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Technical Advisory Committee

UK and Local Members

Kopperman
Ian Kopperman, Managing Director, Pontem Analytics

Over 20 years of worldwide oil and gas project management and technical experience encompassing offshore, onshore and subsea projects, related to flow assurance, production chemistry, subsea and process engineering, and project management. Proven capabilities in business growth, management and performance improvement with success in leading, and building, dynamic engineering and technical teams and delivering innovative solutions for business expansion.

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Dr. Roel Belt, Multiphase Flow & Separation team leader, TotalEnergies

Roel Belt is a researcher at TotalEnergies’ Research Centre in Lacq, France, within the Physical Chemistry & Analysis department. He leads there the Multiphase Flow & Separation laboratory. He holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology and his main areas of research are multiphase flow in pipes (from theoretical considerations to practical applications) and the behaviour of emulsions and foams. 

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Dr. Shaun Johnston, Independent

Dr Shaun Johnston is an independent consultant. He has over a decade of experience in the energy industry leading multiple design and operations projects, both in traditional upstream oil and gas and energy transition. Shaun has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and started his career as a Flow Assurance Engineer in Perth, Australia with Wood (then Multiphase Solutions inc.) before moving to the UK and heading up the UK Office. Shaun is now in a global role leading a group covering of Flow Assurance, dynamic simulation and the implementation of real-time solutions focused on optimising operations of industrial assets and infrastructure. He is passionate about improving the way we design and operate assets to create a more efficient and sustainable future. Shaun is based near London in the UK.

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Dr. Kevin Wade, Consultant

Over 35 years’ experience in developing software and services solutions for the oil & gas industry in mathematical modelling of multiphase flow systems and production optimisation. He was the architect and developer for the 1st commercially available multiphase gas lift optimisation software in 1990.

With a career spanning Schlumberger, SPT Group (OLGA technology), Tendeka, PSE and now Siemens PSE he has conducted, and project managed numerous global production optimisation studies on behalf of oil & gas operators for the optimisation of their fields.

Publications include technical papers on production optimisation, wax deposition and field planning published by the SPE and related presentations at international conferences.

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Dr. Martin Watson, Chief Flow Assurance Engineer, Wood PLC

Martin has been solving and explaining Flow Assurance problems in the oil and gas industry for over 23 years. This includes being a co-founder of FEESA (developer of Maximus), expert witness work on Deepwater Horizon, investigating novel production system technologies and leading Flow Assurance teams on a wide range of Oil and Gas projects. His background gives him an understanding of the limitations of current modelling methods and how best to apply them to real problems. He also gives a course on Flow Assurance and Process Engineering at Imperial College, London; teaching students how the theories of fluid mechanics and heat transfer can be practically applied in the Oil and Gas Industry.

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Terry Wood,  Director, Pipelines and Subsea and Flow Assurance SME, Worley

Terry is a Flow Assurance SME and Engineering Director at Worley has over twenty-five years’ experience in the oil and gas industry as well as transporting energy transition fluids (e.g., CO2 and H2). Terry manages a large team of pipeline, subsea and flow assurance engineers. He provides technical assurance to all projects with a flow assurance and subsea processing element, whilst providing strategic leadership for the global flow assurance group.

Terry is a technical advisor on subsea processing technologies being developed internally and externally, has worked on subsea processing studies and has presented at numerous conferences / seminars on subsea processing.

Terry has managed and conducted flow assurance assessments of onshore and offshore systems (in water depths of 3,000m) as well as determined the appropriate mitigation measures including the selection of subsea processing and/or artificial lift options. Terry has significant experience in subsea and pipeline operations to develop procedures to ensure minimal disruption and bring systems back into operation.

