Markus Leishman

Markus Leishman has had a 30-year career in petroleum exploration and development, working on projects both domestically and internationally with major international operators. He has held senior roles in Hess, Shell, BHP-Billiton and Statoil.

Markus has an extensive background in prospect analysis, reservoir modelling, well planning, drilling operations, reserves assessment, uncertainty, and risk analysis processes.

Markus’ initial career with Hess, working exploration and development projects based out of London, Rio de Janeiro, Dallas and Houston. He joined BHP-Billiton in 2004 in their Gulf of Mexico Deepwater group as lead development geologist and then served subsequently as global stratigrapher in an internal consulting group.

He was approached by Statoil in 2009 to become principal geologist and subsurface team leader of some of the largest US offshore developments, together with partners Chevron and Exxon. He then served as principal geologist in the global technology and projects group, working US on-shore unconventional plays and international projects. He acted as advisor for new opportunity assessment and screening, as well as coordinating research for the application of emerging technologies for enhanced production.

He left Statoil in 2016 to consult on various reservoir description, reservoir modelling, reserves analysis and development planning projects worldwide.

Markus holds a BSc. (Hons.) in Geology from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Aberdeen.