Opening Address Speaker

Basel al-otaibi

Team Leader Research & Technology - Reservoir, KOC

Team Leader Research & Technology - Reservoir at Kuwait Oil Company, involved inIOR/EOR and water flooding /water management activities. Handling projects related to technology pilots, and reservoir subsurface studies including subsurface digitalization projects.

He is a reservoir engineer by background, worked on field development plans of giant carbonate reservoirs in KOC including reservoir simulation, reservoir fluid and rock studies and estimating reserves.

He is currently the Co-chair of Kuwait SPE Section. Certified SPE Engineer. Holds BS from New Mexico Tech and MS from Texas A&M University. Both in Petroleum Engineering.

Keynote Speakers

Georg Warrlich

Principal Technical Expert for Carbonate Reservoir Characterization, Shell

Georg Warrlich is a geoscientist and subsurface leader with more than 25 years of experience in reservoir characterization, integrated subsurface exploration & development, and managing producing assets. His Ph.D. and postdoctoral research focused on computer simulation of carbonate depositional systems, and since then he has worked extensively on recovery from carbonate reservoirs across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, with focus on Oman, Malaysia, and Kuwait.

Georg has led subsurface teams and held senior technical and management positions. His expertise spans seismic interpretation, advanced reservoir modeling, uncertainty management, and subsurface–surface integration, and he has delivered complex hydrocarbon projects in diverse geological and operational settings. He has published over 40 technical papers and served as Shell’s Head of Learning for Subsurface & Wells, driving global capability development and knowledge-sharing.

Presently, as Shell’s Principal Technical Expert for Carbonate Reservoir Characterization, Georg focuses on integrating subsurface workflows with emerging technologies to enhance reservoir understanding and enable decision-making. He combines deep technical expertise with inclusive leadership, fostering knowledge sharing, collaboration and innovation to shape strategies for achieving excellence from prospect evaluation to field development and production optimization.

Michael Pöppelreiter

Consultant, KOC

Michael Pöppelreiter studied at the Mining University of Freiberg, Germany; the Postgraduate Research Institute of Sedimentology, United Kingdom; and the University of Tübingen, Germany, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1998.Since then, Pöppelreiter has worked as a sedimentologist with Shell in the Netherlands and as a carbonate geologist and 3-D modeller at Shell’s Bellaire Technology Center in Houston, U.S.A. He later held the position of SRM Carbonate Team Leader at the Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre in Doha and co-founded Shell’s borehole image team in 2003. He is currently a Consultant at Kuwait Oil Company.Pöppelreiter coordinates a regional Khuff/Sudair outcrop analog research study in Oman and a CCS project for carbonates. He has published numerous papers on carbonate reservoirs, reservoir modelling, and borehole image log technology. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany, where he teaches the courses Petroleum Geology and Geological Interpretation of Well- and Borehole Image Logs. Pöppelreiter is a Shell subject matter expert for carbonates, and his research interests include structural control on reservoir distribution in carbonate reservoirs.