The Biennial Geophysical Seminar 2024

Currently General Director of The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), with executive responsibilities.

The main aim of the NOD is to contribute to maximising the value of the petroleum activities on the NCS to society. We have additional responsibilities for CO2 storage and marine minerals.

Leader with 25+ years experience from the petroleum industry and 5 years experience from resource management within government administration. Predominant technical and leadership experience within subsurface assessment and drilling operations for exploration and project development. Broadening assignments in Economics, Strategy and Planning, Appraisal and Development plus Assurance.

Passionate about staff development, continuous improvement and deployment of new technology.

Sunniva Rose holds a PhD i nuclear and energy physics from the University of Oslo, where she studied thorium based fuels in existing nuclear reactors. She has been a part of the public debate around nuclear power for more than a decade, written numerous opinion articles, run a blog "about nuclear physics and research and stuff", and is the author of the book "Vi er stjernestøv - kjernefysikk for folk flest". Today Sunniva works as the Chief Communications Officer of Norsk Kjernekraft AS

Photo: Andreas Grenasberg

Jan Erik Lie completed his master’s degree at the Seismological Observatory, University of Bergen in 1986. After spending some years at Geoteam, he pursued a Ph.D. in Petroleum Geophysics at the University of Oslo. Subsequently, he worked as an exploration geophysicist at Norsk Hydro, Saga Petroleum, RWE, EMGS and held the position as Chief Geophysicist at Lundin Energy for 15 years. Currently, he serves as a Geophysical Advisor at Aker BP.

Throughout his career, Jan Erik has always been engaged in research and development projects within geology and geophysics. This broad interest has benefited the numerous master’s and Ph.D. students he has supervised. In the last years, he has particularly been engaged in the potential that AI and machine learning shows in relation to seismic interpretation and processing.

Victoria is Lead Geophysicist for the Renewable organisation in Equinor, with responsibility for BD projects ground models, risk analysis and geo survey strategy for both bottom fixed and floating projects.

Prior she has 20 years in oil and gas, with the first 10 years in Texas for ExxonMobil holding roles as Exploration, Reservoir and Lead Operations Geologist.
Victoria is a team player, motivated by the opportunity to develop new technologies towards cost-effective and safe renewable energy solutions.

Espen Birger Raknes received a M.S. (2011) in applied mathematics and a Ph.D. (2015) in applied geophysics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He is currently working as a geophysicist in Aker BP. His interests include solution theory and numerical methods for partial differential equations, seismic modeling, imaging and inversion, and high-performance computing. Previously he has been working at Norwegian University of Science and Technology as a Post.Doc and an adjunct associate professor.

Carine Roalkvam has more than 15 years industry experience as a geophysicist both offshore and onshore. This includes management of several novel seismic technology projects. She is currently a Regional Geophysical Advisor and Geophysical Support Manager in PGS where her core activities involve geophysical support of seismic acquisition and imaging projects. Carine is based in Oslo/Norway.

Sindre graduated with a Master in Geophysics from the University of Oslo in 2013. He works as a Business Development Geophysicist in TGS focusing on the NCS, and plays with geophysical data on a daily basis. Previously he has worked as a Graduate Geophysicst in ConocoPhillips with both Exploration and as part of the Ekofisk 4D team.

Matt Ledger graduated from UCL in 2006 with a master’s degree in Planetary Science. He is a Subsurface Imaging Geophysicist working as an Imaging Supervisor with CGG in Crawley, UK. His time with CGG includes a 6-year spell in Aberdeen working as part of a dedicated team alongside BP’s subsurface asset teams. Focusing mostly on PSDM velocity model building, Depth Imaging and Time Lapse processing and lately Integrated Geoscience projects.

Chris is employed with PGNiG Upstream Norway as a development & production geophysicist in the Norwegian Sea Asset Team. He has a B.Eng in Industrial Geology from Camborne School of Mines in the UK, and has 30 years ‘varied’ experience from the UK, Asia, North America, West Africa and the Middle East. For the last 15 years Chris has resided in Norway working for BP, Talisman, KUFPEC and currently PGNiG.

