DISTINGUISHED LECTURERS
WS 55A and WS 55B LECTURERS (Production & Reservoir Engineering & Emission Management; Gas Market & Emission Management)
With more than 30 years’ experience in the natural gas industry Andrej Pustišek currently consults international natural gas and energy companies and teaches energy economics at the University of Applied Science, Stuttgart, at the University of Karlsruhe, at the University of St. Gallen, and conducts international courses on natural gas, inter alia on transportation, storage, and commodity pricing.
Born in Zagreb, Croatia, raised in Germany, he studied both, Geophysics and Economy in Vienna, Cologne and Münster.
In 1990, he started working in international natural gas purchasing of Wintershall AG, Kassel, Germany. As of 1993, he headed WINGAS’ natural gas supply logistics department, being responsible for transit and storage contracts. From 1996 to 2001, he headed WINGAS’ natural gas planning and portfolio optimization.
After changing to E.ON Ruhrgas in 2002, he led as Senior/Executive Vice President International Natural Gas Sales. In this function, he successfully established and expanded the company’s sales activities in 11 countries and was responsible for strategy, conception, negotiation and operation of gas sales, transportation and storage contracts in several European countries. From 2008 to 2011, he was Senior/Executive Vice President for Portfolio Management, as such responsible for the design and handling of the company’s contractual and asset portfolio. In this function, he also headed the E.ON team during the January 2009 supply interruption (“Ukrainian crisis”).
He has been involved in various arbitration proceedings for natural gas delivery, transportation and storage contracts in Europe and is in monitoring trustee teams for the European commission. He is author of several publications, inter alia the multi-client study: ‘Flexibility – Germany and Austria’, 2nd edition 2014 and the textbook ‘Natural Gas – A Commercial Perspective’ published in 2017 (both together with M. Karasz).
Dr. Pratt is President of Precision LNG Consulting, LLC. He has over 30 years experience in LNG across all aspects of the LNG value chain from upstream production through shipping and importation. He has a strong technical background, married to a deep commercial understanding of LNG sales and purchase. His experience includes 8 years working in a senior role with a Middle East LNG producer during its expansion of capacity and acquisition of new LNG carriers and, later, origination and execution of LNG cargo purchases into Lake Charles and Elba Island for Mirant Corp. His project management experience includes originating and acting as commercial lead for the Canaport LNG terminal for Repsol. The last 10 years of his career have been primarily focused on LNG shipping whilst working for Fearnley LNG, a leading shipbroker in the LNG space. Other positions include working with Morgan Stanley to create a LNG trading presence and working as a senior consultant with Poten and Partners, a leading LNG consultancy. Richard holds a BSc. from Durham University and a PhD. from St. Johns College, Cambridge, UK.
Maša Prodanović is a Frank W. Jessen Professor in Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE), The University of Texas at Austin. She is an applied mathematician-turned-engineer and has expertise in direct simulation of flow and particulate transport in porous and fractured media, porous media characterization especially based on 2D and 3D images of rock microstructure, unconventional resources and data curation. She is a recipient of multiple awards such as InterPore Medal for Porous Media Research in 2022, SPE Distinguished Member Award in 2021, EAGE Alfred Wegener Award in 2021, SPE Formation Evaluation regional award for development of Digital Rocks Portal in 2019, Texas 10 (top faculty) and Stony Brook 40 Under Forty awards in 2017, SPE Faculty Innovative Teaching Award in 2014 and Interpore Procter & Gamble Research Award for Porous Media Research in 2014. She was elected Interpore Society Council member, SIAM Geosciences Program Director 2021-22 and SIAM Geosciences Chair 2023-24.
François-Régis joined IOGP in January 2018. He has around 30 years of international experience in the oil and gas industry. He is seconded to IOGP from TotalEnergies, where he was Vice President for Oil and Gas Advocacy. His career has taken him from reservoir engineering to business development, working in Europe and Africa. He has also served in senior advisory roles at the World Bank’s Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership and to TotalEnergies’ European Affairs office in Brussels. In 2011, Francois-Regis founded GasNaturally, a Brussels-based partnership representing the entire European gas value chain. He served four terms as Chairman of GasNaturally and was instrumental in formulating the industry’s position on the future of gas in a post-COP21 environment.
Marcel Kramer is a Dutch national, he lives in Amsterdam. After obtaining a master’s degree in Private and Corporate Law, he first held several positions in Government and in international organizations (NATO, International Energy Agency). Subsequently Marcel spent his career of over 40 years in the international energy industry, working with several companies on different continents.
He has held a wide range of senior management and Board positions, including CEO assignments, and has an extensive global personal network in the energy industry, governments, academia, and in other institutions.
He currently works as an independent consultant and advisory board member on strategy, policy and project management in the field of energy and infrastructure. He is a Board Member of the Royal Dutch Gas Association, and Member of the International Gas Union’s Executive Committee .
He was President of the Energy Delta Institute, an international energy business school, ( now called the New Energy Business School) which supports the development of executives through a wide range of industry courses and learning-related events, and he maintains a strong interest in learning and executive leader development. He has been pleased to support the development of the PESS course program for a number of years and to participate as a lecturer and moderator.
Dr. Rajan Chokshi brings over 35 years of expertise in artificial lift, real-time production optimization, software development, and management.
He is currently engaged in projects related to artificial lift optimization, multi-phase flow calculations, failure prediction, virtual flow meter development, emission reduction, and competency management. Chokshi has a varied employment background in the oil and gas industry, working for different types of companies including national oil companies, major corporations, independent companies, service providers, and technology firms. He has collaborated on over fifteen papers for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), holds three patents, and has conducted many webinars and training courses for SPE.
In addition to conducting professional workshops globally, he has taught courses at various prestigious universities, including Texas Tech, Missouri S&T, the University of Southern California, and the University of Houston. He has been recognized twice as a distinguished lecturer by SPE and generously dedicates his time to reviewing technical papers, actively contributing to various SPE technical committees, and serving on the Board of Directors for the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC).
Dr. Chokshi holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in chemical engineering from the Gujarat University and IIT-Kanpur, India, and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa, USA.
Mojdeh Delshad is a research professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the co-founder, served as the Vice President (2013-2014), and the President/CEO (2015-2019) of Ultimate EOR Services LLC. She was a PI and assistant director for the Department of Energy-funded Center of Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES) from 2009 to 2014.
She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University in Iran and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. She has over 35 years of experience in modeling multiphase flow and design of chemical and gas recovery methods in both lab and field scales. She has 105 journal publications and 150 paper proceedings. She received The SPE Distinguished Member Award in 2014 and The SPE IOR Pioneer Award in 2024. She is the EOR training course instructor for SPE and PetroSkills (2010–present).
Her current research focus includes modeling key mechanisms for CO2 and hydrogen storage in deep saline aquifers and oil and gas reservoirs, and multiphase biogeochemical reactive transport. Her diverse expertise includes the development and application of numerical tools for enhanced oil recovery using CO2, surfactant/polymer, wettability alteration, foams, and polymer/gel for conformance control, and hybrid methods of low salinity polymer and low-tension gas flooding.
Mr. Domagoj Jeić, M. Eng. Geol., Head of Service for Hydrocarbons, Natural Gas Storage and permanent disposal of CO2 at Ministry of Economy & Sustainable Development Republic of Croatia.
Mr. Jeić worked in the real sector on the tasks of performing hydrogeological works, drilling wells, processing data from seismic surveys to find hydrocarbon deposits, and in the civil service on tasks in the field of energy, mainly in the field of natural gas. He also participated in the tasks of fulfilling the obligations of the Republic of Croatia towards the European Union.
He currently leads the Service for Hydrocarbons, Natural Gas Storage and Permanent CO2 Disposal, with more than six years of experience. It works on guiding, adapting and improving procedures related to hydrocarbons with the main goal of improving and speeding up legal procedures for adopting and approving energy projects.
Gaetana Manganiello joined IOGP Europe in 2021 from the European Policy Centre Think Tank where she gained experience with EU policy monitoring and developed solid research skills.
