The 19th North Sea Decommissioning Conference

Bjørn Vidar Lerøen was born in Bergen in 1950. He spent many years in journalism, reporting energy and politics for Bergens Tidende and Aftenposten. From 1991 to 20087 he served as senior advisor in corporate communication in Statoil. After retirement he was political advisor to the mayor of Stavanger and later senior advisor in Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. He is author of several books on oil and gas industry and politics; the history of Statoil, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Norske Shell and Petoro among others. He is a frequent lecturer on oil and gas issues and petroleum policy. He resides in Stavanger.

Christine Sagen Helgø has been the mayor of Stavanger since the regional election of October 2011, representing the Conservative Party of Norway, Høyre (re-elected in 2015). She has a law degree from the University of Bergen.
The Mayor is also chair of the board of the Stavanger Region European Office, Greater Stavanger Economic development, the Port of Stavanger and the University Fund.
In the 2014-2016 term, she served as president of World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP), which is a network of 19 cities that are globally recognized as international energy capitals, among them Houston, Aberdeen, Rio de Janeiro, Kuala Lumpur, Doha and Perth.
Mayor Helgø has throughout her time in office had smart cities as one of her main focus areas. As the Norwegian energy capital, the Stavanger region were especially affected by the falling oil prices. Stavanger have therefore worked systematically for several years to widening the scope of our economic development. She has also a great involvement in diversity. With 22 percent of our inhabitants with an origin outside Norway and 189 nationalities, Stavanger is one of the most international regions of Norway and has long traditions of hosting labor immigrants as well as refugee’s settlement.

Niels Erik is Assistant Director for Development and operations in the Barents Sea at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). At NPD Niels Erik has been working mainly with aspects related to development, operations and decommissioning. He has a Master of Science degree in materials technology from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology - NTNU and in Business administration from the Norwegian Business School, BI. Niels Erik has more than 20 years industry experience. Prior to joining the NPD, he working mainly with operations, procurement and projects in Norsk Hydro, Subsea 7 and Statoil (Equinor).

Joe Leask is the Decommissioning Manager at Oil & Gas UK. As part of his remit he works closely with industry, regulators and the UK and Scottish Governments to develop an efficient cost-effective decommissioning capability, sharing best practice and promoting that expertise at home and abroad. He is also custodian of the Industry’s decommissioning standards and guidelines. Joe is currently working on the industry response to the UK Government’s Decommissioning Call for Evidence which seeks to understand how UK can become a global hub for decommissioning.

Joe is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Prior to Oil & Gas UK, Joe gained considerable experience in decommissioning with Repsol Sinopec Resources (RSRUK), working on a significant portfolio of fields at various stages of decommissioning from planning through to execution. Projects included Beatrice which has had a recently approved Decommissioning Programme and Buchan which was towed off-station in 2017.

Prior to RSRUK, Joe worked for Jee limited and was a member of the BP decommissioning team working in the UK and Norway. Joe was BP’s client representative on the offshore subsea decommissioning execution phase for North West Hutton and subsequently responsible for writing the project’s decommissioning programme Close Out Report.

With over thirty years' experience in the energy business, across major IOCs, independent operators and NOCs, both in the UK and internationally, John currently serves as Chief Executive for Decom North Sea, the single topic, multi region membership organisation which connects capability with opportunity across the oil and gas decommissioning sector.
Outside his business roles John serves on a number of industry governance bodies including the OGA’s Decommissioning Task Force.
Before joining Decom North Sea John spent five years as Managing Director of Sinopec International Petroleum in the UK and served on the Board of Repsol Sinopec.
Prior to that he spent a long career with ConocoPhillips in various technical and senior management roles.

Jon Clark - Partner – EY
Transaction Advisory Services
Jon Clark leads EY’s EMEIA Oil and Gas Transactions team. He has advised on international acquisitions, divestments, and fundraisings across more than 40 countries and has acted for a range of governments, IOCs and NOCs. As part of his role, Jon is responsible for EY’s UK decommissioning initiative.
He is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Fellow of the Securities and Investment Institute. Jon also holds the CF professional designation for corporate finance.

Martha is a Principal at BCG with over 15 years of experience in Upstream including 10 years at Schlumberger. Her recent experience in Decommissioning covers building Decom Masterplans, Contracting Strategies and Cost Reduction Roadmaps.

