Petroleum conference keynote speaker, Farouk Al-Kasim

Source: Ross Louthean: www.nzresources.com

Farouk Al-Kasim is head of Petroteam AS, based on Stavanger in Norway, that provides advice on resource management both in Norway and abroad.

He graduated as a petroleum geologist from Imperial College, London University in 1957 and spent his first 11 years working for Iraq Petroleum Company, and from 1968 to 1973 was advisor to the Norwegian Ministry of Industry in Oslo on Petroleum and related issues.

He was then a founder of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate where he was the director of resource management from 1973 until early 1991 and then was president of his own consultant company Petroteam.

In a recent media interview in Scandinavia Al-Kasim was described as one of the main architects behind the successful structure of the oil industry in Norway.

He was reportedly impressed with what Norway as an oil nation has achieved but warned other countries of the danger of simply copying the Norwegian model.

Among other activities he is helping NORAD (Norwegian Agency for International Development) in its involvement in the reconstruction of the oil industry in Iraq.

He reportedly said both companies and governments need to be reminded that projects should try to keep their options open whenever possible, to let future innovation, research and development by bright people get more of the reserves out of the ground.

He reportedly said that since the late 1980s the era of “elephants” was over, and the industry had to adjust to smaller fields.

He said that in high risk exploration areas it was important that authorities share ultimate profits more generously with the oil companies. Otherwise they might well channel their investments elsewhere in the world.

Recently Al-Kasim published a book on lessons from Norway “Managing Petroleum Resources -- The Norwegian Model in a Broad Perspective”.

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