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John Howell
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
John Howell studied for his BSc (hons) at the University of Wales in Cardiff where he graduated in 1988. After a brief spell in industry he returned to academia to read for a PhD at the University of Birmingham. He completed his thesis on the sedimentology of the Rotliegend gas reservoirs in 1992 and moved to Liverpool University were he spent the next 10 years – four as a researcher and six as a faculty member.
While in Liverpool, he worked on a wide range of projects within the broad theme of sequence stratigraphy in areas as diverse as the North Sea, Utah, Namibia, Argentina, Chile and the Far-East. Publishing on the application of sequence stratigraphy in tectonically active basins in eolian, fluvial, tidal, and shoreface systems. As the sequence stratigraphic paradigm became more widely accepted, his research interests moved to the characterization and representation of geological outcrops in reservoir modeling software. In 1999 he spent a sabbatical in Saga Petroleum in Oslo (Norway) where he learned to build geocellular reservoir models.
Howell moved to Norway permanently in 2002 to take a Professorship at the University of Bergen. There he continues his interest in the reservoir modeling of outcrops and works to develop new methods for the capture, analysis and utilization of digital outcrop data. His most recent work includes the utilization of ground-based and oblique aerial lidar and, the development of ground-based hyper spectral scanning. He has supervised 22 research students and published over 75 scientific articles.
In 2004, in conjunction with another Professor at Bergen University, he started an oil company called Rocksource. The company was founded on the belief that the correct application of technology improves exploration success and hydrocarbon recovery. Rocksource is listed on the Norwegian stock exchange and now employs 60 people. The company has production onshore Texas and 260 million bbls of risked reserves in its portfolio.
Howell divides his time between the University and Rocksource and generally wishes there were more hours in the day and days in the week.