Position: Manager Reservoir Engineering
Location: Oslo, Norway
Hobbies: Music (choir), outdoor hiking, skiing, jogging
Favourite movie: Jean de Florette
In this Meet the Team, we speak to Gudmund Olsen, Reservoir Engineering Manager within AGR’s Subsurface and Asset Evaluations team, who shares his thoughts on how reservoir engineering integrates field development, production technology, and fit-for-purpose reservoir modelling to optimise production strategies across oil and gas assets.
From early field development concept selection to enhancing hydrocarbon recovery over the late life of a field, reservoir engineers play a critical role in bridging geological understanding with commercial development strategies. Through advanced reservoir modelling and proactive reservoir management, they help ensure that oil & gas assets deliver maximum value while managing uncertainty and risk.
1. Give us a glimpse into your day-to-day life at AGR. What keeps you on your toes?
Most of the day I sit in front of the PC or go to meetings. I manage a group of multidisciplinary engineers, including reservoir engineers, field development engineers, petroleum economists, and act as a Project Manager for some of our global projects.
My day is usually a mix of technical work checking volume estimates and production prognosis, reading reports, making project proposals or following up on client needs.
2. What drew you to the energy industry and what keeps you passionate about it?
The timing was right as the oil & gas industry in Norway picked up when I went to university. A Petroleum Engineer sounded like an interesting subject. It turned out to be very general and interesting, and a great foundation for all the different roles I have had throughout my career.
3. Can you tell us about something exciting you are working on right now?
We just finished a project evaluating assets considered for harmonising ownership. What looked like a straightforward valuation turned out to present surprises to us and our client, thanks to evaluations of our experienced and skilled engineers.
4. With increasing focus on cost efficiency on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, how can production and reservoir management strategies be optimised to unlock maximum value from existing assets?
This is a hot question within all disciplines today. The undeveloped discoveries are smaller, and the big fields are at the tail-end of production. There are always two sides to this, the cost side and the income side.
Co-operation to optimise utilisation of infrastructure is important. Related to this is lifetime extension. Reservoir management can help to squeeze more resources out of existing field lifetime and find optimal phasing of tiebacks. Standardisation and simplification (fit-for-purpose) are parts of this. AI could help to speed up the work processes. History shows us that there could be developments taking a leap in improvement. A good example is well technology.
5. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see in managing subsurface uncertainty, particularly when it comes to marginal field developments?
Concentrate on the important uncertainties and risks. Often, we get distracted by checking for all possible parameters and cases that make no difference in the end. Understand how the risks influence the project and concentrate on mitigating those. I will quote prof. Teodor van Golf-Racht “You will always be wrong. In order to be right, you have to be wrong in the right direction”.
6. Beyond the work, what makes you tick outside of the office?
Family and friends.
Join Gudmund and other AGR subsurafce tean members at the NPF Reservoir and Production Management Conference in Stavanger this week. Gudmund is a member of the Programme Committee, contributing his expertise in reservoir management. AGR will deliver a keynote presentation on fit-for-purpose forecasting and how it supports value creation, helping subsurface teams focus effort where it matters most and avoid unnecessary modelling complexity. Contact AGR to book a meeting.