Speaker Faculty

Ahmed Al-Arbeed
CEO
Danagas, UAE

Elshad Nassirov
VP, Marketing and Investments
SOCAR, Azerbaijan

Alasdair Cook
VP - Shah Deniz Development
BP, Azerbaijan

Badr Jafar
President,
Crescent Petroleum, UAE

Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim
Vice Chairman Gas Processing
Egas, Eqypt

Mark Carne
Executive Vice President
Shell E&P International Ltd, MENA

Mark Carne has responsibility for Shell in the Middle East and North Africa and is a member of Royal Dutch Shell's Upstream International Leadership Team. He was employed by Shell for over twenty years until 2005, his last role being Managing Director for Brunei Shell Petroleum. He previously held a number of commercial and general management roles in the UK and the Netherlands. Mark's first Middle East assignment was as Engineering Manager with Petroleum Development Oman from 1992 to 1996. In 2005, Mark joined BG Group's Executive Committee as EVP and MD for the Europe and Central Asia region before entering his current position.

David Thomas
Global Head Of LNG
Vitol

David is responsible for Vitol's LNG business worldwide. Previously he held a similar role for BP. He has nearly 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry engaged in Natural Gas and LNG activities. Other responsibilities include Gas Marketing, Strategy, Commercial and Technical aspects of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production. David began his career in operations with Schlumberger in Africa and Asia.

Ajay Shah
Head Of Strategy And Portfolio
Global LNG, Shell Gas And Power

Ajay has since worked in Shell's Gas and Power division for more than 10 years. Firstly in Dubai as Hazira (Shell's LNG regas terminal in India) governor, during which time construction was completed, the plant started up, and eventually over-seeing the profitable operation of Shell's only "merchant" LNG terminal. During this time he was also involved in a number of other gas focused business development efforts in the ME region. Most recently he was European Portfolio Manager in Shell Energy Europe, responsible for the 22+ bcm portfolio of gas bought and sold by SEE across Europe. Ajay is currently responsible for overseeing Shell's current LNG assets, business development activities, gas supply/demand and pricing outlook and the future direction of Shell in LNG.

Mehdi Chennoufi
General Manager
Atlantic Basin & GreaterMiddle East, Shell International LNG Supply Origination, UAE

Mehdi started his career with KPMG in the first half of the 90ies where he got acquainted with the rigour of economic analysis and the art of interpreting accounts. He then joined Shell in London at the turn of the century and focused on Gas and LNG business development in Levant before moving to Egypt to grow Shell's CNG and LDC footprint. In 2004 he was ap pointed as the Shell shareholder representative in Oman LNG out of the Dubai office and in 2008 was appointed as the General Manager of LNG supply and trading business for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As of 1st of December 2010, Mehdi took on the responsibility for LNG Origination in the Atlantic Basin and Greater Middle East.

Jean-Pierre Mateille
General Manager Gas, LNG and Power Trading
Total Gas & Power Ltd, UK

Jean-Pierre Mateille joined TOTAL in 1983 after graduating from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Stanford University with a master of Sciences in Civil Engineering. After a few years in Research and development he joined the oil trading and supply group where he held various positions including head of Risk Management and Head of Refined Products trading. After a passage in the Corporate Planning Direction he joined the Gas & Power branch where he is now in charge of the Energy trading activities of TOTAL.

Michael-Dieter Ulbrich
Head of International Pipeline Projects
OMV Gas And Power, Austria

Dr Ulbrich's leadership experience includes operation of gas pipeline systems in Germany, execution of large gas pipeline projects (e.g. Nord Stream onshore) and commercial evaluation of international large-scale petrochemical projects in USA, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Belgium and Germany. Dr Ulbrich was in charge of the commercial assessment and optimisation of the major petrochemical value chains as well as make or buy decisions. Furthermore he was responsible for the technology and production cost optimization of BASF´s world wide syntheses gas production plants. He developed design principles for chemical process plants, which are summarised in more than ten publications and are part of several process patents.

Elio Ruggeri
Head Of International Gas Infrastructures
Edison, Italy

In addition to his current role at Edison S.p.A., the first private Italian energy operator, Elio Ruggeri is CEO of IGI Poseidon SA, a company incorporated by Edison SpA and Depa SA for the realization of the offshore section of the ITGI project. Prior to be dedicated to the development of gas import projects, he has been involved in the definition of the company strategy in the gas sector and in the identification and assessment of business opportunities in the European gas market.

