The Serendive Energy management and technical team consists of Deshan Goonewardene (Chairman & Managing Director), James Podruski (CEO, Director Exploration, & Prof. Geologist), Marc Melnic (COO & Prof. Engineer), Dr. George Langdon (Director & Geologist), Prof. Michael A. Abrams (Geochemist), Dr. Jan Mrlina (Geophysicist), Vic Noble (Prof. Operations Engineer), Robert Thomson (Prof. Geologist), Frank Hamtak (Prof. Geophysicist) and Ben Anderson (Petroleum Engineer). This core Exploration and Development Team has an aggregate 400 years of petroleum and business experience in managing exploration, operations, and infrastructure development, onshore and offshore, in ALL parts of the world.
James Podruski, Marc Melnic, and George Langdon have been Founders, CEOs, Presidents, and Directors of public Oil and Gas companies with experience in both business and technical operations. All members of the Team have worked with major, intermediate, and junior companies, and have been in management as well as technical positions. Their experience summaries are below.
We have collectively drilled thousands of wells, been responsible for (with an exploration team) the discovery of tens of billions of BOEs, drilled several rank exploration wells, managed entire exploration programs, including field operations in geologic mapping, geophysics, geochemistry, and drilling and testing of wells.
In addition, we have a team of geologic and geophysical consultants to assist in pre-drill program design and interpretation. We also have a team of engineering consultants, with expertise in drilling, testing, facilities, and reservoir analysis. In all cases, we know how to manage costs and timing of programs to minimize risk and to enhance operational efficiency and safety.
This Team will be responsible for contract negotiations, supervising and contracting geophysical and drilling operations, and developing play concepts and drilling locations in the first exploration phase of the PRAs involving airborne geophysical acquisition, seismic planning and acquisition, and drilling planning and operations.
This Team will be responsible for contract negotiations, supervising and contracting geophysical and drilling operations, and developing play concepts and drilling locations in the first exploration phase of the PRAs involving airborne geophysical acquisition, seismic planning and acquisition, and drilling planning and operations.
Mr. Podruski has been a director and manager of several petroleum exploration companies: in particular he was the Founder, President and CEO of Alturas Resources Ltd., a junior Canadian international and domestic exploration company. He has also worked as an officer of the Geological Surveys of Canada and of Papua New Guinea, where advised the governments, conducted regional petroleum potential assessments, and evaluated exploration and development programs. Alturas Resources Ltd. was a Canadian oil & gas exploration company focused on Western Canada and Cuba.
Mr. Podruski has published numerous papers as an internationally renowned expert on tectonics and structural geology.
Mr. Podruski brings more than 40 years of petroleum industry experience and has worked with companies of all sizes as an employee or consultant in North America, South and Central America, Asia Pacific, and Eurasia. He has worked directly with large multi-nationals, intermediate and junior companies providing technical and economic assessments of countries and basins, exploring and developing hydrocarbon prospects, planning and managing drilling and geophysical operations, and negotiating government and service contracts.
He has the broad regional geologic perspectives required to assess petroleum potential and to locate and grade individual prospects, including sound backgrounds in basin analysis, tectonics and structural geology, crystalline and sedimentary petrology, field and subsurface mapping using multiple data sets. Mr. Podruski holds a BS with Honours from the University of Manitoba and an MS from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Langdon joined the petroleum industry as a geologist in 1980, and worked in Canadian and international oil and gas industry, in companies such as Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas, Saudi Aramco, and Mobil Oil Canada Ltd.
In that time, he has managed three junior Canadian public companies involved in Canadian and North Sea exploration in basins similar to those of Sri Lanka.
In the early 1990’s he earned a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where his thesis focussed on seismic-based basin analysis of the western Newfoundland and adjacent Maritimes Basin areas in Eastern Canada. This work was published in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and led to an award for best paper on Canadian petroleum geology by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Geologists in 1994.
He was the Founder and former President & CEO of Shoal Point Energy, a Canadian Exploration company (CNSX:SPE), which sits on a billion-plus barrel acreage.
Mr. Melnic has over 25 years of experience leading multi-disciplinary teams within the oil and gas industry as an executive or senior manager with several Canadian and international companies. Additionally, he has over 13 years experience developing unconventional resources such as Enriched Gas Cycling, slant drilling and completions, CO2 Sequestration and Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery, and drilling horizontal wells with multi frac completions for shales.
He has sourced, evaluated and/or negotiated conventional and unconventional oil and gas plays in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chad, Colombia, Kenya, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad, Uganda, Uruguay and the USA as an A&D specialist with proven success in finding and closing deals valued at over $1 billion since 2000. Mr. Melnic has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from Queen’s University.
