Key Speakers Include

Alirio A Parra was Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Mines from 1992 to 1994 and head of its OPEC delegation. He is a past President of the OPEC Conference and of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE). As Minister of Energy and Mines he was Chairman of the Stockholders Assembly of PDVSA. As a member of the Presidential Commission on Oil Nationalisation in 1975, Dr Parra participated in the smooth transition of the Venezuelan oil industry to the then newly created Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., of which he became a founding Board Member. During Dr Parra’s 15-year tenure on the Board of PDVSA he helped shape the national oil company into a highly efficient entity that significantly increased the reserves position of the country, initiated the development of Orinoco heavy crudes, modernised the downstream including the revamping of the refinery sector in Venezuela and integrated abroad both into US and European markets. Dr Parra is a previous President of the International Association of Energy Economists (1988), and a past Chairman of the British Institute of Energy Economics (1997) and the Oxford Energy Policy Club (1984-95). He has also been a Member of the International Advisory Board of Total S.A. He is currently a Director and Senior Associate of The CWC Group and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Energy Intelligence Group (EIG), Washington DC. He is Vice-President of the Anglo-Venezuelan Society, London. In October 2006, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of Energy Economics.

 Dr Levi Chibuike Ajuonuma, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is a vastly experienced PR and advertising practitioner. He joined NNPC in 2003 and has been responsible for policy formulation and development of programmes of action in the areas of Community Relations and Sustainable Development, Government Liaison and Media Relations. Prior to his appointment, he was Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of LASOM Communications Limited, a Consortium of Media and Public Relations consultants, one of whose programmes was Levi Ajuonuma Live.  Dr Levi Ajuonuma obtained his PHD in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota USA (1987). He has an MBA, (majoring in Marketing), an MA in Mass Communication, and a Diploma in International Radio and Radio/Television presentations. He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Nigerian Institute of Management, International Communications Association and the Minnesota Press Club. Dr Ajuonuma also received the Rotary Club of Apo (District 9130) Award for Public Enlightenment on Oil and Gas.

Gabriel Nguema Lima graduated with a degree in Economics from Alma College, Dallas, Texas. Between 1999 and 2003 he was Secretary of State for Mines and Hydrocarbons and has been Vice Minister of Mines, Industry & Energy since 2003. He is the President of the Committee for the Monitoring of Petroleum Operations and a member of the boards of SONAGAS (Compañía Nacional de Gas de Guinea Ecuatorial), GEPetrol (Guinea Ecuatorial de Petróleo) and SEGESA (national electricity company).

Dr Eugene H Shannon is a Liberian, born in Robertsport, Grand Cape County, Republic of Liberia. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BSC) in Geology and Chemistry from Western Michigan University, USA and the University of Liberia, A Master’s Degree (MSC) in Geochemistry and Clay Mineralogy from Michigan State University; and a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Petrology and Geochemistry from Syracuse University, USA.

He served as Director of the Liberian Geological Survey , Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy; also as a Consultant for the Trans-National Corporation, Department of the United Nations, and Principal Natural Resources Expert and Environmentalist with the African Development Bank, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Tunis. He was called upon by Her Excellency, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia to serve as Minister of the Ministry of Land, Mines & Energy. He has served in this capacity since then. 

Graduated in Geology at the University of Genoa (Italy) in 1988. He obtained a PhD in Geophysics in 1993 also from the University of Genoa. In the early 1990’s he was involved in the initial stages of the exploration program of the Ross Sea in the Antarctica as part of a multinational research program with USGS and BGR of Germany.

He has 20 years industry experience as Exploration Geophysicist, he has covered several international position with Aerodat, Scintrex, Paterson Grant and Watson and Fugro in Canada, Chile, Brazil and Spain.

In the early 2000’s he acted as a consultant in Geophysics, GIS and Remote Sensing applied to exploration with projects in South America and Africa. He is currently Business Development Manager for Fugro Gravity and Magnetic services, based in The Hague, Netherlands, focusing on Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Graduated by the Petrochemical Institute of Bacu –Azerbaijan, Carlos Zacarias holds a master degree on Petroleum Geology and for about ten years has worked for the National Directorate for Coal and Hydrocarbons as Head of its Technical Department which supervised the petroleum and coal activities. As Head of the Technical Department of DNCH he was involved in the revision of the legal package, exploration activities and implementation of Pande/Temane Gas Project.
In April 2005 with creation of the National Petroleum Institute the regulatory body for the upstream petroleum activities he was appointed as the Manager of the Projects and Development Division which mainly deals with promising and growing gas production and transport industry of Mozambique. From 2008 appointed as INP Exploration Manager position that holds up to day.

