Discovery to development: a subsurface case history of the Kitan Oil Field, Timor Sea, Joint Petroleum Development Area, Timor-Leste and Australia

Dave Wheller graduated from the University of Southampton in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree (geology) and from the University of Reading in 1992 with a master’s degree (sedimentology).

From 1992 to 1997, he worked for PGS Reservoir Consultants. He joined Anadarko Algeria Corporation in 1997 and spent the following eight years located in London and Algeria working in asset teams developing onshore oil and gas fields. In 2005, he joined Eni Australia Ltd as a senior geologist specialising in reservoir characterisation, geological modelling, and subsurface project development.

Grant Ellis graduated from the University of South Australia in 1971 with a BAppSc and in 1973 with a graduate diploma (economic geology). He spent 1972 as a well site geologist with Core Laboratories. From 1974 to 1978, he worked in sedimentary uranium exploration with Mines Administration. In 1978, he joined Marathon Petroleum Australia where he spent the next 16 years, initially in uranium and base metal exploration, and subsequently in oil exploration and development. With the closure of Marathon’s Perth office, he worked as a consultant before joining Hardy Petroleum in 1997. He is now Timor Sea exploration project leader and geological coordinator with Eni Australia Limited.

Yohan Suhardiman graduated from the French Institute of Petroleum (Institut Francais du Petrole School) in 2003 with an MSc (reservoir engineering). In 2003, he joined Total Indonesia as a reservoir engineer working on simulation study for Handil oil field. In 2006, he joined Eni Indonesia where he performed an integrated reservoir study for Bangka, Jau, and Gehem gas fields. In 2009, he was assigned to ENI HQ in Milan working for reservoir study department covering Russia, Indonesia, Australia, India, and Turkmenistan fields. In 2011, he was posted to Eni Australia in Perth, where he is now working as reservoir simulation engineer, performing integrated reservoir study and supporting the reserves evaluation of exploration prospects.

Ryosuke Yokote (Rio) graduated from Tohoku University in 1995 with an MSc (resource Engineering).

In 1995, he joined INPEX as a petroleum engineer working in Australia, Indonesia, and Japan. He worked for well tests for the Ichthys field in Australia and the Abadi field in the Timor Sea, Indonesia. While he was an interface engineer for Ichthys project, he extended his expertise to flow-assurance engineering with a focus on well modelling. In 2009, he was employed by Eni Australia in Perth, where he is now working as a senior petroleum engineer in the operations and reservoir department, supporting daily production and drilling/completions operations.

Member: SPE.

Doani Selvaggi has more than seven years of international experience in reservoir and petroleum engineering, covering reservoir modelling, history matching, forecasting techniques, reservoir management, reservoir uncertainty evaluation, production optimisation, andwell performance analysis for both onshore and offshore fields.

In 2005, he started his career in the oil and gas industry as a reservoir engineer working on Nigerian fields. In 2007, he was posted to Eni Australia where he worked as reservoir engineer until 2011 when he was appointed as reservoir team leader in Eni Indonesia.

He has a BSc (petroleum engineering) from the Central University of Venezuela in 2004 and an MSc (petroleum engineering) from the Polytechnic University of Turin.

Giuseppe Maniscalco graduated from Camerino University in 1993. He started working in civil construction as a consultant geologist. In 1997, he started his career in the oil and gas industry with Eni as a reservoir geologist. In 2000, he was posted to Ortona (Italy) and later in 2001 to Ravenna to monitor production in these districts. In 2003, he was assigned to Eni Pakistan as a development geologist and then as team leader in the reservoir department, responsible for the development of the Kirthar and Middle Indus assets. In 2008, he was appointed geoscience manager of Eni Iran responsible for subsurface and reservoir activity of the South Pars and Darquain projects. Since the end of 2011, he has been the reservoir manager for Eni Australia Ltd.

Joseph began his career as a field engineer for Schlumberger in formation evaluation (drilling and measurements).

He graduated from RMIT in 2006 and obtained an MEngSc (petroleum engineering) from UNSW in 2011. Most recently, he has worked as a petroleum engineer, supporting operations and development of the Kitan oilfield (Timor Sea) and Blacktip offshore gas field and pipeline network (Bonaparte basin), as well as working on exploration prospects in the region. Prior to this, he worked in subsurface developments and production operations on the QCLNG project, developing unconventional resources in southeastern Queensland.