Technical Committee
Talal Al Adwani - Chair
Manager, Kuwait Oil Company
Talal Al-Adwani is Team Leader at the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) with over 23 years of experience in exploration geoscience. Extensive expertise on petroleum systems analysis, reserve assurance, prospect evaluation, source rock evaluation, regional play assessment and new venture management. Expert on risking and managing exploration portfolios. Proven record of adding multimillion barrels oil and several cf gas to the annual exploration portfolio.
Mohammed Fallatah - Co-Chair
Geologist, Aramco
Mohammed has been working for Saudi Aramco for 13 years, and his experience has been working on characterization of Jurassic carbonate reservoirs, involving the application of sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy. Over the past eight years, his interest has grown into conducting field excursions for studying the exposures of the sedimentary succession in central Saudi Arabia to link the surface geology with that of the subsurface.
Mohammed holds a bachelor degree from the University of Western Australia, and master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.
Omran Al-Zankawi
Professional Geologist, Kuwait Oil Company
Omran is professional Geologist with 18 years of experience focusing on Field development, working on Clastic reservoirs and Carbonate reservoirs. Handling several projects in regards to reservoir characterization.
Abdullah Waleed Al-Kandari
Geologist, Kuwait Oil Company
Abdullah Al-Kandari is a Geologist with 10 years of experience in petroleum geosciences for exploration at the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). Holding an MSc in Petroleum Geosciences for Exploration from the University of Manchester (UOM), Abdullah has been a member of KOC's Exploration Group. Throughout his tenure, he has contributed to multi-disciplinary and multi-scale projects.
Muhammad Yaser
SLB
Yaser is currently working for SLB in their Asset Consulting Services segment in Kuwait. He has 22 years of experience in various roles focused on Reservoir Characterization, Reservoir Petrophysics, Geocellular Modeling and Simulation, Production Enhancement/Optimization and Field Development Planning studies. He holds an M.Sc. in Geophysics from QAU Pakistan and M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot Watt, Scotland.
Dr. Yaqoub AlRefaei
Assistant professor, Kuwait University
Yaqoub Yousef Alrefaei is from the State of Kuwait. He received his B.S in Geology from Kuwait University in 2006 and his Master’s degree in Geology from University of Texas at Arlington in 2011. He worked at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research in the Petroleum Research and Studies Center (PRSC) as a research assistant for two years. He earned a scholarship from Kuwait University to pursue a Master’s and a Ph.D. in the United State of America where he has been a graduate student at University of Texas at Arlington.
Brandon France
Senior Reservoir Engineer, BP
Brandon France is a Senior Reservoir Engineer with BP Kuwait supporting the KOC SEK GBS Carbonates Team. Brandon has 27 years of industry experience working with clastic and carbonate reservoirs around the world in onshore, shallow marine and deep water environments. His experience includes reservoir engineering roles in Egypt, India, Alaska, Russia and now Kuwait. Brandon is a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Satya Perumalla
Regional Geomechanics Lead, Baker Hughes
Satya Perumalla is working in Oil & Gas Industry in Geomechanics, Geology & Drilling disciplines for over 25 years at different technical and managerial roles, supporting Sub-surface and Engineering interests of various E&P companies in Middle East, Africa and India. He worked with SLB, Shell and British Gas Group for 11 years and then joined Baker Hughes / GMI in Dubai since 2007. Satya worked and supervised various geomechanics consulting projects linking to wellbore stability, pore-pressure prediction, reservoir geomechanics, unconventional reservoirs and Energy Transition.
Arne Boersheim
Geologist, Shell
Arne Boersheim is a Norwegian geologist working for Shell in the Conventional Oil ETSA team in the Kuwait Oil Company. He supports a group of subsurface staff doing integrated reservoir modeling work in the North Kuwait area. Activities are focused around 2 major oil fields, Sabriyah and Raudhatain where they have a stacked sequence of carbonate and clastic reservoirs.
Arne has 30 years+ of development and geoscience experience (with Shell) from around the world, including Europe, SE Asia, Russia and Africa.
Jo Garland
Carbonate Sedimentologist, Cambridge Carbonates
Jo is a carbonate sedimentologist with 26 years of industry and consulting experience. She enjoys in the challenges of working complex carbonate systems, with expertise including Palaeozoic carbonates and evaporites (with recent focus on the Zechstein), Tethyan carbonates of the Middle East and North Africa, Mesozoic reservoirs of Mexico, and seismic classification of carbonates. Jo’s passions range widely from working on a regional scale creating and refining palaeogeography maps, to complex reservoir characterisation and evaluation of reservoir quality in carbonates, in both petroleum and geothermal settings.
Shaimaa Al Ansari
Field Engineer, Baker Hughes
Shaimaa Al Ansari is a Field Engineer who graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering. Her passion for the industry led her to join the early career development LEAD program at Drilling Services Baker Hughes Kuwait. With a strong educational foundation and hands-on experience in one of the industry’s leading companies, Shaimaa has become an asset contributing to safely drilling and evaluating formations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia & Oman.