More than 25 years of broad E&P experience in technical and managerial positions. Prior to joining Rystad Energy in 2015 he worked as VP of Commercial, BD & Strategy at Talisman Norway. He has also worked for BP and Statoil and smaller E&P’s in Norway and internationally, onshore and offshore, covering the life cycle of the field from exploration to mature producing fields. M.Sc. degree in Petroleum Technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

Jacqueline Vaessen is the General Manager of Nexstep since February 2018. Nexstep, the national platform for re-use and decommissioning, coordinates the agenda for the re-use and decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure in the Netherlands that is no longer used for production. Vaessen, who has a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s in psychology, started her career at Shell Chemicals in 1989. After that she worked eight years for Syntens as an innovation broker and later on as regional manager. In 2004 she decided to become self-employed entrepreneur focusing on energy savings within the industry and in alternative ways of generating sustainable energy. Until September 2018, Jacqueline Vaessen was politically active as a Member of the Province of Utrecht Council and acted as spokesperson for energy and economy.

Richard C. Thompson OBE, Professor of Marine Biology
Director of the Marine Institute, University of Plymouth.
Richard wrote the first paper describing the accumulation of micropalstics in the ocean and much of his work over the last decade has focused on marine debris; its sources, distribution and impacts as well as potential solutions. He has over 170 publications (H-index 54) and has led a research portfolio in excess of £5M. He was a co-author of the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive text on marine litter and has been a member of numerous international working groups on marine litter including GESAMP, NCEAS, UNEP, UNIRP. In 2014 he presented his research to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, at his Our Ocean meeting in Washington. He has also presented to OECD nations and G7 nations. Recent work by his team directly informed the UK Government decision to introduce legislation on the use of microplastics in cosmetics. He has recently been working with G7 nations on the monitoring of marine litter. In 2017 Thompson received the Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation for his work on plastics; and was recognised in the New Year Honours List, with an OBE for services to Marine Science. In 2018 his research on microplastics was recognised with a Societal Impat award form NERC. He leads the International Marine Litter Research Unit at Plymouth.

Joop Coolen is a marine biologist specialised in the ecology of natural and artificial reefs such as gravel and biogenic reefs, coastal defences, ship wrecks, oil & gas platforms and wind farms in the North Sea. He has several years of experience as project manager at an environmental protection organisation and as a researcher in marine benthic ecology. He is a commercial diver and experienced in scientific diving.
Joop had conducted research on the benthic community structure on reefs, using habitat suitability models to explain the presence or absence of species. He investigated the pathways species take to colonise offshore reefs, e.g. by investigating the stepping stone effect using particle tracking models and population genetic techniques. Furthermore Joop has conducted and supervised analysis of video surveys on North Sea reefs.
As a project manager Joop has experience setting up, executing and reporting challenging projects including research work at sea in adverse conditions, using remote and in situ sampling techniques such as airlift sampling, remote video and box coring.

A Chartered chemical engineer with over 30 years process design, commissioning, projects and production management experience within the chemical, pharmaceutical and oil & gas sectors. Joined Shell in 2006 working in a variety of downstream manufacturing and P&T roles in Australia, Netherlands and the UK. Since moving back to the UK in 2012, James has held a number of roles within the Shell Brent team including HSSE and Quality Manager. He is also responsible for the generation and management of the Brent Decommissioning Programmes, currently progressing through the Regulatory approval process.

Bryan Wood is currently the Global Decommissioning Advisor for ExxonMobil Development Company’s Offshore Decommissioning Center of Expertise. He has 38 years’ experience in the oil & gas industry of which the last 34 have been with ExxonMobil. His career has been primarily in Upstream offshore projects including capital / new build, brownfield, and decommissioning projects. He has had both domestic and international assignments in ExxonMobil Development Company and ExxonMobil Production Company.

He has a BS in Civil Engineering and is a Registered Professional Engineer.

Richard Heard graduated in 1985 with an Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kings College London. He has more than 35-years’ experience in engineering consultancy, primarily in the pipeline and subsea sector in the UK, Australia and the USA. He has held board and senior management positions in a number of consultancy businesses. In 2005 he co-founded Xodus Group, establishing Xodus’ Subsea Division and opened the Xodus London office in 2007. He left Xodus in 2011 when the company was first sold and began working exclusively in the decommissioning sector. He led the Oil & Gas UK Decommissioning Baseline Study Joint Industry Project (JIP) from 2011-2013 and has been a consultant at Oil & Gas UK since then. He has been Programme Director for the INSITE Programme since 2014. Now in its second Phase, INSITE is an independent, marine science programme studying the influence of man-made structures in the North Sea. INSITE Phase 2 is co-funded by industry, NERC and DEFRA.