She specialized in Climate, Environmental & Energy policies by attending a Second level Master in EU Law and Policies (LUISS University) and she works on Energy & Climate policies, with a specialization on the Fit for 55 and the Hydrogen & Decarbonized Gas Market packages, as well as the EU’s emergency measures aimed at addressing the energy crisis.
Emils Lagzdins is a Senior Policy Officer in International Association of Oil and Gas Producers based in Brussels. He represents upstream Oil and Gas industry in engagements with European decision makers. He focuses on European policies and regulations related to upstream Oil and Gas sector, including methane emission mitigation, EU energy markets, carbon markets. Previously he worked on EU’s external energy policy in DG ENER of the European Commission, where he developed, co-ordinated and implemented EU energy relations with the Asia-Pacific countries, as well as the US, Canada and multilateral organisations.
He holds an MSc in Strategic Studies and Energy Security from the University of Aberdeen, and an MA in International Relations and Politics from the University of Dundee
Adam Bott is the Business Development Manager for CCS across Europe for SLB. Starting his career 30 years ago as a SLB Wireline Engineer he has held a number of technical, commercial and management roles around the world.
Based in Bucharest Romania he has spent the last couple of years talking with emitters, storage developers, infrastructure companies and others trying to develop CCS projects, with a particular interest in developing onshore storage in Europe. SLB is developing a full portfolio of products and services to support the full life cycle of CCS projects and the decarbonization journey.
Graduated from the University of Leoben, Austria, and embarked on a professional journey within academia, initially as a university assistant focusing on Geothermal projects. Progressed to serve as a Laboratory Assistant at Fangmann Energy Services, accumulating diverse experiences. Contributed to the Project Management team at Flowserve Control Valve, enhancing knowledge.
In 2017, assumed the role of Reservoir Engineer, continuing the energy engineering career in Vienna, Austria. Proficient in handling complex onshore appraisal and development projects, both in surface and subsurface domains. Recognized for being dynamic, goal-oriented, and adaptable to challenging professional and life situations. Exhibits distinct communication skills and excels in motivating others, boasting multilingual capabilities.
Passionate about Diversity & Inclusion, founded the D&I Vienna Basin Chapter. Holds the position of SPE Vienna Basin Section Chair since May 2022, fostering knowledge-sharing through various initiatives and workshops, connecting energy engineers and scientists worldwide.
Certified as a Resilience Trainer, actively promotes resilience in the energy industry. Since November 2022, employed at StimStixx Technologies as a Business Development Engineer. In this role, supports clients globally, ensuring the technical integrity of products and services provided. Driven by a commitment to making a visible impact, dedicated to optimizing projects and processes.
Abdullah Ghurab is a Senior Operations Engineer, with eight years of experience at Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading energy and chemical company. Specializing in the natural gas sector, his contributions have been pivotal in developing and commissioning of non-associated gas fields, and overseeing pipeline corrosion management.
Abdullah holds a Master’s degree in Management from Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College (MBSC) and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). His vision is “Enjoy my life and develop myself to have a positive impact.”
Abdulwahab Alharbi is a Senior Process Engineer, with six years of service at Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading energy and chemical company. Specializing in the natural gas sector, his contributions have been pivotal in the commissioning of new gas fields, minimizing offshore flare emissions, managing gas hydrates, and overseeing pipeline corrosion management. Abdulwahab holds a Master’s degree in Management from Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). His robust academic background, coupled with his well-rounded field experience, fosters his ability to innovate and implement solutions in the evolving natural gas industry.
Ivan Šimić was born in Zagreb in 1978 and got his master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2004 at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering. At the beginning of his career from 2005 he worked at Gas Treatment Plant Molve, Croatia as Operations Engineer. The activities he was involved in were Plant operations, Process supervision and Maintenance activities coordination. In 2008 he joined Croatian and Syrian JV Company – Hayan Petroleum Company as part of Project team in Syria. His responsibilities involved Design, Pre-commissioning, Start up and Operations of Oil and Gas treatment plant Jihar Stage 2 and Gas Treatment Plant Jihar Stage 3. In parallel, he led projects of connecting the individual Oil & Gas wells to existing facilities. In 2011 he joins Inagip – INA and ENI JV company as Production Engineer, where he was responsible for Off shore operation of gas production platforms, as well as Commissioning and Startup of maintain potential platform. In 2015 Ivan moved with his family to Saudi Arabia to work with Saudi Aramco as Operations engineer, on the off shore project, involving big bore gas wells platforms. His roles included all stages of project from supervision of construction and pre-commissioning of platforms in shipyard to leading the commissioning and startup of the platforms off shore. After the successful field startup, he continued to work as Operations Engineer off shore, and Commissioning and Startup Leader for maintain potential platforms.
Motaz Almoaddi is a seasoned mechanical engineer with five years of experience in the gas production industry at Saudi Aramco. His expertise spans a wide range of responsibilities within the offshore facility, including both long-term and short-term maintenance. Motaz specializes in managing offshore non-associated gas fields, which are characterized by high levels of toxicity and extremely high pressures.
In this challenging environment, he has demonstrated his technical mastery, managing a variety of engineering assessments focused on flow assurance, corrosion management, and chemical optimization.
Throughout his work, Motaz has consistently showcased his commitment to excellence and ensuring optimal operating efficiency.
Octav Baciu is a Policy Officer at the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP Europe) in Brussels, focusing on Energy and Climate policies, specifically Carbon Capture and Storage, National Energy and Climate Plans, and hydrogen. With five years of experience in the energy sector, he joined IOGP Europe in 2023 after working for ENGIE Romania.
Octav is completing an MBA in Energy at the University of Economic Studies in Bucharest and holds two master’s degrees in EU Law and EU Governance, alongside a bachelor’s degree in administrative sciences.
WS 56 LECTURERS (Geothermal Energy Exploration and Production)
Terry Palisch is the vice-president of technology and engineering at CARBO Ceramics, and the 2024 SPE President. After completing his BS in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR), Palisch worked as a senior petroleum engineer with ARCO in Alaska and as a petroleum advisor with ARCO in Algeria. In 2004 he joined CARBO Ceramics, and in his current position leads a team of technologists dedicated to developing and championing new products and services as well as advising clients on completion/fracture optimization.
Terry is an active member of SPE, including past chairman of the SPE Dallas Section and the ATCE Technical Program. He recently completed a term as the Completions Technical Director on the SPE Board, and has rejoined the Board as the 2024 SPE President. Palisch has authored or coauthored over 50 SPE papers and been awarded the SPE MidCon Region Completions Optimization & Technology Award as well as the Regional Service Award. In 2018 Terry was recognized as a Distinguished Member of SPE, and received the award for Distinguished Service.
In 2019 he was selected as a Distinguished Alumni at Missouri S&T (formerly UMR). Terry and his wife Sandy have been married over 35 years, and have three grown sons – Zack (Air Force Pilot), Austin (Lead Petroleum Engineer – Liberty Energy) and Jacob (Professional Baseball Player – White Sox organization).
Dr. Yoshioka received his Bachelor of Science in Resources and Environmental Engineering from Waseda University, Japan in 2003 and PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2007.
He then joined Chevron’s geomechanics team in Houston where conducted internal consulting and corporate researches on various geomechanical problems for more than 10 years including a short term assignment in Chevron’s geothermal operation in Indonesia.
In 2017, he moved to Germany and started working on an open source code development project at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, and led a work group working on computational fracture mechanics.
Since 2022, he has been professor and head of the chair for geoenergy production engineering at Montanuniversität Leoben.
Dr. Rajan Chokshi brings over 35 years of expertise in artificial lift, real-time production optimization, software development, and management.
He is currently engaged in projects related to artificial lift optimization, multi-phase flow calculations, failure prediction, virtual flow meter development, emission reduction, and competency management. Chokshi has a varied employment background in the oil and gas industry, working for different types of companies including national oil companies, major corporations, independent companies, service providers, and technology firms. He has collaborated on over fifteen papers for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), holds three patents, and has conducted many webinars and training courses for SPE.
