Barny Brennan – Net Zero Gaia Chair
Barny Brennan has 34 years of technical and management experience, established in both small independent and large multi-national oil companies. From a geoscience background, he has developed a broad range of subsurface skills within exploration, development, and production settings and has run a consultancy business. Barny is currently an independent consultant and since 2019 has increasingly focussed on the Energy Transition. He is keen to explore steps to reduce the carbon intensity of oil and gas developments, as well as investigating options for integrating with other sectors of the energy industry. Barny believes that it is critical for the oil and gas industry to embrace the changes to our energy landscape and that the SPE has a key role in helping its members navigate the transition through initiatives such as those being set up by the London Net Zero Committee.
Alison Isherwood – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Alison Isherwood is an independent consultant who has previously worked for Shell, Hess and Ophir and has spent time working in the USA and Asia, as well as the UK. She has significant reservoir engineering experience across field development, production optimisation, M&A and reserves auditing. She has recently diversified into geothermal engineering and greenhouse gas accounting after completing a post-grad course in Sustainable Business at Cambridge University and her ISO14064 GHG accounting qualifications. She is proud to have set up the Net Zero Gaia committee back in 2020 and chaired it for its first 2 years. She is now looking forward to focusing on the ‘Sustainable Careers’ initiative, inspired by her Cambridge research on a Just Transition and Connecting Oil and Gas workers to the Future of Energy. She hopes this initiative will help the SPE membership adapt to a changing energy industry and play their role in a sustainable future
Adrian Southworth – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Adrian Southworth previously chaired the SPE London section and was the sponsorship chair for several years. Being part of the Net Zero Gaia committee allows him to ensure the members of the London Section are offered up-to-date and relevant material through a range of events and mediums. The breadth of the Net Zero Gaia conversation is wide and he hopes the committee will be able to provide information that captures that breadth. Adrian is keen to see how the depth and breadth of the skills within this industry can be turned to solve the new challenges it faces as it navigates its way forward within the Energy Transition. He believes that this industry is central to the solutions needed. The Section has established links within education and it is part of the committee’s role to ensure that the future engineering talent dispersed across the UK is made aware of the career opportunities that will be available within the 21st Century Oil, Gas and Energy industry.
Adrian is a Chartered Petroleum/Reservoir Engineer with over 30 years of oil and gas industry experience gained with a major integrated oil & gas company and in consulting to a variety of oil & gas companies. His background demonstrates a broad reservoir/petroleum engineering capability which, with extensive reserves and resource development experience, has supported both sustaining and growing businesses across the value chain from exploration/appraisal through to asset management. As well as performing technical roles Adrian has a proven ability to act as a mentor and provided career development over a range of cultures with experience in developing knowledge transfer and management systems.
Adrian Gregory – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Adrian Gregory has some thirty-five years of experience in reservoir engineering. He ran the UK IOR Technical Programme from 1992-1996. For the last five years, he has worked in sustainability, particularly natural resource ecology. In petroleum (wells and mining), he has been a technical leader, with experience in commercial, management, governance and leadership roles – spanning the entire petroleum exploration and production value chain (conventional & unconventional) working in government, national and international, and domestic E&P companies.
As a sustainability specialist, Adrian is excited to be part of and contribute to the new London SPE Net Zero Gaia Committee. He will strive to ensure the committee reaches the full membership; has relevant themes and focus areas; retains succession as a core part of any initiatives; but, above all, resonates with the aspirations of the next generation.
Adrian holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemical & Chemical Engineering from University College; Petroleum Engineering MSc from Imperial College, University of London; Diploma in Applied Economics & Financial Services from Kingston University; and is an alumnus of London Business School (Corporate Finance Evening Programme).
Max Richards – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Max Richards is an Energy Transition Consultant at OPC where he leads a team supporting clients through carbon capture and storage projects, greenhouse gas inventorying and ESG strategy development. Max holds a sustainability focused MSci in Environmental Geoscience from University College London. His Master’s project, a preliminary study working alongside CarbFix in Iceland and Aramco, focused on the development and implementation of a novel Carbon Capture and Storage technology.