As manager of the Decommissioning, Solution Centre, Roger is leading the team to identify, fund and support the development and deployment of technology that drives down the cost of decommissioning. Roger has more than 20 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector and has held a variety of leadership positions within companies ranging from SMEs to tier 1 contractors. Before joining the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, he was Chief Executive of Decom North Sea. Roger played an active role in the execution of several of the UK’s most significant decommissioning projects including; MCP01, North West Hutton and Brent Delta.

Fredrik Horne is a Senior Manager within Brownfield Projects in Aker Solutions. He obtain his Master`s degree in Industrial Economics from the University in Stavanger,
after which he started his career in the offshore oil and gas industry at Aker Solutions in 2009. He have worked in many different type of offshore projects and management roles, in Norway and international.
He currently work within decommissioning projects and business development in a Senior Manager role.

István Szőke is working as a research programme and project portfolio manager at the Institute for Energy Technology (in Halden, Norway) in the field of innovative, digitally enhanced solutions for decommissioning and life-cycle management of nuclear facilities. He has 18 years background in R&D into digital solutions for protection of humans and the environment from radiological (and other) hazards.

Arne G. joined Amoco in 1982 as a Petroleum Engineer and has ever since been involved in downhole technology.
He worked for Statoil and Baker Hughes in senior positions before being one of the founders of HydraWell Intervention in 2010.

Currently Project Manager for decommissioning one of the largest platforms in the North Sea, driving project excellence and efficient delivery. Bethan has worked on Brent Field Decommissioning since 2014, overseeing the Brent Delta single lift and onshore dismantlement.
A chartered Civil Engineer with a Masters from Cambridge University, she has delivered global projects in challenging environments including work in Siberia, Qatar and Kazakhstan.
Previously Bethan also worked in a variety of technical and commercial upstream roles including Global Upstream Joint Ventures and external policy development.

Jøran Baann (M.Sc., MBA) has a background ranging from environmental consultancy to working as chief engineer for the County Governor before specializing in HSEQ, and has been working in demolition projects for AF Offshore Decom since 2009. His previous positions in the organization have been as HSEQ manager and project manager in projects, and he has worked in several positions offshore, including safety engineer and site manager/offshore installation manager, before starting as HSEQ manager for the business unit in 2015. Mr. Baann is a certified Risk Manager and auditor.

More than 20 years’ experience in HSE in decommissioning work, onshore and offshore. Participation in projects as the Maureen Alpha, Frigg and Miller decommissioning projects. Employed by Kvaerner since 2013, background in environmental research and industrial waste management.

Civil engineer by education. He has worked for 40 years in the Marine Contracting environment, predominantly in Heavy Lifting. He started as Naval Architect in the field of Marine Engineering and worked thereafter in technical tender preparation and Tender & Contracts.
The last 15 years he worked in Portfolio and Product Management and as VP Business Planning and Analysis with Heerema Marine Contractors. At this moment he fulfills an Advisory role with OOS International.

Holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA and worked in engineering roles at the European Space Agency and Philips Electronics. Joined the family business in 2011 and is currently responsible for Allseas’ projects worldwide.

Jim Blacklaws CEng, FIMechE, MBA, is a Decommissioning Project Manager at BP. He joining BP in 1989 and has had roles in Operations, Finance, HSE and Project Management. In recent years he has worked on BP Decommissioning Execute Portfolio including leading the outsourcing of platform operations, Interfacing with the Duty Holder, Site Safety Leader and working Duty Holder removal Interfaces.

David has been with Petrofac Engineering & Production Services since 2017 working as Operations Director within our Operations Services business. He is an experienced leader with senior management experience across the Contractor, Service Company and Operator realm at companies such as FMC Technologies, Woodside, Subsea 7, Talisman and more recently JDR Cable Systems. David has a broad technical range including all aspects of oil and gas front-end, developments and decommissioning. Innovative and creative he has a passion for building and motivating great teams and a desire to hopefully inspire the next generation of oil & gas industry professionals.

