Henk Kombrink (40) has joined the ExProNews (geoexpro.com) editorial team in a particular time.
With geoexpro.com, GeoPublishing brings day-to-day news to the G&G community, focusing on subsurface aspects of the oil and gas industry in Northwest Europe.
He had a flight booked to Oslo in April to meet the GeoPublishing team, but – for good reason – that never happened. However, using the suite of video communication media available these days, he has still integrated into the team quickly.
The immediate consequence being that the editorial quality of geoexpro.com has improved considerably over the last couple of months.
Having studied and worked in Utrecht for 13 years before moving to Aberdeen in 2011, Henk brings with him an extensive network from both the Netherlands and the UK. Amongst other things, he has worked on many regional, geological North Sea studies as well as field evaluations, which allows him to familiarise with subsurface related news quickly. Something that will certainly benefit our readers.
During his PhD, Henk studied the Carboniferous of the Netherlands and surrounding areas, which allowed him to learn a lot about the Southern North Sea. Upon finishing his thesis, he joined the Geological Survey of the Netherlands (TNO) for three years, before joining Total E&P’s Geoscience Research Centre in Aberdeen, Scotland. Just before the big downturn kicked in (2014), he joined LR Senergy in 2014 and was part of the subsurface consultancy business for six years until LR decided to pull the plug on the department a few months ago.
Henk has a busy schedule as he does not only write for ExProNews, he also runs North Sea Core together with Kirstie Wright. This company was set up in response to the release and disposal of cores from UKCS oil and gas fields. Henk and Kirstie felt that there was a demand for this incredibly valuable material, which proved right and since the start of the initiative they have already welcomed more than 400 requests from all over the world, varying from pallet loads to a single piece of half cut core.
Henk is married to Mariël, also a geologist, with whom he has two little boys.
North Sea Core was set up in response to the release of core material by oil and gas companies, through the abandonment and decommissioning of fields on the UK Continental Shelf. Core material provides an incredible resource for understanding the subsurface and it is invaluable to geologists. Rather than see this material fall into disuse or be discarded, North Sea Core is attempting to collect it and make it available to the wider geological community. The aim is not to build a core library or archive, but to transform and distribute it for educational and outreach purposes, and to interested individuals and commercial enterprises.
