Helge began his oil and gas education in the 1980’s and now has about 30 years of experience working with both service companies and operators.

He has a broad educational background spanning from a Cand.Scient. in Applied Mathematics to a B.Sc. in Machine Engineering and Economy, reflecting his wide range of interests.

Helge’s first positions involved working with petroleum reservoir evaluation, simulation and stochastic modelling. This evolved into modelling complete project uncertainty through the life of the field where his broad technical and financial background became useful. These projects were done for both service companies and operators on the NCS including Saga, Hydro and Statoil (Equinor).

Helge also spent several years in a position connecting the petroleum industry with IT as a product manager for Roxar, and in pure IT as manager for project management for Sun Microsystems Norway.

Prior to joining APT as group CEO in 2019, Helge spent 13 years in various management positions in Aker Solutions and Aker Geo (now AGR) allowing him to engage in business development globally from Australia to the USA. For his final 3 years at Aker Helge held the position of CEO for First Geo (Aker Geo).

Outside of work Helge has a big family and he tries to spend as much time as possible outdoors in nature from sea to summit though all seasons. Helge is convinced that he is a runner, although his running performance would convince most people otherwise.

Julian is a creative geoscientist who has a great enthusiasm for petroleum systems and integrating across multidisciplinary datasets to solve subsurface problems. He studied Geological Sciences at the University of Plymouth, completing at the turn of the millennium. After a year working on databases with IHS Energy, he returned to academia to complete an MSc in Petroleum Geochemistry at the University of Newcastle. This continued onto a PhD on mudstone sedimentology and petrophysics with Prof. Andrew Aplin.

Julian won an internship with BP during his PhD and this led to his admission onto BP’s Challenge Graduate program. His first roles where in Aberdeen in operating assets, and his final role was in the North Africa regional exploration team. After completing the Challenge program Julian continued working in exploration with roles in regional exploration, access, unconventional resources and assurance. This included a very enjoyable secondment into the Reliance-BP JV based in Mumbai, during which time two significant discoveries were made. Over his time in India he travelled extensively and honed his love of Indian food.

Julian joined APT in 2015 as the Technical Director of APT UK where he takes on a wide range of activities from day to day management of operations, to accounts to business and product development. His real interest continues to be technical consulting and working with clients. Julian is a co-developer of Girasol, a well site gas interpretation soft developed jointly between Tim Dodd (ex-BP), APT and ARKCLS.

Outside of work Julian enjoys running, cycling, snowboarding, travel, cooking and reading.

Patrick started out his working life as a laboratory technician researching novel penicillin based antibiotics at Beecham Research Laboratories before studying chemistry at Manchester and then a masters in geochemistry at Newcastle.

His 32 years working with Robertson Research in its various incarnations included many years as manager of geochemistry. He left in 2006 to found the UK arm of APT with his long term colleague Dr Steve Thompson.

His great interest as the science has evolved from ‘interesting’ to ‘fundamental’ to petroleum exploration and production, has been in applying the science to assist the search for and development of new resources. His particular interest has been to help probe the understanding of controls on source rock occurrence on the global scale.

Patrick has worked on source systems in basins across the globe from the Pre Cambrian to Recent and in mapping them on a time slice basis. He has particular experience across on and offshore Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has travelled extensively meeting clients on all continents including the Americas and Russia. He has published numerous papers on geochemistry applications particularly in Jurassic and Carboniferous source rock genesis and addressed technical gatherings and client companies in multiple locations.

He continues to be involved in the UK arm of APT in technical operations and assisting Julian Moore in a management role. In addition to his technical and administrative role in the UK, Patrick is a director and Board member of the parent company, APT AS, in Norway.

Mark Bastow gained his Geology BSc at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. After three years valuable field experience in mud logging he returned to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and gained an MSc in Organic Geochemistry and Organic Petrology.

In 1984 he joined Robertson in North Wales as a Petroleum Geochemist and gained extensive experience of petroleum geochemistry and applications to petroleum geology in many parts of the World.

Mark joined APT in 2007 as a Senior Geochemist and has carried out a large range of projects including petroleum geochemical evaluation and petroleum systems modelling. He has been involved in multiple regional-scale projects including concession rounds. He also has an MSc in mathematics and specialises in mathematical modelling and statistical data analyses.

After developing a keen interest in studying physical Geography, Tanya completed her BSc in Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow in 2013. After completing her undergraduate studies, Tanya continued her education at the University College Cork where she completed her MSc in Exploration Field Geology in 2014. It was during this time that Tanya found an interest in organic petrology and completed a research thesis studying the hydrocarbon potential and palynofacies of the Jurassic Lias shales of Northern Ireland.