Christina Krachtoudi is a Lead Project Engineer for Saipem. She obtained her Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), after which she started her career in the onshore civil industry before joining Saipem in 2011 as a structural engineer. She progressed quickly within Saipem and soon moved into project engineering. She has led a number of varied projects for Saipem, from heavy lift installation to pipelay EPCI and more recently Decommissioning (EPRD), where she was the Lead Project Engineer for the removal of the BP Miller Topsides.

Mr. Mohd Zhafran obtained his Bachelor (Hons) degree in Civil Engineering from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. During his professional experience, he has gained exponential career growth and worldwide experience. He mainly involved in decommissioning & Abandonment and Transportation and Installation (T&I) for offshore structure & pipeline. He also involved in Decommissioning and Abandonment project for SK305 field and currently as Head, D&A Facilities he is responsible in strategizing facilities decommissioning and abandonment execution in Malaysia.

Ir. Ikhranizam graduated in Electrical Engineering. He completed his MBA majoring in Finance from International Islamic University of Malaysia. A Competent Electrical Engineer by background, the ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer was assigned from PETRONAS Project Delivery and Technology to PCPP Operating Company (joint venture company between PETRONAS Carigali, PERTAMINA and PETRO Vietnam) as a Head of Abandonment for PCPP SK305 Abandonment execution. He is, responsible for Wells P&A and Facility Decommissioning which include platforms, pipeline and floaters which recently completed in Nov 2017. Currently as Head Decommissioning & Abandonment, he is being task to lead and spearhead facility and wells decommissioning and abandonment project in Malaysia. Actively giving his thoughts and view in major decommissioning and abandonment conference and session all over the world.

Aart started his career in the oil and gas industry in 1980 with Heerema . As a Foundation Engineer he worked on many platform installations worldwide. Since 1994, Aart worked as Manager Business Acquisition Department for Seaway Heavy Lifting and later became their Business Development Director. In 2015 Aart moved on to SBM and became Sales Director Terminals with SBM’s affiliate Imodco in Monaco
Since 2016, when the Belgium Deme group ordered their new 5000t crane vessel Orion, Aart joined the Deme group as Deputy Business Unit Manager of EverSea. Deme is under the tradename GeoSea strong in the renewable sector, with 11 jack-ups in operation. EverSea’s core business is the installation and removal of offshore platforms with the Jack-ups and the HLV.

CV summary

• 2017 – 2018: Project Engineering Manager for Halfweg Decommissioning Project at Petrogas E&P Netherlands

• 2015- 2019: Project Engineering Team Lead responsible for multiple development projects within Petrogas E&P Netherlands

• 2013- 2015: Package Manager for the new A18 pipeline and host platform modifications at Chevron E&P Netherlands

• 2012-2013: Project/Process Engineer for the A18 Project at Chevron E&P Netherlands

• 2007-2012: Project/Process Engineer for the A18 Project at KCI – Oil & Gas engineering company

• 2005-2007: Process Engineer for the A18 Project at KCI – Oil & Gas engineering company

Dag Roar Johansen is Director Ekofisk Cessation within Europe Capital Projects, ConocoPhillips. He has a MSc. in structural engineering from NTH (NTNU).
He has 35 years’ experience within the oil & gas industry of which the last 32 years have been with ConocoPhillips. Through his career he has held various positions including structural engineering within Ekofisk Operations and new-build-projects, and project manager for decommissioning-projects within the Capital Projects dept.

Over Thirty five years’ experience in the Oil & Gas Industry of which 22 working for a major Norwegian Contractor followed by 11 yrs with Repsol.
Worked on many different types of offshore projects in various management roles including the Frigg Cessation project the first major Decommissioning Project in the North Sea.
Within Repsol the last six years the focus has been on establishing Decommissioning within the Company and am now Project Manager for the Rev Decom Project. Currently I am Chairman of the Norwegian Oil & Gas Decom Forum.

Rune H. Rosnes has more than 7 years experience from the automotive industry and 12 years in the O&G sector. With previous roles ranging from Project Manager in R&D projects to Offshore Manager on subsea projects in the North Sea, he currently holds the position as Business Development Manager in Oceaneering.

He is also an active promoter of student activities in the region for all ages including the establishment of FFU Subsea Challenge (www.ffu.no/artikkelside/subsea-challenge/) and UiS Subsea (www.uissubsea.no).