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Conference Steering Committee

Elmer P. Danenberger, III, USA
Conference Steering Committee Chairman
Chief, Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs, Minerals Management Service

Mr. Danenberger earned a B.S. degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering and a Masters degree in Environmental Pollution Control, both from Pennsylvania State University. He has been employed as an engineer in the Department of the Interior’s offshore oil and gas program since 1971.  He served as a staff engineer in the Gulf of Mexico regional office; Chief of the Technical Advisory Section at the headquarters office of the U.S. Geological Survey; District Supervisor for MMS field offices in Santa Maria, California, and Hyannis, Massachusetts; and as Chief of the Engineering and Operations Division at MMS headquarters.

He is currently Chief, Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs, with responsibilities for safety and pollution-prevention research, engineering support, operating regulations, and inspection and enforcement programs.

Magne Ognedal, Norway
Director, Petroleum Safety Authority Norway

Mr. Ognedal is a graduate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1967) with a BSC in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

He has experience from automation of ship engine rooms and in automatisation of industrial processes.

Employed by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate from 1974, starting as a Petroleum Engineer, later became Section Manager and from 1980 Director Safety and Working Environment Division, dealing with all aspects within safety and working environment for Norwegian offshore installations.

At present, Mr. Ognedal is Director for the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway.

J. W. (Jan) de Jong, Netherlands
Inspector-General of Mines for the State Supervision of Mines

Mr. de Jong is presently the Inspector–General of Mines for the State Supervision of Mines, Netherlands. The State Supervision of Mines is a supervising agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.  It ensures that the extraction of natural resources in the Netherlands is carried out in a socially responsible way. Supervision of oil, gas, salt and marl mining in the Netherlands covers safety, health, environmental matters, subsidence, earth tremors and the effective production of minerals.

Mr. de Jong received a Bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and specialized in energy-technology from Technical College. He also studied at Heriot Watt University where he earned a Masters degree in petroleum engineering. His thesis subject was the cleaning of cuttings from North Sea drilling rigs.

Mr. de Jong worked from 1975-1989 for Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij (SIPM) where he worked in the drilling operations department in various functions  such as trainee-driller, assistant driller, driller, well site petroleum engineer, operations engineer and toolpusher within several SIPM operating companies in the Netherlands, Oman, Brunei and the UK.  During the last year working in the drilling engineering / research departments as a  member of the SIPM/KSEPL drilling cost reduction spearhead team, initiating and assisting in the implementation of cost-reducing measures (technical and economical) within various operating companies of Shell.  Disseminating the experience with these measures throughout the group of operating companies of the Shell group.  At the same time coordinating a number of drilling-research projects.  Co-author of several exploration and production and research reports.

Since 1987, he has worked for the State Supervision of Mines (SSM). Commenced as Head of Operations, responsible for the operational activities, i.e., inspecting, auditing, investigating, enforcing and assessing of plans, programs, reports and safety cases.  Since 1992 special responsibility for the management of change (from hardware inspections towards auditing , verification and monitoring of management systems) and stimulating the companies to adopt and implement integrated management systems for safety, health and environment based on quality management systems like ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.

Mr. de Jong was appointed in 1989 as Deputy Inspector General responsible for advising the ministry, drafting of regulations, contacts with employers (and their associations), employees (and unions), other governmental agencies and the media.  Since 1997, he has been responsible for directing the supervision towards a process based approach with special attention for critical sub processes and activities.  Convincing, stimulating and supervising that the industry does the same and adapt their management accordingly was part thereof.  Company Environmental Plans, Environmental Impact Studies and Safety and Health documents are the most important instruments for the management of risk for both the companies and for the Dutch government supervising the mining activities.

Mr. de Jong was finally appointed as Inspector–General of Mines in 2003 responsible for managing the SSM organization as a whole.