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Amparo Alam

Amparo Alam is Exploration Manager for the Lüderitz and Walvis Basins at TotalEnergies, where she leads the evaluation, maturation and strategic development of exploration opportunities offshore Namibia. With nearly 20 years of international experience in the energy industry, she has built a diverse career spanning both exploration and development, combining deep subsurface expertise with business and portfolio management responsibilities. Throughout her career, she has worked across multiple regions worldwide and has served as a technical advisor supporting exploration portfolios and investment decisions across the company. Her expertise includes basin evaluation, resource assessment, block capture, well preparation and field development planning. In Namibia, she has been actively involved in advancing understanding of the Lüderitz and Walvis basins, supporting acreage capture and farm-in evaluations, with a focus on value creation, prospect maturation and portfolio growth.

Alex Gall

Alex Gall is a Principal Consultant at Xodus with expertise in LNG, natural gas and energy infrastructure projects. Based in London, he supports clients in evaluating and delivering large-scale energy investments, with a particular focus on project economics, risk assessment, technical due diligence and strategic decision-making. His experience spans the full project lifecycle, from concept development through to operations and optimisation.

Duncan Barkwith

Duncan is a Senior Geophysicist at Sasol. He holds an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of London and a BSc in Geophysical Sciences from Lancaster University. He has worked in the industry for three decades, splitting that time between the oilfield service sector and an upstream operator. Throughout his career he has worked extensively with seismic data across Africa and Europe, ranging from the good, the bad and the ugly. He has a passion for extracting maximum value from these datasets and integrating seismic insight across the hydrocarbon lifecycle and technical disciplines.

Ian Cross

Ian Cross is currently based in the London Moyes office and has previously been based overseas in Singapore and Houston. He identifies opportunities for clients and is an expert on global upstream activities and business intelligence, particularly across the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions. Ian is involved in international transaction work on both the buying and selling sides. Since 1991 he has held various positions within the South East Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX) and is currently its President. Ian is also a Regional Leader for the Frontier Energy Network and is involved in programme committees for both SEAPEX and Geoscience Energy Society of Great Britain (GESGB) conferences.

Jonathan Redfern

Jonathan Redfern has more than 40 years of experience across industry and academia. He is Director of the
North Africa Research Group at the University of Manchester, where he leads a large team of PhD researchers and academics undertaking fieldwork and research across North Africa. The group has been active in the region for more than 25 years and is supported by leading energy companies.

Jonathan obtained his BSc from Chelsea College, University of London, and his PhD from the University of Bristol. He began his career in the oil industry and spent 15 years working internationally, starting as a geologist in the North Sea with Fina UK before moving with Petrofina to Singapore, Libya and Italy. He later joined Amerada Hess, working on international new ventures and serving as Chief Geologist in Indonesia.

In 1999, Jonathan moved into academia to pursue his passion for teaching and research. He developed and led the Petroleum Geoscience MSc at the University of Manchester and has successfully supervised 38 PhD students.

He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Petroleum Geoscience.

Mike Lakin

Mike Lakin is a geology graduate from Cardiff University. After graduating in 1981, Mike worked for independent oil and gas companies including Superior Oil, Carless Exploration and Kelt, the UK subsidiary of Perenco, working across the UK, Europe and West Africa until 1989. Mike then joined a London advisory group as a geologist specialising in international upstream project A&D (Acquisition & Divestment) and portfolio management activities, becoming Group General Manager before leaving to establish his own upstream energy A&D advisory company, ENVOI Limited, at the end of 1999. He remains the company’s Founder and Managing Director.

ENVOI’s advisory service covers the full marketing cycle, from initial technical and commercial project reviews and strategy planning through global marketing, data-room due diligence and the offer process. ENVOI has now spent more than 25 years advising energy clients on buying, selling and portfolio management across more than 350 projects worldwide. These include predominantly hydrocarbon projects alongside emerging geothermal and SMR opportunities. ENVOI also advises NOCs on licence and bid rounds, including three offshore Suriname bid rounds since 2019.

Tony Younis

Tony Younis is Exploration Manager at Impact Oil & Gas, with nearly 30 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry. He began his career with Schlumberger in offshore seismic acquisition and processing before joining Total in Aberdeen, where he played a key role in the Tormore discovery that contributed to the Laggan–Tormore development west of Shetland. Through subsequent assignments in Paris and Gabon, Tony built extensive subsurface experience across Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and Arctic Canada.

In 2015, Tony joined Impact Oil & Gas as Exploration Manager and helped establish the company’s strong technical reputation across its deep-water African portfolio. This work supported the successful farm-outs of Impact’s AGC and Orange Basin interests to Woodside, CNOOC and TotalEnergies. The partnership with TotalEnergies subsequently led to the discovery of the Venus Field offshore Namibia in 2022.

His leadership of Impact’s involvement in the Venus project began with its early recognition on sparse 2D seismic data and continued through 3D seismic acquisition and interpretation, exploration drilling and discovery. Since the discovery, he has played a key role in Impact’s successful farm-down while continuing to lead the company’s interest as the field progresses towards project sanction.

Tony holds a BSc in Geophysics from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Petroleum Geology from the University of Aberdeen.