Just some of the industry's leading experts who will share their knowledge and experience

Dr. Walter L. Kuehnlein has his own consulting company SEA2ICE Ltd. & Co. KG, dealing with all design and concept related aspects of offshore structures and systems which are caused by environmental challenges like wind, current, waves and especially ice. At present, tailor made concepts and design philosophies for offshore systems in ice covered waters are his main field of activity.

Dr. Walter L. Kuehnlein graduated in Civil Engineering and received his Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering at the University of Technology Berlin, Germany. His Ph.D. work, titled "Seakeeping Tests with Transient Wave Packets" was awarded with the Weinblum Price and also with the Werner-von-Siemens-Medal. Dr. Walter L. Kuehnlein has more than 25 years of experience in offshore and arctic engineering.

Since 1997, he is heavily involved in the North Caspian Project, where he worked in the USA, Russia and Kazakhstan as Engineering and Project Manager and still nowadays as adviser for the first drilling project in the North Caspian Sea. From 2001 till 2009 he was Director at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA), responsible for Ice & Offshore. At HSVA most of all major arctic offshore projects have been analyzed, tested and improved.

Dr. Walter L. Kuehnlein has a Lectureship for Ocean Engineering at the Institute of Ship Technology and Transport Systems at the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany and he is Chairman of the Board of the German Association for Marine Technology (GMT) and Chairman of the Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering (OOAE) Division of ASME. He also served as Chairman of the OMAE 2006 Conference in Hamburg and he serves since 2001 as Coordinator for the Polar and Arctic Sciences and Technology Symposium of OMAE.

Martijn has over 16 years of experience in various roles in operations and engineering of offshore oil and gas facilities and associated supporting facilities, offices and personnel, for various companies, like Bluewater Energy Services (engineering, operations support, maintenance coordinator), Prosafe Production (Operations Manager FPSO Abo and FDPSO Azurite), and IntecSea.
Martijn has a Bachelor in Engineering in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, College of Haarlem, The Netherlands.  He is currently working as Project Manager for IntecSea BV in Delft, on the FEED scope for an arctic area FPSO project (turret scope and general technical assurance aspects).

Johan Petter Barlindhaug has established the largest combined consulting, development and engineering company in Northern Norway, as well as several smaller industrial firms in his region of the country. He is a national expert on the northern areas, and one of the leading experts on Russian oil and gas industry in Norway. Barlindshaug is also behind a range of impact assessments involving the points of intersection between fish, sea transport and oil and gas.

Co-owner and the director of consultation centre GECON (St.-Petersburg - Moscow).  Previously, Director of Institute for geology and development of fossil fuels of the Ministry of fuel and energy of the Russian Federation.

Field of concerns: management of fuel and energy complex – the development of oil & gas resources, the transport infrastructure, the investment environment. More than 250 printed papers.

Member of councils under the plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation to the Northwest Federal District -  for the development of the fuel-energy complex and on cross-border and interregional cooperation; the chairman of expert group concerning development of mineral resources and development of transport system in Arctic regions. Member of Problem council of the Russian academy of sciences for geology and development of oil and gas fields. The academician of the Russian academy of natural sciences (oil and gas branch).

Karen Sund has worked with the commercial and strategic side of gas for two decades in more than 20 countries. She has a wide outlook, not only geographically, but across value chains and sectors, all useful in developing scenarios for future energy that take in prices, behaviour and policy. This has been particularly useful in working on global strategies for large gas exporters, supporting regulators for upstream, introducing gas to new countries, helping utilities meet market liberalisation or even supporting clean tech in finding profitable business models. Karen runs Sund Energy, a team of 10 experts in 4 countries, sits on several company boards, and is a guest lecturer for executive master in energy management in addition to supporting IGU and other industry organisations. Over the last couple of years she has followed the unconventional gas growth and has developed scenarios for its impact on gas demand, prices and flows – presenting this in many countries, both publicly and to clients with views on impact of possibilities and threats.

Mikko Niini is a Naval Architect and has been Managing Director of Aker Arctic Technology Inc. since 2005. In recent years Mikko has been involved in oil and gas developments in North of Russia, Sakhalin, Alaska and the Caspian Sea. Mikko has been a co-chairman of the Shipbuilding working group in the Russian-Finnish Commission for Economic Co-operation in 1999 - 2010 and today holds that position for the Oil and Gas working group. He is also a Board member of the Round Table of the European Maritime Clusters as well as Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Oy.

Wylie Spicer is counsel to McInnes Cooper, one of the 20 largest law firms in Canada. He has been involved in deepwater/harsh environment issues offshore for his entire career. He has spoken on many of the Arctic concerns including sovereignty, oil and gas production, transportation, regulation of the industry. Wylie has worked with oil companies, shipping interests, rig owners and contractors. In addition Wylie has taught maritime law at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is currently working on issues arising from the Deepwater Horizon incident.

