Our team

Ivo holds degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering & Management and has gained well engineering and on- and offshore well operations experience through working internationally with both rig contractors and operators. He started his career in Shell where he followed a classic but broad development in well engineering (including Round 1 and 2 certification) and has worked in a variety of drilling operations and engineering roles, in The Netherlands, North Sea and later in China in a Shell / CNPC joint venture as project and operations manager to start-up bespoke drilling units in Shell operations worldwide. Ivo has a passion for improving performance and enjoys driving well optimisation solutions forward for WellSpec clients. He is co-founder and partner of WellSpec where he leads the squad as Wells director.

Niki has an educational background in business economics and is PRINCE2-certified. His career had him exposed to supply chain management, project planning, change management and operations management through a variety of functions. He enjoys building and sustaining relationships with clients, partners and colleagues and fulfils a vital and central role in effectively managing these relationships within WellSpec and the wider ModuResources Group.

Steve started his career as a Mud logger in 1977 and followed his passion and has been a drilling engineer ever since. Initially working as wellsite drilling engineer on high pressure gas wells in the Middle east, followed by some of the first horizontal wells in the North Sea. In 1995 he started work on the first underbalanced drilling operations in Europe and South America both with coiled tubing and jointed pipe. In 2004 he moved to Asia and there worked on some of the first Mud Cap wells from floaters. He was part of the team developing, designing and drilling with the first ultra-deepwater MPD system in Indonesia. In 2010 he started working on well control and hydraulics modeling for MPD systems and that resulted in significant experience in well control, well kill operations and relief well planning. Steve was drilling adviser with Schlumberger with a high focus on well control and managed pressure drilling operations for HPHT wells. During that time, he was also an instructor for NExT teaching well engineering courses. Steve has authored and presented several papers and authored several chapters in SPE Advanced Technology books and is an active committee member and speaker on SPE Workshops around the world.

After graduating with a BSc in Geology from the University of Manchester, he started his career in mud logging initially, then trained as a drilling engineer with Sperry Sun; working as a well site drilling engineer on North Sea drilling and production platforms in Shell Expro UK’s Northern Business Unit. He started working on underbalanced drilling operations in 1999 as a project manager and drilling engineer with Halliburton on UBD projects in South East Asia, Australia and North Africa, including high gas flow rate UBD wells drilled offshore Malaysia for Shell. He then transferred to Halliburton Norway in 2006, developing advanced automated MPD manifold and control systems, and designing deepwater riser deployed MPD systems for Statoil. Henry was instrumental in starting up Managed Pressure Operations (MPO) in 2009, and lead the well engineering and design, training, operations and implementation of one of the industry’s first ultra deepwater MPD projects, offshore Indonesia for Murphy and Hess. Over the last 10 years he has also had extensive experience in developing riser gas handling systems, and permanently installing and commissioning MPD systems on existing and new build drill ships. MPO also pioneered using drill pipe continuous circulation systems with MPD techniques, both onshore and offshore. Henry has joined WellSpec as a principle well engineer, specialising in MPD, UBD and deepwater operations, based in the Netherlands; supporting clients globally. He assists clients with Front End Engineering and Design (FEED), MPD engineering technical advice, MPD training, offshore MPD operational support and MPD QHSE process development. Henry has authored and presented several SPE papers and is an active committee member and speaker on SPE and IADC workshops around the world.

Jan recently retired from Shell after a 33-year career in Well Engineering and New Technology development. He is now employed with ModuResources/WellSpec as Technology and Innovation Manager, based in the Netherlands. During his career with Shell, Jan worked in several well engineering positions, from operations to senior management, with extensive exposure to Well Delivery management, as well as management of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), Contracts & Procurement, and Logistics. The well engineering projects included drilling, completion, well intervention and stimulation work in mature areas, such as the North Sea and Middle East, exploration drilling in shallow and deep water in remote areas (Kazakhstan Ukraine, Pakistan, Egypt) and green-field developments (Malaysia). He also completed assignments as Manager Wells R&D in Shell’s research centre in the Netherlands, where he introduced the concept of Open Innovation, and as Technology Deployment Manager in Malaysia. Jan is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and served as chairman of the organizing committee for the 2015 SPE/IADC Drilling and Technology Conference and Exhibition in London.

BJ is a professional drilling engineer with a Bachelor degree from Noorder Haaks, majoring in drilling and production engineering. BJ started his allround career with Schlumberger Dowell and became proficient in cementing and coiled tubing operations. BJ then made the switch to consultancy and worked for major operators such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Apache, RWE, DNO and ENI in various drilling engineering, supervisory and management roles. His expertise is manifested in providing technical solutions for the upstream business, be it onshore or offshore, adapting to what is available at hand. He has proven leadership and project management skills, which has resolved in many operations to complete successfully.

