predominantly along the Atlantic margins. Prior to this, Gavin spent a number of years in academic research at Imperial College London and the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton working on the influence of structure on sedimentary systems and continental margin evolution.

Colin Percival , Technical Director @ Athena Exploration

Colin Percival , Technical Director @ Athena Exploration

Colin is Technical Director at Athena Exploration which holds 4 licences in the West of Shetland. He has more than 40 years’ experience in oil and gas, having started his career working offshore before joining BP in 1981. He has worked the UK offshore and internationally throughout this time and has been involved in all UKCS Licensing Rounds since the 10th Round. Colin is a member of the UK Subsurface Task Force where he leads the Domestic Oil & Gas Subgroup.
Colin has a first-class degree in geology from Reading University and a Ph.D. in sedimentology from Durham University. He was President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain in 2016. He is a proven oil and gas finder with successes in all the main basins of the UKCS as well as West Africa and the Netherlands and has been actively involved in all types of commercial deals from farmins/farmouts to corporate acquisitions.

Jagat Deo, Managing Director @ Seismic Image Processing

Jagat Deo, Managing Director @ Seismic Image Processing

Graduated in physics and postgrad research in astrophysics from Manchester University. Began career at Digicon Inc as a processing geophysicist. A career move to Britoil, BP and later Amoco working as a specialist processor and expert in depth imaging but with an ambition to build automated velocity modelling tools. After Amoco set up SIP in 1998 and has been providing services to oil companies in interpretive processing, depth migration using data driven workflows to reduce cycle time and build high fidelity imaging algorithms.

Peter Browning Stamp, Principal Geoscientist @ Horizon Energy Global Corporation

Peter Browning Stamp, Principal Geoscientist @ Horizon Energy Global Corporation

Dr. Gal Hartman, Head of Exploration and Subsurface,  @ Ratio Energy

Dr. Gal Hartman, Head of Exploration and Subsurface, @ Ratio Energy

Dr. Gal Hartman, a Geoscientist and an Explorationist, hold a PhD in Geophysics from the Tel-Aviv University. Gal was a researcher in the Israeli Oceanographic Institute before he joined Ratio more than a decade ago. As the Head of Exploration and Subsurface, his main role and passion is directed to oil & gas exploration, finding new ventures and in charge of the exploration operations where the company is active, like the Dakhla Atlantique Block offshore Morocco.

Colin Murray, VP Technical @ SundaGas

Colin Murray, VP Technical @ SundaGas

A geology graduate of Imperial College, London, Colin has 40 years’ industry experience in a number of technical and managerial roles, primarily in the U.K. and Far East, working on a wide range of projects from frontier new ventures, through exploration and appraisal to developments
His geographic area of focus in recent years has been Asia-Pacific, including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to joining SundaGas in 2018, Colin spent eight years as Exploration Manager for Mitra Energy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, having previously worked with a number of Oil and Gas companies including Hess, Kerr McGee and Sun International.

Ben Sayers @ Future Energy Consultants

Ben Sayers @ Future Energy Consultants

Ben Sayers is a geoscientist with almost 20 years’ experience working in the upstream energy space, virtually all on the African continent. Ben holds an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from Royal Holloway and a BSc in Geography and GIS from the University of Greenwich. Ben has worked for oil companies and services companies and currently runs a hydrogen exploration company while also consulting for GeoPartners in hydrocarbon exploration.

 Jamie White , Chief Geologist @ Europa Oil and Gas

Jamie White , Chief Geologist @ Europa Oil and Gas

Jamie White is Chief Geologist for Europa Oil and Gas having joined Europa in 2020.

He has worked for in the industry for over 25 years with Anadarko, Serica Energy, African Petroleum, Calvalley, Vermilion and Europa. He has worked in basins all over the world but primarily North and West Africa, the North Sea, onshore Europe and the West Of Britian/Ireland.

He has worked on exploration, new ventures, appraisal and development projects across the spectrum but with a primary focus on exploration, appraisal and new ventures for medium and small sized independents.

With Europa Oil and Gas he has worked business development and acreage the company operates including Equatorial Guinea, onshore UK and offshore Ireland.

Graham Dean, Burgate Exploration

Graham Dean, Burgate Exploration

Graham Dean is an engineer and petrophysicist. He has worked for Hess, Centrica and Reach and now is part of Burgate Exploration. For several years he tried unsuccessfully to progress shale gas in the Central Belt of Scotland.

Andres Mesa @ Independent Consultant

Andres Mesa @ Independent Consultant

Andres Mesa is an independent consultant geoscientist based in London, who has worked for over 17 years in the O&G upstream sector. He has a Master in Petroleum Geosciences from Royal Holloway and a Master in Energy Economics and Finance from Aberdeen University. He has extensive experience in exploration projects, new venture evaluations, portfolio risk assessment, market analysis and corporate strategy. He’s been advising companies and investors with interests in Latin America and North Africa.