John Westwood has over 40 years’ experience of the energy industries. With a background in subsea technology, beginning in the North Sea he spent 12 years in offshore contracting. He has founded four companies in sectors ranging from underwater technology to business research. In 1990 he formed international energy business advisors Douglas-Westwood where he is now chairman. Described as a “top energy research group” by the Financial Times, the award-winning firm acts as advisors to industry, banking and governments worldwide. It has completed over 700 projects to date supplying its services to clients in 70 countries.

Björn Alfthan is Project Assistant within the Polar Programme of UNEP/GRID-Arendal. He is involved in most current communications and outreach projects within the Programme. He has worked as assistant editor for the production of both Arctic Council and United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) reports on the state of the Arctic environment, and is currently an author and coordinator for Polar contributions to the Global Environment Outlook 5, UNEP’s flagship publication on the global environment. Other on-going activities include working on adaptation to climate change utilizing traditional knowledge, and participating in a new initiative on promoting dialogue between European NGOs on the state of the Arctic environment, funded by the European Commission. Björn holds a Masters Degree in Biodiversity Conservation from the University of Oxford and a BSc in Biology from Imperial College London.

Anne has a Masters Degree in Marine Biology from University of Oslo. She has several years experience in preparing oil spill contingency analyses in commissioned by operating companies in Norway and abroad.

Mr. Wentzell has been in the business of marine electronics since 1970. During this time he has been in increasingly responsible positions for engineering, marketing, product and project management, of hydro acoustic, radio, microwave, laser and radar sensors, electronic chart and integrated bridge systems and integrated research vessel systems.

He is now the representative of Rutter Technologies in Europe, and advisor for navigation technology and international regulations. This also involves the training of agents and users in advanced radar technology for navigation in ice and the detection of small targets or oil slicks.

Trygve graduated in 1968 from Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim as Chemical Engineer (MSc).  He has worked in the oil & gas industry, process design, project- and construction management since 1971 for Shell, Saga Petrokjemi, Statoil and Aker group of companies.  For the last 13 years Trygve has been engaged in developing new concepts and technology for offshore natural gas production.

When Guillaume joined Bureau Veritas, he worked as a Structural Naval Engineer for different types of floating units, with a particular focus on FPSOs. He has mainly worked on several converted F(P)SO, dealing at first with corrosion and fatigue issues. He participated to implement asset integrity management systems on offshore floating units (both F(P)SOs and buoys). He then managed the verification of several new LNG projects, including shipping, regasification or LNG FPSO. He is currently based in Norway, as Offshore Project Manager.

Although Richard lives and works above the Arctic Circle in Tromsø he is in fact British.  His education is based around satellites and Earth observation and has taken him around the world from the tropical waters of Malaysia to the frozen oceans of the Arctic. After completing 5 scientific expeditions in the Arctic with the Scott Polar Research Institute and the Norwegian Polar Institute he decided to join the real world and now works for Kongsberg Satellite Services where he is responsible for developing products and services for real-time monitoring of the Arctic. He has spoken on numerous occasions on the role of satellite technology can play in ensuring Human activity in the polar regions is maximised while ensuring high safety standards and environment protection are maintained.

Mr. Blaauw joined Shell in 1980. He started in technical and operational functions and thereafter moved to commercial and general management roles in Shell operating companies in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 2002, he moved to Shell’s corporate headquarters in The Netherlands, where he was Business Development Manager for the Caspian, Middle East and later Russia. Since 2010 he is managing the Global Arctic Theme for Shell (technical, social, environmental and communications). This includes working with strategic partners in support of Shell’s business in the Arctic and industry associations to improve global industry standards in the Arctic.

Mr. Blaauw grew up in The Hague and studied at the Technical University Delft where he received an Msc. in Civil Engineering.

Prior to joining Lloyd’s Register Des served in the Royal Navy and then worked in a London based ship-broking company. Des joined Lloyd’s Register over 15 years ago and has held a number of market research and analyst positions within the marine marketing and business development groups during this time. In late 2006, he was appointed as Ice & Cold Operations Business Manager to co-ordinate Lloyd’s Register’s business in this sector.

In late 2008, he attended the first Ship Handling and Icebreakers simulator course at the Transatlantic Ice Academy, Kalmar Maritime Academy, Sweden and in early 2009 he was a guest of the Swedish Maritime Administration on board the icebreaker Ymer operating in the Gulf of Bothnia.

