Speakers

Nissa Darbonne, author of The American Shales The History of the U.S. Shale Plays, Their Founders and Their Leaders, began her journalism career in 1984 in the oil and gas fields of South Louisiana. She is editor-at-large for Oil and Gas Investor magazine, which she joined in 1998.

Previously, she was the business editor for The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana) and a government correspondent to The Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana). She received her B.A. in English and Journalism from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (University of Louisiana at Lafayette).

Bernadette Johnson serves as Vice President, Strategic Analytics for Enverus DrillingInfo and is responsible for helping to grow and expand Enverus’ analytics offerings. She joined the company through the acquisition of products and services from Ponderosa Advisors. With over 11 years’ experience in the energy industry, Bernadette has earned the reputation of industry expert with extensive experience providing crude, natural gas, and NGL fundamentals analysis and advisory services to various players in the North American and Global energy markets. A regular commentator for and speaker to the energy industry, her specific market expertise spans: financial trading, production forecasts, demand forecasts by sector, infrastructure analysis, midstream analysis, storage value analysis, and price forecasts. Prior to joining Ponderosa, and now Enverus, Bernadette was Senior Research Analyst for Sasco Energy Partners in Westport, CT where she provided analytics and research support for a team of financial traders active in natural gas, power and oil futures markets. Bernadette began her career with BENTEK Energy, LLC as a Senior Energy Analyst, Natural Gas Market Fundamentals and consulting project team lead. Bernadette holds a MS Degree in International Political Economy of Resources and a BS Degree in Economics, from the Colorado School of Mines.

Mark received a B.A. degree from Albion College in Michigan in 1972 followed by a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976. He then joined the research lab of Cities Service Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 5 years before moving to Denver in 1981 to work for Coastal Oil and Gas Company as an exploration geologist mainly in the Williston Basin. From 1984 to 2006, he was a consulting geologist and then joined QEP Resources, where he worked as their “Rock Expert” until 2018 when QEP restructured and no longer needed his skills as a sedimentologist and petrographer. Mark has worked extensively with cores, cuttings, and petrographic thin sections with a focus on integrating sedimentology and petrology with reservoir studies and petrophysics. He has worked extensively on the Cretaceous rocks and reservoirs in the Rocky Mountain region and has particularly enjoyed understanding and interpreting the regional controls on hydrocarbon reservoirs such as those in the Niobrara Formation and Codell Sandstone.

Mark is currently a Research Associate at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and a part-time consulting geologist. He has published more than 40 papers in journals ranging from RMAG’s The Mountain Geologist to the AAPG Bulletin and in 2014 co-edited AAPG Memoir 107 on the giant Pinedale gas field in Wyoming. In 2016 he received AAPG’s Distinguished Service Award.

Rob Pinckston graduated in 1989 with a Masters degree in geology from the University of Alberta. Since then he has worked in Calgary almost exclusively in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin working in the service industry, as a consultant and for various E&P companies ranging from large multinationals to small startups. His experience has led to many oil and gas pool discoveries with the culmination of the Leduc-Woodbend area Upper Mannville discovery in 2016.

Dan Billman has over thirty-two years of experience in the Appalachian Basin with the last twenty-seven as a consulting geologist and president of Billman Geologic Consultants, Inc. Prior to independent consulting, Dan worked as an exploration and development geologist for Mark Resources Corporation and Eastern States Exploration Company. Mr. Billman is a registered Professional Geologist (PG) in the state of Pennsylvania and an American Association of Petroleum Geologist, Certified Petroleum Geologist (CPG).

Recently and most notably, Mr. Billman worked closely with the Rice family as consultant and senior geologic advisor as Rice Energy Inc. acquired its initial acreage positions in the Appalachian Basin. Mr. Billman worked with the Rice family, in building what became a major company in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Mr. Billman was involved from inception, to initial public offering through sale of the company.

Dan Billman has extensive development and exploration experience in both unconventional (shales and tight gas sandstones) and legacy, conventional plays and reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin. He has performed numerous geologic and economic reviews of natural gas and oil exploration prospects throughout Appalachian Basin, as well as feasibility studies for gas storage, coal bed methane development and saltwater disposal wells. Mr. Billman has written and/or co-authored numerous published papers and technical presentations on the petroleum geology of the Appalachian Basin.