In addition to conducting professional workshops globally, he has taught courses at various prestigious universities, including Texas Tech, Missouri S&T, the University of Southern California, and the University of Houston. He has been recognized twice as a distinguished lecturer by SPE and generously dedicates his time to reviewing technical papers, actively contributing to various SPE technical committees, and serving on the Board of Directors for the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC).
Dr. Chokshi holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in chemical engineering from the Gujarat University and IIT-Kanpur, India, and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa, USA.
Jadranka Leško graduated from the Faculty of Mining Geology and Petroleum Engineering in 1990, majoring in Petroleum Engineering. In her career, she worked in various jobs at INA d.d., she was also a geologist and geochemist in the research team for the Hayan and Aphamia blocks in Syria, then she worked as the head of the department for basin modeling and was the head of the research project NW Croatia in INA d.d.. From 2012 to 2015, she worked as an expert for new investments in the field of geosciences and oil-mining with the assessment and valuation of projects around the world, and after that she worked as an independent consultant for the preparation of an expert opinion on the “E&P Project” and as a member of the expert committee for determining reserves and for the verification of oil and mining projects.
From 2019 to the present, she holds the position of head of the Sector for Petroleum Enginnering and Geothermal Water for Energy Purposes in the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and is a member of the Supervisory Board of LNG Hrvatska d.o.o..
Sanjeev is the Head of Policy at the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC). He is the Founder of Change Partnership – a think tank focused on the solving the politics of climate change. Previously, he was advisor to Chris Davies MEP, Chair of the PECH Committee in the European Parliament, Director of energy at Burson Cohn & Wolfe (formerly Burson Marsteller), Senior Associate at E3G, ETS coordinator at the WWF European Office and Business Affairs Manager at the Energy Institute in the UK. He read history at Queen Mary, University of London.
Zvonimir Martić was born in Slavonski Brod in 1994 and has Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering. He is a reservoir engineer who has been working at Geoda Consulting company since 2020.
By participating in more than 30 projects, he gained wide knowledge and experience in the design and simulation of geothermal reservoirs, well test interpretations, modeling of CO2 storage into saline aquifers and natural gas storage inside salt caverns. Such skills and knowledge are applied in drafting studies, elaborates, oil-mining and conceptual projects, in which he has shown a high level of expertise. Also, while working in the company, he has acquired basic knowledge in the conducting of geophysical measurements and data analysis. He is a member of Croatian Geothermal Energy Association (HUGE).
Tena Bilić earned her master’s degree in geological engineering from the Faculty of Mining, Geology, and Petroleum Engineering in 2016. Throughout her academic journey, she undertook multiple internships at Fugro N.V. in the Netherlands, enriching her practical experience.
Following her graduation, she joined the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) as a team member within the MEET consortium project (Multidisciplinary and multi-context demonstration of EGS exploration and Exploitation Techniques and Potentials), funded by the EU HORIZON 2020 program. Within the project, FER was responsible for designing algorithms for decision support tools for optimal usage of geothermal energy, conducting environmental and economic analyses, and developing optimization models to determine the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) for prospective geothermal projects.
Since 2020, Tena has been a dedicated geothermal consultant at Geotermalna Energija d.o.o., actively contributing to numerous exploration and exploitation projects across Croatia.
She is an experienced geologist with a background in geological and geophysical data acquisition, interpretation, and project management. Proven expertise in developing conceptual models for underground structures and mapping geothermal water bodies.
Assoc. prof. dr. sc. Luka Perković was born in Zagreb. He defended his doctoral dissertation in 2014 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. He was elected associate professor at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering in April 2021. In his scientific and professional career, he participated, as an associate, in scientific projects funded by the MoES, HRZZ, ERDF, IPA and FP7 and once industrial project with AVL-AST d.o.o. Areas of research are related to computational fluid dynamics and energy planning. He presented the results of his research through scientific papers in journals, conferences and project reports. He is a member of the Adriatic Section of the Institute of Combustion – JSII (since 2013) and the International Center for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment – SDEWES (since 2008) and expert meetings (HGK 2019, 3rd Sisak Energy Day 2019, Mechanical Engineering in Energy Transition 2019). He is the winner of the Rector’s Award (as a student mentor) and special Dean’s award in 2017.
Damir Zadravec, Ph.D., Founder and Managing Director of Fika Eco, achieved a distinguished career in the oil and gas industry, with expertise in well design, drilling operations management and supervision across multiple continents.
After graduation on the Faculty of Mining Geology and Petroleum at the University of Zagreb in the year 2000, he was working for several Service and Operating oil and gas companies, such as Crosco, INA Naftaplin, Aban Offshore, ENI International, AL Khafji KJO and Qatar Petroleum. During his works in the oil and gas industry he was participating in well design, drilling and completion of up to 250 oil and gas & geothermal wells in Croatia, Italy, Egipt, USA, India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Qatar. In 2007, he completed his postgraduate study in petroleum engineering at the Faculty of Mining Geology and Petroleum in Zagreb, defending master’s thesis “Improving the operational properties of jack up drilling rigs”. Ph.D. thesis “The Stochastic model of wellbore drilling dynamic system” was defended at the Faculty of Mining Geology and Petroleum in Zagreb, in 2012. During his professional career, he has participated in a numerous professional workshops, seminars and conferences. As an author of professional and scientific papers, he contributes to drilling operations performance improvement; especially jack up drilling rigs and simultaneous drilling and production operations in offshore environment. As a mentor, he has actively participated in the training and further education of a number of young engineers, and new employees. Since 2017, he is a member of the Scientific Council for Oil and Gas Economy and Energy of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Ali Ceren holds a BSc in Geological Engineering from Cukurova University (2012) and currently pursues a MSc in Applied Geology from Dokuz Eylul University (2021). He is the Deputy General Manager at HD Energy Solutions Inc. in Izmir, Turkey, overseeing technical and engineering departments, coordinating projects, and managing overall operations. He started his career as a Wellsite Geologist at Ken-Kipas Electricity Generation Co. Inc. in 2012, conducting geological analysis during drilling operations. He moved to Sumatra, Indonesia where he worked as a Project Engineer at Hitay Energy Holdings, focusing on preliminary exploration at active volcanoes through geological mapping, rock sampling, and geophysical surveys for two years.
In 2015, he joined NTU Geothermal Consulting as a Senior Field Engineer, where he worked on discovering buried geothermal fields using CO2 soil-gas flux instruments. He later moved to GCL ND Energy Co. Inc. (Chinese and German JV company), where he served as Site Manager and later as Engineering Department Manager, managing drilling and field activities, well improvement and testing operations, and financial negotiations for five years. From 2021 to 2023, he held the position of Company Representative and Project Manager at Open Mountain Energy Turkey (Kaishan, KSORKA), managing geothermal projects in Alasehir and Canakkale in Turkey and Tura in Hungary.
Throughout his career, he has managed geothermal projects, coordinated with stakeholders, and led technical teams. His experience spans fieldwork, project management, strategic planning, and financial negotiations in different countries in the worldwide
PREVIOUS PESS LECTURERS
Kamel BenNaceur is the CEO for Nomadia Energy Consulting, based in Abu Dhabi. He is the 2022 President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, with 140,000 members worldwide. He is also the Chairman for DAMORPHE, a US-based innovative nano-technology company. He was previously the Chief Economist for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Prior to that, he was the Director for Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks at the International Energy Agency. In 2014, he was appointed Tunisia’s Minister for Industry, Energy and Mines. From 1981 to 2013, he held key positions with Schlumberger, including Chief Economist and Technology President. His assignments with Schlumberger included France, USA, UK, Algeria, Venezuela, UAE, Egypt, Russia and Brazil. He has more than 40 years of experience and knowledge in the energy and industry sectors around the world in both public and private service, and is the (co-)author of 19 books and over 150 publications, in addition to technology-related patents. He has received several SPE/AIME Awards, including the Distinguished Member, the Distinguished Service, AIME Charles Rand Gold Memorial, and the Sustainability and Stewardship in the Oil and Gas Industry Award, and he was a SPE Distinguished Lectured. He Is the recipient of the Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Republique (Tunisia), de la Medaille d’Or de la Ville de St Etienne (France). He is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris).
