Our team of exceptional oil finders and deal makers has unparalleled experience in domestic and global exploration and an excellent track record delivering material value.
Edwin Zeelmaekers
Edwin is the Founder and CEO of Eburon Resources. His 15 years of experience in the global upstream Oil & Gas industry has provided him a distinct view on the different strengths both Majors and smaller independents apply to Exploration value creation. This inspired his vision to combine the key strengths of both into a single company, Eburon Resources. Edwin is laser-focused on leveraging the unparalleled value of the deep technical expertise the industry has to offer and ensuring its close integration with nimble and pragmatic executive decision-making.
Prior to founding Eburon Resources he held a variety of roles at Shell over a 10-year period, with key experience in evaluating conventional and unconventional growth opportunities and assets for New Business Development and Deal Delivery activities in a variety of geological and commercial settings. He has actively worked both sides of the Atlantic Margins, the Gulf of Mexico and onshore North America, evaluating exploration opportunities and asset transactions in over 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, including some of the largest exploration farm-in opportunities globally in the past decade. He started his career at Chevron, first as a consultant and visiting scientist and later as supervisor of Chevron’s mineral analysis labs.
Edwin holds a BSc and MSc in Geology and a PhD in Quantitative Mineralogy from the University of Leuven in Belgium. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) and has served as an international Chamber of Commerce chairman for many years in Houston.
Liam Clarke
Liam has over 20 years of industry experience in a wide-ranging global career where he has held positions across Exploration, Production and Operations. He has worked extensively in onshore and offshore settings, from basin to prospect scale and has hands-on expertise supporting opportunity screening and well delivery activities in both operated and non-operated ventures.
Prior to joining Eburon Liam was at Shell for 9 years where most recently he led subsurface work identifying and progressing growth opportunities in new and established shale and tight reservoir plays in the US Gulf Coast and Permian Basins. Prior to that he was based in the Netherlands where he was the subsurface integration lead for Shell’s KPMA Joint Venture with Gazprom-Neft in Russia, spearheading regional and field screening studies in close collaboration with JV partners and providing operational support to an exploration and appraisal campaign by Shell subsidiary SPD in Western Siberia. Prior to these roles he carried out global onshore basin screenings in support of new business development. Before joining Shell, he was an explorer at small independent New Standard Energy in Western Australia and worked at BHP on the development of non-operated assets in Algeria. Liam started his career in the industry as a field engineer and logging geologist working offshore rigs globally for Halliburton and Datalog.
Liam holds a BSc in Geology and Physical Geography from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and an MSc in Petroleum Geology from the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. He is a member of the AAPG and the Houston Geological Society.
Allan Scardina
Allan has over 40 years of industry experience, including senior executive roles at major and mid-sized oil companies. His first discovery was from a successful onshore Texas prospect that he mapped as a summer intern. Ever since he has been creating value through exploration. Allan has been directly involved with discoveries onshore in the United States, Pakistan, and Hungary and in the offshore of Croatia, Norway, Indonesia, China, Egypt and Gabon. He has also directed new business entries that led to major discoveries across multiple continents including the recent giant play-opener in Namibia.
Allan recently was Senior Vice President of Global Exploration for the MOL Group, with a $100 MM annual budget, drilling 15 exploration wells per year across a 9-country portfolio. Prior to that, he served as the General Manager of Exploration Acquisitions for Shell and was directly involved with Shell's acquisition of the BG Group as part of the acquisition team and later charged with the post-merger exploration portfolio integration. Allan also held several technical and managerial leadership roles at Shell including as Senior Advisor and later Chief Geologist for Global New Ventures. He also had senior roles at Devon Energy, including Exploration Manager for Africa & Middle East, Exploration Manager for Asia, and Head of International New Business. Allan started his career as a geologist in Shell's Gulf of Mexico Regional team.
Allan has a MSc in Geology from LSU, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. He is a member of the AAPG, SPE, PESGB and HGS.
John Bentz
John has 39 years of industry experience, including over 32 years at Shell, as a Petroleum Landman and manager covering all commercial and land aspects of oil and gas exploration & production, including leasing, title work, joint venture contracts, asset acquisitions and divestitures. During his career John developed deep expertise on the US Gulf Coast, but also supported industry ventures in Michigan, California, and Canada. In addition, his experience includes lease acquisition and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico Shelf and Deepwater.
John most recently was at GeoSouthern Energy Corporation for over 6 years, where he held Land Manager and Senior Land Advisor positions, managing a team of landmen and field brokers, overseeing leasing, title, surface preparation, right of way acquisition, frac water acquisition, and joint venture drilling for a multiple rig exploration program, and managing the due diligence for GeoSouthern's Haynesville asset acquisition. Prior to that, John managed the Land & Contracts group for Shell's Haynesville asset, where he led commercial and land efforts from the original acquisition of the leases through the ultimate asset divesture to the Blackstone/Vine group for $1.2B. Earlier in his Shell career he held a variety of Senior Land Representative roles, involving asset entries & sales and operational activities across the Onshore Gulf Coast and the Gulf of Mexico and various other geographies.