He has co-written a number of conference papers relating to cold climate operations and these include issues relating to Environmental Protection requirements; Challenges and synergy of the winterisation of ships and offshore structures; Human performance in ice and cold conditions, The IceFile – A concept for a ship cold climate capability assessment and operational manual and Ship emergency response in Polar waters.  Additionally he contributed to the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment report which was adopted by the Arctic Council in April 2009, and the subsequent follow up workshop/roadmap held at the University of Alaska in 2010.

R.J. Brown has 60 years in marine pipeline engineering and graduated from Ohio University with a BSCE in 1950, and Stanford with an MSCE in 1963. In 2008 he was inducted into the prestigious "Offshore Energy Center’s" Hall of Fame. He began R.J.Brown and Associates in 1969 and received seven OTC meritorious awards associated with diver-less tie-ins, pipeline plowing, and bottom towing. He has also received the Stephen D. Bechtel Pipeliner of the Year Award, and the OTC Heritage Award. He has been instrumental in the design and construction of two laybarges; the Suleyman Vezirov in the Caspian and the Viking Piper (LB200) - the first of the third generation laybarges. In 1976 he developed the first, of 30, pipeline pre and post trenching plows. Also, he was directly involved in the first successful Arctic bundled pipeline installed for PanArctic on Melville Island for the Drake-76 well. Developing a 2-D model for both engineering and providing construction supervision during the installation phase. Over the years the modeling aspect has evolved as a very successful tool for ultra deep water depths (10,000’) aiding in both supervision, and training contractor’s crews in thinking three dimensionally. He presently is the Director of R J Brown Deepwater® a Technip Company.

After completion of post graduate courses at Moscow University of Civil Engineering Igor Kopsov joined J.P.Kenny in Aberdeen, specializing in design and installation of subsea pipelines and structures. Later he moved to Norway, where initially worked for Ugland Offshore and in 1996 joined Technip Norge. Igor was an Engineering Project Manager on a number of EPCI projects, including Balder, Ringhorne and Alvheim. Since 2006 he has the position of Sales and Marketing Manager – SURF Russia.

Igor has published a number of papers on fracture mechanics, analysis of subsea structure installation, and execution of projects in the Arctic.

Joar has more than 19 years of research and working experience in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and risk analyses with specialist CFD experience on prediction of fires and explosions, Vortex-Induced vibration (VIV) and Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). He has experienced with probabilistic analyses of various types, including probabilistic fire and explosion loads. Dalheim was central in the development of the DNV procedure for calculation of probabilistic fire loads based on CFD simulations.  He has several publications in international journals and conferences, and is also a co-author of a book on numerical modeling. Dalheim holds a PhD from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

Yannis Calogeras is currently employed within the Bureau Veritas Sales & Marketing Division, as Product Manager for Gas Carriers & Tankers, based in Paris. He holds a degree in Marine Engineering from the University of Greenwich.

Following time spent at sea, working within ship repair and as a ship superintendent, he joined BV in 1998 working first in their London Marine Centre, an operations division with head office functions for that region, then became a ships in service and new building Surveyor and for the last six years, prior to his most recent appointment, primarily performed Condition Assessment Program (CAP) surveys and life extension studies on vessels including LNG, LPG and oil tankers. He was also appointed as a regional head office auditor. He took up his current position in June 2009. 

Gregor joined INTECSEA's Advanced Engineering Group in 2008. The group specialise in providing innovative and practical solutions to engineering problems through the application of advanced analysis techniques. He has several years pipeline design experience and more than ten years advanced numerical analysis experience in the oil and automotive industries. Gregor has an MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Aberdeen and an MSc(Eng) by Research from the University of Leeds. He is a Chartered Engineer in the UK.

Christian is in charge of R&D for ITP Interpipe. He pursues the development of advanced Pipe-in-pipe concepts including heat tracing, high-performance insulation materials and light-weight insulated pipes for ultra-deep water. Christian Geertsen was the ITP Project Manager in charge of the design and fabrication of the Rosa pipe-in-pipe flowlines that were installed as a tie-back to Total’s Girassol FPSO in Angola. A ten-year professional in the O&G industry, Christian Geertsen has also worked in the aluminium industry where he headed a Materials Analysis group and the French Atomic Energy Agency where he developed laser-based instrumentation. He holds a PhD in physics from the Ecole Polytechnique and an engineering degree from Ecole Centrale.

Mr Horpestad has a Master of Arts (Russian studies) from the University of Bergen in 1983.  Previous position include Minister/DCM Norwegian Embassy in Paris, Deputy Director General, MFA, Minister Counsellor/DCM Norwegian Embassy in Moscow and Head of Section, MFA.  He currently holds the position of Special Advisor on High North Policy with the Norewegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.