Mr. Billman received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Toledo (Ohio) and his Master of Science degree in Geology from West Virginia University. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and is currently the AAPG Delegate representing the Pittsburgh Geological Society and Advisory Council member, representing the Eastern Section. Also, Mr. Billman is a Past-President of the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, after serving as the organizations Vice-president, Secretary and Treasurer. He is a former President (2 terms), Vice-President and Treasurer (2 terms) of the Pittsburgh Association of Petroleum Geologists. Mr. Billman is a member of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Association of Petroleum Geologists, Pittsburgh Geological Society, Ohio Geological Society, Appalachian Geological Society, Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists and Northern Alleghenies Geological Society. Mr. Billman is currently a board member of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association.

Stephanie Gaswirth serves as Associate Program Coordinator of the Energy Resources Program (ERP) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver, Colorado. Prior to joining the ERP team, she had been a research geologist with the USGS Central Energy Resources Science Center in Denver since 2006, working on petroleum resource assessments as part of the National and Global Assessment Project.

Stephanie has worked on resource assessments of the Williston and Anadarko basins, and was the task leader for the assessment of continuous oil resources of the Bakken and Three Forks Formations in 2013. She also served as task leader for the assessment of continuous resources in the Permian Basin.

Stephanie served as the Secretary for the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) Board of Directors and was a co-editor for the 2011 RMAG Guidebook: The Bakken Petroleum System- Past, Present, and Future. She has given numerous talks at professional meetings on her research and assessment work, and has been published in AAPG Bulletin, Oil and Gas Journal and other peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Prior to joining the USGS, she was employed with ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company in Houston, TX. Stephanie received her B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College, M.S. from Rutgers University, and Ph.D. from University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. John D. Pigott is an Associate Professor of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Oklahoma where he instructs courses in basin analysis, carbonate geology, petroleum geology, and seismic stratigraphy, has presented and published more than 180 peer-reviewed professional papers and has directed several high visibility international and domestic industry-sponsored academic consortia. Presently he heads up the OU Permian Basin Research Group. John has accrued more than thirty-five years’ experience in hydrocarbon exploration-exploitation as a petroleum geoscientist. Since working with Amoco International, he has continued to advise energy ministries of governments in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North and South America, consult for multinational, national and state oil companies worldwide, and internationally instruct for PetroSkills. John has a BA, BS, and MA from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from Northwestern University. If not in the office, you will find John either at or on the equator or paleoequator, underwater or on the tops of mountains, doing what he loves most: practicing carbonate geology and geophysics.

Jon Noad graduated in 1985 and started working as a mining geologist in South Africa. He returned to the UK to work in marine cable laying and completed a Masters in Sedimentology at evening classes. This led to a full time PhD, working in eastern Borneo, after which he joined Shell International working Middle East exploration and several production roles. He moved to Shell Canada in Calgary in 2006, followed by senior geoscience roles at Murphy, Husky and Gran Tierra (Colombia). Jon started a consultancy in 2017 and now consults, runs field trips and courses for industry as well as teaching at several universities.

Bio Coming Soon

Dr. Per K. Pedersen at the Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, is the geological lead in the Industry and Federally NSERC funded Tight Oil Consortium, and a co-investigator of the industry and Federal NSERC funded projects on Multiscale Monitoring of Hydraulic Fracturing and Wastewater Injection (Duvernay region, Alberta) and Dynamics of Fault Activation by Hydraulic Fracturing: Insights from New Technologies. His research focuses on geologic reservoir characterization from pore to basin-scale of unconventional clastic reservoirs integrating core, well logs, outcrops, and seismic data. Dr Pedersen was AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in 2016 with lectures on Tight Oil Reservoirs of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and Mudstone Deposition from Ripples to Clinoforms.

