Opening Address Speaker
Ahmed Al Otaibi
Director in Gas Reservoir Characterization Department - Aramco
Ahmed currently serves as Director in the Gas Reservoir Characterization Department, a role he held since 2018, following his appointment as Manager of Gas Reservoir Characterization in the same year. He brings progressive experience across multi-disciplinary upstream organizations.
His career spans senior leadership and technical roles, including Head of Drilling and Work over Joint Venture (2017–2018), Director (A) of the Upstream Venture Department (2013–2016), and Chief Geologist, Geological Technical Services (2010-2013). Across these roles, Ahmed has developed in-depth experience in prospect development, reservoir characterization, integrated geology and geophysics, and upstream joint venture development and management.
Ahmed holds a Master of Science in Geoscience from Keel University. His current focus is on shaping gas reservoir development strategies grounded in rigorous subsurface evaluation and fit-for-purpose reservoir characterization, supporting long term value creation and sustainable resource development.
Keynote Speakers
Pascal Richard
Structural Geologist, PR Geology
Pascal Richard holds a PhD on strike-slip tectonics. After 30 years with Shell focusing on Structural Geology and Fractured reservoirs, Pascal is now working as an independent. He delivers courses and consultancy with a strong focus on fractured reservoirs. He is developing Virtual Reality dataset, creating Virtual reality field trips and supporting the development of a fracture characterization and modelling software. He also cooperates with universities on research projects with MSc and PhD students.
Stephan Matthai
Professor for Geotechnical Engineering, Northeastern University, China
Stephan Matthai is a geoscientist and reservoir engineer, best known for his computer-simulation based research on subsurface fluid-flow and deformation processes in heterogeneous porous media. Of his particular interest are coupled multiphase flow, geomechanics, and reactive transport processes in fractured and faulted rocks in geo-energy applications. His team has published applications to hydrocarbon extraction, gas storage / geological CO2 sequestration, enhanced geothermal systems, nuclear waste repository safety, and hydrothermal ore deposits.
Stephan’s career is defined by high-impact industrial partnerships. He led the development of the Australian Carbon Geo-Sequestration Simulator (geocquest.org, storra.ch), was part of IEA's working group on EOR, and previously directed the Reservoir Engineering Institute at Montanuniversität Leoben. His earlier tenure at Imperial College London included co-leading a decade-long industry consortium on naturally fractured reservoirs supported by major global energy firms.
In 1994, Stephan invented the "Complex Systems Modelling Platform" THMC simulation framework. Today, Open-CSMP++ supports an international research network and underpins advanced modelling for a range of applications including multiphase fracture flow, high-enthalpy geothermal systems and carbon geosequestration.