The 2018 SPE International President. His theme during his Presidency was Community Consensus and he has a focus on Methane measurement and reduction as founding partner of Carbon Connect International Inc.
He has a 37-year career in the Conventional Oil, Heavy Oil and Unconventional Gas business on both the operator and service sector of our industry. He is a graduate in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Alberta.
Hamid Emami-Meybodi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University. He joined Penn State in 2015 following ten years in academia as a Research Associate/Assistant at the University of Calgary, University of Regina, and Petroleum University of Technology. His research focuses on the fluid flow and transport phenomena in porous media, with an emphasis on improved hydrocarbon recovery, the development of unconventional resources, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. He published more than 50 technical publications. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for SPE Journal, a member of the SPE International – Scholarship and Fellowship Committee, and the Faculty Advisor for the Penn State SPE Student Chapter. He received the 2022 SPE A-Peer-Apart Award, 2022 SPE Outstanding Associate Editor Award, 2021 SPE Outstanding Technical Reviewer Award, 2021 SPE Regional Service Award, 2019 SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal, 2018 SPE Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, 2015 Endeavour Research Fellowship from the Australia Department of Education, and 2014 Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures Award from the Alberta-Canada Government. He received B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical and Reservoir Engineering from the Petroleum University of Technology and M.Eng., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Calgary.
Michael Pyrcz is an associate professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, and the Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, where he researches and teaches subsurface, spatial data analytics, geostatistics, and machine learning. Michael is also the principal investigator of the Energy Analytics freshmen research initiative and a core faculty in the Machine Learn Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences, the University of Texas at Austin, an associate editor for Computers and Geosciences, and a board member for Mathematical Geosciences, the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences, and the program chair for the Petroleum Data Driven Analytics Technical Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Michael has written over 60 peer-reviewed publications, a Python package for spatial, subsurface data analytics, and co-authored a textbook on spatial data analytics, ‘Geostatistical Reservoir Modeling’. Michael holds a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering and a Ph.D. in Geostatistics from the University of Alberta, Canada. All of Michael’s university lectures are available on his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/GeostatsGuyLectures to support his students and working professionals with evergreen content. To find out more about Michael’s work and shared educational resources visit his website at www.michaelpyrcz.com.
Leon Stille has a background in energy sciences and pursuing a PhD on energy policy. He is currently managing director of new energy institute and manager education of impact hydrogen. From the start of his career he has focused on conventional and renewable energy technology development, innovation and education. He has held commercial roles in several energy companies (Alliander and current plug power) and is a frequent speaker, author and moderator at energy related events. Furthermore, he worked for the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research (TNO) as international business development manager dedicated to enabling and accelerating the energy transition as well as general manager for the energy delta institute (new energy business school). Leon holds three patents and several ancillary position as scientific advisor of the european biogas association, sustainability comittee member of the international gas union and top author of Illuminem.
Joris Heijdt has a background in Earth Sciences from the University of Utrecht. From the start of his career he has focused on education and project management. He has held commercial roles in event management companies dealing with security and organization of large scale events. As well as several educational roles aimed towards youth and professionals.
Currently, Joris is working as energy analyst at the Energy Delta Institute part of New Energy Coalition, dedicated to providing education and promotion towards the energy transition. Here Joris is the key expert on all the hydrogen programs and activities. Responsible for building hydrogen programs for open market and incompany courses. As well as working in other innovative projects related to the energy transition and hydrogen.
Carlo Busollo has over 15 years of experience as Well engineer, since 2012 he has been involved in UGS Business, in well project and construction management. In Snam, one of the biggest UGS player in Europe, he covers the position of Well engineering manager within the UGS business unit; the main areas of activity are well integrity management and material and equipment selection for the repurposing of current Italian UGS infrastructure to UHS. Within the WI management task, he is also leading the realization of a well digital twin to remotely monitor and manage the UGS wells asset.
He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering, achieved at the University of Bologna (Italy) and professionally grown through several working experiences in the Upstream sector in Italy and abroad.
After completing his engineering studies in Milan, Christian joined Eni in 2001 as a reservoir modeler and began to follow storage activities starting in 2002 for Stogit, a leading storage company in Italy and in the European Union. During his work, he follows various projects related to the development, assessment and optimization of storage fields and related monitoring systems. In December 2013, he became Head of the Stogit reservoirs unit (controlled by the Snam Group since 2009) and is responsible for geoscience activities and related monitoring.
Filip Vodopić was born in Zagreb in 1995 and got his master’s degree in petroleum engineering in 2020 at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering. While enrolled at the faculty, he finished his internship at Wintershall Dea GmbH, where he was involved with PVT modeling of CO2 -hydrocarbon and CO2 -H2 mixtures and numerical reservoir simulation in terms of carbon capture and storage (CCS), underground hydrogen storage (UHS) and microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). Since 2020, he is employed as a research assistant at his alma mater as a team member on the EU H2020 project STRATEGY CCUS. In the same year, he enrolled in the first year of the Ph.D. program and is currently focused on economics and the legislative framework of CCS and CCUS with the aim of accelerating the deployment of the above technologies in the EU. He contributed to CCS4CEE project work packages, by performing interviews, co-organizing workshops/seminars and writing the national report. He also surveyed the public acceptance of CCS obtaining a sample of over a thousand examinees.
Dr. Arash Dahi Taleghani is a professor of petroleum engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Before joining Penn State, he was an associate professor of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has about 15 years of combined experience in applied engineering, research, and in academia and is a registered professional engineer. Dr. Dahi Taleghani has numerous publications and eight patents in the field of drilling and completion. Arash is also the author of a book on Wellbore Integrity. In 2014, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty from the Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE). He also received SPE Eastern North America Regional Completion Optimization and Technology in 2017 and later was elected as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2022-2023. He is currently conducting research in reservoir geomechanics, hydraulic fracturing, wellbore integrity, and geothermal energy.
Pascal has over 30 years experience at managerial level in private, public and international organizations. Some of his notable successes include the international Merger & Acquisition that led to the build-up of the largest European space manufacturer RUAG Space (RUAG Group). He also led an energy manufacturer with cutting edge products, built up the renewable energy provider SIREN Ltd of Lausanne including deep geothermal project build up and management, and worked for the Swiss diplomatic corps as permanent delegate to ESA and, some years later, for the relaunch of a water exploration and sustainable management programme in the Sahel region. His technical and scientific background was instrumental in the fields of nuclear waste management, natural hazard and geotechnical projects. His managerial skills helped him to successfully lead industrial departments in the high-tech and energy industry sectors as well as to launch and deploy multilateral programmes in the international arena (ESA, EURATOM, IAEA, OSCE and EU Framework Programmes). Pascal is fluent in French and German (native), English and Spanish.
Senior Engineer, with more than 36 years’ experience in the Energy sector, Oil, Gas and Geothermal Upstream Exploration and Development Projects.
Angelo graduated as Electromechanical Engineer (Buenos Aires University) in 1986, later studied a Master in International Business (L’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées – France), Labor Engineer (UTN – “National Technology University” – Argentina), where he was professor during the years 2000 and 2001. He is member No 1092 of the WSO (World Safety Organization) since Nov 2003.
Started his career in 1987 with Schlumberger, as Logging & Testing Engineer working in Argentina, Venezuela, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines, in land and offshore operations. Director of Minera Alumbrera LTD a BHP Billiton Mining project in Argentina. Regional Manager of Pride International, drilling company, in South America Land and Middle East, North Africa and Far East Offshore drilling projects. Director of Viking Services, an Oil, Gas & Geothermal Field Service Contractor operating in Turkey, East Europe, and Iraq.