John B. Curtis has worked with GeoMark Research in various capacities since 1996. He is currently responsible for their U.S. and Canadian Rocky Mountain and SCOOP/STACK petroleum system/resource potential studies. He received a B.A. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) in geology from Miami University and a Ph.D. (1989) in geology from The Ohio State University. He is a licensed Professional Geologist (Wyoming). Curtis was a Minuteman Missile Launch Officer and Instructor Launch Officer in the United States Air Force from 1972-1975.

Dr. Curtis is also Professor Emeritus of Geology and Geological Engineering and past Director, Potential Gas Agency at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). He was Associate and then Full Professor at CSM from July 1990 until his retirement in June 2016. While at Mines, he supervised graduate student research and taught petroleum geology, petroleum geochemistry and petroleum design. He had 15 years prior experience in the petroleum industry with Texaco, SAIC, Columbia Gas, and Brown & Ruth Laboratories/Baker-Hughes. He served on and chaired several professional society and natural gas industry committees, which included the Supply Panel, Research Coordination Council, and the Science and Technology Committee of the Gas Technology Institute (Gas Research Institute). Curtis co-chaired the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Committee on Unconventional Petroleum Systems from 1999-2004 and was an invited member of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and the AAPG Committee on Resource Evaluation from 1992 until 2014. He was a Counselor to the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists from 2002-2004 and RMAG delegate to AAPG for nine years. Curtis is a 2019 recipient of the AAPG Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Curtis was an Associate Editor of the AAPG Bulletin from 1997 – 2010 and continues to review manuscripts for several journals. He has published studies and given numerous invited talks concerning source rock and oil geochemistry, exploration for unconventional reservoirs, and the size and distribution of U.S., and Canadian natural gas resources and comparisons of resource assessment methodologies. As Director of the CSM Potential Gas Agency from 1991 - 2016, he directed a team of 100 volunteer geologists, geophysicists and petroleum engineers for the Potential Gas Committee’s biennial assessment of remaining U.S. natural gas resources. The dedication of the volunteers of the Potential Gas Committee is directly responsible for Dr. Curtis being awarded the 2014 AAPG Public Service award, and the 2016 RMAG Distinguished Public Service to Earth Science award.

Active since 1978 as a petroleum geologist involved in oil and gas exploration across North America, John Mitchell has generated and drilled prospects in the U.S. and Canada. His work has resulted in successful wells in several states and provinces. Mitchell has served as an officer for the Montana Geological Society as well as for the Tulsa Geological Society. He has given geological talks to numerous geological societies as well as at A.A.P.G. section meetings and at two Oklahoma Geological Survey conferences. Over the past several years his focus has been in the Mid-Continent region with particular emphasis on the Granite Wash play. His work has been published in the Oklahoma City Geological Society Shale Shaker publication. Several of his presentations may be found online at the AAPG Search and Discovery website. He has served on the Geoscience Department Advisory Board at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In 2016 he relocated to Fayetteville where he and his wife live on a 20 acre farm in the Ozarks. He is actively involved in geological consulting work in the oil and gas industry.

Dr. Molly Turko has over 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and is a subject matter expert in structural geology. She has had the opportunity to work in multiple basins in the U.S including the Anadarko, Ardmore, Powder River, Appalachian, Onshore Gulf Coast, and Rocky Mountain Basins. She received both a B.Sc. (2009) and a M.Sc. (2011) in geology from the University of Tulsa followed by a Ph.D. (2019) from the University of Oklahoma where she studied under Dr. Shankar Mitra. Molly’s passion is mentoring and teaching, but her favorite role is leading structural geology field courses in Nevada and Southern Oklahoma. Molly is currently a team member of Applied Stratigraphix as their Structural Geology Expert along with consulting for Turko Tectonics and Structural Geology.

