Environmental and Socioeconomic Impact Assessments:

Mr. Black has extensive participation in the preparation of ESIAs or reports for:

•  Four blocks off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, for drilling in ultra-deep waters; assignment lasted approximately 16months
•  Preliminary environmental assessments for drilling in two blocks off the coast of Ghana, in very deep waters
•  Off-shore seismic exploration, for six blocks off Colombia’s Caribbean coast
•  Off-shore drilling, off Colombia’s Caribbean coast. He recently completed a more than 2-1/2 yrs in-house assignment with a large independent Houston-based E&P company working extensively in Colombia, assisting with permitting, license modifications, marine sampling programs in deep and ultra-deep waters and preparation of (well) specific environmental management plans
•  Seismic exploration, upper Orinoco basin, Colombia; project involved substantial involvement with indigenous communities
•  Off-shore seismic exploration of five blocks, off Kenya coast: project involved stakeholder engagement activities
•  Off-shore seismic exploration of one additional block, off Kenya coast, also involving stakeholder engagement along the Kenya coast
•  Off-shore seismic exploration off the coasts of Angola and Philippines
•  Rehabilitation of an electric power generating station in Monrovia, Liberia: project involved the assessment of hydrocarbon impacts resulting from activities that occurred during the country’s civil war
•  Floating LNG loading/offloading terminal in Bangladesh, with critically-endangered wildlife habitat to be protected

Environmental Due Diligence Assessments:

Mr. Black has participated in environmental due diligence associated with numerous major transactions, including:

•  Upstream oil and gas (both conventional and coal-bed methane) assets in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and California; others in Alberta, Canada; on-shore Azerbaijan; off-shore Brazil; on-shore Colombia; on-shore and off-shore Peru, including in the upper Amazon basin; and in the eastern and Maracaibo areas of Venezuela.
•  Downstream assets (numerous refineries around the U.S., and major pipelines and terminals) in Texas, New Jersey, Washington State, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, and in Aruba and Panama.
•  Major industrial assets, including chemical and electric power generating plants, in Texas, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and the UK.

Hazardous Waste Contaminated Sites:

Mr. Black has led major site investigations and remediation projects for RCRA closures and CERCLA (Superfund) site assessments in Texas and New Jersey. In addition, he has led numerous Phase 1 and Phase 2 investigations for smaller industrial facilities, mostly in Texas. He played a key role in facilitating the transfer of legacy environmental liabilities in a project involving multiple industrial sites around the U.S. to a third party.

Geo-engineering: 

Mr. Black has worked on a wide variety of geo-engineering projects around the world, including for the foundation designs for multiple interstate-level highway bridges, large buildings, major hydro-electric dam sites, reservoir sites, small and very large slope stability problems, pipeline, electric transmission-line and highway corridors, and tunnels. He has worked on these projects in England, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, N. Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Venezuela, and the US. He was resident geologist for one year during the emergency repair of a landslide adjacent to the Tablachaca, Peru hydro-electric power plant reservoir on the Mantaro River.

Experience  Record

•  Independent Environmental Consultant [1996 – date], Houston: Serving contracting and consulting firms’ oil & gas, chemicals and electric power clients. Affiliated with Acorn International since 2006.
•  Pilko & Associates, Inc., Houston, Texas [1999-2017]: Senior Environmental Consultant, focused on energy, petroleum and chemical industries, globally.
•  E.vironment, LLC [2001 – 2016]: Senior Environmental Consultant, focused on energy, petroleum and chemical industries, mostly in the U.S.
•  Independent Environmental Consultant [1996-1999], Houston: Serving E&P clients worldwide
•  Dames & Moore, Inc.[1994-1996]: Senior Geologist and Managing Principal-in-Charge, Houston, Texas;
•  Woodward-Clyde Consultants [1980-1994]: Project Engineering Geologist to Principal and Vice President, San Francisco, Peru, Denver, and Houston, Texas:

Before coming to the US in 1980:

•  Lahmeyer International, GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany: Project engineering geologist (Masterplan for Electric Power Development Project, INDE, Guatemala). Assignment involved substantial field work, involving geologic mapping, supervision of exploratory drilling at dam sites, power tunnel routes and power house sites
•  Ministry for Overseas Development, U.K. Government: Engineering geologist (assigned to ICAITI, based in Guatemala City, Guatemala). Assignments involved geoengineering projects in Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica
•  Low & Parsons Brown, Watford, U.K.: Staff engineering geologist in a small geotechnical engineering consultancy

International Experience & Languages

•  US citizen; native of the United Kingdom, widely traveled in Western Europe
•  Six years residence and work in Central America, based in Guatemala, with project work also in Honduras and Costa Rica
•  One year residence and work in Peru, based in Lima
•  Fully functional in Spanish, having lived and worked in Central and South America; some French
•  Worked in more than 20 countries, including Australia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Kenya, Liberia, North, Central and South America and Western Europe
•  Not-in-country project experience in another 10 countries, including Algeria, Angola, Japan, Kazakhstan and Philippines

B.Sc. (Applied Geology), with Upper Class Honors; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, 1972

Chevron Qualified ESHIA Facilitator (QEF), 2008

Chevron TWS Auditor, 2008