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Peter Wilson, Flow Assurance Technical Authority, Wood

Peter is a Process/Flow Assurance Technical Authority with Wood in the UK providing SME support to a number of global projects in the early stages of operation.  He has been working in the Oil & Gas industry for over 35 years, starting his career with Shell in New Zealand prior to joining Brown & Root in the UK. He established Scandpower’s offices in the UK providing OLGA software sales, training, support and consultancy services to the UK and Africa prior to joining BG International at the FA SME supporting BG’s global operations.  Peter Holds a Bachelor of Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and is a member of the SPE.

Speranza
Dr. Alessandro Speranza, Global Technology Portfolio Manager, KBC Engineering, UK

Alessandro is a Senior Staff Consultant with KBC, working as Senior Technology Portfolio Manager across the KBC software portfolio. In his role, Alessandro coordinates the strategy development, execution, and market positioning of the KBC software products and solutions, supervises the lifecycle of software development and acts as main interface between senior management and the C-suite and the product teams to ensure consistency of strategy, processes and messaging.

Alessandro has a master’s degree in Theoretical Physics from the University of Florence and a PhD in Mathematics from King’s College London.  Alessandro has more than twenty years of experience in mathematical and computer modelling of multiphase flows, phase equilibria, phase separation and industrial applications of mathematical and physical modelling, as well as project/programme management. Before joining KBC, Alessandro worked as project manager and general coordinator within technology transfer and innovation entities linked to the University of Florence.

International Members

Barbosa
Professor Jader Barbosa, Jr. Louiusiana State University, USA

Jader Barbosa Jr. is a Professor in the Craft and Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU), USA. Until 2024, he was a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK. His academic interests encompass Fluids Engineering and Thermal Sciences, focusing on Geoenergy Engineering, Flow and Thermodynamics of Multiphase and Multicomponent Mixtures, and Emerging Cooling Technologies. Dr. Barbosa has authored over 380 scientific papers in indexed journals and presented at international peer-reviewed conferences. He is also a co-author of four patent applications and one book. During his tenure at UFSC, he supervised or co-supervised 47 undergraduate capstone projects and 55 theses/dissertations, six of which received the CAPES or ABCM/Embraer Prizes. Dr. Barbosa received the Young Scientist Award from the EUROTHERM Committee, the Dudley Newitt Award (Imperial College, 2001) and the 1999 HTFS Award (UK Heat Transfer Conference). He is President of the Assembly of World Conferences on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermodynamics (ExHFT), Journal Development Editor for Applied Thermal Engineering (Elsevier), and a member of the Editorial Boards of Multiphase Science and Technology (Begell House) and Thermophysics and Aeromechanics (Springer).

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Dr. Dag Biberg, Technology Advisor, SLB, Norway

Dag Biberg is a Technology Advisor at SLB Norway Technology Center in Oslo. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Modelling of Multiphase Pipe Flows and a Master’s degree in Fluid and Structural Mechanics, both from the University of Oslo. He began his career as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway and later became Chief Scientist at SPT Group before assuming his current role. Dag has developed several models for commercially available multiphase flow simulators, including the OLGA HD Stratified Flow Model. He has led developments for the OLGA multiphase flow simulator through joint industry projects sponsored by major oil companies worldwide, such as the Horizon JIPs, HD Power and the OLGA verification and improvement project. He received the Statoil-Hydro Research Prize for his work on multiphase flow and transport and has published over 20 papers in international journals and conference proceedings, as well as several patents. His primary research interests include gas condensate systems, turbulent boundary layers and wakes, large waves, stratified, churn and annular flows, transition criteria, shocks, and flow instabilities.

Sassan
Dr. Peter Sassan Johansson,  Principal Researcher,  Equinor As, Norway 

Peter S. Johansson is a Principal Researcher at Equinor’s Research Centre in Trondheim, Norway. He holds a doctoral engineer degree within simulation and modelling of turbulent flows from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Main areas of research are multiphase flow in gas condensate systems, with focus on field data, surging flows, minimum flow, low liquid loading systems and general model uncertainty. Recently, slug flow in deep water risers has also become a research area.