Andrew is the Senior Vice President of Geology at Warwick Investments Group, a position held for six years. Over the last 40 years Andrew’s lineage runs through Chesapeake, Shell International, EOG, Altex Oil, Clear Creek Silver Company, and Energy Reserves Group (Minerals Division). Andrew holds B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in geology from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Oregon. He is first author on more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications primarily from field-based studies on Borneo, Papua New Guinea, the Galapagos Islands, and Oklahoma. Dr. Cullen is an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma in the College of Law. He formerly chaired the Alumni Advisory Council for OU’s School of Geology & Geophysics and has also served on the Oklahoma City Geological Society’s board of directors. Since moving back to Oklahoma ten years ago Dr. Cullen has contributed more than twenty short technical articles to the society’s bi-monthly magazine, The Shale Shaker. Andrew has been a reviewer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Grants-In-Aid program for 15 years, has been an invited speaker at AAPG’s Play Maker and Super Basins forums, and was a co-organizer of a Hedberg Conference on Tropical Deltas. In the last two years Andrew has reviewed submittals to the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, Tectonics, and Earth Science Reviews. Dr. Cullen’s current research is focused on evidence for volcanic triggering of Late Devonian mass extinctions in the Woodford Shale, re-interpretation of the Meers fault in SW Oklahoma, and new play development in SE Oklahoma.

Jeff May received his B.A. in Geology from Earlham College, M.S. in Geology from Duke University, and Ph.D. in Geology from Rice University. He has worked in the oil and gas industry for 40 years: as a research geologist with Marathon Oil Company (1981-1994); as a geological and geophysical consultant with Enron Oil & Gas (1994-1996) and GeoQuest Reservoir Technologies (1996-1998); as an exploration geoscientist with DDD Energy (1998-2001); and with EOG Resources beginning in 2001, first as Chief Stratigrapher and then as Chief Geologist, until his retirement in 2011. Jeff has conducted sedimentologic, sequence stratigraphic, and seismic stratigraphic projects on basins and fields worldwide. Areas of expertise include onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico; onshore and offshore California; Uinta, Green River, Washakie, Denver, Powder River, Permian, and Williston Basins; northern and eastern Egypt; and Natuna Sea, Indonesia. Jeff has twice been presented the best luncheon speaker award by the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, was presented the Frank Kottlowski award for best speaker in the Energy Minerals Division at the AAPG annual convention in 2012, completed an AAPG Distinguished Lecture tour, and received the Outstanding Scientist Award from RMAG in 2017. He now is a geologic consultant and provides a variety of classroom and field seminars on clastic facies, deep-water sandstones, sequence stratigraphy, and mudrock deposition and stratigraphy. In addition, Jeff is an Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.

Brian Hankins received his B.A. degree in geology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2009. He then started his career with Weatherford Laboratories (now Stratum Reservoir) in 2010 as a geologist with a focus on geochemical analysis on cuttings and core samples. He has experience in more than a dozen basins across North America, South America, Middle East and Australia. Brian began working on his M.Sc. degree in Geology at Colorado School of Mines studying under Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg in 2018. His research is on the petroleum potential and diagenesis of the Mowry Shale in the Powder River Basin, WY.

Alexa Socianu graduated with a B.A. from Northwestern University in 2011 with a double-major in Biology and Geology, along with a minor in Secondary Education. She managed the Sedimentary Geochemistry Laboratory at Northwestern for two years before enrolling at the University of Wyoming where she studied under advisor Dr. John Kaszuba. Her research focused on cyclic geochemical signatures in the Mowry Shale related to productivity, clastic dilution, and redox conditions in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway as a method to further understand patterns of organic matter enrichment. While at the University of Wyoming Alexa successfully completed two internships with Enerplus Resources and Chevron. She graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2015 with her M.Sc. in Geology and went on to continue her doctoral studies at Colorado School of Mines advised by Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg. Building upon her previous work, her doctoral research utilizes a multiscale, integrated approach to study the influence of rock type, thermal maturity, and sequence stratigraphy on core-, pore-, and basin-scale reservoir characteristics of the Mowry Shale with a goal of improving future Mowry Shale horizontal drilling efforts in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Beginning in 2017, Alexa worked for Centennial Resource Development as an Operations Geologist and later as a Development Geologist in the Permian Basin for three years while continuing her Mowry Shale research. Alexa has since resumed her full-time student status at Colorado School of Mines with a focus on completing her degree and anticipates graduating in 2021.