Jens Martin is currently working as a Senior Development and Production Geologist, at PGNiG upstream Norway. He has a M.Sc. in Geoscience from University of Århus (1993) and a Ph.D in reservoir geology from Technical University of Denmark. He has worked for oil companies in Norway for 25 year, mostly on developing and producing fields across the Norwegian Continental Shelf. His early work in Denmark included geothermal mapping, basin modelling and inversion.

Olivier is an experienced geophysicist working at CGG, with an expertise in depth model building. He graduated from IFP School in Paris, with a MSc in Geoscience. Olivier joined CGG in 2002 and held various positions overseas (The Netherlands, Mexico, Egypt, Oman), from which he acquired knowledge about many different sedimentary basins and geological settings. I returned to my home country, France, in 2019, and have been working with data mainly from North Sea and Middle East since then.

Federico Buriola is a Principal Geophysicist in CGG Subsurface Imaging in Crawley, UK. He took a Bachelor’s degree in Geology in 2009 and a Master’s degree in Geoscience in 2011 at University of Trieste in Italy. Since then, he has been working for CGG and he has 12 years of experience in processing of 3D Marine towed streamer, high density Land datasets and Ocean Bottom Nodes.

Åsmund Drottning graduated from the University of Bergen, Norway, where he received the Cand. Scient. degree in 1988 and the Dr. Scient. degree in 1993. Since 1995 he has been working within the fields of rock physics, seismic modelling, quantitative seismic interpretation and reservoir geophysics as research scientist at the University of Bergen, consultant and manager at the private company UniGEO, research scientist and manager at the research institute NORSAR, managing director of the software company NORSAR Innovation AS, and CEO of the software startup company Rock Physics Technology.

Since 2023 Åsmund Drottning has been acting as Chief Operating Officer of Dig Science and Dig Technology, focusing on creation of innovative technology for analysis of seismic amplitude data guided by rock physics, burial history and petroleum system insight, and providing technical services for the whole value chain from frontier exploration to production monitoring.

Øystein graduated with an MSc in Applied Mathematics from NTNU in 2012. Afterward, he joined the Shell Graduate program, and since then, he has been working as a Geophysicist in both QI, Exploration, and Development. Øysten has been based in Brunei and Norway. He is currently working on both Ormen Lange and Growth related projects in A/S Norske Shell.

Hung Dinh is currently working as a project leader in CGG UK. He graduated with a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Alberta in Canada. He has 15 years of experience in exploration seismology with NTNU, CNOOC and VPI. His knowledge spans across seismic attribute analysis, velocity model building and FWI imaging domains.

Geophysicist and PhD student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Centre for Geophysical forecasting (CGF).
Currently working with CGG and Equinor on the use of full-waveform inversion for monitoring multi-layer CO2 plume systems.
Experienced in seismic data processing and full-waveform inversion (CGG UK 2018 - 2021) with studies in Geophysics from Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela and NTNU.

Luca Limonta obtained his BSc in Telecommunication Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2012. Subsequently, he pursued an MSc in Geophysics at the University of Pisa (Italy) in 2014. Following the completion of his MSc, Luca entered the seismic industry and currently holds the position of Imaging Specialist at PGS. His areas of expertise encompass signal processing, Velocity model building using FWI, and 3D ultra-high-resolution processing.

Bhargav is a research scientist at the SINTEF Industry working within Applied Geophysics group. He holds a PhD in 3D seismic imaging from the UK and postdoc experiences in “machine learning for geophysical inversion” from UT Austin and NTNU. At SINTEF, his focus is on applying cutting-edge machine learning techniques for waveform inversion for CCS and other relevant topics.

Dr. Peder Eliasson is the Research Manager of the Geophysics group at the department of Applied Geoscience in SINTEF Industry. He holds a PhD in Computational Physics from CERN and Uppsala University. During his 15 years at SINTEF, Peder has worked extensively with methods for CO2 monitoring, and he has particular expertise on the use of seismic and electromagnetic modelling and inversion methods and combinations of those. Recently his research focus has been on CO2 conformance/containment monitoring, well integrity monitoring, survey optimization, and on the establishment of the Svelvik CO2 field lab.

