Speakers

Martin Buckley, VP of Business Development, Drummond Company

Mr. Buckley has been involved with the energy business for over 34 years. He has been employed in the regulated and unregulated power business as well as the industrial gas, merchant energy and now the coal industry. He is a registered PE in the State of New York.

Mr. Buckley has experience in gasification and cogeneration projects and has developed over 35 projects through out the United States during his career. Technologies include wind, geothermal, wood, coal, gas, diesel, biomass and hydro electric facilities.

Mr. Buckley has had the responsibility, accountability and authority for the business planning, marketing, development and financing for over $3 billion in projects. He has held senior management positions in most every company while being successful in expanding the profitability and business endeavors for into new areas of business.

Mr. Buckley is presently the Vice President of Business Development for the privately held Drummond Company, Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama. He is involved with the transition and expansion of the coal company into an energy company using their coal reserves to become involved with downstream projects, primarily gasification.

Bruce Hughes, director-business development, Southern Natural Gas

Bruce H. Hughes is director of Business Development for Southern Natural Gas Company, a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation. In his current position, Mr. Hughes is responsible for business development projects across the southeast.

Mr. Hughes has approximately 30 years of experience in the pipeline industry. He began his career in 1976 with Birmingham based Sonat, Inc. Sonat (which merged with El Paso in 2000) was a diversified energy holding company which owned, among other subsidiaries, Southern Natural Gas Company. During his tenure at Southern Natural, Mr. Hughes has held a number of management positions with financial, regulatory and gas supply responsibilities.

In his current position as Director of Business Development, Mr. Hughes has developed natural gas supply and expansion projects across the southeast U.S.

Mr. Hughes received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama. He is married and has two daughters, 18 and 12 years of age.

Mr. Landry is Vice President of Freeport-McMoRan and has participated in the operations and management of Freeport's offshore mining facilities since joining the company in 1976. He has extensive experience in project development; construction, and operation of offshore mining complexes; salt cavern development; and management of the associated organizations and systems required to support business activities.

Mr. Landry is currently responsible for all activities related to the development of the Main Pass Energy Hub™ which will be licensed as a Deepwater Natural Gas Port for the importation, processing, and distribution of natural gas into the U.S.

Mr. Landry has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Master's Degree in Engineering from Tulane University.

Lars Odeskaug, president, TORP Technology

Lars Odeskaug has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland 1976. He started his career with Brown & Root, and worked on various projects in the North Sea until 1987. He formed his own company and did consulting work within project management in the oil and gas business from 1987 to 1993. In 1993 he joined APL in Norway, and was the Project Manager for the Heidrun STL Project, before he became the President of Hitec Marine in 1994. In 2002 he incorporated Remora Technology and moved to the United States. Today he is the CEO of TORP Technology in Houston.

Bob Nimocks, president, Zeus Development Corporation

Zeus Development Corporation is an energy research firm that focuses on world gas development. The company commonly serves manufacturing and oilfield service clients evaluating markets for their products and services in the LNG, GTL, methanol, DME, IGCC and gas-export-related markets. Zeus publishes a number of market-related periodicals, including the www.LNGExpress.com, www.SyngasRefiner.com and www.GasLeads.com and organizes workshops, conferences and training programs.

Prior to founding Zeus in 1991, Nimocks was vice president of corporate development for Elders Resources North America, the North American division of an international energy and natural resources company with substantial natural gas production. He earned an MBA from Harvard University (1987), served in the management consulting division of Accenture (1981-84) and obtained BS and BBA degrees from Mississippi State University (1981).

Bradford D. Reese, vice president, Gulfstream Natural Gas System, Duke Energy Gas Transmission

Brad Reese is vice president of the Gulfstream Natural Gas System for Duke Energy Gas Transmission
(DEGT).

Reese joined the company in 1985 as a senior natural gas transportation and exchange representative and
served as a manager in various areas in the company’s interstate natural gas pipeline business units, including
transportation and exchange, business development and marketing. He was promoted to director of marketing for
Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company in 1990. He transferred to a similar position at Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation in 1993, and was named general manager of marketing for Texas Eastern in 1995. Reese was named vice president, offshore Gulf of Mexico, for Duke Energy Field Services in 1996; DEGT’s vice president of supply development in January 2001; and senior vice president of Duke Energy Gas Transmission -- West and co-CEO of Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. in February 2002. He was also named president of Westcoast Gas Services Inc. in July 2003. He assumed his current position in February 2004.

Before joining the company, Reese worked for two years in gas supply and transportation and exchange for Tennessee Gas Transmission Company and two years for Conoco Production Inc.

He is a member of the National Energy Services Association, the Gas Processors Association and the New England Gas Association. He served on the board of directors of the American Cancer Society in Houston and the Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary.

He also served on the National Petroleum Council’s Transmission and Distribution Task Force. The Dallas, Texas, native received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance with honors from the University of Houston, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Houston at Clear Lake City.

Gary Van Tassel, president, Argent Marine Operations

Gary Van Tassel is the President of Argent Marine Operations an affiliate company of the Argent Marine Companies. He has been with Argent since 1990 and had responsibility for bringing the LNG tankers Galeomma (ex Arzew) and LNG Delta (ex Southern) back into service after a 20-year lay-up. The reactivation included significant modifications and upgrades to bring the vessels into regulatory compliance and allow for worldwide trading. Over a period of the past 10 years, Gary has been involved in developing LNG barge designs and exploring potential trade routes. Gary's experience in the marine transportation of LNG dates back to the El Paso Algeria I project of the 1970's where he was responsible for crew training and tanker cryogenic systems. Gary is a Dual License, holding both deck and engineering officer licenses, graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy were he earned a BS in Marine Engineering and has an ME degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Ocean Engineering.

Bradley Williams, president, Spitfire Advisors & Investments

Mr. Williams is the President of Spitfire Investments & Investments, Inc. which is a consulting company which provides solutions and experience to companies dealing with energy infrastructure projects and commercial negotiations.

Mr. Williams has been working in the energy industry for over 25 years with a variety of companies. His experience includes the entire energy chain: E&P, LNG projects, pipeline transmission, marketing and energy trading, risk management, power project development, regulatory changes, industry restructuring as well as international activities in these areas.

Mr. Williams began his career with Transco, the gas pipeline, and was a player in the transition of the US gas industry from a utility ratebase structure to an open access competitive marketplace. He worked for Mobil Oil in the U.S., Europe, and Asia mostly operating in new competitive markets including the LNG trade. Mr. Williams participated in the planning and administration of Mobil's U.S. gas marketing business, MNGI and its U.K. gas business, MGM. Mr. Williams worked for Enron for five years, leaving in 1997, in a variety of positions working on developing assets and marketing/trading energy products in the U.S. and overseas. This included running the US West Coast Origination effort and then developing projects for Enron Oil & Gas in India, China and the Former Soviet Union. After three years with Dynegy as VP of Power Development, he moved to Entergy for three years as Sr. VP of Business Development to help push Entergy's move into the competitive power market. Mr. Williams returned to the natural gas arena with FPL Group in 2003 to help bring new gas supplies to Florida and pursue natural gas opportunities on the unregulated side of FPL Group outside of Florida. This included leading FPL's efforts to bring LNG to Florida via a new Bahamas Terminal which included securing a 25 years supply contract with Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil (RasGas) out of Qatar.

Mr. Williams graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1981.