Co-founder with Eng. Zoran Veselinovic in 2018 of IPM SOLUTIONS S.L. an energy consultancy company specialized in the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal sector with projects in Israel, Turkey, Croatia, and Italy. Wide experience in a full range of Project Management Products including, Project Management Standards, Project Management Guide (PMG), Processes Improvement Methodologies, Geological and Geophysical Evaluations, HSE and Operational Standards, Environmental Management Solution for an efficient control of Projects Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Software Support to drive successful and predictable outcomes in Drilling, Evaluation and Completion of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Energy Project.
Dragutin Domitrović graduated petroleum engineering at University of Zagreb in 1993, worked in petroleum industry for more than 23 years and then made a career move from hydrocarbons to geothermal business. From 2016 to 2020 he managed the project of construction and operation of the first Croatian geothermal power plant in Ciglena, and is now a geothermal consultant, involved in several ongoing exploration projects located in continental Croatia.
Dr. Dejan Ivezić is the full professor at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Mining and Geology, chief of the Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Thermodynamics and manager of Centre for Energy. He graduated at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Belgrade in 1994. He obtained magister degree and PhD in Technical Sciences at the same Faculty in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He has worked at the Faculty of Mining and Geology since 1997. He teaches graduate and postgraduate courses in gas engineering, energy modeling and control of energy processes. His teaching and research interests include sustainable development, environmental protection concerning negative impact of energy activities, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources utilization and conservation of natural resources. He is an author or co-author of over 60 scientific papers, two university books and two scientific monographs. He took part in numerous energy and climate change projects funded by the EU (FP6, FP7, Tempus, and Horizon 2020), Serbian ministries of energy and environmental protection, Serbian municipalities and others. He drafted Energy Sector Development Strategy of Republic of Serbia up to 2025 with Projections to 2030. He is the member of Scientific Committee for Energy, Mining and Energy Efficiency at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.
Marko Hodalic was born in 1979 and lives and works in Belgrade. After the elementary school he finished the high school in Belgrade, after which he enrolled at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Upon completion, he graduated as mechanical engineer – motor vehicles. He become national expert on maintenance management after training with the Society of maintenance technicians.
Career starts in 2007 at Verano Motors, where, after a year, he moves to the Iveco Representation where he works in the technical service, in charge first for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro and then for the Balkan region. In 2015, he switched to the sale of heavy vehicles for the region of Serbia and Montenegro.
The technical service experience, along with the knowledge of vehicle sales, agreed in a new position opened within Iveco. Thus, from the end of 2017, he moved to a place responsible for the development of the market and the sale of gas vehicles in the Central and Eastern European market
Dr. Rajan Chokshi works as an artificial lift and production ‘Optimizer’ for Accutant Solutions. He has over 34 years of experience working with a national oil company, research consortia, consulting and software firms, and a service company in various roles from engineer, software developer, project manager, trainer, consultant, and a senior business leader.
Dr. Chokshi has worked on projects globally in the areas of multi-phase flow, artificial lift, production optimization, and real-time production monitoring. He has co-authored over fifteen SPE papers, and two patents. Besides delivering several SPE webinars, Dr. Chokshi continues to conduct workshops for practicing professionals globally in SPE and private forums. He has taught at Texas Tech, Missouri S&T, U of Southern California and continues to teach at the U of Houston as an adjunct professor. He has served on the SPE training and global production award committees. He has co-chaired an SPE artificial lift workshop, and an SPE forum on production issues in unconventional. He has been an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 years.
Dr. Chokshi holds a bachelor’s and Master’s in Chemical Engineering from the Gujarat University and IIT-Kanpur, India; and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa, USA.
Vesna Karovic Maricic is an associate professor at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Mining and Geology. Since 2018, she serves as the Chair of Petroleum Engineering Department. She holds B.S. degree (1991), M. S. degree (1996) and Ph. D. (2006) from University of Belgrade – Faculty of Mining and Geology, Department of Petroleum Engineering. She is lecturing undergraduate and graduate students on the petroleum reservoir engineering, petroleum reservoir management and enhanced oil recovery methods. Besides these fields, her research interests are petroleum production engineering, energy policy and CO2 geological sequestration. She is an author or co-author of over 90 scientific and professional papers that include 11 peer reviewed articles, and she has published scientific monograph of national importance, and chapters in monograph of the international importance. In addition, she has been involved in several research projects in the field of Mining and Energy supported by the Serbian Ministry for Science and Technological Development, in training and consulting at the Petroleum Industry of Serbia – NIS a. d. Novi Sad, and for last 10 years in developing the strategic and planning documents of Serbian energy policy for oil sector.
Dr. Grant Robertson is an Instructor for PetroSkills-OGCI and does petroleum engineering consulting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. He has worked in the oil and gas industry since 1974 for Chevron, British Petroleum, Ryder Scott and Anadarko in California, Saudi Arabia and Texas. He has held various high-level technical and management positions. His work has been very diversified covering oil and gas reservoirs, onshore and offshore properties, primary, secondary and tertiary operations, and reservoir exploration and development projects. His responsibilities have been in reservoir engineering, reservoir management, reserves estimation and reservoir simulation, but he has also done production engineering and exploratory well testing. Dr. Robertson has published technical papers in refereed journals and has written many internal publications.
Throughout his career, Dr. Robertson has always been very involved in teaching. He has significant experience in preparing and conducting schools and workshops and has been an SPE Short Course instructor and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston for several years. He has been a very active member of SPE since 1975 and has held numerous positions within many different SPE organizations. Dr. Robertson has a B.S. degree in Engineering Science and a M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of Toronto. He also has a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Torsten Clemens is a Senior Reservoir Engineering Adviser with OMV Upstream. He used to work in Shell on EOR projects and fractured reservoirs and joined OMV in 2005. In OMV, he is covering EOR/IOR as well as fractured reservoirs and uncertainty management. Torsten published more than 80 technical papers, is a member of various conference committees (SPE, EAGE, WPC), technical editor of several journals and is chairing the IEA EOR Technology Cooperation Program. In 2010, he received the SPE Regional Award for Reservoir Description and Dynamics. He was SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2018/2019.
Ana Todosijevic graduated as Engineer of Chemistry and Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Monchengladbach and joined Wintershall in 2013. As Head of the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Program, Ana manages the worldwide EOR activities of Wintershall. In her previous position, Ana managed the technical EOR cooperation with partners, including the biopolymer Schizophyllan field application. The decade before Ana worked for major companies in the chemical industry with special focus on Oilfield / EOR products in several positions such as Senior Business Development Manager, Marketing Manager and Sales Manager.
Jean-Marc Dumas is South Central and East Europe SPE Director and a member of the SPE International Board of Directors. He will cover the whole Europe end of September 2019.
He started working for Total in Middle East then in Asia as a development engineer. He later joined Coflexip (now TechnipFMC) as Sales Manager. He founded and managed several companies, among others PCMC in 1998, an international consulting and engineering contractor specialized in the energies and more recently Aedes Energy International.
He has spent much of his career in a series of international and executive managerial and technical positions in the energy sector. Jean-Marc founded SPE France section in 1984, holding various positions on the board including membership, program and section chairs. He is also chairing the European Regional Advisory Counsel. He was elected SPE France Honorary President in 2016.
Dumas earned a BSc in mechanical engineering from an Engineering College ENI Tarbes, an MSc in metallurgy from ESSA Paris and an MBA from IFG Paris (France). He is a recipient of 2010 SCEE Regional Service Award and 2016 International Distinguished Membership Award.
Herbert Hofstaetter graduated as a Petroleum Engineer at the Montanuniversitaet Leoben in 1981 with distinction. He covered in his 25 years industrial carrier managerial positions in drilling, production and reservoir engineering as well as in HSE and PR as a spokesman oft he company. During his carrier with RAG (former Exxon/Mobil an Shell affiliate of Austria) he gained comprehensive international experience all over the world in various disciplines. In this period of time he also earned his PhD at the same University. Since 1996 he is head of the Chair for “Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Recovery“ at the Montanuniversitaet Leoben. Because of his initiative the new international educational programs of “Geothermal Engineering“ as well as “Design and Operation of Pipelines and Storage Facilities“ all together international partner universities were initated. He holds several international patents and he is member of the board of international scientific magazines and member of various scientific organisations. Numerous publications an key note speaches have been broadcasted all over the world.
