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The 1st Subsurface Team

We are a team of more than 20 geoscientists and engineers, most with decades of experience working for major operating companies.

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Mike Cooper
Managing Director

Subsurface Manager with over 35 years experience in the oil and gas industry. Mike has held senior subsurface roles in Lundin, Centrica, DEO Petroleum, Black Star Petroleum, EnQuest & Maersk. Mike is founder & CEO of Arenite Petroleum Limited, an onshore UK tight gas E&P company. Mike was founder and twice former chairman of the Devex Conference, co-founder of the Prospex conference and is a former director of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB). Mike holds an MSc Petroleum Geochemistry from Newcastle University and a BSc (Hons) Geological Sciences from Leeds University.

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Ben Duncan
Senior Geologist

Ben joined the 1st Subsurface team in August 2017. During this time he has worked as a geologist on their North Sea databases as well as the Eastern Mediterranean, Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil. Ben has also been developing the Hub Analysis tool. Ben holds a Masters of Geology (MGeol) from the University of Aberdeen. 

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Juliet Ibhafidon
Geoscientist

Juliet holds an MSc in Energy Geoscience from Royal Holloway University of London. Her prior experience encompasses a role as a Geoscientist at Degeconek Nigeria Limited, a distinguished Hydrocarbon Asset Management Consultancy firm. Since becoming part of our subsurface team, Juliet has significantly contributed to projects involving the Latin America and Geothermal databases.

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Smokey
CFO (Cute Feline Officer)

Not much of a wildcat, Smokey is a regular in our team meetings. She is a stickler for detail and likes everything to be purrfect. Smokey brings a pawstivie atmosphere and is a valued member of the TROVE team.

She is a big fan of the Fatcat discovery (13/24a- 2) in the UK OMF.

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Paul Lindop
Associate

Over 30 years experience across a wide range of disciplines, assets and companies - operator and proactive coventurer. Combining technical understanding of subsurface, operational, commercial and infrastructure issues, with asset and senior management experience, Paul delivers a strong amalgam of strategic and operational insight and the ability to balance their priorities, added to skilled multi-stakeholder management. Paul has worked for range of companies from majors to start-ups and variety of company cultures - Total, Hess, Oryx, Kerr-McGee, Maersk, Lundin, EnQuest, Deo, Endeavour, Iona, Faroe Petroleum. Paul holds an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College and a BEng in Chemical Engineering from Bradford University.

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Angela Rooksby
Associate

Geologist with 17 years exploration and field development experience gained within multi-disciplinary teams in operating and technical consultancy environments in the UK, Ireland and Norway. Angela has experience in acreage and prospect evaluations, 3D geocellular modelling, volumetrics and well planning.

Angie has developed the Atlantic Margin database and continues to find useful information from the deepest and least-travelled parts of cyberpace.

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Jonathan Stearn
Associate

Geophysical Advisor specialising in seismic interpretation, with 20 years of experience working for Shell operating companies around the world, and a further 18 years working for consultancy companies on North Sea and international projects. Project scopes included: field development, exploration, data rooms, asset evaluation, project management, quality management and ICT portfolio management. Jonathan is still very much a “hands on” geophysicist, but has also led subsurface teams and was the Global Discipline Head of Geophysics for Baker Hughes. He holds a PhD in Palaeomagnetism from the University of Liverpool.                                                                                                                 

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Martin Forster
Associate

Martin has more than 35 years hands on experience in the oil and gas industry gained initially with Shell and later in various consultant positions. A commercially focused geologist and project coordinator. He has extensive experience of appraisal, development and exploration of oil and gas assets worldwide. Martin has a good track record of adding value through well executed field appraisal and development. He has a broad experience of multidisciplinary data room assessments, asset evaluations, farm-outs and lease rounds. Martin holds a Ph.D. in geology from Durham University.

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Jeremy Lockett
Associate

Jeremy is the former Global Subsurface Manager at Centrica (now Spirit Energy) and brings a wealth of international experience and knowledge to the 1st Subsurface team. Jeremy is located in South-East England and supports the London-area subscribers to the TROVE databases. Jeremy's encyclopaedic knowledge of many HC provinces is a great bonus to the team.

Jeremy is also our specialist on Carbon Capture & Storage and Gas Storage.

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Matthew Belshaw
Senior Geologist

Matthew graduated with an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen in 2017 and joined the 1st Subsurface team in August 2017. Since joining the company, Matthew has worked on North Sea, North American and West African databases. He recently developed our TROVE Global product and assisted in the development of the company's social media presence and website relaunch.

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Mark Jones
Associate

Over 30 years of experience as a geologist - Mark started his career at Fina Exploration as an Exploration Geologist before a stint in the DTI in the exploration & licence group. Mark worked for worked for Ranger Oil & CNR for 21 years as a Senior Geologist on exploration and development projects in the UKCS and across Africa. Mark joined our team in 2021 and has become our Africa specialist. He has recorded several videos detailing basins on the African continent - check out our YouTube channel to see them.

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Maurice Bamford
Associate

Exploration & Geoscience Manager / consultant with over 25 years industry experience focused on exploration, appraisal and pre-development activity, predominantly in the North Sea. In the last 10 years, Maurice has held leadership roles in EnQuest and Talisman Energy. He has a strong focus on exploration assurance and portfolio management. Maurice holds a PhD in Sedimentology and Structural Geology from the National University of Ireland, and worked in academia on structural geology and basin analysis prior to joining the industry.

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Rose Leadbitter
Associate

Rose graduated with an MSc in Reservoir Evaluation and Management from Heriot Watt University in 2019. Rose has an educational background in Petroleum Geology and a grounding in Reservoir Engineering. Since joining 1st Subsurface in October 2019, Rose has been working on the Central America and Caribbean Database, alongside developing our ‘Production Analysis’ tool. 

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Sandy Petrie
Associate

Sandy is a petroleum engineer who when you ask around Aberdeen he seems to be well known to many. Sandy has worked for over 30 years for a variety of operators at technical and managerial levels. Sandy is a TROVE enthusiast - "why haven't we had such a tool before?". 

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Chris Thom
Associate

Christopher joined the 1st Subsurface team at October 2019 with the aim of broadening the companies reach to cover renewable energy assets. Currently working on developing TROVE databases to cover all major UK renewable technologies, after recently completing the comprehensive wind database. Christopher holds an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems from Strathclyde University.  

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Kinga Wroblewska
Associate

Senior Geophysicist with 18 years of experience in performing regional scale projects and individual field and prospect studies. A highly experienced user of Petrel, IHS Kingdom, Icon RokDoc, Landmark, Dug & OpendTect. Kinga has successfully led 2D & 3D seismic interpretation projects; including infill target & prospect generation. Her seismic experience covers Inversion, AVO, 4D seismic interpretation, modelling, depth conversion, reservoir characterisation and uncertainty analysis.

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