About us

Our Story

Get inspired by the People shaping tomorrow’s Geo-Energy landscape and the Talented Minds behind our Success.
Mars 2013

Philippe Michel joins Swiss Upstream as Managing Partner, focused on E&P services alongside Johann Padioleau.

June 2013

Swiss Upstream partners with Petroplus for technical support on Hyembe and
Rousset assets, Gabon.

July 2013

IS45 OFDC JV, Geneva, is a JV established by Philippe Michel and Johann
Padioleau, to provide technical services to the West Aftica E&P industry.

October 2014

IS45 OFDC collaborates with AITEO Eastern E&P to develop OML-29, Nigeria.

2016-2017

OML-29 production reaches 90,000 bopd, enhancing by 3x production rates since
the asset’s acquisition time.

July 2019

Vulcania Energy is incorporated as an Energy Company to help our society to
overcome our dependence on fossil fuel and provide Geoenergy Asset Management and
Consulting services in the field of Geothermal, CO2 Sequestration and Hydrogen Exploration.

Q1 2020
Vulcania Energy secures the acquisition of 4 Offshore permits in Republic of Congo and creates a subsidiary in Pointe-Noire on behalf of a private investor.
June 2022

Based on extensive subsurface studies and following the successful supervision of drilling and completion operations, a major discovery is made offshore Pointe-Noire leading to a 10x increase of the asset value.

June 2023

Vulcania Energy completes its first geothermal production enhancement study in Central Europe

July 2023

Vulcania Energy partners with Geneva University to map out the Co2 sequestration and geothermal potential of Switzerland.

Meet the team

Discover over a decade of entrepreneurship, high-yield asset management, exploration success and sustainable geo-energy project delivery.

Philippe Michel

Founder and CEO

Biography >>
Linkedin

Francis Bourdages

Sr. Director E&P

Biography >>
Linkedin

Doreen Tiberghien

HEAD OF FINANCE

Biography >>
Linkedin

Vincent Divry

Director of Technical Studies & Head of Reservoir Engineering

Biography >>
Linkedin

Alexandre Benchaouine

Business Development Manager

Biography >>
Linkedin

Philip Ebalu

Business Development Manager – SubSahara Africa

Biography >>
Linkedin

Christophe Law-Yat

Drilling Engineering Sr. Specialist

Biography >>
Linkedin

Marc Vesseron

Exploration and Geosciences Director

Biography >>
Linkedin

Jean-Michel Vignaux

DRILLING SUPERINTENDENT

Biography >>

Frédéric Guinot

Production Technology Sr. Specialist - AFRICA

Biography >>
Linkedin

Simon Courgeon

Reservoir Geologist

Biography >>
Linkedin

Dorothee Lauriot

Office Manager

Biography >>
Linkedin

Guillaume Labrouze

Project Manager – Surface Engineering

Biography >>
Linkedin

Philippe started his career with Total in the North Sea and in the Middle East as a Petroleum Engineer, before joining Addax Petroleum to grow production and develop assets in Nigeria and Gabon.
Joined BNPPARIBAS as a Director in the Structured Finance group in charge of upstream oil & gas projects, then in the Private Equity team (E&C Capital).

Cofounded Swiss Upstream Advisors and IS45 OFDC in 2013. Co-Managed the acquisition of OML 29 by AITEO E&P from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, the transition of operations and the almost fourfold production increase from 25 kbopd to 90 kbopd.

Graduated from the Paris School of Mines (MSc), IFP School (MSc Petroleum Economics and Management) and from the Moscow University of Oil & Gas (Gubkin).

Francis’s background and experience in drilling is a key foundation of the company. With an industrywide reputation as a skilled and experienced driller, he brings more than 40 years of experience as a driller to his role as drilling manager.

Joining the drilling industry in the late 1970s as a roughneck with Sonpetrol, Francis worked his way up to drilling manager with Elf Aquitaine (now Total) where he spent 30 years working mainly in West Africa. In 2008, he joined Addax Petroleum before moving to Oryx Petroleum where, for more than 6 years, worked as the Corporate Drilling Manger in Nigeria, Gabon and Kurdistan. Since 2017, he has been a Drilling Advisor for various companies in West Africa.