Lunga is currently the General Manager: Enterprise Development - Oil and Gas at the South African Supplier Development Agency also known as (“SASDA’). He has over ten years experience in the Oil and Gas sector having worked for Engen Petroleum Limited and the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa, also known as (“PetroSA”), the South African National Oil Company.

Lunga has extensive experience of the petroleum industry; enterprise and supplier development; commercial development, industry and company analysis, business strategy formulation and implementation. His areas of expertise are in financial management, auditing, strategy formulation; advanced verifications and corporate governance. He is a Board member of the South African National Accreditation Standards (“SANAS”) and chairs its Audit and Risk Committee. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, the Black Management Forum and The Association of Black Accountants in Southern Africa.

He is a committed team player and believes in the principle of synergy from individual competencies. Yet, as a corporate person, interactive personal growth is fundamental. His approach to business is focused, structured and productive.

Holder of an MBA Finances and Information System and a Bachelor in business administration, with minor in geology and oil and gas industry analysis of St Thomas Houston-Texas's university (United States), Kassoum Fadika, 48, was until its appointment on September 13, 2005 as General Manager of PETROCI, special adviser of the President of the Republic, in charge of Mines, Energy and Oil.

He begins his career in 1995 at Pétroci as a commercial, with main mission the development of the distribution of butane within the framework of the project of butanisation before occupying various responsibilities in the departments of the accounting, the strategy and the economic development, and Management of the portfolio of experience in the office of United Meridian Corporation (UMIC) become Ocean Energy in Houston land - Texas between 1996 and 2000.

 From 2001 till 2002, the new General Manager of PETROCI is a business and financial analyst at Enron, Houston-Texas, world leader of the Energy before collapsing.

Engr Ernest Chukwuemeka Nwapa (MNSE) was recently appointed the Ag Executive Secretary Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, which is responsible for implementing the Nigerian Content Act. Until this appointment he was the Group General Manager, Nigerian Content Division of the NNPC. He joined the NNPC as a Project Engineer in 1983 following graduation from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1982 and has successfully executed several key projects as Design Engineer, Construction Superintendent and Project Manager. Engineer Nwapa has written several papers and made presentations on the subjects of local content development and capacity building both at local and international conferences. He is married with four children and enjoys golfing and boating.

Avhapfani (Fani) Tshifularo is the Executive Director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA), where he is responsible for the day- to-day leadership of the organisation and for its effective management. SAPIA members are BP, Chevron, Engen, Sasol, Shell, Total and PetroSA. SAPIA represents the collective interests of the South African petroleum industry.

As part of his role at SAPIA, Fani also serves as Non-Executive Director at the South African Supplier Development Agency (SASDA). He is a member of the Institute of Directors, American Society of Association Executives & The Center for Association Leadership and BoardSource (National Center for Nonprofit Boards). He holds a Master’s Degree in Futures Studies from Stellenbosch University.

Prior to joining SAPIA, he was employed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), where his responsibilities included establishing the Road Fuel Testing Unit, collection of excise taxes and overseeing all litigation concerning special cases.

Fani’s career in the energy industry began at the Minerals and Energy Education and Training Institute (MEETI) where he was a Trainee Energy Policy Analyst. After MEETI, he worked at the Department of Minerals and Energy as an Energy Officer. Among other duties, he was a member of the team tasked with drafting the White Paper on Energy.

Bruno Picard is a Business Administration graduate from Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.  Upon graduation, he joined Canada’s Foreign Service where he served his country for thirty-two years. His diplomatic career, initially as a member of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, developed progressively from 1978, when he was assigned to his first international posting with the Canadian Embassy in Cairo. Between 1980 and 1999, he was appointed to increasingly senior positions in Canadian embassies in Guatemala, Morocco, and Belgium. Over the last ten years, he served as Canada’s Ambassador in the Dominican Republic, Guyana, CARICOM and Tunisia. In Canada, he assumed a wide range of international responsibilities with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, the Canadian Foreign Service Institute and the Office of the Minister for International Trade. Bruno Picard joined SNC-Lavalin Construction Inc in December 2009 as Senior Vice-President (Business Development) with primary responsibility for the African Continent. SNC-Lavalin Construction is an EPC contractor specializing in Oil and Gas Infrastructure, Power, Water, Roads and Bridges, Airports, Commercial and Institutional Buildings.

