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iRes-Geo Technology was founded by Dr Yi Huang, along with several other co-founders, including Dr Sean Tien, who are both MSc and PhD graduates from Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Petroleum Engineering. Both PhDs were carried out within the Edinburgh Time-Lapse Consortium (ETLP) under Prof. Colin Macbeth.
The two founders shared similar routes through Heriot-Watt University. Yi and Sean completed their MSc studies in Reservoir Evaluation and Management and Geoscience for Subsurface Appraisal and Development (GeoSEAD, now Petroleum Geoscience) courses in the years 2007 and 2009, respectively, before joining ETLP to do research in the subject of 4D reservoir monitoring technology. After graduation, Yi and Sean joined Statoil and Chevron respectively, and broadened their expertise in the oil and gas industry worldwide.
Yi, CEO of iRes-Geo technology, who had the idea of building this company a couple of years ago, with investors and his alliances around the world, said: "it was during my time in Norway that I realised there was commercial potential in the existing research studies, and the North Sea and global oil and gas industry would need our knowledge to overcome the future challenges which have currently turned up in front of every one of us in the industry."
"The maturing fields around the world need new standard of development exercise to maximize capital returns, efficiently, and this is the biggest issue that the entire industry is facing. We carefully commercialized a few research-proven technologies and workflows based on our industry experience and observations, which are targeting on efficiency improvement. Our vision was fortunately valued by a lot of partners around the world. The founder of Haimo, the first Chinese IOC bidding for blocks in the US, recognized our potential and decided to invest in us. iRes-Geo have formed comprehensive strategic partnership with Haimo, providing iRes-Geo with its industry-ready sales channels and business advice.. We have also received a lot of recognition and support from Scottish Enterprise. We are an international team, with experts from many Tier 1 major oil companies, and our business is administrated by another co-founder who is former US Navy project manager.
"The current version of our service and software provides the oil industry with a means of refining the reservoir characterization, modelling and optimization options, something that is more critical than ever given the current low oil price."
Welcome news for Scotland's oil and gas sector and reinforces our world-wide reputation as being a global hub for oil and gas activity.
David Rennie, international sector head at SDI
iRes-Geo has been account-managed by Scottish Enterprise. Reported by many UK business media, it is regarded as a paragon of international synergy between the UK and China.
David Rennie, international sector head at SDI said the announcement was "welcome news for Scotland's oil and gas sector and reinforces our world-wide reputation as being a global hub for oil and gas activity". He added: "Our skills, experience and expertise together with our world-class training facilities and strengths in innovation made Scotland the location of choice for iRes-Geo Technology. Supporting iRes-Geo Technology's move to Scotland forges even stronger links between Scotland and China and we will continue to work intensively with their management team through our account management portfolio to support its ambitious growth plans in Scotland."
"The company is growing rapidly, and we have found our niche in the market and are aiming to become world-leaders in Geo-reservoir engineering service in oil and gas. We are maintaining our links with Heriot-Watt University by maintaining research links, and our first UK office has been opened recently in the Heriot-Watt Research Park on the outskirts of Edinburgh. We are looking to expand it in the next few years as we gradually grow our business in the UK and beyond" says Yi who can be contacted at yi.huang@iresgeotech.com.