Tim Harper
After wellsite and seismic survey experience, Tim Harper worked for a US consultancy before joining BP to build a technical service capability in hydraulic fracturing. At this time, stimulation vessels were just entering the N. Sea, requiring changes to the traditional US approach to suit UK offshore operations. Achievements included major cost savings in field development and joint receipt of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s most prestigious prize for advances in hydraulic fracturing. This is the only occasion the award has been made for subsurface engineering. An invitation followed to give a Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, a memorable challenge. In addition to the completions technical service, he devised and managed a programme to limit the risk to wells drilling through active faults in Colombia and the risks to surface facilities. This included monitoring of microseismic activity during drilling and testing. With Geosphere, he has worked on diverse geomechanical aspects of typical drilling and completion problems. After assisting Cuadrilla to investigate a well-known instance of induced seismicity, he has mostly concentrated on the fracturing of unconventional reservoirs.
Tim Harper obtained a PhD in engineering at Imperial College studying fluid flow in fractured rock after obtaining an MSc. in Structural geology and rock mechanics