Currently working as Imaging Supervisor in PGS Oslo office, looking after 4D and marine data processing projects. Started working in PGS in 2008 in Moscow, moved to Norway in 2009. Education: graduated Moscow State University in 2006, specialist degree in Geophysics.

Thomas graduated in 2002 within applied geophysics at NTNU. His background is in quantitative interpretation and rock physics working for Ødegaard and Schlumberger, and for operators Noreco and Centrica. He has since 2017 been employed with DNO Norge AS, mainly focused on exploration in the Northern North Sea.

Kristian graduated from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2017 with a master’s degree in Geophysics. He is currently holding the role as Staff Geophysicist at PGS, looking after marine data processing projects across different regions of the eastern hemisphere. Based in Oslo, Norway.

Anders U. Waldeland is Senior Research Scientist at the Norwegian Computing Center since 2017. He works with deep learning applied for image analysis on various types of data, including seismic data, satellite imagery, marine acoustic data and RGB images.

Paul Fallon is a Geophysical supervisor working in Subsurface Imaging for CGG in Crawley. He studied Physics at the University of Birmingham and has 20 years’ experience of seismic pre-processing , velocity model building and imaging covering land, marine and OBN datasets in 3D & 4D.

Monika works as an Area Geophysicist at SLB. She graduated as Master of Science in Geology and Geophysics at AGH - University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Her main expertise is processing seismic data for 4D/reservoir monitoring purposes, recently with more focus on broadband and multi-component processing and their corresponding 4D applications.

Kate is a supervisor at CGG’s in-house processing centre for ConocoPhillips, Tananger. She studied Geophysics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and has over 20 years’ experience with an emphasis on 4D seismic, principally ‘Permanent Reservoir Monitoring’ and ‘Life of Field Seismic’ Ocean Bottom Sensor processing.

Leila is currently working as a staff geophysicist in ConocoPhillips Norway, in the Reservoir Characterization Team on the Eldfisk field. Main responsibilities are 3D/4D interpretation, following the processing projects, partly involved in well planning/geosteering and giving geophysical support to reservoir management and portfolio departments. She has two master degrees in Geophysics (1996, USTHB, Algeria) & Petroleum Engineering (2002, ENSPM, France). With more than 20 years of experience as a geophysicist, Leila had the opportunity to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural environments, in various geoscience activities from exploration to field appraisal and development; operated & non-operated licenses. Previous employers were SONATRACH, BP, SLB & TotalEnergies.

Sandrine is currently a senior geophysical project manager in Offshore Subsurface Solutions (New Energy solutions) at TGS.
Prior to that she worked in seismic processing and imaging with CGG for 10 years mainly in 4D seismic and ocean bottom seismic data. She then joined MagseisFairfield for 5 years providing geophysical support for OBN acquisitions/operations and technology development. For the 2-3 last years, she was focused on cost effective acquisition solution for renewables space. She joined TGS when TGS acquire MagseisFairfield in 2023.

Geoffrey Thiemann holds a Master’s degree in Geology from the University of Southampton, and works for CGG Satellite Mapping, where he is the Seeps Interpretation Lead. In this role, Mr. Thiemann leads CGG’s Global Offshore Seepage Database of naturally occurring oil seepage, which is used by many major oil and gas companies for petroleum exploration efforts.”

Catalina is a geophysicist with broad experience in the geophysics field: from exploration to development, from Quantitative Seismic Interpretation to Non-seismic. She's worked in the subsurface team of the Northern Lights JV as a Sr. CCS geoscientist for the past three and an half years, as the seismic monitoring expert, principal seismic interpreter and seismic survey acquisition and processing project manager, among many other geophysical and geological tasks. She comes from Shell but it's seconded to the NL JV and Equinor.

Shruti holds a master’s degree in Geology from IIT Kharagpur. She has been working with SLB for 15 years as a Geophysicist with a focus on processing and imaging. She is currently working as a Technical Manager for Digital Solutions for Scandinavia.