Gert started his career in the early eighties in Shell in The Netherlands (NAM) and Qatar (QGPC), where he worked in the drilling, well engineering and safety departments. During that period he gained considerable hands on experience on land rigs and jack up rigs. In the mid-nineties he moved to Oman where he worked as senior well engineer operations, field supervisor and as well engineer on a rigless abandonment project. Early 2000, Gert returned to NAM as wells project manager where his responsibilities included the design and delivery of 73 high temperature wells for the Schoonebeek re-development project. Following this project, Gert led the NAM well engineering department, where he was accountable for well (campaign) maturation including new wells, side tracks, workover, rig-based abandonment and post-rig well interventions. During this period, Gert was also the technical authority for well design within the organization.

He joined WellSpec after an international career with Shell. He has built his experience in well engineering and drilling operations in a variety of positions world-wide. He took part in onshore and offshore operations being responsible for HSSE, technical & operational assurance, contractor management, personnel management, commercial and legal aspects of the projects. He has experience in delivering development, exploration, workover, abandonment projects in jungle, desert and densely populated areas using traditional rigs, highly automtated rigs, Coil Tubing units and HWO. In his most recent role with Shell, Frans was the wells operations manager for NAM from 2008-2016 where he was accountable for all wells operations for all NAM & Shell UK activities in the Netherlands and Southern North Sea. Recently he has been taking part in independent well examination for Geothermal projects and review work for Salt cavern workover.

During the early stage of his career, Hans was active as Production Engineer in the Groningen gasfield in the North of The Netherlands. He prepared well services jobs like perforating, cased hole logging, coiled tubing and acid stimulation and supervised the execution of such projects. In 1997, Hans started doing offshore workover and well services projects as operations supervisor for the Well Services department and held the responsibility of planning and execution of such projects. Hans took on the role of senior completions engineer in 2007 and spearheaded a project for completions optimization onshore and offshore which included perforation design and strategy for new wells, sidetracks and workover to optimize inflow performance. As senior production technologist, Hans was responsible for new developments and technologies like the big bore completions for UGS wells, frac design with RFID technology and ultra-slim well design.

Bert is an experienced drilling professional with over 35 years of experience, mostly gained out in the field. He started his career as a NAM trainee in 1977 and then progressed through the drilling ranks before becoming in charge of single rig operations. His career mostly with Shell has seen Bert exposed to a wide range of drilling and well operations on land and offshore. Via Shell he has been through extensive training programmes, including the Round 1 and 2 programs. Particular experience in HPHT operations and rig start-ups. Bert took retirement from Shell in 2011 but still has a passion for working in the drilling industry and passing on his knowledge and experience.

Prem is a senior drilling engineer with a postgraduate degree in Drilling and Well Engineering from The Robert Gordon University and a honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Sunderland. Prem started his career in the industry by specializing in Managed Pressure Drilling and quickly achieved a number of notable projects under his belt. After having gained the specialized experience, Prem moved into drilling consultancy and gained depth of experience working with several operators in the capacity of drilling and well engineering in planning, construction, operations and management for deepwater, HPHT, MPD, ERD, directional and also in conventional exploration, development and appraisal wells in offshore, onshore and remote operations. His varied and broad experience in drilling and well engineering has had him in roles such as Drilling Engineer, Night Drilling Supervisor, Drilling and Wellsite Operations Engineer, Managed Pressure Drilling and Project Engineer for both office-based engineering and wellsite operations (Semi-submersible, Drillship, Jackup, Tender and Land rigs) in various countries. He has proven to be a responsible, independent, hands-on individual with a strong work ethic and proven project management skills.

Scott graduated with a degree in Geological Engineering (Geophysics Major) in 1987 and worked for various Independent and Major Oil Companies in Canada, primarily in production, petroleum and reservoir engineering roles. After moving to Australia in 1996, he joined Halliburton’s well testing group providing planning, design and support, as well as offshore test engineering & supervision, before taking on a role as the Asia Pacific Technical Lead for the Underbalanced Applications Group. He has since worked as team leader for various integrated offshore and land-based MPD & UBD projects, including Pressurized Mud-Cap Drilling (PMCD), Continuous Circulation technology and High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) operations. He has conducted numerous feasibility studies, Front-End Engineering & Design (FEED), and provided operational support, training and onsite engineering & supervision, helping to drive projects to results