Reinhard Mitschek
Managing Director
Nabucco Gas Pipeline Int, Austria

Kjetil Tungland
Managing Director
Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG, Switzerland

Tungland has held the position as Senior Vice President responsible for natural gas contract negotiations, marketing and development of Statoil's natural gas business in the South and Western European Continent. In 2003 he was posted to Istanbul working as Task Force Manager responsible for preparations of natural gas marketing in Turkey and later became Statoil's country manager for Turkey and then Iraq. In April 2010, Tungland was appointed Managing Director for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project, a Joint Venture project with EGL, Statoil and E.ON Ruhrgas.

Mustefa Ouki
VP Energy Resources and Head of Global Gas
Nexant, UK

Dr Ouki has over twenty years' experience of managing and executing gas and energy-related techno-economic studies and advisory assignments for national and international energy companies, multilateral and bilateral development agencies, and financing institutions in various regions of the world. He conducted a number of assignments on the development of oil and gas-related infrastructure projects and has managed and executed master plan studies on upstream and downstream infrastructures in key hydrocarbon producing countries in the Middle East & North Africa region.

Keiron Ferguson
Managing Director – Dubai, RWE Supply & Trading GmbH
Chief Commercial Officer, Excelerate Energy, UAE

Keiron has over 25 years experience in energy markets having held responsibilities in the US, Europe and Middle East. Within his dual role he manages RWEST's regional interests in the energy sector and Excelerate Energy's LNG shipping and trading business which offers floating storage and regasification facilities to global markets. Prior to joining RWE in January 2009, Keiron was Managing Director, Merrill Lynch Commodities where he was responsible for energy commodities and investment banking (hydrocarbons) activities in the MENA region.

Aloulou Fawzi
Energy Economist
EIA, USA

Aloulou will set the scene for this debate by first presenting the US Energy Information Administration's International Energy Outlook 2011 Aloulou has over 15 years of energy modeling experience and has a thorough understanding of the economic and technical aspects of the entire hydrocarbon chain. He has provided energy price forecasts and managed projects looking at supply-demand at the global and sub-regional level within the United States. He has been a key member of the EIA team that designed the International Natural Gas Markets model (INGMA). The model is designed to be used in EIA's International Energy Outlook annual publication and project prices and trade of gas by pipeline and LNG by region for a 25-year period. In addition, he is leading the EIA's efforts in assessing the Global Shale Gas Resources and Activities.

Siamak Namazi
General Manager
Access Consulting Group, UAE

Jen Coolidge
Executive Director
CMX, UK

Dr Coolidge is an internationally renowned expert on the gas sectors of Iraq and Turkmenistan and advises international oil companies and multinationals on strategy, political risk, operations and market entry in Iraq, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. In 2006-2007, Dr Coolidge was Research Fellow at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, a prominent US Congressionally funded think tank in Washington DC. In 2005-2006 she was International Policy Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and Senior Rapporteur for the UK Taskforce on Energy Security and Foreign Policy chaired by former EU External Relations Commissioner, Lord Christopher Patten.

Justin Dargin
Research Fellow
Harvard Kennedy School of Government, UAE

Justin Dargin is a Research Fellow with The Dubai Initiative and a Fulbright Scholar of the Middle East. He is a specialist in International Law and Energy Law, and a prolific author on energy affairs. He specialises in carbon trading, the global oil and gas market, the legal framework surrounding the Gulf energy sector and Middle Eastern geopolitics. Justin has spent long periods of time living and traveling in the Gulf and North Africa. Justin is on a variety of boards; he sits on the board of directors of the International Energy Foundation, on the review committee for Fulbright Scholars, is the Senior Advisor to the European Geopolitical Forum (EGF) on EU-Gulf Energy Relations and is a member of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations as a global energy expert.

John Roberts
Energy Specialist
Platts, UK

John Roberts is Energy Security Specialist with Platts, the world's leading independent source of energy information. Platts is part of the McGraw Hill publishing group. His latest study, Pipeline Politics: The Caspian and Global Energy Security, is due to be jointly published this year by Platts and the UK's Royal Institute of International Relations (the US publisher is the Brookings Institution). A frequent commentator on global energy issues on BBC television and radio and an acknowledged expert on Caspian and European pipelines, John M. Roberts has also given testimony to UK parliamentary committees on the Russian and Caspian roles in global energy security and on Persian Gulf security issues.

Wolfgang Peters
Head of Supply & Capacity Caspian
Central Asia & Russia RWE Supply & Trading GmbH, Germany

Wolfgang is responsible for RWE's supply activities and related transit in Caspian, Central Asia & Russia. He is also a Board Member of Transgas a.s., a wholly owned subsidiary of RWE operating in the Czech Republic. He is responsible for import supplies and wholesale origination, but also for RWE's significant transit services. Wolfgang has been in the oil and gas business for more than 25 years, in the upstream, midstream and downstream part of the value chain, where he held various positions in a variety of countries.