Semyon Astakhov was born in 1982 in Russia. In 2003 he graduated Institute of International Relation with a degree in International Economic Relations, Yekaterinburg, Russia. In 2006 Semyon Astakhov received his PhD in Economics from the Ural Academy of Government Administration, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

In 2000 he took up a position as sales engineer in TMK-Sinarsky the seamless tubulars manufacturing plant in Russia. Since 2004 he worked in TMK Head Quarters in Moscow, Russia as regional sales manager to Middle East and Africa. In 2006 became senior sales manager in TMK Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Semyon Astakhov was appointed as General Director to TMK Africa, Cape Town, South Africa in April 2010 to promote sales of TMK’s products to oil and gas companies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paul has extensive oil and gas industry experience having worked for Shell International for twelve years, followed by a further nine years with independent companies, most recently with Hunt Oil and Pioneer Natural Resources. He held a wide variety of engineering, management and business development positions throughout Shell’s global operations across all of its core regions of exploration, development and production. At Hunt Oil, Mr Welch was the Chief Engineer and Commercial Manager for the Global New Business Development Team, evaluating exploration and production opportunities across its international asset portfolio. More recently he worked in Northern Africa with Pioneer, responsible for producing assets in Tunisia where he was instrumental in significantly increasing the production profile and overseeing new business development in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq.

Mr Tønnessen is Norwegian by birth and born in Stavanger. He has a BSc in Petroleum Engineering from Stavanger University and a MBA from Stockholm University. Mr Tønnessen is currently Svenska-Group Executive Vice President License Management based in Oslo.

Mr Tønnessen has diversified his career by spending six years in the finance markets with oil industry equity research; mainly in the broker house for largest Norwegian bank DnB NOR Markets. Further, he was with Svenska in Stockholm in the 90-ies as business analyst and E&P Manager. Mr Tønnessen also spent four years offshore as drilling fluid engineer.

Osam Iyahen heads the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) oil and gas industry activities. Osam has over eight years practical experience in the upstream oil and gas sector from involvement in multi-billion dollar development projects with ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron. He has also been involved in upstream advisory engagements with BoozAllen & Hamilton and Petroleum Finance Corporation (PFC Energy). Osam obtained his MBA from Cornell University.  

His experiences include senior commercial roles in ExxonMobil’s West African Business Services Organisation in Houston, where he worked on landmark West African projects in Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Osam has also participated in oil & gas advisory work for the Qatari government involving the conception and development of an Energy City project, led a project team in deploying an integrated operations facility in Oman, and advised several US independents during previous Nigerian oil and gas licensing round on bidding strategies.

Osam currently focuses on originating transactions for AFC across Sub-Saharan Africa, and in this capacity is knowledgeable of financing requirements for E&P’s in the region as well as, challenges encountered by project sponsors and prospective financiers. Most recently Osam led the AFC team in the $20M equity investment in Seven Energy, a Nigeria-focused gas commercialisation E&P.

Lance Crist is Global Head of Oil & Gas for IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Mr Crist leads IFC’s investments in equity, mezzanine and senior debt, for exploration and production, pipelines, LNG, oilfield services and related sectors. IFC’s $2 billion portfolio in these sectors includes companies in over 25 countries. Mr Crist joined IFC in 1992 and has managed advisory mandates, project and corporate finance, and private equity transactions in the areas of general manufacturing and telecommunications prior to his current role. He earned a BA from Cornell University, and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Jean-Pierre is a legal and tax partner at Deloitte Legal and Tax law firm based in Gabon that he joined in 2002 after five years spent at Herbert Smith project team in Paris. He is in charge of the Deloitte legal practice in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo.

He has focused for more than 16 years on legal and tax aspects of oil & gas and mineral resources projects and project financings throughout mainly French speaking Africa, in particular, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo.

He was been appointed again in 2010 as the leading lawyer for Gabon by Chambers Global, the World’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Jean-Pierre is post master graduated from Rennes (France) and Exeter (UK).