Ken has accumulated 39 years’ well engineering experience and has worked up through Drilling Engineer, DSV and Drilling Superintendent to ultimately reach the role of Drilling Project Manager. He has worked internationally for most of his career, including Canada, North Africa, the Middle East and extensively in Asia Pacific. His engineering experience covers deepwater drilling, advanced MPD operations, tri-lateral drilling, air drilling, foam drilling and UBD, in addition to conventional exploration and development drilling. After developing MPD solutions for Weatherford in Asia Pacific during 2002-2008, primarily Jack-Up and floating rig PMCD solutions, Ken was appointed Head of Engineering for Secure Drilling, offering “state of the art” automated MPD solutions and subsequently project managed offshore MPD projects including the first semi-submersible deepwater automated MPD solution for ENI offshore Libya. More recently Ken has applied his MPD expertise to successfully re-abandon a leaking gas well in East Malaysia with a pressurized surface solution for Petronas and run the MPD Engineering for a BP Baku MPD project. Ken now delivers MPD Project Engineering Process & Procedures expertise, MPD Training, plus offshore & deepwater MPD Operational and Engineering support for WellSpec.

Bas is a seasoned drilling engineer with broad experience in well planning, well design, procurement, initiation of drilling campaigns and well abandonments. Bas came through the ranks with Shell, starting as a member of their drilling teams and eventually supervising drilling operations for Shell Norway and PDO. He got more and more involved in drilling engineering and since 2005 has mainly worked as senior drilling engineer within large and small international operators in various locations globally. He has experience with UBD and MPD operations, HPHT wells requiring 15K rated drilling rigs and unconventional and tight gas exploration. Bas enjoys working on challenging projects requiring a re-invention of proven techniques. His exposure to training delivery throughout his career enables him to pass on knowledge using his extensive experience as foundation.

Savitri studied Engineering at Gadjah Mada University where she graduated with honours, after that she started her career in the Oil industry as a Field Engineer, working for Schlumberger in Balikpapan, Indonesia. She has worked in a variety of functions within the organization for seven years in Indonesia before finally starting her career in Drilling Engineering in 2011 when she got her assignment in the Sultanate of Oman. Here she worked at several clients the first year to get a good understanding of the market and the specifics of the Omani fields before being assigned solely to Occidental of Oman (OXY). She enjoys working on analysis, performance optimization and looking at data which benefits the client and the company. After couple of years of sabbatical and moved to the Netherlands with her family, she is now looking forward to continue her career in Oil & Gas

Martin Meinster is a highly experienced Petroleum Engineering specialist with an extensive background in well services. Since 1984 Martin worked for The Expro Group in a variety of positions offshore and onshore before becoming Regional Technical Manager in 1997. In 2000 Martin started his own company EMPEC as a one man company in petroleum engineering / consultancy in the upstream oil and gas industry. Specialised in technical and environmental solutions on high pressure solids control systems, Under Balanced Drilling separation systems, UBD Engineering, Coiled Tubing Drilling operations, fluid behaviour, data management, QHSE, QA/QC and full project management. Martin currently works at the Well Academy as a Well Intervention Pressure Control Instructor and is part of the IWCF Well Intervention Taskforce.

“During my practical year at Noorder Haaks College, I had the opportunity to work for a major drilling contractor offshore and I loved it”. Since his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in gas- and petroleum technologies, Richard has worked on Jack-up drilling rigs for several major contractors and learned all about drilling wells firsthand. Since then his career developed from roustabout to Senior Toolpusher, mostly on the harsh North Sea, while working for Noble, Maersk and Swift and more recent onshore for KCADeutag. Having experience on all aspects of well operations, Richard accepted a new challenge and switched to well supervision to guide drilling operations and execute a difficult drilling program on an offshore extended reach exploration well. Since then he is a part of the MR Wellspec team supervising and supporting drilling, workover and abandonment operations.

After having worked with Shell for 30 years globally, Roelant joined WellSpec with a broad background in well engineering, well construction and abandonment. He started as a driller and held drilling supervisor positions on HPHT projects, extended reach wells and high H2S drilling operations performed with land rigs, platform rigs and semi-submersibles. After having spent 4 years at Shell’s Simwell training centre as Manager and UBD trainer, he returned to well operations as a senior project engineer preparing for challenging drilling operations in Iran, Nigeria, Russia and Oman both from a commercial and technical perspective. In most well operations, he was involved in drilling operations preparation, rig contracting, drilling supervision and delivery/handover of wells. Competence development has been a key driver for Roelant in all the projects he was involved in.

Jamal holds a bachelor degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Al-Baath University in Homs, Syria where he graduated in 1990. He then joined Shell Syria Petroleum Development (SPDC) where he has held a variety of (senior) well intervention supervisory roles with in-depth exposure to wireline, coiled tubing, beam pump, wellhead maintenance, completion, and e-line operations. Before leaving Syria, Jamal was the section head field well services in SPDC, leading a team of 20 professionals. Jamal came to the Netherlands as a refugee several years ago and is now keen on putting his knowledge and experience into practice at WellSpec, whilst further adapting to life in The Netherlands.