Francis earned a degree in drilling engineering from IFP School in 1988.

Doreen has a solid background in banking has been completed by varied experiences in international finance and audit projects for renown consulting companies, including project management for Finance related IT migrations. More than fifteen years of experience as head of Finance, Administration and HR for smaller and medium-sized companies in a multitude of industries and countries, such as wooden pellets (green energy) in France and the petroleum industry in West Africa and Switzerland.

Vincent has more than 20 years experience as a reservoir enginneer. He has work on different kind of assets, from small to giant fields (bachaquero, Hassi Messaoud, Ghawar) in integrated teams or as technical leader. He has a broad experience in reservoir engineering inclunding reservoir dynamic caracterisation and simulation. He has a lot of experience in history matching using different softwares in the industry in both clastic and carbonate reservoirs.

Vincent has also been implied in the development of fractured reservoirs and has gained a lot of experience in their simulation. His experience also includes reservoir managment (haradh, part of Ghawar) in various areas of the globe.

During his career he was involved in numerous reserves auditing process and as a strong experience in this domain.

Alexandre began his career at Perenco as a Field Production Engineer in Gabon, where he was assigned to the Oba and Echira fields. He later joined TotalEnergies as a Reservoir Engineer, contributing to the development of the Al-Shaheen field in Qatar, one of the company’s largest assets with a production capacity exceeding 300,000 barrels per day.

He subsequently played a key role in the development of TotalEnergies’ Vaca Muerta assets in Argentina, serving for three years as Principal Reservoir Engineer. His scope of work included reserve booking, completion design, and well performance optimization. Among his achievements, he co-designed the LESC-12h well, recognized as the most productive oil well in Vaca Muerta.

Following this, Alexandre served as an Architech for Block 17 in Angola, overseeing a wide range of studies from infill and tie-back projects to carbon footprint reduction initiatives. His work significantly contributed to the internal Final Investment Decision (FID) processes at TotalEnergies.

He currently serves as Business Development Manager at Vulcania Energy.

Alexandre holds a Master’s degree in General Engineering from the Paris School of Mines and a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London, graduating with distinction.

A seasoned investor and divestment specialist in the African oil and gas industry. Philip was a director at Cross Energy SA, and Alphin Capital AG, where he was a co-founder of the BlackBerg fund, a Luxembourg private equity investment fund. He has 20+ years experience as an entrepreneur in the petroleum industry, Expert in business development, brand promotion and stakeholder liaison. Philip has been at the forefront of business development in general. After representing the interests of Swiss civil society in various controversial situations in Africa, he brings to Vulcania his in-depth understanding of Africa, the challenges and business needs of local and foreign companies based in the continent. He holds a Masters degree from Webster University in the United States, and is active in several professional, political and social organizations.

Christophe has 20 years experience in the oil industry. Because he graduated as a reservoir engineer but also as a civil engineer, he chose to go for drilling.

From his first position on the rig as roughneck to the latest positions as drilling engineer/ drilling superintendant, he has been working in West & North Africa, South America and Middle East.

Working on land rigs, heli-rigs, and various offshore rigs, he acquired a broad experience in managing untap targetted reserves in due time and budget despite difficult subsurface and surface conditions (war, revolution, civil unrest, pandemia).

Marc has more than thirty years of experience in exploration & development geology & geophysics. Marc worked for Total & Elf on North Sea, Niger, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Congo (discovery of Bilondo-1 & Libonolo-1), Angola (discovery of Lobito-1, Tombua-1, Tomboco-1), UAE (ADNOC/ADCO), worked as well for ENGIE in Egypt (Nile delta, Western Desert), for Aramco in Saudi Arabia (South Ghawar & Qatar Arch) and in South-East Asia (Indonesia with Mubadala) and Myanmar, PNG, Indonesia with Petronas. Custodian in Seismic Interpretation, Play Based Exploration, Seismic and Sequence Stratigraphy & Structural Geology.

Jean-Michel Vignaux is a seasoned Drilling Superintendent and Manager with a remarkable international career in the oil and energy sector. His extensive expertise encompasses a broad spectrum of drilling operations, spanning exploration, appraisal, and development drilling across diverse environments, including deepwater and ultra-deepwater, both onshore and offshore. He possesses a deep understanding of drilling rig design and inspection for various rig types, from drillships and semi-subs to jack-ups and land rigs.

