Dr Riverson Oppong
With 15 years Global experience in the oil and gas industry with Horizon Energy Ltd, GE Energy/oil and gas (US & Ghana), PPS (Ghana & UK), and Lukoil International (Russia, Dubai, USA & Cote d’Ivoire), he is currently the Commercial Manager in charge of Economic Modeling, Risk Management, and Policy Planning (ERP) at Ghana National Gas Company. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Ghana Technology University College, a Coventry University Campus in Africa; and a Visiting Lecturer at University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He is E&P Committee Member of International Gas Union (IGU). He is also a Section Director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) -Ghana Section, even as he continues to serve as an Advisory Committee Member of SPE Africa.
He is an experienced Oil and Gas Business Analyst with solid technical and commercial knowledge in oil and gas field development planning and portfolio management. He is heavily involved in the day-to-day interpretation of value creation potential for oil and gas businesses. His strengths include being diligent, innovative and technology driven.
Riverson holds a Ph.D. and a Post Doctorate Degree in International Oil and Gas Management - Finance and Economics from Gubkin University of Oil and Gas; Diploma in Earth GeoScience from Stanford University, USA; Masters (with honors) in Petroleum Engineering from Gubkin University of Oil and Gas, with Masters Exchange Program in Arctic Development from Norwegian University of Nordland; a Bachelors degree in Materials (Industrial) Science and Engineering from K.N.U.S.T., Ghana; Diploma in Project Management from Institute of Commercial Management, UK.
Prior to joining Ghana National Gas Company in 2020, Dr. Oppong had worked on several oil and gas fields and projects, including North Busachi Fields in Kazakhstan, Independence Field in Cote d’Ivoire, Djata Fields in Ghana, and West Quarna2 Gas Field in Iraq. He also consulted for the Croatian Government on the Croatian LNG Project as a Project Economist.
Returning to Ghana, he has been playing an active role on Ghana’s Energy Sector Recovery Program; a program that gave birth to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, Natural Gas Clearinghouse, and P4R. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that the objectives of these programs are holistically achieved. Dr. Oppong equally sits on Ghana’s National Energy Transition Technical Committee, where he contributes to writing policy documents to address Ghana’s energy transition roadmap. He also currently plays a dynamic role in the review of Ghana’s Gas Master Plan (GMP) and Natural Gas Pricing Policy (NGPP).
Riverson Plays a salient role in the determination of the Weighted Cost of Delivered Gas Prices (WCODG) in Ghana’s Energy Sector. He equally sits in national committees of Gas Price Negotiations with Upstream Players, and accordingly Gas Sales Agreements.
He has lectured in several universities across Europe, Canada, and Australia, and has been a conference panelist on numerous Conferences across the globe in the past seven years. His immense contribution to international conferences cannot be overlooked as he has made presentations under ATCE 2016, UAE; IPTC 2016, Thailand; OTC 2016, Canada; WPC 2017, Turkey; PC.LCC 2018, 2021 & 2022, Ghana; EMW 2018 and 2019, Poland; AOG 2019, South Africa; WPC-YP Summit 2019, Russia; ASEC 2020, Croatia; SAIPEC 2021, 2022 & 2023, Nigeria; GES 2022, Canada; NAICE YPW 2022, Nigeria; GH-BICE 2022, Ghana; WGC 2022, South Korea; GhipCon 2022, Ghana; ALNGW 2023, Tanzania; NIEC 2023, Namibia; NAICE 2023, Nigeria; WPC 2023, Canada, among others, with numerous published papers and articles. He is also an author of three books. As at June, 2022, Dr. Oppong had over 500 citations in articles, thesis, and books.
It is worth mentioning that Riverson has won several international awards, medals and recognitions: the most recent being the recognition by “Gurus and Prospects” Magazine – GAP, as one of the “TOP 10 Energy Thought Leaders in Africa and Diaspora”; 2023 SPE Regional Management Award, 2022 “Rising Star” – Ghana Energy Awards, 2022 SPE Regional Distinguished Service Award, 2020 SPE Regional Young Member Outstanding Service Award, and 2020 Presidential Millennium Excellence Award, Oil and Gas – Youth Category. Dr. Oppong won the best PhD. Research (Globally) in 2016 in Poland at the East Meets West SPE Conference.