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Dr. Jørn Kjølaas,  Senior Research Scientist, SINTEF, Norway

Jørn Kjølaas has a Master’s degree in theoretical physics from NTNU in 2001, and obtained a PhD in multiphase flow in 2007. He is currently working as a senior research scientist at the SINTEF Multiphase Flow Laboratory at Tiller, where he has been employed since 2001.

Jørn’s main field of expertise is multiphase pipe flow. He has long experience with designing and conducting/supervising multiphase flow experiments, and developing multiphase models. Research topics include gas dominated three-phase flow, churn flow, flows with high-viscosity liquids, flows with surfactants, emulsion evolution, surge waves, and flow instabilities. Jørn’s main body of research has been related to the development of the multiphase flow simulator LedaFlow, for which he has developed and implemented most of the hydraulic closure laws. Jørn was awarded SINTEF’s prize for outstanding research for this work in 2015.

Jørn has been a regular contributor to the Multiphase Production Technology conference series since 2011, authoring/co-authoring a total of 16 papers to those conferences so far.

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Dr. Jan Nossen, Chief Scientist and deputy department head, Flow technology, IFE, Norway

Jan Nossen graduated in 1990 with a PhD in Fluid Mechanics from the Department of Mathematics at the University of  Oslo. Since 1990 Dr Nossen has worked on a broad range of R&D projects related to multiphase flow at IFE, involving mathematical modelling, software development, data analysis, planning of experiments and field studies. Subjects have included multiphase flow in pipe networks, multi-compositional simulations, high viscosity crude oil and modelling of stratified and slug flow with dispersions and emulsions.

Jan Nossen has worked as an active scientist and scientific advisor in R&D programmes such as HORIZON I & II and the FACE centre. Recently he has also been involved in R&D projects in reservoir simulation and increased oil recovery as well as renewable energy. In December 2015 Dr Nossen and his team were awarded a new researcher project from the Norwegian Research Council on experiments and modelling in multiphase flow in annulus geometries, which has so far produced 8 journal papers and three conference papers. He is co-author of more than 40 journal and conference papers as well as more than 90 IFE reports and has also been co-supervisor of three successful PhD projects at Department of Mathematics at the University of Oslo.

The multiphase flow group at IFE led by Jan Nossen was awarded Statoil’s research prize in 2008.

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Professor Cem Sarica, Floyd M. Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Petroleum Engineering,  Director of Fluid Flow, Paraffin Deposition, and Horizontal Well Artificial Lift Projects, The University of Tulsa, USA

Professor Cem Sarica, Floyd M. Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tulsa (TU), is currently serving as the director of three industry-supported consortia at the TU: Fluid Flow, Paraffin Deposition, and Horizontal Well Artificial Lift Projects.  His research interests are production engineering, multiphase flow in pipes, flow assurance, and horizontal wells.  He holds BS and MS degrees from Istanbul Technical University and a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from TU.  He has previously served on various SPE Committees.  He was an SPE Journal Editorial Board member between 1999 and 2007.  He served as Associate Editor of JERT of ASME between 1998 and 2003.  He was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of British Hydrodynamics Research Group (BHRg) Multiphase Production Conferences.  He served as the Technical Program Chair of the BHRg 2008 and 2012 Conferences.  He is the recipient of the 2010 SPE International Production and Operations Award.  He was recognized as a Distinguished Member of SPE in 2012.  Cem received SPE John Franklin Carll Award and SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate in 2015. 

 

Ruud Henkes
Professor Ruud Henkes, Delft University of Technology / Shell Projects and Technology, The Netherlands

Obtained Master’s Degree Aerospace Engineering (with honours) in 1985 at Delft University of Technology, and a PhD degree (with honours) in Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in 1990 at the same university. Associate Professor Aerodynamics in Delft until 1997, when he joined the multiphase flow team of the Shell Technology Centre in Amsterdam. Since then, various roles as team lead and Principal Technical Expert Fluid Flow at Shell. Combined with part-time full professorship multiphase flow at Delft since 2008, turning to the role of Scientific Director of the J.M. Burgerscentrum for Fluid Mechanics since 2021. 