Mr Franco Conticini holds a degree in geological sciences from the University of Florence and pursued an international career spanning thirty years in hydrocarbon E&P in Europe, South America, India and Africa. Having served as the Exploration Manager in Eni Norge, the President in Eni Oil do Brasil, and the General Manager in Eni India, he is currently the General Manager Eni East Africa, based in Mozambique.

Willy H Olsen is the former Senior Advisor to the President & CEO of Statoil. He joined Statoil in 1980 after 15 years in journalism. During his time at Statoil Willy H Olsen held a number of senior positions, including Managing Director of Statoil UK and head of Statoil's activities in the former Soviet Union. Willy Olsen has an in-depth knowledge of the role of national oil companies. He has been a member of various advisory boards on Caspian and Russia, and has been a Governor in the Board of Oxford Energy Institute. Mr Olsen is now the senior advisor to INTSOK a foundation owned by the Norwegian government and Norwegian oil industry. INTSOK is coordinating the efforts of expanding the internationalisation of the Norwegian petroleum cluster.  He is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House in London and member of the Governing Board of Revenue Watch Institute in New York and has in recent years worked with Governments and national oil companies in several oil producing countries.

Dayo has broad experience advising international clients on the Nigerian Energy Sector with a focus on both advising upstream acquisition and divestments and compliance counseling downstream and service companies in the industry.

 He regularly advises on the Nigerian Local Content Policy and its implication on multinationals operating in Nigeria as well as the interpretation of fiscal regimes applicable to oil and gas transactions in Nigeria.

Dayo acts as an instructor for an international training course on Nigerian Oil and Gas law and is a regular speaker at international conferences on the Nigerian energy sector.

Mr Doherty is the current project manager of CDC Development Solutions (CDS) for the highly successful CAE Apoio Empresarial project in Angola, which is a local content development program funded by five international and national oil operators.  Under Mr Doherty’s leadership, CAE has greatly exceeded the performance expectations of its stakeholders, including having facilitated over 300 contracts worth over 200 million USD for local suppliers.  The program plays a key market linkage role through its rigorous local certification program and procurement opportunity database.  Prior to CDS, Mr Doherty worked in supply chain management and procurement process engineering for IBM and other organizations.  He holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business and he is a licensed civil engineer.

Neil Pinto is CEO of PPA Energy in UK and a director of PPA Energy Pty in South Africa. He has a Masters degree in engineering from Cambridge University and has over thirty years’ international experience working in the electricity sector. Prior to founding PPA Energy in 1997 he held various energy and managerial positions in consultancy companies including that of Managing Director of Kennedy and Donkin Africa (PTY), based in South Africa. Neil has a first hand knowledge of power sector most particularly in Southern and Eastern Africa. He is an accomplished communicator and trainer, and has run courses for the World Bank in Washington as well for blue-chip clients in the electricity and petrochemical sector and governmental and regulatory bodies. He specialises in advising senior level decision makers on the strategic issues relative to planning and investing in the power market.

including developing and implementing the company's commercial strategy in the region.

With approximately fifteen years of experience in the energy sector, Chris joined Globeleq in 2006 as Songas' Commercial Manager and was appointed as Managing Director in August 2007. Prior to his role with Songas, he was an Engineer at National Grid Company PLC and a Senior Energy Trader and General Manager at a merchant Independent Power Plant trading in the UK gas and power markets.

Leen Poldervaart is presently the Vice President Marketing of Single Buoy Moorings, an operating unit of SBM Offshore NV, an AEX (Amsterdam) listed company.

Born in The Netherlands in 1946, Leen started his professional career with Single Buoy Moorings Inc in 1975. He has served as Project Engineer, Project Manager for studies on new built or converted vessel FSO and FPSO units , has been the Engineering Manager for several installed F(P)SOs and Business Development Manager for the SBM Gas and Power Division.

Leen has presented numerous technical papers during the OTC, DOT, GASTECH and other technical conferences, is member of the SPE and holds patents on different types of offshore structures, floaters and mooring systems.

Anton-Louis Olivier is a project developer in the clean and sustainable energy sector and has worked on energy projects in over twenty countries in Africa and Latin America.

Anton-Louis was born and bred in Pretoria, South Africa. After qualifying as a Mechanical Engineer, he completed a Masters Degree in Development and Environmental Economics, both at the University of Pretoria.

Following on five years consulting work on renewable energy projects across Southern Africa, Anton-Louis joined the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Denmark in 1999.

