Program Release
Reservoir Characterization 2025

Kevin currently holds a position as Snr Manager/Subsurface QAA Lead Brazil, USA & Canada within Equinor.
Has previously held the positions of Chief Engineer Geology & Petrophysics, Leading Advisor Production Geology and Discipline Leader Geology & Petrophysics. His early career involved technical service deliveries within reservoir description and geomodelling for field development projects and fields in production.
Kevin has experience from both Norwegian and international assets, including a 4-year assignment in Canada.
Kevin holds a PhD from University of Liverpool focussing on sedimentology and geomodelling of fluvial deposits.

Rob investigates the controls on diagenetic processes in clastic sediments and rocks with the aim of developing accurate models of rock properties through time and away from well control. He and Linda Bonnell founded Geocosm LLC and lead a team in developing the Touchstone diagenesis and rock property prediction system, along with other software systems. They also direct the Geocosm’s Consortium for the Quantitative Prediction of Sandstone Reservoir Quality (RQC), which currently includes 15 members and will celebrate its 25th year in 2026.

Olav Walderhaug is employed by Equinor as a senior specialist in geology. He works within exploration and production, especially with reservoir quality issues both on the NCS and internationally. Olav joined Equinor in 1996 after spending ten years on geological research and consultant projects in Rogaland Research in Stavanger. Before moving to Stavanger in 1987 he worked at Norsk Hydro’s research centre in Bergen.
He holds a cand.scient. degree in sedimentology and diagenesis from the University of Bergen and a dr.philos. degree from the University of Oslo. Olav has published numerous papers on sandstone diagenesis, reservoir quality and other geological topics over the last 40 years, lately he has also focused on investigating hydrocarbon generation and migration.

Ivar Skjærpe is Chief Reservoir Geologist at Aker BP, where he leads strategic initiatives to integrate classical reservoir characterization with emerging digital technologies. With over 20 years of experience in subsurface modeling, Ivar has worked extensively on complex reservoirs including sand injectites and turbidites, with a focus on scale, heterogeneity, and uncertainty. He is a key contributor to Aker BP’s digital transformation in subsurface workflows, including AI-driven modeling and ensemble-based approaches. Ivar holds an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from NTNU.

Hege has more than 20 years of experience from the oil and gas industry and extensive management experience. Among other things, she holds the equivalent of a master's degree in petroleum physics and has substantial expertise in the subsea disciplines in the oil and gas industry

Ingrid Aarnes is a senior research scientist at the Norwegian Computing Center, focusing on the development and application of statistical algorithms for reservoir modelling. She holds a PhD in Geoscience from the University of Oslo and has over a decade of experience in geomodelling within both research and industry contexts.

John Cater is a Principal Reservoir Geologist working for PetroStrat Ltd in the UK. He specialises in deepwater and coastal clastic sedimentology worldwide. His recent work includes multi-client, multi-disciplinary characterisation of Jurassic and Cretaceous reservoirs across the Halten Terrace and Maloy Slope, investigating the influence of depositional facies, provenance and diagenesis on the preservation of high permeability at >4km depth in Agat, Cook and Garn Formation reservoirs.

Hugh Anderson is a structural geologist and subsurface manager of Aker BP's Specialist Geology group. He has an undergraduate from University of Aberdeen and a PhD from the Fault Analysis Group, University College Dublin. He works with Aker BP’s asset geoscientists on seismic interpretation and the impact of faults and fractures on sub-surface flow.

Farideh Sarikhany: Farideh has 14 years of experience as a geophysicist in Equinor working for fields in production conducting 3D and 4D seismic evaluation and well planning, also involved in regional overburden projects in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. Recently working on renewables, i.e. CCS and Hydrogen storage in salt caverns.

Silvan Hoth: Silvan has 17 years of experience as structural geologist in Equinor providing technical services for field development as well as fields in production. Involved in several regional projects ranging from Triassic to Neogene and more recently working on Hydrogen storage in salt caverns.

David Selvåg Larsen is currently a Geologist in the Well Delivery group for the Greater Ekofisk Area at ConocoPhillips (COP). With nearly 15 years of industry experience, David has worked extensively with geosteering and reservoir characterization, both as an operator and service company. He holds an M.Sc. in Marine Geophysics and Geology from the University of Tromsø, Norway.

Dylan Loss is a Staff Geologist in the Well Delivery team for Greater Ekofisk Area in ConocoPhillips. During his 12 years with ConocoPhillips Dylan has experience in well planning, geosteering, reservoir characterization and exploration. He holds an MSc in Geology from the University of Florida.

Yaw Duah is a Principal Geoscientist at Vår Energi where he currently works on reservoir charactisation, field development, well planning and execution on the Balder field.
He has 22 years’ geoscience experience, having worked in academia, mining geology, and petroleum exploration, development, and production geoscience. He holds BSc in Geology from the University of Ghana, an MSc Petroleum Geoscience from NTNU, Norway and MSc Business Administration from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Aasmund Olav Løvestad serves as Subsurface Lead for the Yggdrasil development at Aker BP, where he is responsible for planning and executing the reservoir drilling strategy, geosteering operations, and subsurface integration on the Frigg Gamma Delta field. He brings extensive experience from complex well operations, having played a key role in wells like the OmegaAlfa discovery, FGD Geopilot, and ØstFrigg discovery, with a focus on optimizing well trajectories and leveraging UDAR data for improved reservoir understanding. His career spans multidisciplinary collaboration across drilling, geology, field planning, and exploration. Aasmund holds a degree in geoscience and is committed to operational excellence and innovation in subsurface development.

Bruce Chalmers holds a BSc. in Petroleum Geology (University of Aberdeen) and an MPhil. in Geophysics (Robert Gordon University). At Vår Energi, he specializes in Reservoir Characterization, Seismic Inversion, and AVO analysis. His work also includes the development of technologies, such as Machine Learning (for Seismic Interpretation) and Seismic Inversion, through his involvement with the GIG Consortium.

Aleksandra has over 14 years of professional experience as geologist in Equinor, with expertise in both operations and reservoir geology within production fields. She is currently engaged in field development projects, with primary focus on geomodelling. She holds a M.Sc. in Geology from the University of Warsaw.

Gijs Henstra is a sedimentologist working with the characterisation of siliciclastic reservoirs for Aker BP, currently involved in the (re-)development of Frigg reservoirs. Gijs holds a PhD degree from the University of Bergen.

As a Reservoir Engineer, Eugene worked in many projects at the NCS, Iraq, Algeria and Libya from exploration to mature field re-development.
He hold a good combination of expertise in reservoir modelling and simulation, uncertainty analysis, data analytics and assisted history matching and hands-on experience with well planning and daily reservoir management.

He previously worked with Equinor and ConocoPhillips, and is currently with Harbour Energy.

Ville August studied Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Stavanger and graduated in 2019. Since then, he has worked for Aker BP, starting as an exploration geologist in the southern North Sea before transitioning to the Alvheim asset team in 2020/21. He currently works as a geologist in the Alvheim reservoir development team, focusing on new infill projects and near-field tie-in opportunities.