Ieda Gomes
Head of New Ventures, & INGL
BP Gas Asia & Middle East, UK

Ieda Gomes is currently a Vice President for New Ventures at BP Gas Asia & Middle East and is responsible for gas market development and gas/LNG origination opportunities in South Asia and Middle East. She has a deep knowledge of gas and energy markets in developing countries. She joined BP in 1998 and since then she had several international assignments, including President of BP Brasil and Business Unit Leader for Latin America Gas Marketing. She also spent 2 years as Vice President for BP Solar Rural Solutions. Prior to BP Ieda was the President and CEO, of the San Paulo Gas Company, the largest LDC in Brasil from 1995 to 1998. She was the first female CEO of an energy company in Brazil and successfully conducted the process to privatize Comgas. Ieda holds a degree in Chemical Engineering, a master degree in Environmental Engineering (Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne – Switzerland) and an MSc cum lauda in Energy (University of S. Paulo).

Hakim Darbouche
Research Fellow
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, UK

Hakim Darbouche is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. He is an expert and has published extensively on North Africa, focusing on energy, economy and politics, as well as on MENA gas market issues. He is a regular contributor to specialised gas publications and a frequent speaker at industry, policy and academic conferences. He is also an independent consultant, with clients in the public and private sectors. Prior to coming to Oxford he served as an advisor on MENA issues to a Brussels-based international organisation. Mr Darbouche holds a PhD from the University of Liverpool where he researched Euro-Mediterranean relations. In Oxford, he is a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College and a Region Head on the MENA Desk at Oxford Analytica.

Laura Atkins
Director of Petroleum Research
Hart Energy, USA

Laura Atkins has more than 20 years experience in the upstream oil and gas industry starting as a petroleum engineer, then moving into management and international new business development. Prior to joining Hart Energy, she spent three years in Vienna, Austria working for OPEC as Senior Research Analyst for Energy Technology. She is the primary author of Hart's Global Shale Gas Study, Global Heavy Crude Oil Outlook and the upcoming Global Shale Oil Study. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Tulane University and a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in international affairs from Harvard University.

Florence Geny
PVisiting Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Principal Business Developer,
Global New Ventures Shale Oil and Gas, Statoil, UK

Florence Gény has been working as a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Gas Programme since September 2009, where she has been focussing her research on Unconventional Gas. Florence has also been working for Statoil since 2005 in their International E&P division, in Norway and the UK. She has held diverse commercial and business development roles, in particular leading project valuations and commercial negotiations in Algeria, and is currently working with shale business development. Prior to joining Statoil, Florence worked in Ernst & Young in France

Ahmed Dakroury
Managing Director for TAQA Gas
TAQA Arabia, Egypt

Mr Dakroury was with Shell international from Oct 1984 till May 2006, and held many positions in the Upstream and Downstream and his latest post being Vice Chairman and Managing Director for Shell Gas and Power subsidiary in Egypt. He has been with TAQA Arabia since its establishment in 2006 as a board member of Taqa Arabia Holding and Managing Director of 4 Gas distribution companies and 1CNG Company.

R. Paul Philp
Professor of Petroleum Geochemistry, School of Geology and Geophysics
University of Oklahoma, USA

Professor Philp's research interests include Petroleum, Environmental and Forensic geochemistry with the emphasis on molecular and isotopic characterization of oils, gases, rock extracts and contaminants for the purposes of source determination, characterization of depositional environments, biodegradation, correlation, and monitoring natural attenuation. Professor Philip has won several prestigious awards for his contributions comprising of; The George Lynn Cross Research Professor, University of Oklahoma, April 1990, Assoc. Editor of Chem.Geol, Regents Award for Outstanding Research, University of Oklahoma, April, 1989, Joe and Robert Klabzuba Professor of Organic Geochemistry, University of Oklahoma, July 1984, Best Paper of 1974-1975 award presented by the Organic Geochemistry Section of the Geochemical Society.

Robin Mills
Petroleum Economics Manager
ENOC, UAE

Robin is an expert on Middle East energy economics. For the last five years, he has worked for Dubai government companies on energy investments and project developments. Before that, he spent a decade in business development and economics roles for Shell, with particular focus on the Middle East and former Soviet Union, and was described as the "Shell expert on Iran". He is the author of two books, "The Myth of the Oil Crisis" (Praeger, 2008) and "Capturing Carbon" (Columbia University Press/Hurst, 2011), the first comprehensive over view of carbon capture and storage for the non-specialist.

John Roper
VP and Head of Middle East Gas
E.ON Ruhrgas, UAE

Nassib Ghobril
Chief Economist
Byblosbank, Lebanon