Eager to further develop her research and analytical skills, Tanya went on to complete a PhD at the University of Southampton studying the thermal history and source rock quality of the Weald and Wessex basins of onshore southern England. This PhD was funded by the NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Oil and Gas that provided 20 weeks of training in themes related to the oil and gas sector. These experiences gave Tanya a greater interest and insight to the industry and led to her taking a position as an organic microscopist at APT UK in early 2020.

Alongside working in industry, Tanya continues to have an interest in academic research and is an enthusiastic promoter of earth sciences. She enjoys spending her free time exploring both new countries and her local surroundings by hiking.

After training at the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield Graham has been in the oil industry right from the start in the early 1970's.

He has worked on all parts of the Norwegian shelf, parts of Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Russia. Graham was involved with the establishment of a biostratigraphic laboratory by NTNFK (later IKU and Sintef Petroleum Research) in 1974 and later, with a group of colleagues, established the first commercial biostratigraphy company in Norway (Stratlab A.S) in 1984. Stratlab A.S was amalgamated with APT in 2001.

Graham places his expertise and experience at APT's disposal in the capacity of an advisor.

Marie-Caroline’s interest in Geology grew early, stimulated by the discovery of fossil ferns in the stratotypical region of the coaly Stephanian (Carboniferous) where she grew up as a child. Her interest in Geology grew into a passion that led her to study and graduate in this field, in the University of Grenoble in 1989, then a PhD in Geology in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), focusing on the challenging Cretaceous carbonate platform series from the Jura region, using a combination of outcrop studies, sequence stratigraphy, microfacies, carbonate sedimentology and micropaleontology.

After a year spent at the USGS in Menlo Park (California), studying Mexican Albian carbonate deposits, she moved to Cambridge with her husband. There, she took a break in geology, working on statistics and forecasting populations of pupils in the county.

In 2008, following a move to Norway, she resumed her geological career as a micropaleontologist for APT. By studying microfossil assemblages found in well samples from all of the Norwegian Continental Shelf, she contributes to precise stratigraphic interpretations for Clients.

Since 2014, she has been managing the Biostratigraphy group in APT, participating to technical work and following up on timely deliveries to Clients.

Besides the application of biostratigraphy to technical services, Marie-Caroline and her family enjoy the spectacular Norwegian nature at all seasons.

Ian has a degree in geochemistry from the University of Reading, graduating with a first in 1986. After a brief period of research at the University of Sheffield he joined Robertson Research as a junior geochemist in 1988. Remaining with them as the company rebranded as Simon Petroleum and then Fugro Robertson, he joined APT (UK) in 2007.

Over the last 35 years he has gained extensive experience working worldwide on both single client and regional multiclient reports including NW Europe, Barents Sea, Central Europe, North America, Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, Far East and Africa. He has particular interests and skills in computer processing and manipulation of geochemical data with extensive experience of data manipulation, database construction and data loading. He also has wide ranging experience of the geochemical properties of mud additives and the amelioration of the effects of additive contamination in geochemical studies.

Rachel has always had a passion for understanding the Earth and the systems within it. After gaining her Geological Oceanography BSc at University of Wales, Bangor, she continued her education with a PhD in Marine Geology at the University of Southampton with time spent at Seoul University, South Korea and Victoria University, Wellington, NZ.

Rachel joined APT in 2018 as a Senior Associate following her family’s relocation to Scotland from New Zealand. During her time in New Zealand Rachel spent 7 years working as an Exploration Geologist specialising in Petroleum Systems Analysis for Austrian Operator OMV. Prior to that she worked in the UK as a geologist for Fugro GeoConsulting and as an oil and gas technology adviser for OTM Consulting.

Outside of working for APT Rachel serves on the Scottish Energy Forum board promoting the discussion around energy use and transition, advises international operators on technology needs, and takes part in a wide variety of geologically based projects. Outside of work Rachel’s passion for worldwide travel and understanding the earth continues together with her husband and 2 young children.

Geir Hansen obtained a Cand Mag (BS) in chemistry and sedimentology at the University of Oslo and finished his Cand Scient (MS) degree in petroleum geochemistry in 1990, with a work focusing on source rock pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics.

After an internship with Amerada Hess upon completion of his degree he joined Geolab Nor as a staff geochemist working mainly with post drilling geochemistry on exploration wells from the NCS. Later he become the company project manager on surface geochemistry studies working with all aspects of SGE from planning, offshore deep-water shallow coring through development of analytical methods and interpretation of data.

In 1995 Geir took the position as General Manager of Surface Geochemical Services, a joint venture company, and further developed his expertise within the field of surface geochemistry, a position he held until 2001 when he joined Aker Kværner Geo as a consulting gochemist.

During his years in AKG he was also in charge of building geochemical data bases as part of the company’s multi-client project team.