Prof. Abrams is a geoscientist with 35-plus years of experience in exploration, production, and research with a large independent, major integrated oil and gas company, and with a university research institute. He has extensive worldwide experience in both frontier and producing basins and has been a senior manager/group leader for industry regional petroleum systems and basin evaluation studies. Additionally, Prof. Abrams has provided integrated petroleum geochemical services for exploration and production teams.
These projects include interpretation of molecular geochemical data for oils, gases, and rocks, source rock assessment, surface geochemical surveys, reservoir geochemistry, fluid quality assessment, basin modelling studies, prospect charge analysis, petroleum systems evaluation, and unconventional resource play sweet spot analysis. Research activities include unconventional resource play analysis (liquid and gas), surface geochemistry, microbial (biogenic) gas, migration pathway analysis, deep water play charge analysis, and reservoir/development geochemistry.
Prof. Abrams is a recognized expert in petroleum geochemistry and petroleum systems analysis with numerous publications and published conference presentations.
Jan has over 35 years of extensive experience in the acquisition, processing and interpretation of gravity data, including but not limited to: airborne gravity, gravity gradiometry and magnetics, magnetometry, geoelectrics, rock sampling, petrophysics, magnetotellurics, geological reconnaissance, GPS – all in a wide range of geological terrains and field conditions, worldwide.
He has worked in a consulting capacity to perform specific projects on seismic crews or independent land and airborne surveys in the role of Party Chief, Supervisor/QC and Client Representative.
Jan also undertakes occasional lecturing, teaching and training students and professional personnel for gravity surveying, including practical courses and field operations.
Dr. Mrlina is also a widely published academic with a Ph.D. from the Charles University in Prague.
Ben Anderson has 35 years of comprehensive and diverse experience and expertise in oil and gas exploration, development, field operations, petroleum engineering, HSSE, business development, management and leadership, primarily with small to medium sized companies in North America. Most recently, Mr. Anderson has provided independent consultancy and advisory expertise to corporations, individuals, investors and other clients in regards to identification, assessment, procurement and management of: upstream oil and gas projects and assets, exploration and development strategies and execution of same, assets, opportunities, joint ventures, business development, financial networking and field supervision of drilling, completion, and production operations.
Mr. Anderson possesses extensive technical and operational capabilities in all facets of the upstream oil and gas industry including petroleum and reservoir engineering, reserves evaluation, economic assessment and analyses, drilling and completions, production engineering, field and operations optimization, process and facilities engineering, construction, operations oversight and management, HSSE, and leadership of personnel. Ben Anderson obtained a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1981.
Frank brings over 35 years of petroleum industry experience and has worked in both senior staff and consulting positions with major oil companies and small independent producers. Project areas have included both domestic US Gulf of Mexico deep water and sub-salt and international deep water and pre-salt in Brazil, Nigeria, and West Africa, and the Barents Sea. His interpretation and mapping skills include regional basin studies, detailed prospect evaluations, and field development in deep water and salt dome environments.
His background is multidisciplinary and includes earthquake seismology, monitoring underground nuclear tests, field development of bore-hole logging tools, field design and processing of 2D and 3D seismic data, and cutting-edge software development early in his career.
Mr. Hamtak holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, began his M.S. at Colorado School of Mines, which he completed at the University of Utah.
Mr. Noble has 40 years of experience working primarily in well drilling and completions in a wide range of geographic and geologic environments, including Canada, the United States, Cuba (Onshore and Offshore), Australia, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Tajikistan.
He has held various titles ranging from Manager of Drilling, In-Country Manager, General Manager of Construction Drilling & Completion, VP of Drilling & Completions, and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Noble has worked with companies of all sizes as an employee or consultant controlling various budgets up to $700 million annually.
He also has managed teams of over 150 employees and contractors. He has experience with large service contracts and continues to support partnerships with the service and supply sector to gain exceptional results both economically and technically. In addition, he has worked with and negotiated with local, regional, and national government agencies.
Mr. Noble has in-depth experience with a wide range of well types such as critical sour, high temperature – high pressure, long reach horizontal multistage fracked wells, offshore wells, difficult drilling through hardrock massive volcanic formations, shallow gas and drilling with coil. Mr. Noble holds a B.Sc. (Adv.) from the University of Saskatchewan.
Mr. Thomson has worked for 35 years as a petroleum exploration and development geologist in many basins around the world. Project areas include Western Canada, Papua New Guinea, Cuba, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and Malaysia. He has worked in a variety of geologic and geographic settings, including both onshore and offshore exploration and production, mountainous and jungle terrains, highly structured basins, carbonates and clastics. He has participated in many different exploration and development drilling campaigns, and has managed the technical and regulatory aspects of petroleum exploration licenses in several different jurisdictions.
In addition, Mr. Thomson has worked in several different cultural settings and is well versed in creating a high-performance environment within multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams. Most recently he spent four years based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working as Exploration Team Lead/Manager for a Canadian company engaged in exploration and production projects in Southeast Asia.