Explorer Key Personnel

Jim Hale

Mr. Hale, president of Explorer Energy Services Ltd., has more than 25 years of experience in the energy industry. Prior to forming Explorer, Mr. Hale worked for the NOVA group of companies where he held leadership positions in the areas of natural gas marketing. Arctic gas development projects, major international gas export projects, development of Alberta's major gas transmission network, and international project development activities. He has provided his expertise internationally on projects in 21 countries. Areas of expertise include: gas purchase and sales contracting, natural gas pipeline transportation agreements, open access pipeline management, regulatory management, facilities planning and costing, economic analysis, tariff design, software development (hydraulic and financial simulation models), and strategic and tactical plans for new ventures.

Matt Semenas, CMA

Mr. Semenas has over 30 years of experience in the natural gas transportation industry. He has developed and implemented financial reporting systems for NOVA and its subsidiary companies. He has led project teams responsible for the financial analysis, market studies, and expansion forecasts evaluating the acquisition of numerous international investments. While a member of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, he served as the Chairman of the Regulatory and Finance Committee and participated in a number of Task Force Committees.

Pedro Morales

Mr. Morales has over 20 years of experience in the gas and electric sectors. His leadership roles include the commercial management of large-scale gas pipelines and gas fired power plants in various regions of the world. He has participated in the structuring of numerous privately led energy transactions in emerging markets, covering all deal contracts, from organization and construction, to project financing, regulatory and legal negotiations with both government agencies and local partners.

John Staffier (Partner in Stuntz, Davis & Staffier based in Washington, D.C.)

Over 20 years practicing law in the area of administrative and energy litigation, with a particular focus on issues involving natural gas. He has served as a Staff Attorney with the Federal Power Commission (now FERC), where he was involved in the litigation of pipeline rates and certificate matters. He later worked in the Office of the Solicitor of the Federal Power Commission where he represented the Commission before various federal trial and appellate courts. He currently represents clients before a variety of federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on issues relating to certificate and rate cases as well as numerous rulemaking proceedings. He has extensive experience working with international energy projects involving the negotiation and drafting of gas purchase and sales agreements and the litigation of complex issues, including the pricing of gas supplies and siting of energy facilities.

Roland Cumberland, P. Eng.

Thirty years of diverse engineering and management experience in the oil and gas (pipeline transportation facilities), power generation and industrial process industries with specialist knowledge in rotation equipment and pipeline facilities. He has extensive experience in pipeline systems related projects including project management, facilities planning, cost and scheduling, engineering design and management. In addition to working on numerous projects in Canada, he has provided his expertise on major projects in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, United States, United Kingdom, and Uruguay. Expertise is available in comprehensive project management (planning, scheduling, cost estimating, vendor assessment, contract negotiation, bid evaluation and recruiting) and project execution including conceptual design, quality assurance, factory and shop audits, commissioning and start-up.

George Sutherland, P.Geol.

Mr. Sutherland has provided the planning, course development, delivery and coordination of technical petroleum workshops and seminars for professionals from more than 70 countries. The focus for the last 15 years has been on projects in Asia and Latin America. In particular, in-depth specific country petroleum sector assessments have been completed for a number of Asian and Latin American countries for private companies considering international exploration and development. He has provided a wide variety of management services to agencies conducting international petroleum projects. Due to the success of the management methods for international projects, he has provided training workshops to a wide variety of companies and government agencies.

Gordon Williams, Ph.D., P.Geol.

Dr. Williams is a professional geologist whose career spans 45 years in academia and the energy industry. He has taught petroleum and coal geology, engineering geology, exploration methods, and related subjects as a tenured faculty member at the Universities of Alberta and Queensland (Australia), and is currently a sessional instructor in the Petroleum Land Management program at the University of Calgary. Gordon has worked as an explorationist for major oil and gas companies and has operated his own consulting and training company for over 25 years. He has served as Chair, and is currently President-elect, of the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists, as Second Vice President of the Association of Professional Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta, and as President of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.

Donald Murray, P.Eng.

Over 25 years of experience primarily in refinery operations and management. He had executive responsibility for the Refining and the Supply and Distribution Divisions of a 30,000 BPD refinery. He is very familiar with crude supply, product markets, international financing, facility design and contractor interface issues.

Grant Graves

Mr. Graves is a senior commercial manager with 25 years experience evaluating, structuring, analyzing and closing transactions in the energy sector in North America and internationally. His focus is to assist clients to develop, value, price, structure and implement domestic and international energy projects. He has worked in partnership arrangements and provided commercial, evaluation, risk assessment and structural expertise to project teams. Mr. Graves received his Bachelor of Commerce degree (Finance major) in 1974 from the University of Calgary.