In 2004 Geir joined APT as a Sr. geochemist – a position taking him back to the roots as a geochemist. Over the next decade Geir worked with all sorts of geochemical challenges from surface geochemistry through pre and post drilling well analysis as well as regional studies, having special focus on building APT’s comprehensive geochemical databases. In 2014 Geir took over as the General Manager of APT’s geochemistry and basin modelling/PSA department.

Geir is passionate about Track & Field where he is the head coach of decathlon and sprint in the local T&F club and is also referee on national level. When not on the track he spent much time on outdoor activities as biking, hiking and kayaking.

Michelle started her career in Brazil where she graduated in Marine Biology (2006). She specialised in micropaleontology of recent foraminifera in carbonate environments. During her studies she also worked for Petrobras on environmental impact assessments in the Campos Basin, Brazil.

In 2007, she moved to Oslo to pursue a Master degree in Micropaleontology under the supervision of Dr. Felix Gradstein.

Soon after completing her masters she joined Senergy AS, an exploration consultancy company where she worked for 5 years as an exploration geologist and Support Geoscientist. Here she was involved in oil prospects and geophysics.

During that time Michelle developed strong competences in the Oilfield data manager (IC-ODM) software. Her communication skills and warm personality led her to quickly be moved to sales and in-house IC-ODM consultancy for major oil companies.

In 2014, Michelle joined APT as a database manager and resumed her micropaleontologist activity.

Per Erling finished his Cand. Scient in organic chemistry in 1987 at University of Oslo. During the duration of studies he spent two years teaching high school students.

He worked at Geological Institute at the University of Oslo from 1987 where his main activity was to build up and run a laboratory in organic geochemistry.

Per Erling joined Saga Petroleum in 1991 where he first was involved in building up the laboratory in organic geochemistry and where he also had responsibility for the daily work. For a period, he also managed the offshore laboratory at Snorre.

Together with three other Saga employees and IFE he founded APT in 2000. After building up the laboratory, he has spent an increasing amount of time supporting customers with data from the laboratory. Per Erling has also been a mentor for the apprentices that have worked and trained at APT.

He is especially interested in how the different methods in the laboratory works. Outside work Per Erling loves outdoor activities and has a passion for biological diversity found around Oslo.

Graduating in 1989 with a BSc in Geology (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), Helen joined Robertson Research for a Summer job. 14 years later, having been a petroleum geologist, project manager and later business development geologist, leading the sales of ‘Tellus’, Robertson’s flagship global playfairways and petroleum systems initiative, she moved to Scotland to take a career break and renovate a family property.

Returning to geoscience in 2005 as a consultant, Helen spent two interesting years working with Getech, learning about potential fields data and assisting with the development of their global studies group and product lines. In 2007, after a second baby, Helen returned to consulting part-time, in a continuing role with C&C Reservoirs to expand the penetration of their global analogue knowledgebase ‘DAKS’ in NW Europe.

With longstanding experience in the sector, Helen became a consultant to APT UK in 2010, bringing their first multi-client study to market. Over the last decade this business relationship has developed and she now supports business activities for APT in the UK and internationally.

Helen maintains her “hands on” interest in geology, participating in ongoing field work on the Port Askaig tillites of Islay, that she first mapped in 1987. She spends her ‘freetime’ with her geologist husband, two growing sons, horses, cats, hens, sheep and a Manchester terrier named Inca.

Christoph Kierdorf finished his Ph.D. in 2006 at University Bremen, focusing on the processes controlling the variability of organic carbon along the continental margin of East Greenland.

He joined Statoil the same year where he provided internal consulting on organic geochemistry and basin modelling to exploration groups worldwide, working at all scales, from basin screening and play evaluation to prospect evaluation and field delineation. In 2011 he transferred to Statoil’s Africa New Ventures Exploration unit working as an exploration geologist with focus on source and migration in an integrated team. He was involved in multiple basin screening and play evaluation studies, data room evaluations and concession rounds.

Christoph joined Maersk Oil in 2014 where he first was part of the Norwegian Exploration unit before working as a specialist for petroleum system analysis in Maersk Oil’s geoscientific expert team, providing internal consulting to exploration teams worldwide.

After 2 ½ years working for GeoProvider as a consultant for exploration geology and petroleum systems analysis, he joined APT in 2020 contributing his expertise in petroleum geochemistry and the global exploration market.

Technically, he has a strong background in petroleum geochemistry, especially in petroleum system analysis and exploration geochemistry. Christoph is passionate about outdoor activities: when not at work, he enjoys snorkelling or hiking in the fjords and mountains around Oslo. And he is a real foodie.

Steve has been a geochemist with APT since 2005, having worked in the field for some 30 years previously, in the commercial and academic sectors.

