OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM

Andrew Fooks

Chief Executive Officer

Mr Andrew Fooks has 18 years experience in the oil and gas industry, focused in petroleum engineering, primarily specialising in reservoir engineering, production technology and project management. After graduating with a Master’s in Petroleum Engineering from Curtin University, Western Australia, Mr Fooks joined AWT International in Perth, before moving to Malaysia to open the AWT International Asian office in 2005 and expand international presence of AWT International.

Mr Fooks achieved significant business growth for the AWT business in Asia and globally, through identification of opportunities, opportunity development, project acquisition and commercially successful execution of the projects. Mr Fooks has a keen understanding of the global oil and gas markets and building long standing relationships with AWT’s client base.

Mr Fooks has worked on and led integrated subsurface teams in technically complex fields across Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Africa.

Kevin Lay

Director of Well Engineering,
FIEAust CPEng NER RPEC APEC Engineering IntPE (Aus)

Mr Kevin Lay Joined BHP Petroleum in Melbourne as a graduate in 1982. During his 15 years at BHP Petroleum, Mr Lay held roles in production operations, reservoir engineering, well services, completions engineering, production technology and asset management.

in 1996, Mr Lay co-founded AWT and has conducted consultancy work for a wide range of clients in different regions, including management of multidisciplinary project teams, audits and reviews. Mr Lay has specific expertise in well completions and well integrity. He is a chartered professional engineer and lifetime member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers; currently serving on the SPE Asia Pacific Technical Advisory Committee and awarded the Regional Service award in 2016.

Riza Clout

Director of Business Development,
Australia

Riza has over 19 years experience in the energy and resources industries, with expertise in project management, contracts and procurement, cost control and performance improvement for onshore drilling and P&A campaigns.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours)/Bachelor of Arts from University of Queensland, Riza’s professional experience began as a Management Consultant for the global consulting firm, Accenture. She has held various senior management positions in major international companies such as Rio Tinto and Shell QGC, as well as leading the supply chain and procurement team for Geodynamics, an Australian leading edge geothermal company.

Steve McBride

Business Development Director, Asia Pacific

Steve has three decades of oil & gas experience spanning exploration, drilling, evaluation and production in Asia Pacific. His career commenced in seismic acquisition in Africa followed by electric wireline operations in SE Asia. He has 15+ years of experience in sales and business development, invigorating both mature and emerging markets. Steve’s previous assignments were with a global oil & gas service provider based in Bangkok, where he was GM of a 6-country region for 4 years, overseeing 12 product service lines and almost 600 personnel. Later, he was Global Account Director responsible for several Asia Pacific head-quartered Operators and then COO of a private Operator. Since returning to Australia in 2020, Steve has been working part-time in a business development capacity for several niche consultancy and technology providers in the upstream energy sector. Steve holds a BSc in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Imperial College London.

Kane Rawsthorn

Director of Geoscience / Subsurface

Senior Geoscientist with more than 15 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, Kane has gained a unique skill set specializing in areas across geomodelling; basin analysis; seismic and well log interpretation; resource assessment; and subsurface Cloud-based database management in various complex geological settings both internationally and within Australia. Kane has worked with major National and International Oil and Gas companies across the whole resource cycle from tenure management through exploration and into production and decommissioning of assets.

As AWT’s Director of Geoscience/Subsurface, Kane has managed and worked with a large multidiscipline team of consultants and staff that offered a fully integrated suite of services. This experience and core capabilities has provided Kane with the ability to work through complex technical and commercial issues by critically analysing available information, considering alternatives and identifying the most effective solutions to meet our clients objectives.

Having a proven track record in subsurface exploration, development and production has ensured Kane is able to understand the importance of delivering value to clients to satisfy their needs and wants and ensuring clients objectives are met competitively and on time. 

Thomas Weinstock

Director of Well Construction

Mr Tom Weinstock joined AWT in 2011 as a Technical Director of Well Construction. Tom holds a B.S. Petroleum Engineering Degree from Marietta College, Marietta Ohio and 47 years of international experience in the upstream exploration and production operations, 25 of which have been in Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Western Australia.

Tom has worked as a Project Manager, Operations Manager, Superintendent and Senior Engineer with extensive broad-based, worldwide experience in drilling and completions operations, including remote locations. Key areas of expertise include Project management & multi-discipline project co-ordination; Deepwater exploration drilling; Day to day operations; Remote location heli operations; Startup projects (small teams); Drilling engineering; and Workover programs / completions.

Dave Geary

Principal Geologist
(Bachelor of Applied Science, Geology, RMIT)

David is a well-organised and thorough geological professional with 30 years industry experience over a range of commodities and roles, including mineral exploration, coal, coal seam gas, geotechnical, onshore conventional and carbonate hosted oil and gas, project generation, operations support, budgets, AFE’s, contracts, project management and HSEMP systems.

David has worked in a range of environments and geological terrains in Australia and Asia, with a broad background supporting geological, wellsite, and drilling operations over multiple projects and commodities.

He is a member of the geological Society of Australia (GSA) and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESEA).

Chris Hindmarsh

Director of Operations, Australia

Chris Hindmarsh joined over 40 years in the late 1970’s, having graduated B.Sc. (Hons) from Aberdeen University. For 30 years he held a variety of rig-based positions around the globe, on and offshore, and has a comprehensive understanding of open-hole problems – prevention mitigation and recovery. For the last four of these years, Chris held Well Site Manager positions with Woodside offshore and Geodynamics in the Cooper basin. Since then, he has worked in office support roles, contracted variously as Performance Supervisor, Drilling Advisor or Drilling and Completions Superintendent for minor operators in Australia. In addition to this, he has co-authored and revised a number of safety management documents, including Drilling Operations Manuals and Well Control Manuals for clients in the Asia-Pacific region.

Chris is accredited by IWCF as a rotary drilling well control instructor / assessor and continues to conduct training of level 2, 3 and 4 candidates when time allows. He is a member of the SPE.

John Ure

Director of Completions & Production Technology, C.Eng

A very experienced engineer with core technical expertise in well completion design, production technology and operations planning / supervision. John’s experience over his 41 years in the industry covers a range of project types from remote onshore oil production to deep water, subsea high rate gas condensate production employing a variety of completion types incorporating artificial lift, sand control and intelligent completions in vertical, deviated and horizontal wells.

He can coordinate a team of work independently to deliver project objectives. John has excellent communication skills and the ability to interface effectively across drilling, subsurface and facilities engineering disciplines.

John was a co-founder of AWT in 1996 and has conducted consultancy work for a wide range of clients in different regions.