Jean-Michel excels in budget management, ensuring cost-effective project execution. He places a paramount focus on safety, particularly in high-pressure, high-temperature (HP/HT) and H2S-rich environments. His skills extend to extended reach drilling (ERD), testing, coiled tubing operations, and rig upgrades, reflecting his comprehensive drilling acumen.

Throughout his career, Jean-Michel has contributed significantly to drilling success. Notably, at Total E&P Namibia, he led the transformation of a semi-submersible for deepwater operations. At Vulcania Energy, he managed the acceptance and testing of a jack-up rig, while his tenure at Total E&P South Africa involved rig upgrades for deepwater drilling. His work at Total E&P Brazil and Malaysia included preparing drillships for deepwater exploration.

Jean-Michel’s career has also taken him to Egypt, Angola, India, Gabon, and beyond, showcasing his adaptability and engineering prowess. His unwavering commitment to safety, technical excellence, and cost-effective drilling solutions makes him a distinguished professional in the industry, capable of successfully navigating complex drilling challenges.

Frédéric has more than 30 years of experience working as a specialist in completion, stimulation and production engineering in oil, gas and geothermal projects. Frédéric, is the Managing Director of “From Bottom to Top SàRL”, a well engineering company based in Geneva, Switzerland. From 2014 to 2019, Frédéric Guinot was the Drilling and Completion Manager of Geo-Energie Suisse AG, a center of competence for deep geothermal energy in Switzerland. His previous experience includes 9 years in well engineering positions for Addax Petroleum where he solved completion issues thus allowing the successful development of the Okwori field (OML-126). Frédéric worked 16 years in research, development, and field operations for Schlumberger in wellbore engineering and reservoir stimulation.

Frédéric is a distinguished member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE); he is the founder and chairman of SPE Swiss. Frédéric, is also active in the SPE mentoring program for students and young professionals and received the 2012 SPE Regional Service Award for South and Central Europe and the 2017 SPE Distinguished Service Award. He has authored and co-authored more than 10 technical papers (3 SPE peer approved) and holds 3 US patents in the field of well completion.

Frédéric serves also as an expert in geothermal projects for the European commission and the Swiss Federal Office.

Frédéric currently supports Vulcania Energy on various O&G projects in Africa as a Sr. Production Technologist

Simon Courgeon is a geo-energy geoscientist with experience in various onshore and offshore sub-surface contexts. He specializes in carbonate sedimentary systems geology, stratigraphy and basin analysis. Simon double-graduated in 2013 with a MSc in petroleum geology from UnilaSalle (Beauvais, France) and a MSc in sedimentology from the European University Institute of the Sea (Brest, France). He defended his PhD, focused on the isolated carbonate platforms of the Mozambique Channel, in October 2017 (Aix-Marseille University, France ; Partnership with TOTAL). He then worked as research associate at the university of Geneva on stratigraphy and diagenesis issues, and with a direct link with geothermal exploration (partnership with SIG). Simon finally worked during the last years in a Geneva-based consulting company on geo-energy exploration and development projects, and especially on advanced studies and operation follow-up for giant O&G carbonate fields of the Middle-East.

Graduated from a Master degree in Management (AUDENCIA, Nantes), I started as an analyst in the financial sector (consulting firm, BNP Paribas, Asset Management). Then I joined the Real Estate department of the Richemont luxury group where I reoriented my career. With more than 25 years’ experience in administration & finance management, I held various administrative and multi-tasking positions in France, UK and Switzerland. As Office Manager at Vulcania Energy I am providing administrative support to our Managing Director and Head of Finance.

Guillaume Labrouze brings a wealth of experience in Oil & Gas gained at Perenco and Trident Energy, where he held senior roles including Asset Integrity Manager in Gabon, Asset Integrity Director at corporate level for both companies covering Latin America, Europe and Africa, as well as Project Director in Equatorial Guinea. He therefore has a strong and broad experience of different operational environments.

Guillaume holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Arts et Métiers, and a Master’s degree in Advanced Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London.