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Dr. Dennis Cai, Aramco, Saudi Arabia

Xiaolong (Dennis) Cai is a Petroleum Engineering Consultant in Production & Facilities Development Dept, Saudi Aramco. Since joining Aramco in 2001, Dennis has played leading facilities engineering role in multiple upstream mega oil & gas development projects both offshore and onshore. He received a BS degree from Peking University (China) in 1986, and MS and PhD degrees from Dartmouth College in NH (USA) in 1988 & 1992, respectively. He then spent 15 months as a Postdoctoral Research Associate under Prof. James Brill in the Fluid Flow Project at the University of Tulsa. Dennis worked for Texaco E&P in Houston from 1994 to 2001, first in multiphase flow simulation, facilities design and flow assurance research and consulting, later as technology coordinator in Texaco’s Deepwater Agbami Project.

Rene
Professor René V.A. Oliemans, Emeritus Professor Multiphase Flow TUDelft and Retired from Shell Research Amsterdam, The Netherlands

René Oliemans, a Theoretical Physicist from Utrecht University, after the first Oil Crisis in 1973 , got involved in Shell Research Amsterdam in modelling the effect of the presence of condensate on the transport of Gas in long, large diameter pipelines from offshore fields to onshore locations far removed from the subsea gas reservoirs. This has led to a cooperation with Jan ten Hagen in Shell’s pipeline division to facilitate field tests that could be used for validation of the theoretical, flow-pattern dependent models he developed for Shell. From 1990 until 1998 he combined his Shell work with a professorship at the Applied Physics Department at TU Delft. He enjoyed participating in the BHR Conferences held  in June, in uneven years in Cannes (France) and in even years in Banff (Canada). These were held with the title “Multiphase Production”. According to the Paris Agreements for zero CO2 in 2050 great challenges will have to be addressed to enable  reliable multiphase flows with small amounts of gas in old, oversized pipelines.

The multiphase flow group at IFE led by Jan Nossen was awarded Statoil’s research prize in 2008.

Espedal
Dr. Mikal Espedal, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia

Mikal Espedal holds a MSc Degree in Mechanical Engineering (fluid mechanics) from Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology (NTNU) and von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium, and PhD in Multiphase Flow from NTNU. He started his career with Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Norway, working on the development of OLGA, and later joined Scandpower in Norway and Australia working with OLGA development and multiphase consulting. The last 20 years he has worked for Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, as a multiphase flow consultant, being involved with most of the company’s oil and gas field developments during this period.

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Dr. Eduardo Pereyra, Associate Professor, University of Tulsa,TUFFP, USA

 Eduardo Pereyra is an associate professor at the McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering and associate director at the Fluid Flow Project (TUFFP.org) and Horizontal Wells Artificial Lift Projects of The University of Tulsa (TUHWALP.org). Eduardo holds two B.E. Degree, one in Mechanical Engineering and one in System Engineering, from the University of Los Andes, Merida, Venezuela.  He received his Master’s and Ph.D. Degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Tulsa.  His research interests are multiphase flow and its application to transportation, flow assurance, artificial lift, multiphase measurements, and separation technologies. He is one of the TU faculties associated with the University of Tulsa North Campus Research Facilities. This campus contains unique facilities and state-of-the-art instrumentation for energy-related research.

