Michael Wilson - Legal

Michael Wilson has extensive experience in the Middle East, particularly Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Syria and Iraq, and in many other areas of the world. A veteran upstream oil and gas lawyer, Michael has also worked in Indonesia, PNG, Australia, and more recently was General Counsel and Company Secretary to Sakhalin Investment Company Limited on Sakhalin Island and later in Moscow (the operator of the Sakhalin LNG project; Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi). Michael also enjoyed a very good relationship with Sakhalin Oblast on Sakhalin Island and with Island, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Moscow. Prior to taking up the Sakhalin position, Michael was General Counsel for Al Furat Petroleum Company (Shell, Veba, Syrian Petroleum Company) in Syria.

A greater part of Michael’s career was with BP following which he was invited to become adviser to the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company in London part of the IPC Group). During his various positions as General Counsel in overseas locations, he also served as a member of the company’s management teams.

 

John Brooks - E&P Government Advisor

John Brooks had a long and distinguished career with the UK government as the Director of Exploration and Licensing at the Department of Trade and Industry. He now provides consultancy services mainly to host governments on petroleum and licensing matters.

After working initially for oil companies as a geologist, John worked for 27 years in the United Kingdom Civil Service at the Department of Energy/Department of Trade & Industry, most of this time as Director Exploration & Licensing. His post responsibility for oil and gas licensing policy and the regulation of licences and licensees for exploration and production licences both onshore and offshore in the United Kingdom. He has a thorough familiarity with the workings of government and the regulations relating to petroleum licensing and to oil and gas fields. He was responsible for negotiating work programmes during licensing rounds, the selection of areas for bidding rounds, the recommendation of awards to Ministers and for the determination of fields for Petroleum Revenue Tax.

John supervised technical input on behalf of the UK Government in negotiations relating to the delimitation of boundaries with France, Eire, Denmark (Faeroes) and Iceland and the territorial extension to the UK Continental Shelf under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNLOSC). In both government and consulting roles, John has advised on the exploration the Falkland Island Shelf, on petroleum licensing for the Isle of Man Government and on licensing matters for many other governments including Brazil, Venezuela, Lebanon, Indonesia, Poland, Cambodia and Barbados.

John is also a member of the UNECE Ad Hoc Committee on Reserves and Reserves Reporting, and recently completed a two-year term as President of the AAPG European Region on whose Council he sits.

 

Tom Harding - Project Engineering

Tom Harding is the principal of Devcor Studies Limited, a project management and business process consultancy delivering superior performance in business by management of expectations from capital development projects.

Tom is a chartered civil engineer and project management professional with over 30 years experience in the international oil and gas business, over 20 years with BP, 6 years with OMV, and 2 years with BHP Petroleum. He progressed from engineering and project engineering into middle management and has worked closely with senior and executive management. Tom has extensive experience in the strategic planning for capital projects, business risk management of projects, monitoring and support to projects, the establishment of business systems for upstream oil companies, and advisory roles at corporate level. He has managed, led and participated in teams at all levels of corporate decision making on investments, including integration and cultural and process alignment after acquisitions.

Tom's experience covers the North Sea, western, central and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union and the Black Sea, North Africa and the Middle East, North America including Canada, Alaska and the Arctic, Australasia, South America, Central Asia including Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

 

Andy Billings - Geoscience

Andy Billings is a geoscientist with over 30 years experience working on exploration, oil and gas field appraisal and field development projects. Andy trained in acquisition and interpretational geophysics (including gravity and magnetic applications) and went on to work for BP, Pict, Premier (as exploration Manager) and Intrepid before working as a consultant from 2005.

Andy is highly experienced in the interpretation and integration of geological and geophysical data for successful oil and gas exploration, field development and production; a proven oil finder having worked on a number of successful exploration projects (e.g. Buzzard) and on a large number of development projects. He has worked in most areas of the world, particularly the North Sea and NW Europe, Africa, the Far East, Australia and the Middle East.

Andy is highly motivated and a highly effective team player working within project teams to deliver agreed results and making informed high-value commercial and technical decisions by applying good business, health and safety practices.

Hornet Geoconsulting licenses industry standard seismic interpretation software and provides a complete interpretation and mapping service.

 

Jim Jenner - Drilling

Jim Jenner has a distinguished career in the oil & gas industry spanning over forty years, 30 years of which were with BP; Jim has extensive experience of drilling operations in the Middle East, North America and the North Sea. He worked on early exploration and development of oil fields offshore Abu Dhabi and the West Sole gas field discovery offshore UK. Jim has also held senior supervisory positions in Iran and Abu Dhabi. Latterly in management roles with BP he supervised worldwide drilling operations and was responsible for recruitment, training and career development of drilling engineers and operations personnel.

Since retiring from BP Jim has been involved in numerous activities, including drilling operations in Pakistan, Bulgaria, Algeria, Tunisia the Arabian Gulf, Ireland and the North Sea, and has implemented training courses and worked on the successful introduction of new drilling technology.

Jim is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Energy Institute, a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.