James Jordan B.Sc. M.Sc.
James is an Exploration Manager and practical exploration geophysicist with over 30 year’s experience in the global oil and gas exploration sector. He has a successful operational track record, developed in the UK, Norway and Australia. He has worked within leading exploration companies Enterprise Oil, Shell International, Paladin Resources, Faroe Petroleum, Woodside Energy and Ophir Energy. During his career he has been instrumental in several significant oil & gas discoveries.
James started his career as a seismic interpreter with Enterprise Oil based in London. He worked both domestically and internationally, evaluating opportunities in the North Sea, Brazil, Iran, Kazakhstan and Greenland. He relocated to Norway with Enterprise Oil in 2001 where he worked successfully on the Stær oil discovery, existing permits, licence round applications and selected farm in opportunities. After the Shell-Enterprise Oil takeover, James developed his career further as a Senior Geophysicist with Norske Shell and Paladin Resources, where he was responsible for operated exploration drilling and also the re-development of the previously abandoned Yme Oil Field.
James joined Faroe Petroleum in 2006 where he was part of the country entry development team. Initially his primary role was to generate a quality Norwegian portfolio of assets for the company. Working within a small, highly motivated ex-Paladin team, which included Mark Pay, he conducted license round applications, acreage screening, competitor portfolio analysis and asset valuations. These efforts contributed to the initial growth of the company and several significant oil and gas discoveries.
James became Atlantic Margin Exploration Manager in 2007 when Faroe Petroleum had the third largest acreage position in this technically challenging high impact exploration setting, including several operated licenses and non-operated joint ventures with other leading Atlantic Margin exploration companies, Chevron, Statoil and BP.
In 2010 James and his family relocated to Perth in WA where he is currently based. As a Principal Explorationist with the Woodside Energy New Ventures Team, James worked on several SE Asian opportunities and also managed the technical evaluation of Myanmar. This effort enabled Woodside to enter a highly competitive and prospective region ahead of its competitors.
James joined Ophir Energy as East Africa Exploration Manager in 2013 and was responsible for their operated activities in East Africa. During this time he was involved in frontier deep water exploration and associated asset management.
James co-founded Jordan and Pay Exploration Consultants in 2015 providing technical solutions for numerous clients exploring basins around the world. In 2018 James co-founded Spark Exploration exploring the highly prospective West of Shetland region of the UKCS.
James has a BSc (Hons) in Geology and studied at Birkbeck College (UCL) where he was awarded an MSc in Stratigraphy (thesis distinction) in 1994.
2022 www.jordan-pay.com
Mark Pay B.Sc. M.Sc. PhD FGS
Mark is a exploration geoscientist with over 25 years experience working for both large and small E&P operators across five continents. Most recently he has held the position of Technical Director for Spark Exploration. Mark has a proven ability to successfully identify, evaluate and drill exploration prospectivity, and has been involved in several material discoveries.
Mark began his career at Enterprise Oil in London in 1995 as an exploration geologist exploring in the Central North Sea. After consulting for BP while studying for his PhD, Mark rejoined Enterprise in 1998 and worked on a diverse range of exploration projects based in London (UK North Sea, West Siberian Basin and Morocco), Dublin (drilling operations team for the Corrib Field), and subsequently Aberdeen (UK North Sea). In 2000 Mark joined Enterprise's successful exploration team in Stavanger, Norway where he generated and matured prospects in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea. He was also heavily involved in several successful license round awards. On joining Norske Shell in 2002 following the takeover of Enterprise Oil, Mark continued to work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf leading the exploration effort on several operated blocks and being instrumental in a successful divestment campaign.
Mark joined Faroe Petroleum as a Senior Explorationist in Stavanger in 2005. Together with James Jordan, and two other geoscientists, the team opened a Norwegian office and rapidly built an attractive exploration portfolio through license round applications, asset swaps and farm-in deals. Several significant discoveries have been garnered from that portfolio. Mark was also responsible for managing the corporate prospect inventory.
In 2009 Mark joined Woodside Energy in Perth, Australia and subsequently worked on many exploration projects along the North West Shelf. As Technical Team Lead for a large team of geoscientsists exploring in the Offshore Canning Basin, he co-ordinated the planning, acquisition and interpretation of a large 3D seismic volume and led preparations for an eight well exploration programme to target deep Triassic and Jurassic reservoirs.
In 2013 Mark joined Ophir Energy as West African Exploration Manager. As Gabon Asset Manager, he was responsible for all aspects of an operated exploration effort resulting in a three well drilling campaign offshore Gabon during 2014 to target play-opening Cretaceous pre-salt and deepwater prospectivity.
Mark co-founded Jordan and Pay Exploration Consultants in 2015 providing technical solutions for numerous clients exploring basins around the world. In 2018 Mark co-founded Spark Exploration exploring the highly prospective West of Shetland region of the UKCS.
Mark graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc (1st Class) in Geology in 1994 and completed an MSc in Petroleum Geology (Distinction) at Imperial College, London the following year. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Reading in 1998 for a thesis on the petroleum geology of the Clair Field, West of Shetlands UKCS. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of London and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.