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Dr. Hariprasad J. Subramani, Strategic Relationship Manager, Chevron Technology Ventures, USA

Hariprasad J. Subramani (Hari) joined Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV) as the Strategic Relationship Manager in October 2020. Hari’s role focuses on identifying, developing, and managing strategic external relationships to propel scalable technology innovation for company’s higher returns and lower carbon aspirations. Prior to joining CTV, Hari has served as a Senior Flow Assurance Advisor in Chevron Energy Technology Company for about 14 years, championing technology development & deployment and supporting design and operation of deep-water oil/gas production facilities in Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Americas. Hari is passionate about mentoring K-12/college students and early career- professionals in academia/industry. He has held several leadership roles in technical discipline committees and/or sections of Society of Petroleum Engineers International and  American Institute of Chemical Engineers and has been recognized with international and regional technical awards from these professional societies.  Hari holds PhD, MEng, and BTech degrees in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, National University of Singapore, and Anna University (India) respectively. 

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Steven P Smith, Independent  Consultant, Canada

Steve has been involved in the development of multiphase flow solutions for oilfield applications for 30 years.  He joined Neotec in 1993 as a member of the Technical Services team where his primary responsibilities included providing technical support, training, and consulting services, all of which required extensive application of computer modeling to the design and analysis of systems involving multiphase flow.  In 2008, Steve was named President & CEO of Neotec.  Following the acquisition of Neotec by SPT in 2010, and the subsequent acquisition of SPT by SLB in 2012, Steve took on a series of Portfolio Management roles related to the development of Schlumberger’s production engineering and production operations software.  He is currently leading business development efforts for SLB’s process simulation and digital twin solutions.

Steve is the author or co-author of several papers on multiphase flow and related subjects and has been involved in over 200 international consulting projects.  He holds M.Eng. and B.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary and is a registered professional engineer in Canada.  Steve has been actively involved with BHR since the 1st North American Conference on Multiphase Technology in 1998.

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Professor Eissa Al-Safran, Kuwait University, Kuwait

Eissa Al-Safran is a professor of petroleum engineering and former vice dean for research and academic affairs at the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University. Al-Safran was a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Tulsa (TU), and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT). Al-Safran worked as a reservoir engineer, and production engineering consultant in Kuwait Oil Company. He is the coauthor of the SPE book Applied Multiphase Flow in Pipes and Flow Assurance-Oil and Gas Production, and has authored and coauthored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications. Al-Safran received the regional SPE 2017 Distinguished Achievement for Petroleum Engineering Faculty Award, the regional SPE 2019 Production and Operations Award, the international SPE 2020 Distinguished Membership Award, the regional SPE 2021 Service Award, and the international SPE 2022 Production and Operations Award.

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Yongqian (Richard) Fan
Dr. Yongquian Fan, ConocoPhillips, USA

Yongqian (Richard) Fan is a Staff Flow Assurance engineer in ConocoPhillips (COP). He supports COP’s worldwide projects and operations in the areas of multiphase flow, sand transport, hydrate, surge analysis, etc. He worked for BP America, SPT Group, and SINOCHEM before re-joining COP in 2020. Yongqian Fan holds a MS degree from Petroleum University of China (Beijing) and a Ph.D from Tulsa University, both in Petroleum Engineering.

Erich Zakarian Dec 2024
Dr. Erich Zakarian, Flow Assurance Lead, Woodside Energy, Australia

Erich Zakarian is a Flow Assurance engineer with 25 years of experience in Oil & Gas field development, support to operations, Flow Assurance risk management, multiphase flow modelling, and dynamic simulation.

This experience includes the supervision of the flow assurance scope for offshore megaprojects at Woodside (Sangomar and Browse) and Total (Shtokman). Before joining Woodside 15 years ago, Erich worked for Total and Schlumberger.