He left UNEP in 2001 to establish NuPlanet, a project development and management company based in the Netherlands. After three years in Europe, he moved to South Africa where he is now the Managing Director of NuPlanet South Africa, a dedicated hydro power developer, owner and operator.

Most notably, Anton-Louis was in charge of the development of Bethlehem Hydro, the first new hydro power project South Africa in twenty years as well as some of the first greenhouse gas emission reduction projects to reach implementation in South Africa.

Mr Lolu Adubifa is currently the Country Executive for GE Energy in Nigeria. 

Lolu has over a decade’s experience in the Energy industry in North America, and West Africa. He has held roles in management consulting with Arthur D Little in Boston, and Accenture in Lagos, where he was an executive in the Energy practice. He also worked in the Origination and Structuring group at Reliant Energy in Houston, where he worked on various M&A projects.

Mr Adubifa holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University Of Nevada, Las Vegas and an MBA (Finance and Strategic Mgmt) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

From November 1993 to November 2006, Dr Surridge was engaged by the Department of Minerals and Energy, first as a Deputy Director and then from April 1995 as a Director. During this period he has been responsible for matters related to electricity, renewable energy, environment, energy efficiency, energy database, coal and gas and petroleum. He drafted South Africa’s first National Integrated Energy Plan, inter alia drafted four pieces of legislation, negotiated a number of international agreements, represented South Africa at numerous international gatherings including the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and served on numerous committees and working groups.

Since December 2006, Dr Surridge is Senior Manager- Advanced Fossil Fuel Use at the newly formed South African National Research Institute. He established and is currently the Head of the South Africa Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage.

Lodewijk is responsible for the registration of Carbon Credit Projects under the Clean Development Mechanism and advising clients on carbon emission management at EcoSecurities South Africa. EcoSecurities is a leading company in sourcing, developing and trading emission reduction credits. The South African office focuses at projects in Africa generating carbon credits via the UNFCCC’s Clean Development Mechanism.

During the years, Lodewijk has become a subject matter expert on CCS and clean energy in previous positions at TNO and PricewaterhouseCoopers. After having been involved in the financing and preparation of CCS demonstration projects in Europe, he now acts as a CCS carbon finance consultant in Africa.

Nick de Blocq is the Business Development Manager for Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Southern and East Africa. He qualified as a Civil Engineer and spent some years in research posts with the CSIR in both Building Technology and Oceanology (Maritime Structures) before moving to the oilfield where he has been employed by Schlumberger for nearly twenty-three years. After a foundation in Well Testing, Nick moved from Field Engineering and Supervision to Project Engineering to Segment Line Management, general Oilfield Services Management and currently falls into the Marketing Group. He has worked in some form or another in over thirty countries, spending anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of years in any given location. His current coverage includes eight countries and over eighty oil companies, both as operators or partners.

Thembani Bukula is the Regulator Member primarily responsible for electricity regulation at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the Chairperson of the Electricity committee. He obtained his BSc Engineering from the University of Natal and a post graduate diploma in Engineering Business Management from Warwick University. His career started at Yelland Engineering and later joined Eskom as engineer responsible for the commissioning of the extra High Voltage substations in the KwaZulu-Natal region. He was seconded to KEMA-The Netherlands as a High Voltage engineer during 1995/6. He has been the Managing Director of various companies including the NETFA, SABS – Testing and Conformity Services, National Data Systems and Ijanga Consulting Services.

 Scott Brodsky is an energy and projects partner in the Johannesburg office of Dewey & LeBoeuf. He has more than two decades of experience advising sponsors, project companies, financiers, governments, and financial advisors on projects in Africa, the United Kingdom, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Indian sub-continent, and Asia. He has advised on a broad range of projects in the power, oil and gas, renewables, transport and other infrastructure sectors. Scott is recognised as a leading project finance lawyer in the 2010 Legal Experts Guide.

Mark Hankins has been working in rural electrification and renewable energy in East and Southern Africa for over twenty years. A leader in development and execution of PV projects in Africa, he has been involved in renewable projects for private clients, the UN, the World Bank, UNIDO, the GEF, Sida and Shell Foundation. In the PV sector, he specializes in training, commercial market development, policy, system design and project development. He has worked on off-grid electrification projects in over fifteen countries in Africa. He managed Energy for Sustainable Development’s (now Camco) Nairobi office for twelve years. He is currently setting up African Solar Designs, Ltd, a Nairobi-based solar energy solution provider.