He gained a 1^stclass hons BSc in Chemistry and a PhD from Bristol University before specialising in organic geochemistry. He has run analytical facilities in a commercial laboratory and has taught geochemical courses at Royal Holloway (London University) and with the Open University.

Steve has worked on petroleum system projects around the globe.

Richard Patience has a Ph.D. from the Organic Geochemistry Unit at Bristol University, U.K. He joined BP’s Organic Geochemistry research group in 1985, and was loaned from BP in 1990 to the Geology Institute at Oslo University to run their organic geochemistry group for a year. In 1991 he joined Statoil in Stavanger, and worked mainly on exploration projects in the Norwegian Sea, North Sea and Nigeria, as well as research projects.

In 2001 he left Statoil and Norway to join Unocal’s Deepwater Gulf of Mexico team just outside Houston, where he worked on both regional projects and standard well studies, including the discovery of the St. Malo Field, one of the early Wilcox oil discoveries in the deepwater GOM, and now in production by Chevron. He also worked on regional studies in the Kutei Basin, Indonesia.

In 2005 Richard joined Chevron as part of the takeover of Unocal. From then until the end of 2015 he worked on a wide range of projects both geographically and technically, including Deepwater Nile Delta, East and West India, East and West Greenland, west of Shetlands, Barents Sea, North Sea, onshore California, and a large number of smaller projects from Australia to Alaska. In 2016 Richard joined APT as their representative in Houston.

Richard developed and taught the official in-house geochemistry courses in Statoil, Unocal and Chevron, and has taught classes from 1991 to 2020. He still teaches courses, both in oil companies and at conferences such as URTeC, with his longtime colleague Joe Curiale.

He has nearly 60 peer-reviewed publications, and several dozen conference abstracts, presentations and posters. He also reviews papers by others, and is an Associate Editor of JMPG, and past Associate Editor of OGJ. Richard was a board member (1995-2002) and Chairman (2002-2007) of EAOG.

When not doing any of the above, Richard tries to stay fit by going to the gym, refereeing football (soccer) games or riding his bike.

Thomas Løkken Rustad has always been passionate about geology and understanding the earth beneath his feet. He did both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geosciences at the University of Oslo. At master’s level he specialised in biostratigraphy with an emphasis on palynology and palynofacies in the mid Cretaceous. Once he finished his master’s in autumn 2013, he worked as an environmental geologist in the Planning- and building authorities in the city of Oslo before joining APT in January 2015.

Since joining APT as an onshore and offshore (wellsite) biostratigrapher, he has rapidly expanded is knowledge from mid Cretaceous to covering the Cenozoic, Cretaceous and Late Jurassic stratigraphy on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. His second passion his IT and technology and he has always found ways to incorporate this into the biostratigraphy group. The work is not limited to palynology, he has experience with performing and interpreting X-ray fluorescent (XRF) analyses of well sections from the Barents Sea and North Sea. He also actively participates in various professional networks such as FORCE and the Norwegian Geological Society to ever expand his knowledge.

Outside office hours he is a gastronome and a coffee enthusiast that enjoys hiking in the mountains, rock climbing, skiing, and travel experiences with the family.

Sissa Stefanowicz finished her Masters of Geology at the Lund University in 2008 focusing on the palynology of the Middle to Early Jurassic in the Inner Hebrides. She went from here straight to APT were she started working as palynologist.

Since 2008 she has gained experience from a multitude of wellsite, routine and special client projects from the Norwegian sector. She specialises in Jurassic palynology but has experience from the Tertiary and the Late Triassic as well as parts of the Cretaceous. Her favorite challenge is a difficult Brent or Båt sequence.

Since 2015 she has been the Offshore Coordinator for the Biostratigraphic team at APT, and in 2019 she became Senior Palynologist.

When not lost in the time-travelling microscope she spends most her time at the stable where she enjoys dressage training with her curly pony. She is also an active member of a riding club and works as a self-employed riding instructor.

Kjell Urdal finished his chemical engineer education in analytical chemistry in 1980. He started to work at Senter for Industriforskning (SINTEF from 1993) as a chemical engineer working mainly with GC-MS investigating of organic matters in water, air and sediments.

From 1986 he worked as a Research Scientist developing new methods for characterization of different oil fractions by GC-MS. The methods were sold to several international oil companies.

In 1998 he joined Saga Petroleum as a Senior Engineer with responsibility for the high resolution mass spectrometer used for biomarker analysis. When Saga Petroleum were acquired by Norsk Hydro and Statoil he joined APT in 2000 as one of the funders.

Since then he has been in charge of the mass spectrometers at APT and he has also developed our own APT-LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) software with interfaces for all instruments so that all results are directly transferred to the database.