Dr. Mohsen Rafiee finished undergraduate study in Reservoir Engineering from Petroleum University of Technology in Iran. After that he graduated as Master of Science in Reservoir Engineering from Institut français du pétrole in Rueil-Malmaison Paris and finally he become Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from TU Bergakademie Freiberg focusing on reservoir simulation, history matching and uncertainty analysis.
He worked one year with R&D of Total S.A. as reservoir simulation engineer (Pau-France), four years as research assistant at TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Freiberg-Germany), three years with DBI German institute of fuel as a reservoir engineer on gas storage reservoir (Freiberg-Germany) and six years with Wintershall where he was responsible for numerical simulation of chemical EOR processes and Electro-Magnetic heating (Kassel-Germany). Currently he works at Wintershall as EOR reservoir simulation team lead (Kassel-Germany).
Mona Wetrhus Minde holds a PhD in Petroleum Technology, carried out with the National IOR Centre of Norway, University of Stavanger. At the Centre, she contributes to leading one of the tasks focusing on “Mineral fluid reactions at nano/submicron scale” and supervising PhD candidates along with MSc and BSc students. She is currently employed at the Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Materials Science. The focus of Dr. Mindes work is micro- and nano-analytical tools to study materials and their microstructure, with particular interest in fine-grained sedimentary rocks (chalk) in an EOR perspective. In practical terms, this work involves studying rock samples at nano-scale to investigate the mineralogical changes induces by injection of non-equilibrium brines, and link these alterations to the geo-mechanical properties of the rock, reservoir properties and EOR simulation. She was awarded the Skjæveland award at the IOR Norway 2017 conference.
Her main methods of expertise is within electron microscopy, to analyse most materials ranging from rocks, metal, concrete and ceramics, all the way to biological material such as fish-proteins.
Dr. Minde also holds an MSc and a BSc in in Petroleum Geoscience Engineering and a BSc in Media Technology.
Paola Albonico is a chemist, graduated from the University of Milan. Her experience in Eni started in 1985. In all these years she has always worked in the Eni Laboratoires in the R&D area, involved in different projects, often in collaboration with Universities and Research Centers.
Paola worked for a long time in the past on water shut-off crosslinked polymeric gels, topic on which I contributed with several patents. Recently, on this same topic, she has worked on a project where an innovative smart product has been developed and applied in Eni reservoirs.
Paola also developed great experience in the field of emulsions, nanoemulsions and microemulsions in the oil industry.
Currently her main research activities are various R&D projects and BU supports in the areas of laboratory studies concerning IOR/EOR , Water Shut Off and Formation Damage.
Dr. Tom Blasingame is a Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station Texas. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University — all in Petroleum Engineering. In teaching and research activities Blasingame focuses on petrophysics, reservoir engineering, diagnostics / analysis / interpretation of well performance, unconventional resources, and technical mathematics. Since 1991, Blasingame has graduated 73 M.S. (thesis), 36 M.Eng. (report, non-thesis), and 16 Ph.D. students, and he has prepared more than 170 technical articles, as well as having performed several major field studies involving geology, petrophysics, and engineering tasks.
Mr. Davis is University Professor Emeritus at Colorado School of Mines. He graduated in Geophysics from University of Calgary in 1971 and got his Ph.D. in Geophysical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in 1974. Overall, he has 40 years of experience working as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor at Colorado School of Mines. Besides working at that faculty, he was consultant for different projects conducted in 80 countries, president of TLD Geophysical Consulting Ltd, geophysicist at Amoco Production Company, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at University of Calgary.
He is a member of Alberta Association of Professional Geologists, Geophysicists and Engineers, European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, American Association of Petroleum Geologists and numerous other societies.
In last three years he has been serving on a Science Advisory Board to the USEPA and on the Board of Directors of Geospace Technologies. In addition, he was organizer and participant in technical conferences, workshops and programs for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Director of the Reservoir Characterization Project of the Colorado School of Mines and Director of the Petroleum Engineering Summer School in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Chafaa Badis is the Sr. Technical Sales Data Scientist for E&P industry in the Eurasia, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa Region for Halliburton Landmark, focusing on helping E&P companies to unlock analytics insights from their data to drive business value. He has eight years of oil & gas industry experience. Prior to joining Halliburton Landmark, Mr. Badis worked as a Business Intelligence Consultant and a Project Management Officer in multiple IT companies in France. He joined Halliburton Landmark in 2013 as a Senior Data Management Consultant before moving to Data Science and Analytics role. He developed several machine learning and deep learning applications in drilling and production optimization and borehole data management automation. He has four US patent applications, conducted numerous training and mentoring sessions for oil and gas professionals. Mr. Badis holds an Engineer’s degree in Computer Science & Artificial intelligence from the University of Science and Technology – Houari Boumediene in Algiers and a Master’s degree in Business Intelligence & Data science from the University of Toulouse (France).
Monica Serban, D&C Technical Sales Consultant with Landmark at Halliburton from 2019 graduated as a Petroleum Engineer at the Oil and Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania in 2005. She obtained a master’s degree in Advance Technologies in Environment Protection at the same University in 2008. With over 15 years experience in Oil & Gas Industry in postition of Drilling Engineer, Well Site Drilling Engineer, Performance Drilling Engineer, Project Drilling Engineer, Technical Sales with different companies in different countries such as OMV Petrom in Romania, Petrofac in Romania and UK, Chevron in Romania and Thailand, Halliburton in EESSA region she was part of various types of operations and project including Onshore&Offshore Exploration and Development Wells: Design&Operations, Plug&Abandonments Programs, Tendering Process, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Performance, HSE, Sales, SCM and Communication related duties.
As hobbies Monica likes traveling, lonk walks and hiking, reading and continuosly learning new thinks.
Motto: „ Do not be afraid to fail. The best learnings are coming from mistakes”
Marian Popescu is the Technical G&G consultant for Europe in Landmark. He brings 11+ years of industry experience as a Mudlogger Engineer and Exploration Geologist, working for operators and service companies.
His experience with operators made him aware of the existing technologies on the market and offered him good grip on industry challenges from data perspective. Skilled in play to prospect assessment, data management, & cutting-edge G&G technologies.
Marian holds a MSc and BSc degree in Geological Engineering from the University of Bucharest. Marian also attended as Erasmus Student The Land, Environment and Geo-Engineering Faculty at the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, grant offered by the European Commission.
Apart from challenges related to his field of activity, he particularly enjoys working with multicultural people in different types of environments.
Publications & Presentations:
1. DecisionSpace® Automated Fault Interpretation Output Optimises Real-Time Drilling Operations Plan, Aug 2018, Landmark Innovation Forum and Expo-LIFE, Houston;
2. Geological engineering study of the clay, salt and granitic rocks for the disposal of spent fuel in Romania;
3. Salt, Granite, Clay: site selection criteria for the disposal of Spent Fuel in Romania;
4. Ecogeochimical analyses of Bucharest’s dusts- the Nordic sector;
As a Geosciences Technical Consultant, Rebecca provides technical geoscience support to potential and existing Halliburton customers. She specialises in the Halliburton Landmark suite of geoscience software and content, working with customers to help them better understand the subsurface. She has eight years of industry experience, having worked as a geoscientist in the research and development of Halliburton’s geoscience content portfolio, Neftex® Predictions, from 2013 to 2021. During this time, Rebecca worked on the Rock Properties Team, collating and analysing global data on reservoir and seal properties. She then became a regional geoscientist focusing on Central America. From 2018 to 2021, she was also managing editor of the Subsurface Insights magazine.
Rebecca holds an MSci in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Mauricio Torres, Product Manager within the Production, Reservoir and Economics R&D department at Halliburton. He is responsible for driving the Reservoir Management solutions strategy by working with customer to identify requirements and understand their challenges in order to generate technical solutions that brings value to specific projects and/or to the overall customer’s organization.