John holds a B.S. degree in Business Management from Louisiana State University, achieved his Certified Professional Landman designation in 1994 and was a participating member of the American Association of Professional Landmen for several decades.
Steven Bloemendaal
Steven has over 40 years of industry experience, including 34 years at Shell. He is recognized within the industry as an expert in exploration prospect risking and volumetric analysis and served as Shell’s Principal Technical Expert for Risking & Volumetrics. During his career he directly contributed to the identification and discovery of significant volumes of hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico, Latin America, the North Sea and SE Asia.
Steven’s most recent role at Shell was Global Exploration Advisor, responsible for continuously reviewing the entire Shell New Ventures and Asset Exploration portfolio, guiding exploration teams worldwide on complex geological issues and directly advising the Exploration EVP, a role he executed in tandem with Larry Garmezy for years. Prior to that was responsible for the subsurface quality assurance of all exploration projects in North and South America. He also led exploration teams and managed exploration portfolios in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea and Colombia and worked extensively on evaluating global deepwater plays and Gulf of Mexico lease sales. He started his career hands-on as a field geologist, well site geologist and regional geologist on assignments in the Netherlands, Thailand, Brunei and Argentina.
Steven holds a BSc in Geology, a degree in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Geology from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. He is a member of the AAPG and is an acclaimed instructor and developer of prospect evaluation software tools used by explorers around the world.
Fred Diegel
Fred has over 35 years of industry experience, including 30 years at Shell. He is recognized within the industry as an expert in Regional Geology of the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf Coast, Sub-Salt Exploration, Salt Tectonics, and Structural Geology. During his career he contributed directly to the identification and discovery of billions of barrel equivalents of hydrocarbons across the Gulf of Mexico.
Fred’s most recent role at Shell was Geological Advisor to the North America Offshore Exploration VP. Prior to that he worked in Gulf of Mexico Shelf and Deepwater Exploration teams and in Shell’s Geology Research group. He also led special projects in sub-salt exploration, new play development, portfolio rejuvenation, and near-field exploration. As early as the 1980s he participated in Shell’s large joint Exploration-Research team to provide a modern tectono-stratigraphic framework for the Northern Gulf of Mexico from onshore to the deep abyssal plain, results of which were published externally in the landmark 1993 AAPG Memoir on Salt Tectonics. Fred was a part of Shell’s initial Gulf of Mexico Sub-Salt exploration team from the early 1990s and was instrumental in the discovery of the Hickory, West Boreas, and South Deimos sub-salt fields. He was also involved in the Enchilada, Chimichanga, Conger, and Princess sub-salt discoveries and more recent successes at Vito, Kaikias, Power Nap, and Whale.
Fred holds a BA in Geology from Franklin & Marshall College and an MSc and PhD in Structural Geology from the Johns Hopkins University.
Larry Garmezy
Larry has over 35 years of industry experience, including 32 years at Shell. He is recognized within the industry as an expert in global exploration plays and served as Shell’s Subject Matter Expert for Play-Based Exploration and Global Theme Lead for Light Tight Oil exploration. During his career he contributed directly to the identification and discovery of billions of barrel equivalents of hydrocarbons across the Americas and Africa.
Larry’s most recent role at Shell was Global Exploration Advisor, responsible for continuously reviewing the entire Shell New Ventures and Asset Exploration portfolio, guiding exploration teams worldwide on complex geological issues and directly advising the Exploration EVP, a role he executed in tandem with Steven Bloemendaal for years. Prior to that he held technical and assurance leadership positions leading and reviewing regional studies, global resource assessments, volume & value analyses of basins and plays and the development of new technology for these analyses. Larry has actively worked onshore and offshore basins across six continents, having extensive experience amongst others in the US onshore and Gulf of Mexico; the Subandean domain in Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina; deepwater Offshore West Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. Prior to joining the oil industry he worked for the USGS and was supported by their Central Mineral Resources branch while carrying out his graduate studies.
Larry holds a BA in Geology from Amherst College and an MSc and PhD in Geology from Penn State, specializing in Structural Geology. He is both an AAPG and Shell Distinguished Lecturer.
Carlos Pirmez
Carlos has over 35 years industry and research experience. During his career he established himself both as a leader in Exploration and Development as well as a globally recognized authority on clastic reservoir geology. He has contributed directly to the discovery of large volumes of contingent and prospective hydrocarbon resources across Africa, South America and the Gulf of Mexico.
