Expert
Practice

George has almost 40 years experience in the oil and gas industry and has a deep understanding of the key issues associated with the full spectrum of E&P activity and M&A opportunities gained from his exposure within operating companies to all aspects of the upstream business. He has broad experience of field development, resource evaluation, exploration, commercial and corporate transactions, and has worked most recently for Tullow Oil in a variety of senior technical and combined technical/managerial positions reporting up to executive level in M&A, New Ventures, and as Chief Petroleum Engineer.

Prior to Tullow he worked in technical and commercial roles for Shell International, Enterprise Oil, and Chevron. George has wide regional experience most recently across Africa and South America, but also including Europe, the Middle East, Gulf of Mexico and North Sea. He has deep reservoir engineering core skills combined with a good understanding of all the other engineering, subsurface, and commercial disciplines, and is a pragmatic cross-discipline integrator with a strong focus on quickly identifying key issues and value adding activity. George currently works in ERCE’s Expert Practice group as a Principal Reservoir Engineer, where he advises clients on oil and gas disputes.

George holds a Bachelor of Science in Offshore Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University and is a long-standing member of the SPE.

Jonathan is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of ERCE. He is a geoscientist by background with extensive experience in new business development, M&A, exploration, appraisal, development and production operations gained over 20+ years at Woodside Energy, Ophir Energy and ERCE.

Jonathan was previously Head of ERCE’s Expert Practice a multi-disciplinary group, capable of performing integrated technical, commercial and economic assessments of issues under dispute in Court or Arbitration proceedings. As Director of Subsurface at Ophir Energy Jonathan was responsible for the delivery of all geoscience, exploration and reservoir management activities across Ophir’s global portfolio.

Jonathan has worked across a diverse range of geological and geographic environments including West, North and East Africa, SE Asia, Australia, and Central America. Jonathan has deep experience of Production Sharing Contracts, Joint Operating Agreements and associated Joint Venture Management activities in a variety of regulatory regimes.  

David Wilson retired as a full-time Engineering Director of ERCE in 2014 but continues to have a key role in our Expert work. David is a founder of ERCE. He has over 50 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, and has been involved in all aspects from E&P, to academia, to consulting.

He began his career with Mobil and Shell International, working across Canada, Europe and the Arabian Gulf. He has also been a Reader (Associate Professor) with Imperial College, University of London, and a founder of multiple companies including the original ERC Energy Resource Consultants in 1977, Atlantis Holding AS in 1996, and the restart of ERC Energy Resource Consultants in 2003.

David is one of the world’s foremost specialists in reserve evaluation and was integrally involved in the development of UK reserve reporting standards in the 1980s. As a professional who has worked on assets as an owner at E&P companies, who has evaluated assets as a consultant and taught theoretical and practical aspects of oil and gas recovery as a professor, David has developed technical, oratory and advocacy skills which serve him well during his work as an Expert. He has served as an Expert Witness before the High Courts in the UK as recently as 2014 and previously before such institutions as the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

David is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining. He holds a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.

Simon McDonald is a founder of ERCE and is a Director of Engineering. Since 1976 Simon has worked as a Petroleum Engineer and Engineering Manager for Shell International Petroleum and Atlantis and has worked in consultancy as Managing Director of the original ERC Resource Consultants in the late 1980s and 1990s, as well as the restart of ERC in 2003.

Simon has been exposed to virtually all reservoir types within Europe, Africa and Asia. He is able to draw upon his experience as a manager in both E&P and consulting companies to identify both causes of concern and solutions to unique and demanding challenges. Field experience from international assignments in Europe and the Arabian Gulf while with Shell, and in the UAE, Oman and Tunisia while Atlantis gives him a practical view of petroleum operations. His experience enables him to bridge the gap between technical and commercial considerations and he has worked extensively for clients as their reporting engineer to banking syndicates, during external financing processes.