Underwater Technology Conference 2023

Program Committee Members

Rune Vesterkjær

Program Committee Chair
Vice President – Subsea Energy Transition & Low Carbon Solutions – Aker Solutions

Rune Vesterkjær joined Subsea after completing his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2002. He has a broad competence within subsea technology, including subsea compression and pumping. His main focus the later years have been on the subsea energy transition and decarbonization of oil and gas production – developing sustainable solutions of the future. Rune has held numerous technical and management roles within Aker Solutions.

Stig Instanes

Board Chariman
Sales Manager Norway & Denmark – TechnipFMC

Stig has more than 20 years’ experience from the Oil & Gas industry, serving the Subsea industry since 2012. With a Master in Mechanical Engineering from NTNU he spent his first years as a process engineer, but quickly moved into business development and more commercial roles. With core competence within processing and rotating equipment he followed the equipment subsea, by joining TechnipFMC in 2012 as Sales & BD Manager for Subsea Systems. Stig has been Board Member of Underwater Technology Foundation (UTF) since 2016.

Jon Arve Sværen

Advisor – OneSubsea

Jon Arve Graduated from Bergen Tech Collage in 1979 – BSc Engineering. Started his career in Frank Mohn AS, the world Leading supplier of cargo pumps for product and chemical tankers same year. He had many different positions in application engineering, sales and business development including responsibility for the capture of the production system for Oseberg subsea satellite project as early as 1986. Sales manager for Oil and Gas division from 1990 -94. Jon Arve started in Framo Engineering in 1994 in sales and business development with global responsibility for the complete range of products ranging through subsea multiphase meters-, multiphase pumps , wet gas compressors and swivel systems for FPSO’s . He took and active part in the formation of OneSubsea in 2013 with an executive position at the Houston Head office for the first years of operations. Current position is advisor and Board member in OneSubsea, Norway.

Jan-Olav Hallset

Senior Project R&D Engineer – A/S Norske Shell

Jan-Olav graduated as PhD in Engineering Cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1992. He joined AS Norske Shell in 2014 as a Team Lead for Subsea Controls and Umbilicals. He now holds the position as Senior Subsea Technology Engineer, responsible for technology qualification and deployment in the Ormen Lange Phase 3 project. He has more than 25 years of experience within the oil & gas industry, and has held various technology and technology management positions within Oceaneering, Hitec Systems, Poseidon Group, and Siemens Subsea.

Knut Rognve

Vice President – Subsea and New Energy Sales – ABB

Knut graduated as Master of Science in Electrical Power Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2003. He joined ABB in 2006 as Project Engineer for Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals in Norway. He has held various technical and management positions within the organization. Knut is currently working as Vice President for Subsea and New Energy Sales.

Bjørn Kahrs

Director UK, Australia, Indonesia, Egypt and West Africa
Subsea Tie-Back, P&A – Nowegian Energy Partners

With his 35 years’ experience, Bjørn Kahrs has an extensive knowhow and experience in subsea intervention work. His experience includes Senior Project Management for larger Subsea Construction projects, EPCI and SURF. He holds both an MBA and a Master degree in Subsea Engineering. He also has experience from working offshore on offshore construction vessels as; Diver, Field Engineer, Offshore Manager and Client Representative. His experience comes from; 3 years with Statoil, 20 years with Subsea 7, 3 years as CEO for Randaberg Industries, 4 years as Mayor of Randaberg Municipality, 4 years with DeepOcean, and is currently Regional Director with Norwegian Energy Partners (Norwep) responsible for UK, Egypt, West Africa, Indonesia and Australia as well as task responsible for Subsea Tie-back and P&A including Decommissioning.

Linn Selset

Subsea Technology & Operations Manager – Wintershall Dea

Linn Selset has a bachelor of International Business from 2006 at Murcdoch University, Western Australia. She has 12 years’ experience from various supply chain and management positions in Statoil and from 2011 in WintershallDea, mainly in subsea projects. Since 2020 Linn has been working as the Subsea Technology & Operations Manager supporting subsea technology development, field developments and operations activities in WintershallDea.

Arne Skeie

Bussiness Development Manager – Subsea7

Arne Skeie has worked 18 years in Subsea 7. Arne has been in the pipeline discipline and in the structural discipline, and has also been working 8 years as Engineering Manager on projects such as Martin Linge, and Ærfugl. Arne is now working as Business Development Manager.Arne graduated from Høgskolen i Stavanger with Master degree in material technology in 1999. He worked as production manager in a factory producing concrete pipes before joining Subsea 7 in 2002.

Vidar Strand

Senior Sales Manager – Baker Hughes

Vidar Strand holds a BSc Engineering from the University of Stavanger. He entered the oil and gas business in 1999 where he began his career as an engineer with ABB Offshore Systems. Since then, Vidar has held various positions ranging from engineering, project management, team lead, customer fulfillment and account management. For 3 years he led the GE Oil & Gas Technology Solution Center in Stavanger connecting the wide range of products and solutions under one roof, communicating technology advances to customers and business partners. Vidar currently works as an account manager at Baker Hughes, focusing on subsea production systems whilst also focusing on how existing and new products and solutions can be utilized and developed to fit in the energy transition market. Vidar is also the SPE Section Chair in Stavanger, the largest SPE section in Norway.

Ingvar Henne

Research Director Autonomous Systems and IoT – NORCE

Ingvar Henne is heading Autonomous Systems and IoT at NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS and part-time ass.prof. at the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. He has more than 25 years of experience within radio communications and data networks, particularly with focus on system planning, as well as 10 years within research institute and academia. He has extended experience from project management, coordination and administration of research and engineering activities, and has participated in and lead numerous projects involving research and development for industrial partners with the aim of research-based innovation, like e.g. SFI Smart Ocean. Ingvar has also participated in several scientific committees for national and international conferences and publications. His scientific background is within wireless communications, acoustic and electromagnetic wave propagation, signal processing, optimization techniques, sensor design, IoT and data networks.

Beathe Mo Amlie

Head of Section Subsea, Drilling and Well – DNV

Beathe Mo Amlie joined DNV after completing her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1997. She started her career working with offshore pressurized components, following some years managing laboratory test projects at the DNV laboratory, then continuing working as a project manager for a variety of subsea related advisory and third party projects. Since 2021 she has been heading the Subsea, Drilling and Well section at DNV in Norway.

Olav Brakstad

Sales Manager – ClampOn

Olav Brakstad is an engineer within electronics and instrumentation. He worked several years in the marine electronics industry as a systems engineer for navigational- and long and short wave radio systems, before joining ClampOn in 1999. During his many years in ClampOn, Mr. Brakstad has gained firsthand experience and extensive knowledge on acoustic monitoring systems. Today he is ClampOn’s global sales manager

Kai Stoltz

Business Development Manager – GCE Ocean Technology

Solveig Tornås

Director Engineering Services, Norway – TechnipFMC

Solveig Tornås holds a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She started her career in Volvo Aero Norge, as a quality assurance engineer for jet engine manufacturing. After this she has 17 years’ experience in different engineering roles at TechnipFMC in several locations; Kongsberg, Singapore, Lysaker and Bergen. Current role is overseeing the engineers working for our service organization in Norway.

Gunnar Birkeland

CEO – Unitech Offshore

Anna Arteeva

Equinor