Maria Wood Henry has over 30 years of experience in the energy business leading teams in the evaluation and development of unconventional and conventional resources world-wide. Currently Maria leads the geology team at Antero Resources as they focus on creating value through the development of natural gas and natural gas liquids and oil properties in the Appalachian basin. Prior to joining Antero, Ms. Henry was Vice President of Subsurface Assets and Technology at Raisa Energy from 2015 to 2018 where she led a multi-disciplinary team responsible for projects across active U.S. plays including DJ, Permian, Williston and Anadarko basins. Maria was Geology Manager at WPX Energy from 2013 to 2015 directing exploration and business development projects for Western North America with a focus on unconventional opportunities. During her years running HGC, Inc. from 1999 to 2012, she was an equity partner in several internationally-focused projects. Her career experience includes 11 years at BP Amoco working both conventional and unconventional projects world-wide in progressive technical roles. She has served as independent board member and technical peer review advisor for multiple energy companies, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Geology from Colorado State University.

Jonathan Fry is an asset development Geologist with Chevron Mid-Continent. He has worked Permian Basin development for three years in both the Midland and Delaware Basins. Prior to joining the Mid-Continent Business Unit, Jonathan worked in the Chevron Energy Technology Company as an exploration geologist for conventional offshore assets and worked in a variety of technology development roles focused on seismic interpretation and visualization. In his role as an asset development geologist, Jonathan is an advocate for the use of data analytics for solving subsurface challenges in unconventionals and is an avid Python user. Jonathan is based out of Midland, Texas.

Scott Neal is Director Shale and Tight for Chevron Upstream, based in Houston, Texas, a position he assumed in 2020. In this role, he supports Chevron’s worldwide shale and tight assets through identification, testing and scaling of technology and cross functional solutions to Chevron’s unconventional assets around the world.

Scott joined Chevron in 1999 as a geophysicist in the Gulf of Mexico and has subsequently held various positions in exploration, asset development and strategic planning across multiple locations in the US and internationally. Most recently, Scott led the re-organization of the Subsurface function within Chevron’s technical center. From 2017-2019, he was the Manager of Exploration and Applied Reservoir Management in Chevron’s Mid-Continent Business Unit where he was responsible for leading a large cross functional team carrying out a broad range of geoscience and engineering studies across the Permian Basin. International assignments included roles in Myanmar and Indonesia spanning both business and technical leadership.

Scott received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Riverside, and his MS and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics from Indiana University.

Dr. Ursula Hammes is currently President of Hammes Energy & Consultants and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Geological Sciences, Texas A&M University, teaching and assessing various shale oil/gas systems. Dr. Hammes has 25+ years of experience in the oil and gas industry and academia in Europe and USA in positions ranging from exploration, development, research and management. She has provided advanced consulting in shale-gas/oil and carbonate systems and has taught industry short courses and in-house training courses for universities and oil companies.

Dr. Hammes obtained her Diploma at the University of Erlangen, Germany, and her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her graduate studies specialized in carbonate depositional environments, sequence stratigraphy, carbonate diagenesis, and rock-water interactions. Her background is diverse ranging from exploration, exploitation and business development for Anadarko Petroleum, consulting for Marathon Oil, Equinor, and various other independent oil/gas companies, conducting research in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico as Research Scientist and Principal Investigator of $3+ million projects for the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery project and leading research and advising students at the University of Potsdam, Germany, Texas A&M University, and Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Hammes is currently president of the Energy and Minerals Division (EMD) of AAPG, served as president of the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (GCSSEPM), serves as senior associate editor for the AAPG Bulletin, and has been chair of many AAPG conventions and sessions. She has served as shale liquids and gas committee chair for EMD. Her research interests range from tight shale, sandstone, and carbonate analyses to clastic and carbonate sequence stratigraphy, reservoir characterization, and sedimentology. She has published extensively in recognized sedimentologic and petroleum industry professional journals.

Dr. Charles A. Sternbach has explored Energy in the US and around the globe for 40 years. He served as Staff Geologist for Shell Oil Company, Exploration Manager for Tom Jordan, President of First Place Energy, and is currently President of Star Creek Energy. Charles earned a Ph.D. (and MS) in Geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BA in geology from Columbia University. The University of Houston appointed him a research professor in 2019.

