Opening Address Speaker
Mohammad Dawas Al-Ajmi
Advisor to Joint Operations, KGOC
Mohammad Dawas Al-Ajmi is a distinguished petroleum geoscientist and leadership figure in Kuwait’s oil and gas sector, with over three decades of technical and strategic experience. As the Dorra Subsurface Sponsor, he serves as Kuwait’s executive representative in the Dorra Field Development Program, aligning national interests with project value, risk governance, and cross-border coordination. He also acts as Co-Sponsor, providing high-level guidance, escalation authority, and cohesion to enable timely, top-tier decision-making.
Career highlights include early hands-on roles with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) as a Wellsite Geologist, progressing to Senior Exploration Geologist in 2003, and driving fracture modeling for Jurassic high-temperature, high-pressure carbonate reservoirs during a formative stint with Exxon in Houston (1997–1998). His contributions to Jurassic discoveries and gas development between 1999 and 2005 are well documented. He later led multidisciplinary teams as Team Leader of Exploration and Geophysical Solutions, and eight years as Manager of the Exploration Group, shaping Kuwait’s exploration strategy and enterprise inputs.
In 2024, he joined KGOC as Advisor to Joint Operations, expanding his remit toward the Dorra Field Development Project (2025). He holds an MBA from Maastricht School of Management and a Bachelor’s in Geology from Kuwait University, underscoring his blend of technical mastery and strategic leadership. Notably, he established KGOC’s Staff Capability Development Program to strengthen subsurface expertise and talent growth.
Opening Keynote Speaker
Jarrah Al-Jenaie
Manager Exploration Group, KOC
Prior to his current role, Mr. Al-Jenaie held several key leadership positions, including heading the Geophysical and Geological Solutions Team and later leading the Offshore Prospect Evaluation Team, where he advanced KOC’s subsurface evaluation capabilities.
He holds both a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Geology from Kuwait University and is a graduate of the Professional & Leadership Development (PLD) program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Al-Jenaie has authored multiple technical papers in geophysics and is an active participant in major industry conferences, workshops, and professional forums. He is also a committed member of leading geoscience societies, contributing to the advancement of exploration excellence across the region.
Keynote Speakers
john brittan
VP Geophysics for the Imaging & Technology Group, TGS
John is the VP Geophysics for the Imaging & Technology group at TGS. After a PhD and PostDoc at Imperial College, London utilizing FWI to image, amongst other things, the Chicxulub impact crater - John has held positions in at PGS, ION and TGS, both in R&D and data processing operations. As VP of Geophysics, he needs to understand all aspects of seismic signal processing, model building and imaging, and how this affects geophysical deliverables.