Carlos was at Shell for 19 years, where most recently he served as the venture lead for the operated and non-operated Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago and Argentina deepwater exploration ventures. Prior to these roles he held technical leadership positions and managed external stakeholders and partners in the development of key Shell assets in Italy and offshore Nigeria. He started his career at Shell in the research organization and served for 15 years as Shell’s Subject Matter Expert for turbidite reservoirs. Prior to Shell he was a deepwater stratigraphy researcher at ExxonMobil. Prior to joining the oil industry he was a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University focusing on the study of modern continental margins.
Carlos holds a BSc in Oceanography from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a Masters and PhD in Marine Geology & Geophysics from Columbia University, New York. He has authored and co-authored over 100 peer reviewed publications and has a long track record as an invited speaker and reviewer.
Fernando Sanchez Ferrer
Fernando has over 30 years of industry experience, all at Shell. During this time he established himself both as a recognized and successful prospecting expert as well as a manager creating and delivering on opportunities in conventional and unconventional exploration plays. During his career he directly contributed to the identification and discovery of billions of barrel equivalents of hydrocarbons in Norway, The Netherlands, Brazil, Guyana and Argentina.
Fernando led Shell’s Latin America Regional New Ventures group for 10 years, during which he was managing the technical work driving conventional and unconventional exploration growth in Latin America and extensively interfacing with national oil companies and local stakeholders throughout the region. Notably his group delivered the initial acquisition and subsequent growth deals leading to Shell’s large Vaca Muerta position in Argentina, as well as other conventional exploration entries in the region, like the 2009 original farm-in into the Stabroek license in Guyana. He also matured upstream gas monetization projects (LNG and links to Petrochemicals) throughout the region, in collaboration with Mid and Downstream groups. Prior to this role he worked on and coordinated the identification of new material growth opportunities in global petroleum basins, with key experience in many countries in South America, the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf coast, Europe, Canada and West Africa.
Fernando holds a Masters degree in Mining Engineering and a PhD in Geology from the School of Mines, in Madrid, Spain. He is a member of the AAPG and has a long track record of presenting and chairing at international conferences.
Chris Wojcik
Chris has over 40 years of industry and research experience, including 26 years at Shell. He is recognized within the industry as an expert in exploration geophysics, Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator (DHI) assessments and Quantitative Interpretation (QI) of seismic data and served as Shell’s Subject Matter Expert in this field. During his career, he directly contributed to the identification, discovery and successful appraisal of billions of barrel equivalents of hydrocarbons across the Americas and Africa, notably in Nigeria, Angola, the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. He maintains an excellent track record in the prediction of hydrocarbon presence or absence based on seismic data.
His most recent role at Shell was the Exploration Advisor for QI, providing assurance and technical leadership along the entire Atlantic Margin and projects around the globe. Prior to that he was responsible for all QI activities in Exploration and Hydrocarbon Maturation in Nigeria and was instrumental in developing a new play in the Niger Delta, successfully targeting underexplored hydrocarbon potential through rigorous analysis of seismic data. Earlier in his career, he carried out numerous QI evaluations in support of exploration activities in the Gulf of Mexico, Norway, Egypt, Angola, Congo, Brazil, Guyana, Colombia, Trinidad and Canada. He started his career at Shell working the Gulf of Mexico from lease sale through drill site development and operations. Prior to joining Shell he was a researcher at the University of Kansas and the University of Warsaw in Poland.
Chris holds an MSc in Geology from the University of Warsaw and a PhD in Geology from the University of Kansas. He is a member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and is an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer.
John Wright
John has over 25 years industry experience with a diverse range of E&P companies and consultancies. He has held engineering and commercial roles in the UK and the US with the BG Group, Amerada Hess, Ranger Oil/CNR and Kerr McGee. John has managed both multi-disciplinary teams and corporate acquisition projects across the Oil & Gas industry supply chain, for conventional and unconventional projects.
In the last 15 years as a consultant John has managed engineering and commercial projects across the Americas, Africa, Asia, UK North Sea and Middle East, including strategy work for major IOCs, field development plans, and reserve auditing for financial institutions. Recent roles include Chairman of offshore UK producer Hurricane Energy; non-Executive Director roles; international portfolio manager for Qatar Petroleum and commercial advisor to the government of Suriname. John has led or been involved in major M&A projects including Premier Oil's UK acquisitions, Gulfsands Syrian assets, and HSBC Egyptian and Oman loan agreements. In addition, he has provided engineering, costing and strategic advice for a variety of companies, M&A teams and investment funds, including BP, Kosmos, Noble, Tullow, First Reserve, Helios Investment, Tudor Capital, Crystal Amber, Richmond Energy and many more. John started his career in petroleum engineering positions at a petroleum consulting firm and a junior E&P company.
John holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Leeds University and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College, London. John is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Expert Associates
Eburon Resources also has an extensive bench of highly experienced associates, with prior working relationships and known to the team.
These experts can provide additional due diligence and operational support, as needed in: Petrophysics, Reservoir Engineering, Operations, Well Planning, Facilities Engineering, Appraisal and Subsurface evaluations.