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

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Francis Bourdages

Sr. Director E&P

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Doreen Tiberghien

HEAD OF FINANCE

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Vincent Divry

Director of Technical Studies & Head of Reservoir Engineering

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Marion Becouze

Reservoir Geophysicist

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Philip Ebalu

Business Development Manager – SubSahara Africa

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Christophe Law-Yat

Drilling Engineering Sr. Specialist

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Marc Vesseron

HEAD OF GEOPHYSICS

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Frédéric Guinot

Production Technology Sr. Specialist - AFRICA

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Simon Courgeon

Reservoir Geologist

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Dorothee Lauriot

Office Manager

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Michelle Whymark

Geological Modeling Sr. Specialist

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Guillaume Labrouze

Project Manager – Surface Engineering

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Jean-Michel Vignaux

Drilling Superintendent

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Alexander Petrov

Petrophysics Sr. Specialist

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Leonardo Azevedo

Seismic Quantitative Interpretation Advisor

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Debjani Bhowmick

Data Scientist

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Phil Mosher

Project Manager – Subsurface

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Jon Tuck

Production Chemistry Sr. Specialist

Biography >>
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Simon Coley

Process Engineering Sr. Specialist

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Contact us

You have general inquiry, want to partner with us or share an idea, feel free to reach out to us anytime.

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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.

Marion Becouze is a geophysicist at Vulcania Energy with 6 years of diverse international O&G and geothermal experiences in integrated teams, involving new ventures, exploration and development. She holds a master’s degree in Geological Engineering from the E.N.S.G. (France) complemented by a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Deep geothermal systems management from the Neuchâtel University (Switzerland).

Marion brings a wealth of experience as a geophysicist from her previous roles at Beicip Franlab in Paris and IS45 in Geneva where she notably build solid experienced in seismic interpretation and structural modeling. Now at Vulcania Energy, she is committed to contributing to the energy transition by assessing the geothermal potential in Switzerland, drawing on her deep understanding of the country’s geothermal challenges. Her diverse professional experiences and educational background enable her to work on a diverse range of geoenergy projects.

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.

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.
Michelle Whymark is a senior geologist with more than 14 years of experience working for Schlumberger where she developed extensive expertise in Petrel and specialised in 3D reservoir characterisation. This included the development of geological models of notable oilfields in Brazil such as Jubarte, Cachalote, Baleia Azul, Ostra, and Albacora Leste. In addition, Michelle was also the instructor of multiple training courses in Petrel which included: Petrel Introduction, Petrel Property Modeling, and Petrel Seismic Visualization and Interpretation. During a 5-year assignment in Norway, her role as a Product Owner allowed her to gain extensive experience with Exploration Geology and to deploy the creation of user-friendly workflows for Play and Prospect assessments in Petrel. Michelle holds a Master’s Degree in Geology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and since 2022 started working as a Geology Modeling Consultant.

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.

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.

Operational and Exploration Petrophysicist with focus on full scale wellbore data interpretation and integration with other domains and over 14 years of industrial experience within Service & Operating Companies (CIS, Central and Northen Europe, North Africa, Far East and Middle East) and over 7 years of academic and teaching experience (assistant professor, technical course and workshop instructor).

Leonardo Azevedo holds a PhD on Earth Resources from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). His research deals with the development and implementation of geophysical, mainly seismic reflection data, inversion software combining spatial data science and geophysics. This software has been deployed in some of the major energy companies worldwide. He has experience in developing services and research and development projects with energy companies to tackle challenging subsurface problems. His work has been published in several international peer-reviewed journals and he is the co-author of two books published in Springer.

Debjani Bhowmick is a seasoned Data Scientist with an international career spanning over 5 years in the field of data science and 8 years in various industries. With a strong foundation in geophysics and geodata analysis, Debjani has consistently delivered actionable insights and solutions derived from a diverse range of datasets, including those from geophysical and geological sources, earth observation sensors but also livestock health monitoring systems.

Debjani’s expertise lies at the intersection of statistical modeling, machine learning, and data visualization. Her proficiency in a wide array of tools and frameworks, including Python, R, SQL, scikit-learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Keras, underscores her ability to effectively harness the power of technology to address complex data challenges.

During her time at Shell Global in Amsterdam, Netherlands, she utilized computer vision and natural language processing to address subsurface research challenges. Her work included using image-to-image translation models for accurate geological structure estimation from seismic data and developing tools for well sequence correlation and denoising seismic data.

Philip has over 40 years of experience in project management, asset evaluation and development, and petroleum engineering and operations. Having worked directly for two majors, a NOC, and three service/consulting companies he has had the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of successful petroleum and energy projects with numerous operators across five continents.

A strong technical background in reservoir engineering, simulation, and production optimization coupled with extensive cross-discipline experience in reservoir characterization, economics and commercial aspects underpin key contributions to innovative, technically sound approaches for field delineation, development and operations that have saved millions of dollars while increasing production, recovery, and reserves. Good stakeholder management and people skills with extensive project, asset and team management experience provide a proven ability to identify and implement profitable projects.

Current interests focus on project management, optimizing traditional O&G sources while transitioning to alternate energy resources, plus transferring his skills and experience through competency and career planning with mentoring to mid level staff and management.

Jon Tuck is a Production Chemist with 25+ years of international Oil and Gas experience working for operators, service companies and consultancies. His experience includes technical, managerial and leadership roles, with a technical focus on Production Chemistry, Water Treatment and Injection, Reservoir Souring, Chemical Application, and Process Systems. Jon has worked directly in more than 15 countries, tackling a range of challenges including:

  • Prediction, management and mitigation of waxes, asphaltenes, scales, hydrates, emulsions, sulphides, and mercury.
  • Managing research into reservoir souring and devising cost-effective hydrogen sulphide mitigation strategies.
  • Devising innovative solutions for water injection and treatment, particularly sulphate-removal and filtration processes.
  • Planning and optimisation of chemical application and delivery methodologies, spanning from inhibitors to stimulation techniques.
  • Design and troubleshooting of process systems, encompassing separation, dehydration, MEG systems, amine units, and condensate stabilization.


Jon’s career has included industry-leading organisations, including Baker Hughes and BG Group, where he assumed a global technical lead role under the title of Production Manager for Water and Production Chemistry.

Simon is a Process Engineer with over forty years’ experience working for major oil companies – including 19 years with Conoco, 4 with NAM/Shell and 12 years with KPO – on development projects and production operations (offshore and onshore) in Northwest Europe, Kazakhstan, the Far East and Australia.

His experience has followed several oil & gas development projects from initial feasibility studies through to commissioning and start-up, and subsequent production operations support. This has involved a wide variety of production fluids from the offshore sweet gas fields of the Southern North Sea to the highly sour gigantic reservoirs of the pre-Caspian basin in Kazakhstan.

In addition to the areas of experience already mentioned he has an interest in providing support to companies during the energy transition by providing expertise on fugitive emissions monitoring and reporting and in finding ways to harness thermal effluent from existing operations to generate CO2 free electricity.