Georgii Kanishchev

Highly analytical, results-driven Senior Geophysicist with over 10 years of progressive upstream experience in exploration, appraisal, and reservoir development across conventional, deepwater, and offshore assets (including Shell & BP joint venture operations).

Subject Matter

Expert in 2D/3D/4D seismic interpretation and Quantitative Interpretation (QI), specializing in uncovering hidden value in mature/complex reservoirs through a non-consensus investment approach. Proven track record of de-risking exploration prospects, development wells, and reservoirs to support clarity in high-risk capital investment decisions. Skilled in velocity modeling, depth conversion, and integrating geological, petrophysical, and reservoir engineering data into robust static and dynamic reservoir models.

Experienced in managing multi-million-dollar data acquisition contracts, auditing third-party deliverables under Lean Operating Models, and presenting G&G evaluations to Joint Venture partners, executive management, and national regulatory bodies.

Senior Geophysicist (Operated Offshore LNG Asset Team) at SAKHALIN ENERGY (Shell JV) (2023-04 – Present)

• 4D Seismic Surveillance & Contract Management: Coordinated the planning, acquisition, and processing QC of a 270 sq. km offshore 4D Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) monitoring campaign (managing a $30M acquisition contract and a $230k processing contract) to track waterflood progression and identify bypassed gas-condensate pay zones.
• Quantitative Interpretation & Petrel/RokDoc: Built high-fidelity Rock Physics Models (RPM) in Petrel/RokDoc and performed pre-stack simultaneous seismic inversion to map fluid saturation (gas vs. water), successfully predicting water-coning fronts to optimize depletion planning.
• Integrated Well Delivery & De-risking: Conducted high-resolution shallow geohazard assessments (shallow gas mapping, fault-seal hazard identification) and pre-drill pore pressure predictions (PPP) to support safe well trajectory planning for complex sidetracks and Ultra-ERD wells, reducing drilling-related NPT to zero.
• Reserves Maturation & Investment De-risking: Refined structural-tectonic frameworks to optimize Gross Rock Volume (GRV) spatial uncertainty by 7%, delivering clear, depth-converted maps with uncertainty bounds to support high-risk appraisal and investment decisions.
• Value of Information (VoI) Justification: Executed a comprehensive VoI assessment to economically justify the 4D campaign, demonstrating that acquisition was economically viable even under a single-sidetrack drilling scenario.

Lead Geophysicist (Exploration & Reservoir Characterization) at GAZPROMNEFT-NTC (2020-07 – 2023-09)

• Prospect Generation & Maturation: Matured 3 key exploration prospects from lead stage to drilling-ready targets by delivering regional-scale stratigraphic-structural frameworks, paleo-structural reconstructions, and Play-Based Exploration (PBE) workflows.
• Seismic Reservoir Characterization: Calibrated petrophysical well-log data within Techlog to guide deterministic/stochastic pre-stack seismic inversion; integrated inversion attributes into static geological models, increasing Net Pay prediction accuracy to 86%.
• Technical Assurance & Processing QC: Served as technical authority for seismic processing QC; verified velocity models, long-period static corrections, FWI velocity model building, and near-surface amplitude compensation to ensure robust AVO/AVA analysis.
• Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Partnered with drilling and reservoir engineering teams on iterative post-drill lookbacks, reducing target depth prediction uncertainties from ±25m to <±5m to mitigate geosteering risks for horizontal well placement.

Exploration Geoscientist at KHANTY-MANSIYSK PETROLEUM ALLIANCE (JV Shell & Gazprom-Neft) (2020-03 – 2020-07)

• Legacy Data Unification & Geodesy: Sourced, quality-controlled, and integrated legacy multi-vintage 2D/3D seismic databases and well logs across a 3-field Arctic portfolio using Landmark OpenWorks and ArcGIS; resolved up to 50m lateral coordinate mismatches by converting legacy geodetic datums to rectangular projection grids (WGS84 UTM).
• Structural Interpretation & Traps Alignment: Unified fragmented structural frameworks in Petrel and Landmark DecisionSpace Geosciences (DSG), aligning horizons, well ties, and fault networks to identify bypassed clastic reservoir intervals.
• Acreage Valuation: Conducted VoI assessments for planned seismic reprocessing campaigns, framing prospective resources and geological risk (GCoS) to support license round submissions.

Senior Geophysicist / Principal Consultant (Pre-sales & Technical Geomodelling) at ASPENTECH (EMERSON / ROXAR) (2015-09 – 2020-02)

• Caspian Sea Deepwater Project (SOCAR ACG for BP Partner): Served as Lead Geophysicist evaluating deepwater clastic turbidite reservoirs of the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field. Constructed complex 3D structural frameworks, fault networks, and mud volcano conduits in Petrel and Paradigm to define hazard exclusion zones for exploratory well trajectories.
• Uncertainty & GRV Risk Management: Conducted multivariate seismic depth uncertainty analyses to identify structural variations in Gross Rock Volume (GRV), isolating a 27% variation as the primary economic risk driver; successfully reduced this range in ACG Phase II by integrating newly reprocessed seismic and production data.
• Consultative Technical Advisory: Partnered with sales teams to lead technical discovery sessions, software pilots, and tailored demonstrations of Aspen RMS and Aspen SKUA / Paradigm for major NOCs and IOCs, directly driving software license sales.
• Operational Drilling Support: Calibrated core data and borehole logs to provide real-time geosteering support and update structural models dynamically during horizontal well drilling.

Geophysicist (Depth Imaging Specialist) at LARGEO GROUP (2015-05 – 2015-09)

• Velocity Modeling & Migration: Built high-precision 3D depth-velocity models for Pre-stack Depth Migration (PSDM) using Kirchhoff and Beam migration methods to optimize structural imaging of complex faulted overburden.
• Data Integrity QC: Managed data loading and coordinate integrity audits on Linux-based workstations, verifying coordinate accuracy for subsequent horizon tracking.

Intern (Seismic Data Processing Department) at CGG (2013-05 – 2013-09)

• Near-Surface Signal Conditioning: Executed land 2D/3D seismic data pre-processing, noise attenuation, and initial velocity analysis, optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio for shallow geologic intervals.

Worker in Seismic Crew (Marine Acquisition) at ROSGEO (Yuzhmorgeologiya) (2012-05 – 2012-09)

• OBN Acquisition: Managed and checked technical conditions of OBN telemetry and navigation sensors during transition-zone 3D marine seismic acquisition campaigns.

MSc Equivalent with research thesis (5-Year Specialist Engineering Degree) in Exploration Geophysics – GUBKIN RUSSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF OIL AND GAS (2009 – 2015)