Peter Elliott
Director

Peter holds a degree in Geology and an MSc in Petroleum Geology. He has 25 years experience in the international oil and gas industry working in New Ventures and Business Development. He has recent experience of building oil company JVs in West Africa, including Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal AGC, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.

He has recent experience managing exploration contracts and work programmes, including frontier programmes in West Africa and works closely with African Oil and gas companies and service companies. Peter has a track record of advising large cap companies and small start-ups in identifying and securing suitable growth assets in Africa. Recognised as a specialist in Sub-Saharan Africa, he has completed deals with the likes of Oando (Sao Tome), Black Star (Guinea Bissau), Talisman (Sierra Leone) and Rocksource (AGC) Peter and team constantly research and report on Africa E&P activity, providing valuable insight to clients around the world and regularly speaking at major industry events.

Ian Blakeley
International Sales Manager

Ian has over 35 years’ experience in the O&G industry, having started his career as a Petroleum Geologist for Baker Hughes (EXLOG) in 1987 working in both the UK & Norwegian Sectors of the North Sea. Moving into the energy intelligence space in 1996, Ian worked as an industry scout covering a number of geographical regions for IEDS and IHS Energy (S&P Global) and was an integral member of the team responsible for the start-up of the International Division of Drillinginfo (Enverus) in 2009. Ian moved into Account Management and Customer Engagement roles with Drillinginfo in 2016 and joined NVentures in 2021 as Business Development Manager. Ian holds a BSc Geology & Geography (Joint Honours) degree from the University of Keele, Staffordshire.

Rick Leaver
Business Development Manager

Rick has 25 years of experience in the upstream Oil & Gas Industry, working internationally as an Exploration Geophysicist and Technical Consultant. For the last 10 years he has been focused on Business Development, specialising in providing software and technology solutions to both operators and service companies.

Beginning his E&P career in 1997 as a geoscientist with Scott Pickford in the UK, he has also spent time based in the USA, Australia, SE Asia and the Middle East. As well as working for Halliburton (Landmark), Paradigm and Kongsberg he has carried out a variety of technical consulting and onsite roles with major, independent and national operating companies.

Rick holds a Geology degree from Royal Holloway, University of London and joined NVentures in summer 2024 as part of the Business Development team.

Jonathan Craig
Regional Manager, Asia Pacific

Jonathan Craig has over 20 years upstream oil and gas experience, specialising in production forecasting and industry activity.

Prior to reporting on global hydrogen activity and the Asia Pacific region for NVentures, Jonathan started up the Middle East and South Asia report as an Associate Editor.

Before joining NVentures, Jonathan worked for IHS for over 18 years. He was a primary contributor to IHS’s asset valuation tool, Vantage, with a specific focus on oil and gas production in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Before working on Vantage, for almost 10 years Jonathan’s work was a major component of CERA’s worldwide liquids capacity and E&P Trends Forum research. Jonathan also worked in various roles for IHS Global Exploration and Production Services (GEPS), including four years as Regional Manager covering the Northern Middle East; providing detailed information on exploration and production activity in the region.

Jonathan has a degree in Geology and began his career as a Data Engineer and Logging Geologist with Baker Hughes, supporting exploration drilling operations in the UK North Sea.

Madeleine Slatford
Editor, Middle East and South Asia

Madeleine has an accomplished track record in the E&P industry. With a degree in Geology from Imperial College and a Masters in Basin Evolution and Dynamics from Royal Holloway University of London, she joined IEDS / IHS in the 1990s, working on geological and scout reports for South Asia and other regions. Maddy joined Cairn Energy in 2004 as Consultant Geologist, and spent 13 years with Tullow Oil in Dublin, working on high impact exploration campaigns in South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Madeleine also has an active interest in the energy transition and the role of new energy sources in the global economy.

Jonathan Leather
Associate Editor, Latin America & Caribbean

Jonathan has over 25 years’ experience in the petroleum industry. He started his career at Shell, where he worked on a number of exploration and production assets, including projects in the UK North Sea, Middle East and Malaysia. He joined Tullow Oil in 2007, where he initially worked on South American exploration, before establishing a Subsurface Technology Group that provided specialist technical input across the company in both exploration and development. As part of this, Jonathan worked on global assets and opportunities ranging from onshore producing fields to deepwater frontier exploration, and was a member of Tullow’s Global Exploration Leadership Team.

From 2015-2023, he was Chief Operating Officer of United Oil & Gas plc, where he played a pivotal role in transforming the company from a conceptual idea into a full-cycle, multinational, AIM-listed exploration and production business with assets in Egypt, Italy, UK and Jamaica.

Jonathan holds a Geology degree from Oxford University, a PhD in Sedimentology from Trinity College Dublin, and an MBA from Warwick University.

Jon Ford
Associate Editor, Mediterranean & Europe

Jon has more than 40 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry with roles as seismic interpreter, asset evaluator, subsurface manager and technical director in all aspects of petroleum exploration, development and production, in the UK and international arenas. He has worked for BP, Clyde Petroleum, Paladin Resources, Stratic Energy and Baron Oil as well as an independent consultant to multiple companies. Jon has experience in all parts of the region, especially in the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Albania and Romania. Following a spell as technical director at Baron he is rejoining the NVentures team.

James Andrew
JV Manager

James has a degree in Geography & Geology from Coventry University, and has 35 years of Oil & Gas experience working both on and offshore. He spent 10 years working for Shell UK in London and then in various business development / account management roles marketing multi-client data, seismic acquisition equipment and airborne geophysical services for major Geophysical contractors including Western / WGeco, ION & CGG. He has worked extensively in N / Sub Saharan Africa and Southern Asia with governments, NOC’s, IOC’s and regional geophysical acquisition contractors. He helped establish successful Multi-Client projects in Africa for Marine Seismic, FTG & Gravity & Magnetics.

Jessica Elliott
Production Manager

Jessica studied Human Geography at Brighton University where she found her love of GIS analysis and mapping in general. With NVentures Jessica focusses on Europe, Mediterranean and the Middle East Regions undertaking research, GIS Analysis and creating reports. She also manages the Northern Office and joined the NVentures team in 2017.

Dr. Kelly Barker
North & South America GIS Analyst

Kelly is a Geoscience and GIS analyst for the Latin America Region. She completed her PhD in Geomagnetics in 2016 and joined the NVentures team in 2019.

Sindhu Kovvuri
Mediterranean & Europe GIS Data Analyst

Sindhu has a strong academic background, holding an MBA from Cardiff University and an MS in Finance from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Skilled in Data Analysis, she joined NVentures in 2023 and focuses on the Europe and Mediterranean Regions. Her expertise lies in managing GIS databases, crafting informative maps, generating vital data sheets for various wells, fields, and prospects, as well as preparing monthly reports. Sindhu's passion for analytical exploration and hands-on work effectively bridges the gap between geoscience and data analysis, consistently providing NVentures with valuable insights and innovative perspectives through her strong research skills and data proficiency.

Hattie Sandes
Hydrogen GIS Analyst

Hattie is a recent BSc (Hons) Environmental Science graduate, with geotechnical experience in the petrochemical demolition industry. She joined NVentures in the summer of 2023 to assist in new energy research and GIS data analysis.