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Dr. Phandeendra Kondapi, Colorado School of Mines, USA

Dr. Kondapi is an affiliate professor at Colorado School of Mines in the department of chemical and biological engineering  Previously he served as professor and director of subsea engineering at University of Houston and also served as the director and professor of subsea engineering Texas A&M University. He worked on various production management and advisory systems and flow assurance studies at FMC Technologies, KBR, and Wood. Kondapi is a distinguished member of SPE and holds a PhD from Tennessee Technological University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Andhra University, all in chemical engineering

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Joerg Lewerenz, ITT Bornemann GmbH, Germany

Joerg Lewerenz holds a professional qualification as a motor mechanic and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Science Hanover. He began his career in 1996 as a design engineer and project manager in the design department of Joh.-Heinrich Bornemann GmbH. In 1999, Joerg transitioned to the company’s R&D department, where he has been involved in several projects investigating subsea and downhole multiphase twin screw pump technology. Currently, he serves as the R&D manager, focusing on the further development of multiphase twin screw technology for new applications.

Tom Danielson
Dr. Tom Danielson, Ellipsis Engineering, USA

Tom Danielson holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He brings over three decades of expertise in the oil and gas industry, including a distinguished 31-year career at ConocoPhillips, where he specialized in R&D and technical service roles with a primary focus on transient multiphase flow simulation.

Throughout his career, Tom developed numerous fit-for-purpose simulation tools that enhanced flow modeling and operational safety, including:

  • A hydrodynamic slug model for simulating slug flow in pipelines,

  • A transient simulation tool for slack line flow scenarios, and

  • A simulation and analysis tool for investigating water hammer events during hydraulic fracturing of shale wells.

He was also instrumental in the development of LEDAFLOW, an advanced commercial transient flow simulator widely used in the oil and gas industry to model complex flow systems.

Tom holds two patents:

  1. One for a novel framework for simulating hydrodynamic slug flow, and

  2. Another for a movable choke design used for flow stabilization in multiphase systems.

At Ellipsis Services LLC, Tom leads research and development initiatives focused on advancing simulation technologies to address emerging challenges in flow modeling, hydraulic fracturing, and production optimization.

Bruce
Dr. Bruce Norris, Lecturer & Research Fellow, University of Western Australia, Australia

Bruce Norris is a Lecturer & Research Fellow with the Department of Chemical Engineering at UWA. His research focuses on quantifying fugitive methane emissions associated with LNG production, and managing the risks associated with gas hydrates in subsea energy developments. The goal throughout this research is to assist industry in optimising their operational and design philosophies with a view of lowering costs, improving safety, and reducing the carbon intensity of energy production.

https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/bruce-norris

Montini
Dr. Marco Montini, Head of flow Aassurance, Eni, Italy 

Marco Montini holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, specializing in multiphase flow simulations. Following his studies, he joined FEESA as a flow assurance consultant and developer of the Maximus software. Over the past 12 years, he has held various roles within Eni, spanning the engineering and production departments. He is currently the head of the flow assurance group in the upstream production department, overseeing troubleshooting and production optimization projects for all Eni-operated assets. Recently, he was appointed as Eni’s subject matter expert for flow assurance and gathering systems optimization.

Tzotzi
Dr. Christina Tzotzi, Tender Manager, Nordex SAS, France 

Christina Tzotzi holds a Chemical Engineering Diploma Aristotle a Ph.D Thesis from Mechanical Engineering Department in Fluid Mechanics. She has worked as a post-doctoral fellow at French  Institute of Petroleum, doing research in Oil and Gas transportation in subsea pipelines. 

She is working currently as Tender Manager at Nordex France responsible for onshore windfarms development in Greece and East Mediterranean region.  

In addition, she has over 12 years of experience in offshore Oil and Gas constructions working at different positions in France. She was in charge, when working at TechnipFMC for the development and qualification of innovative technologies, used in Oil and Gas developments in collaboration with the major Oil Companies. She has also worked on the Design, Engineering and Development of Oil and Gas fields in West Africa, Europe and Norway, at the role of Proposal Manager for TechnipFMC and Subsea7.  

Christina throughout her career in France won the “Woman of the Year” award in 2015 and was very active writing and presenting innovative work in International Conferences. She has also written scientific articles for international journals. 

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