Mauricio has worked with majors, independents and national oil companies in North Sea, Europe, West Africa and Latin America in Reservoir Management consulting projects and implementing multiple workflow solutions in different technical environments.
Mauricio holds a Petroleum Engineering degree from Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela.
Geovani Christopher Kaeng has been in Oil and Gas Industry for 15 year. Currently working as a regional senior geoscience advisor for Europe Eurasia and Sub-Saharan Africa for HALLIBUROTON based in the Netherlands since 2021. He first joined HALLIBURTON in Indonesia in 2006 as a junior geoscientist, then moved to HALLIBURTON Asia Pacific as a regional senior geoscientist in 2012 based in Malaysia. Fields of interests includes petroleum system analysis, geopressured, geomechanics, and CO2 geological storage.
Steven Knabe is a Global Director at Halliburton Consulting. Steve is an experienced oil and gas technical and operations manager with both operator and service company experience. Steve has co-authored multiple technical papers and patent applications.
Steven has worked on major oil and gas development projects in several countries, including: Drilling, completion and stimulation programs for both conventional and unconventional reservoirs | Full field reviews | Field development plans for both conventional and unconventional reservoirs | Enhanced oil recovery projects | Digital oilfield initiatives.
Steven holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Steve is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas, USA.
Vitaly Yermakov joined OIES in April 2019. He has over 20 years of oil and gas industry experience. Prior to joining OIES Vitaly worked as Head of Centre for Energy Policy Research at Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Commodity Strategist for Sberbank CIB, Visiting Researcher at KAPSARC, Saudi Arabia, Director of Research at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and IHS CERA. Before that he was a manager at TNK-BP, an oil company.
Vitaly’s recent publications include papers for Oxford Institute of Energy Studies on the issues of spare gas productive capacity, gas demand flexibility, and gas taxation in Russia. He also published a paper for KAPSARC, Saudi Arabia on price competitiveness of US LNG and Russian pipeline gas in Europe. Mr. Yermakov is also the author of over 50 CERA and IHS CERA analytical private reports, including analysis of gas demand issues and gas price regulation in Russia and Ukraine, analysis of tax changes for Russian oil and gas industries, regulatory reform in the Russian energy sector and comparative analysis of oil and gas transportation tariffs in Russia and North America. He also led numerous consulting projects for the CERA and IHS CERA clients, including Russian tax reform for the oil sector, developing gas strategy and developing strategy of marketing LPG for major Russian companies, analysing gas transportation in Russia for a major Western company.
Vitaly has been lecturing for Energy Delta Institute’s executive MBA program on a wide range of topics, including natural gas and LNG developments and pricing, China’s gas demand, and Russian gas developments. He is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences in Russia and abroad. Mr. Yermakov holds a master’s degree from Duke University and a PhD from Samara State University.
Marcel Kramer holds a Master’s Degree in Private and Corporate Law. He works as an independent consultant and advisor to several companies and institutions on energy and infrastructure issues, projects and policies.
In October 2015 he was appointed President of the Energy Delta Institute (EDI) . The main focus of EDI is executive education for those who work in the field of energy.
Marcel Kramer is a frequent public speaker on energy-related topics and lectures in several executive education programs associated with universities in Western Europe, Russia and other countries. He is a longstanding member of the Council of the International Gas Union (IGU) where he acts as Regional Coordinator for Russia, the Black Sea region and the Caspian.
During his professional career he worked in the Department of Oil & Coal at the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, in the Secretary General’s Office at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, he led the Oil Industry Division at the International Energy Agency in Paris, worked as Director of Crude Oil Supply and Trading in Petro-Canada, worked at several senior management positions in Norway, Bangkok, Singapore and Caracas. In 2003, Mr. Kramer joined the gas infrastructure and transport company Gasunie in The Netherlands and he was appointed Chairman and CEO in 2005. He was CEO of the South Stream offshore pipeline project JV company in Zug, Switzerland and later in Amsterdam from September 2010 till July 2013. Following that assignment he acted for two years as Senior Counsel to the Management of Gazprom.
In August 2010, Marcel Kramer was awarded the title of Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in recognition of his services to the Kingdom.
Marcel Kramer was the President of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) from 2005 to 2009 and of the Royal Dutch Gas Association (KVGN) from 2009 to 2012. For six years, until May 2015 he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal Boskalis Westminster, a global dredging , towage and offshore heavy lift company, listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
WORKING EXPIERENCE
VICE-MANAGING DIRECTOR • FACHVERBAND GAS&WÄRME IN DER WKÖ UND ÖSTERREICHISCHE VEREINIGUNG FÜR DAS GAS- UND WASSERFACH (ÖVGW) • 1994- 2001
Industrial Association for Gas Water and District Heating in Austria
DIRECTOR GAS IN ENERGIE CONTROL AUSTRIA • 2001-2013
Implementation of the Regulatory Framework for gas in Austria
BRANCH MANAGER AND FUNCTIONAL HEAD OF BUSINESS SUPPORT • UNIPER ENERGY STORAGE GMBH (FORMER E.ON GAS STORAGE)• 2013 – ACTUAL
Represent Uniper Energy Storage GmbH in the Austrian gas market towards local customers, market partners and government authorities.
Support sales and storage service activities focussing on the 7Fields storage facility.
Balance group Manager for the Balancing Group of Uniper Energy Storage GmbH in Austria
BOARD MEMBER IN RAG BETEILIGUNG AG SEIT • 2014 – ACTUAL
Coordination of shareholder interests
EDUCATION
MAGISTER DER WIRTSCHAFTS- UND SOZIALWISSENSCHAFT • JUNI 1994 • WIRTSCHAFTSUNIVERSITÄT WIEN
Graduate in Business Administration
HONORAY ACTIVITIES
Board Member Initiative Erdgasspeicher (INES)
Task Force Chair in Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE)
Ivan Fugaš graduated at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, of the University of Zagreb in 2006. In that time from 2002 to 2006, he did several internships at integrated drilling and well services company, CROSCO Ltd. After graduation from 2007 to 2020 he worked in Croatian transmission system operator, Plinacro Ltd. in all positions, from trainees, pipeline engineer, head of pipeline unit to the director of the Gas Transmission Department. From 2020 until this day, he has been working as the Director of Commercial and Technical Affairs Sector at LNG Hrvatska Ltd. He has published several professional papers and presentations around Europe about pipeline integrity and maintenance and LNG Terminal.
Agnieszka, better known as Agi, has a range of expertise spanning from seismic data imaging to environmental remediation and GHG emissions reduction. Currently, she manages the technical team at CCI in the delivery of two major decarbonization programs in Alberta. This includes developing data collection standards and quality management for baseline emission data, overseeing the quantification of upstream O&G emissions, and project accounting for the implementation of emission reduction solutions. In addition, Agi is responsible for tracking and reporting program KPIs, acts as a liaison for the Government of Alberta regarding program performance and methane emission management as well as leads the development of training course content in topics of GHG emission management, sustainability, and the energy transition. Previously, she worked at Energy Efficiency Alberta, managing programs in the commercial, industrial, and non-profit sectors with a focus in energy management and capacity building. She holds an MSc in Sustainable Energy Development, a PhD in Geophysics and a BSc in Applied and Pure Mathematics all from the University of Calgary.
Vincenzo has twenty-six years’ experience in theoretical and applied geomechanics, including fifteen years’ experience in O&G industry related projects. He graduated as Civil and Geomechanical Engineer in 1992 in Rome and has been consultant engineer, PhD fellow then lecturer and lastly associated professor (research director) in geomechanics at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées – ParisTech (Paris, France). He joined Schlumberger in 2009 as Geomechanics and Unconventional Gas Specialist. His activities encompass exploration, appraisal and production related projects, onshore and offshore drilling integrity studies, coupled reservoir geomechanics analysis, geomechanics for unconventional, sanding, underground gas storage (natural gas and anthropogenic CO2).He’s author and co-author of 20 journal papers, 3 book chapters, 50 international conference papers, 8 national (French) conference papers, 40 research/technical reports and monographs. He’s co-editor of 11 books and holds 5 patents. He has presented a wide variety of topics related to geomechanics for a total of more than 60 lectures worldwide. He has tutored 2 Post-Doctoral fellows, 5 PhD thesis, 11 MSc projects, 8 Graduate students, 10 Undergraduate students and has been member of 4 PhD jury committees.