Charles served as lead editor of the 2017 AAPG/DPA special publication: “Heritage of the Petroleum Geologist.” While he has 50 Data Page citations to his credit, he takes great pride in inviting, encouraging, and helping 500 fellow geoscientists present a paper or talk. As AAPG president, Charles visited with 1,000 students at 30 Universities.

In 2018, Charles originated the AAPG Super Basin program as AAPG President. He chairs the Super Basin committee. Fifteen super basin themed events have engaged 5,000+ attendees. Four Global Super Basin Leadership conferences offer explorers a rich online legacy of presentations. He recently published a paper entitled “Super Basin Thinking—Methods to explore and revitalize the greatest petroleum basins” in the first of several anticipated Super Basin special issues for the AAPG Bulletin. Charles is pleased to work on this project with Dr. Claudio Bartolini and Dr. Robert Merrill.

Michael A. Oestmann has over 38 years of experience in all aspects of the oil and gas business, with a particular focus on company start-ups, exploration, asset management and development. Mr. Oestmann has experience in numerous geologic basins and has a consistent record of increasing production in existing fields, exploration success and company development and sale. Mr. Oestmann began his career with Exxon Co. USA in 1982 after graduating from Rice University with a bachelor’s degree in geology with a geophysics option. He worked 15 years with Exxon, 7 years with Titan/Pure Resources/Unocal, then several other public and private companies in various exploration, development and senior management positions. In 2007 he co-founded Piedra Resources with private equity partners. Piedra sold its assets in 2011 for over $120 million. Mr. Oestmann began Tall City Exploration in May of 2012 with a $200 Million private equity commitment. Tall City 1 completed the sale of its assets in 2015 for a total of $1.2B. He is currently President and CEO of Tall City Exploration III, backed by a $500 million equity commitment from Warburg Pincus. He is a 38 year member of the AAPG and SEG, member of the PBGS (having served as President) WTGS and SIPES. He serves on the boards of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, the West Texas Geology Foundation and as an elder at Westway Church of Christ in Midland. He and Cathy, his wife of 36 years, live in Midland, Texas.

Ashley Douds is currently President at Core2Core Geologic. She has over 20 years of experience as a Petroleum Geologist focusing on projects that integrate concepts of geology with geochemistry and petrophysics. Ashley’s current projects include resource mapping of critical minerals, including rare earth elements, and oil and gas reservoirs. Her interests include petroleum and isotope geochemistry, understanding the origin of non-hydrocarbon gases, and sequence stratigraphy.

Prior to Core2Core, Ashley held technical and managerial positions at Parsley Energy, EQT Production, DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, and ExxonMobil. Notable assignments include exploration and development of Paleozoic reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin, resource assessments for various domestic and international basins, and evaluating new technologies to determine better resource development strategies. She received her Masters of Science and Bachelors of Science in Geology from West Virginia University. Ashley serves on the Potential Gas Committee for the Mid-Continent Region and has previously contributed to the Atlantic Area biennial resource assessments as well. She also contributes to the Helium subcommittee of AAPG’s Energy Mineral Division Critical Minerals Committee.

Bio Coming Soon

Mr. Fryklund is vice president and chief strategist for the Upstream Energy Group at IHS Markit. He has more than 40 years of industry experience focusing on the value story for the global upstream. Bob has advised on many of the industry’s game changing deals in areas such as: IPO’s, acquisitions, arbitration, restructuring, and startups. His insights are sought after by global CEO’s and Boards. He spent more than 25 yrs. in Upstream executive management at majors and independents.

Mr. Fryklund is an active industry leader giving back to the profession via his participation on four industry boards- Houston Geological Society, IPAA (Supply and Demand Chair), AAPG (Corporate advisory Board), ARPEL and American Geological Institute(Trustee). In 2018, he received the AAPG Presidents Award for Thought Leadership. His insights are regularly sought after by the world’s leading press and he frequently keynotes at the industry’s leading events: World Economic Forum, CERAWeek by IHS Markit, the Offshore Technology Conference, IPAA, AAPG, IPAA, SPE and AIPN.

Mr. Fryklund holds an AB from Hamilton College, has completed advanced studies at the University of Houston and the University of Tulsa, and holds an advanced certificate in management.