Happiness Ativie – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Happiness recently finished her graduate studies in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College with a distinction. She has experience working as a project manager in an oil servicing company where she worked in a team to manage the maintenances of oil wells. Before this, she studied at Covenant University for a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Petroleum Engineering, finishing with a first-class.
For her master’s thesis, Happiness showed the possible limitation to the deployment of CCS projects based on injectivity, geographic location of storage sites, and cost. She is interested in energy transition and carbon capture and storage. She looks forward to learning more about the transition of the global energy sector from fossil-based to zero-carbon and also enlightening individuals on the importance of energy transition as a part of the Net Zero Gaia committee.
Maryam Analoui – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Maryam is a Reservoir Engineer at ERCE. She has experience working on various projects with assets in the North Sea, Onshore Europe, East Africa, offshore Ghana’s Western Region, South China Sea, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Onshore Oman, Western Deserts of Egypt, and Offshore Nigeria. She finished her graduate studies in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College London in 2019. She did her master’s thesis on CCS modelling and prediction. The main objective of her work was to investigate the effectiveness of conventional reservoir simulators for predicting CO2/Brine flow and the challenges faced during fluid displacement prediction in gas/water systems with the balance of forces appropriate to CO2 sequestration. Maryam is greatly interested in Energy transition. Therefore, she joined ERC Evolution in 2021 to translate her subsurface skills into Energy Transition. She is keen to learn more about the energy transition and reducing carbon emissions from oil and gas developments and enlightening professional individuals on the importance of their role in the transition to zero-carbon energies as a part of the SPE Net Zero Gaia Committee.
Dr Stuart MacKinven – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Stuart MacKinven is a Senior Manager at Worley, leading the Hydrogen Growth Unit’s global strategic relationship activities with electrolyser OEMs. He is also responsible for connecting emerging and disruptive technology providers in the external global hydrogen ecosystem to the business. Prior to joining Worley, Stuart was TechX Delivery Manager at the Net Zero Technology Centre where he successfully created and managed an award-winning technology and entrepreneurial development programme for early-stage clean energy start-ups, whilst fostering corporate venture partnerships with bp, Equinor and ADNOC. Currently operating in a commercial role at the forefront of low carbon hydrogen production, Stuart is delighted to contribute to the new London SPE Net Zero Gaia Committee and its ongoing energy transition activities. Stuart holds a PhD in Open Innovation Management from the University of Strathclyde, and an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the University of Glasgow.
Michele Vaquer – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Michele has accepted a position as a Senior Associate at 8 Hours Ahead. In this role, she is responsible for Clean Tech deal origination in addition to operational and market due diligence. She is a seasoned engineer with a decade of experience within the energy sector. She has worked in both operational and asset planning roles within infrastructure and production engineering teams. These experiences include leading operations excellence and methane reduction programs as well as overseeing development of large-scale pipeline and facility projects.
Michele has a MSc in Climate Change, Management, and Finance from Imperial College London and a B.Eng in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Elcio Dias – Net Zero Gaia Committee Member
Elcio has 10 years of technical and operations management experience in the oil and gas industry, covering drilling, production and subsea installation sectors. From a petroleum engineering background, he has participated in a broad range of projects within offshore drilling, subsea field development, and production operations. He is an enthusiast of new technologies and nature-based solutions. He is the award-winning founder of ClubCarby, a tech company operating in Brazil since 2019 promoting more sustainable services to the fuels (petrol station) sector. In 2020, he was awarded as a winner in an innovation competition in London. He is an active entrepreneur in the Brazilian carbon market, connecting nature-based projects to petrol station companies. Elcio believes in a smooth but consistent transition approach, led by the energy most committed companies and professionals. He considers that being part of the SPE London Section / Net Zero Committee is a relevant step for any professional willing to contribute to the future of the energy industry.