Domagoj Vulin, PhD, Full Professor, was born in Zagreb in 1975. He successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Modeling Thermodynamic and Petrophysical Parameters for Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide”. He teaches PVT, reservoir modeling, and multiphase fluid flow in porous rocks and is the head of the “Laboratory for Routine and Special Rock Analyses” at the Faculty and the “Petroleum Engineering Centre for Digitization and Big Data Analysis”. As a team member in ten European scientific research projects (FP, H2020) he has conducted the first assessments of CO2 storage capacity in Croatia (EU GeoCapacity) and the first estimates for underground energy storage (ESTMAP project). In addition to underground hydrogen storage (HyStories project), underground energy storage and various concepts of CO2 storage and use (such as simultaneous CO2 storage and natural gas, oil or geothermal production, or simultaneous CO2 and energy storage), he is mostly involved in the analysis of the full CCS and CCUS chain, the study of the legal and fiscal framework for CCS and, more generally, factors that can accelerate the implementation of CCS (Strategy CCUS and CCS4CEE projects).
Laura Precupanu is a senior expert in stimulation technologies within the Well Optimization and Well Integrity Department of OMV Petrom, Romania, with more than 13 years industry experience. In addition to her work in production and operations, her experience includes chemical engineering, numerical simulation, and smart field technologies. She started her tenure as SPE Regional Director for Europe in September 2020. Between 2017–2020 she served as SPE Romanian Section secretary and then treasurer. She was a young professionals program officer and was a member of the SPE Completions Advisory Committee, with responsibility for online education, since 2018. Laura co-authored 3 SPE papers on formation damage and fracturing. She has a strong believe in the sustainable future of the oil & gas industry through new technologies, knowledge sharing and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Laura holds a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree, both in chemical engineering from Politehnica University of Bucharest.
Dr. Hannes Hofmann is head of the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group “Advanced reservoir engineering concepts for a controlled utilisation of deep geothermal energy in urban areas” (ARES) at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Junior Professor of Reservoir Engineering at Technische Universität Berlin. Since 2015 he holds a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He worked as reservoir engineer at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands before joining GFZ Potsdam in 2017. In 2018 he received the Young Scientist Award of the Federal Association of Geothermal Energy in Germany.
His work includes the development and demonstration of novel methods for a safe and efficient development of deep geothermal reservoirs with a focus on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). In the framework of the EU projects DESTRESS and GEMex he was involved in multiple EGS demonstration projects in Europe and worldwide.
Thomas Kohl is full professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT. He holds the chair of the Division of Geothermal Energy and Reservoir Technology at the Institute for Applied Geosciences and is head of the Helmholtz geothermal program at KIT. After his degree in Geophysics at the Technical University of Karlsruhe he became research associate at CNRS in Paris in the field of seismology. In 1992, he got his PhD at ETH Zurich on investigations of coupled processes in deep geothermal systems. After completing his habilitation thesis, he became senior lecturer at ETH Zürich in 1999 as recognized expert on subsurface and especially in geo-thermal systems. His code FRACTure on coupled hydraulic-thermal-mechanical processes used world-wide was applied to characterize fractured rock in complex subsurface terrain. The forecast of seismic cloud before a hydraulic stimulation was among his key achievements. As co-founder of GEOWATT AG in Zürich, he was the CEO of this ETH spin-off, medium size company between 2003 and 2011. Here he collaborated in Euro-pean and national research projects also as work package leader and directed numerous geothermal project realizations. As such, he was leading projects in Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, U.S. and France. At KIT in Karlsruhe, a major research focus is on the investigation of geomechanical aspects in fractured systems. In this context, the generation and impact of induced seismicity and the influence on the reservoir is of great interest. Using the exceptional possibilities of the surrounding geothermal projects, systematic data analyses are carried out and correlated with the tectonic conditions in the Rhine Graben. With the setup of a compre-hensive, future-oriented strategy and an interdisciplinary research program linked to his arrival, KIT became an internationally recognized institution in geothermal research. T. Kohl has organized several high rank workshops and is one of the initiators of the European Geothermal Workshop organized jointly with the University of Strasbourg. T. Kohl is member of several scientific committees in Germany and France. At KIT he has established several teaching modules and is engaged in international Master Programs. Additionally, he co-initialized the today well-known Geothermal Energy Journal and served as editor-in-chief, as well as editor of special issues in Geothermics. He is elected member of the IASPEI Heat Flow Commission, the EERA – JPGE management board and the board of the German Geophysical Society. Active at high-level scientific conferences and author of more than 90 reviewed manuscripts in renowned journals, he holds a SCOPUS Index of 28. T. Kohl is often consulted as an expert and scientifically accompanies many industrial projects worldwide.
Tomislav Kurevija is currently employed as a full professor at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He received his PhD in 2010. in a field of shallow geothermal energy project design and exploitation. Professor Kurevija science and technical research interest include deep and shallow geothermal energy, thermogeology, energy management and reservoir engineering of oil, gas and groundwater. He authored or co-authored over 70 scientific publications until now, with focus on all aspects of utilizing geothermal energy and has attended number of scientific and technical conferences as a speaker. He is the co-founder and vice-president of the Croatian Heat Pump Associatian (HUDiT), as well as a member of the Editorial board of the science journal The Mining-Geological-Petroleum Bulletin. He mentored numerous bachelor and graduate students, as well as several PhD fellows.
Marija Macenić completed her Master studies in Mining (2011) and doctoral studies in Petroleum Engineering (2020) at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Since 2014 she was employed as a research assistant, and from 2020 as postdoctoral researcher in the Department of petroleum and gas engineering and energy, at the same Faculty. Her research interests include deep geothermal energy, shallow geothermal energy and revitalization of oil and gas assets into geothermal ones. As a researcher she is an author of over 15 scientific reviewed publications and has attended several scientific and technical conferences as a speaker. She is involved in several projects, concerning the use and development of deep and shallow geothermal resources. She is a member of the Croatian Heat Pump Association.
Eric Léoutre is a reservoir engineer by background, he graduated from Institut Francais du Pétrole in Paris. After assignment overseas in North Sea and Malaysia with Shell international, he joined Vermilion Energy in France. In Vermilion, Eric led key energy projects in order to diversify the company’s portfolio primarily focused on oil. A strategic review ranked hydrogen, lithium production , CCUS and geothermal as key prospective markets. On geothermal energy, Eric contributed to building the MEET consortium (https://www.meet-h2020.com/consortium), funded by the innovation and network executive agency, whose aim is to upscale geothermal projects at european scale under all geological context. In the MEET project, Eric was in charge to maximise synergies between the oil& gas and the geothermal industry, focusing on sedimentological context. Successful field pilots were executed: direct heat delivery in co-production with oil production, power generation with small scale ORC turbines. Oil to geothermal methodology and case studies were conducted in collaboration with Zagreb University. Eric recently joined Ad Terra Energy (https://adterraenergy.com), a consultancy based in Geneva, Switzerland, where he leads the engineering team.
Dr. Daria Karasalihovic Sedlar, director of Petroleum Engineering Summer School (PESS) from 2014 graduated at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering of the University of Zagreb in 2000. She obtained PhD in Technical Sciences at the same Faculty in 2007. From 2000 to 2008 she had been working as teaching assistant at Faculty of Mining Geology and Petroleum Engineering, from 2008 she worked as Assistant Professor, since 2012 she have been teaching as Associate Professor, and from 2019 as full professor. She is coauthor of two book’s and more than 40 scientific papers on petroleum economics and natural gas management. She was researcher in different projects of energy economics, natural gas management and development strategies. She was involved in a number of projects and consulting for the energy sector of Croatia and environmental impact studies in petroleum industry and energy sector.