Juan has a BSc in Physics from The University of Birmingham and an MSc in Exploration Geophysics from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College. He worked for 32 years in seismic processing and imaging, the first half of his career working predominantly on land data and the latter half working with land and seabed multi-component data. For the last 15 years, he has held the position of Area Geophysicist where his primary role is to provide technical support and supervision to the GeoSolutions teams working in SLB’s office in Crawley.

Abdulhamit Akalin has a M.Sc. in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines in the USA in 1997. Currently, he works as a Lead Geophysicist at Equinor, with a total of 26 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, 17 of which have been with Equinor. Throughout his career, he has gained experience in field developments and exploration projects, specifically as a seismic interpreter/QI. His motivation is to continually engage in challenging projects and achieve successful results.

Olivia has a background in geology and geophysics, and since joining SLB 12 years ago she has worked almost exclusively in velocity model building. She has been lucky enough to work in several locations, including the USA, Norway. Olivia is currently based in Crawley, UK. Her current role focuses on the use of Full-Waveform Inversion for earth model building.

Dr Sergio Grion is currently Chief Geophysicist Processing Technology at Shearwater GeoServices, leading research on seismic data processing and imaging methods and advising the company on research directions and adoption of new technologies.

After completing his MSc in electronic engineering at the Politecnico of Milan (Italy) in 1995 and a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Milan in 1999, he joined WesternGeco, based in Gatwick (UK) where he worked as R&D geophysicist on until 2004. From 2004 to 2012 he was with CGG, in Crawley (UK) and Houston (TX-USA) and is with Shearwater since 2013.

His research activities covered a range of applications, including 4D, noise attenuation and regularization methods, wavefield separation and depth migration, with particular focus on multi-component during the years 2006-2013 and more recently on broadband and simultaneous sources.

Dr Sergio Grion is a member of EAGE, SEG and GESGB, is author of more than 100 technical papers and articles. His most cited work is on Mirror imaging of OBS data. He regularly serves as EAGE session chairman during annual conferences. He is the recipient of the 1998 EAGE Loránd Eötvös award

Aina is a geophysicist in Aker BP. She has a PhD from the University of Oslo on automated seismic interpretation and has worked previously in Lundin and now in Aker BP to optimize the interpretative value of seismic data using machine learning.
Her daily work includes seismic data, python coding and exploring new advances in machine learning.

Are Osen holds a PhD in physics from NTNU Trondheim in 1998. The thesis was based on methods for wavefield separation on ocean bottom seismic data. He thereafter joined Statoil and worked both within geophysical research and in seismic processing in various positions in Trondheim, Stavanger and Beijing, China. He joined Aker BP in 2017 and assisted in building the team for seismic imaging as the company continued its growth. Are is currently based in Trondheim.

Dr Jörg Herwanger is the Director R&D at SharpReflections. His current focus is on making Sharp Reflections the software of choice in 4D seismic analysis and interpretation.

After studies in geophysics at TU Clausthal and ETH Zürich, Jörg completed his PhD in geology at Imperial College London. Since joining the energy industry in 2003, Jörg has worked on many aspects of Seismic Geomechanics – the process of using 3D and 4D seismic data for building and calibrating geomechanical models. He has worked in workflow and software development, as a consultant and in training. With the increasing amount of 4D seismic surveys being acquired, his work is now centred on efficient and in-depth analysis of 4D seismic data.

Jörg is a member of SEG and EAGE. He has published on topics including 4D seismic, quantitative seismic interpretation, model building and geomechanical applications. He was twice invited to be an EAGE Distinguished Lecturer based on his conference presentations, and was he elected to be the EAGE Education Tour (EET-V) Lecturer on the topic of “Seismic Geomechanics”. For the lecture tour he wrote the eponymous book on “Seismic Geomechanics”.

Hossein Mehdi Zadeh is a Geophysicist with PhD in Seismic and 15+ years of experience in Seismic mainly working for Seismic Imaging and Processing in Equinor. Currently working for Equinor in Fornebu offices as leading adviser for geophysics.

Per Eivind Dhelie holds a Masters Degree in Petroleum Geology and Geophysics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
He has extensive experience in managing complex international energy projects and has authored many research papers related to increased efficiency, reduced cost and improved quality in the exploration domain. He currently works as an Advanced Geophysicist for Aker BP, in Norway.