::: New Horizon Exploration and Production Limited :::

Syed Zafar Ahmed CEO Syed Zafar Ahmed is an Associate Engineer (Mech.) with around 30 years of experience in oil & gas drilling, with diversified exposure to under balance drilling, work-over, smart completions and multi-lateral horizontal wells. He started his career in 1975 with OGDCL (Oil & Gas Development Corp-Pakistan) as a trainee and had hands-on extensive training program for over two years, which was conducted under foreign experts & professionals in the field of drilling operations & engineering, where he continued to work for considerable time. He later on joined SONATRACH-Algeria where he worked for over 6 years as a Drilling Supervisor in different fields at Hassi-Messoud, In-amenas, hostile desert environment of Tamanraset in southern part, bordering with Niger & Mali and exploratory wells in northern areas. Later he moved to OGDCL as Operation Manager for drilling campaign with 3 rigs at Dakhni field of Potwar region with high H2S.He then joined PPL (Pakistan Petroleum Ltd) as a senior executive, drilling deep exploratory wells in Potwar & NWFP and shallow wells in Sindh & many work-overs in Sui & Kandhkot fields. Zafar went on to join Saudi Aramco as Drilling Supervisor On-shore & Off-shore (Jack up) and worked there for 5 years in different fields like Utmaniyah, Qatif, Shedgum & other fields. He was selected as a member of the team responsible for commencing UB drilling after going through training held by M/S Blade Energy and successfully achieved certifications for “Under Balance Drilling Operations” and “IADC accredited UBO Well control”. Mr. Zafar has been working as General Manager Drilling Manager at NHEPL since July 2007. He is a member of SPE, attended many courses/workshop on management skills, HSE, H2S, Hazardous gas deduction, SAP basic, SAP Proponent PO, Oracle based reporting system & Chopper safety. In addition to this he attended courses & got certifications on IWCF & IADC well control schools in Abu Dhabi & Bahrain.


Zia Akhtar *General Manager* Zia Akhtar is the General Manager Operations at New Horizon Exploration and Production Limited (NHEPL). He obtained an MS Degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1980 and a BE in Mechanical Engineering from the NED Engineering University in 1974. He brings 34 years of experience in the upstream Oil & Gas and Petrochemical industries and has worked in several international projects in U.S.A., Abu Dhabi and Libya. Zia joined NHEPL as General Manager Operations in October 2007, from a senior position at ENI Pakistan, a leading international E&P company. He has a rich experience in operations and project management. His last assignment with ENI was as head of Non-Operated Joint Ventures, where he managed all aspects of partner operated business including field development, facilities projects, production, drilling, exploration and commercial. His responsibilities included several large gas fields in Pakistan including Zamzama, Sawan, Miano, Rehmat, Latif and Gambat Fields. Prior to this assignment Zia also held positions of Project Manager and Engineering & Construction Manager for ENI responsible for Design, Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Commissioning of several ENI operated projects. Zia also headed the Contracts & Procurement Department at ENI responsible for companywide procurement and contract activities. Prior to ENI, Zia worked for ADCO (Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations) a subsidiary of ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) from 1991 to 1997 in Engineering and Major Projects. Zia was responsible for the Design and Implementation of Projects related to ADCO’s Oil & Gas Facilities, from initial design through to procurement, construction and commissioning. Zia worked on the 1 million BOPD export terminal at Jebel Dhanna for most of his tenure with ADCO. Major Works at Jebel Dhanna Oil Export Terminal were handled as Project Manager and included Major Terminal Upgrade Project, Single Point Mooring Project and Fire Water Pipeline Project and various Projects for Jebel Dhanna Tank Farm. Zia also handled various projects at the Bab Oil Field. Prior to ADCO, Zia worked in Engineering and Construction as Project Manager with various other companies in Oil & Gas and Petrochemical industry including Brown & Root, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Bechtel, ICI and CCC (Consolidated Construction Company). His projects included Gas Compression at Sui Gas Field with PPL, Occidental Petroleum’s Gas Oil Separation Plant and Gathering System in Libya with CCC and Zadco’s North and South Satellite Offshore Platforms Project in the Upper Zakum Field with Brown & Root. At Bechtel he was involved in a Nuclear Power Plant project. At ICI, Zia was involved in a Polyester Fiber and an Agrochemicals Plant project.


Aftab Ahmed Khan General Manager Exploration Aftab A. Khan is a proven oil and gas finder Senior Explorationist and has expertise in subsurface reservoir development by application of new geophysical technology and rock physics principle. Aftab has over 34 years of cumulative working experience in a broad range of positions in Ethiopia, Syria, Pakistan and Norway for onshore and offshore petroleum exploration and managing all subsurface activities relating to petroleum exploration, appraisal and subsurface reservoir development. Most of his experience comes from working for US based multinational including 20 years with Union Texas Petroleum (now BP). His last position with Union Texas was Deputy Division Manager Exploration with responsibilities of exploration and subsurface reservoir development in Pakistan. During his employment of 20 years with Union Texas Petroleum in Pakistan, Union Texas discovered fifty-one oil and gas fields in Pakistan with estimated ultimate reserves of over 300 million barrel of oil equivalents Aftab direct contribution to this success has been significant (oil discoveries at Laghari, Tangri, Jagir, Sakhi and Paniro). At two separate occasions, the senior management and the CEO of Union Texas Petroleum in Houston granted Aftab special recognition awards, first in 1984 and the second in 1996 for his outstanding performance. In 1997 Aftab was promoted to Deputy Division Manager Exploration and within less than three years period Aftab’s group recommended to drill exploratory wells on twenty-nine quality prospects in the Badin Block and added additional estimated recoverable reserves of over 100MMBOE. Aftab has worked on extensional as well as compressional tectonics; for evaluation of hydrocarbon potential of structural and stratigraphic trap models for clastic and carbonate regimes. During the period Aftab was working for Union Texas Pakistan, he has completed twenty-one petroleum industry professional courses in Geosciences of post-graduate level conducted in UK, USA and Canada. These professional courses also include two field seminars of AAPG in Utah and Arizona, USA. Prior to joining New Horizon Exploration & Production Limited, Aftab was working as Exploration Manager for a Norwegian Oil & Gas Exploration Company where he was responsible for preparation of three license applications for a total of seventeen blocks in the Norwegian Sea and two license applications for a total of nine blocks in the Barents Sea of the 20th round.


Abdul Rauf Khan General Manager Government Relations Abdul Rauf Khan graduated in 1965 from Punjab University, Lahore. He joined Govt. service upon graduating from CSS academy, Lahore in 1978. During 30 years of service with Govt. of Pakistan he served in the Ministry of Commerce & Finance, Ministry of Industry & Production, Ministry of Food & Agriculture, Ministry of Railways and Establishment Division etc. as Joint Secretary. He attended a number of courses including Financial Management, Public Administration, Banking Supervision, Green Supply Chain & Green Procurement etc. He joined New Horizon in November, 2007 as General Manager Government Relations and is based in Islamabad.


Syed Raza Zaidi Subsurface Manager Syed Raza Zaidi obtained M.Sc in 1990 from Department of Geology, University of Karachi. In addition he acquired Diploma in Geophysics (1985) from Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah (K.S.A). Raza has attended several technical and management courses offered by National and International Institutions. He started his professional carrier with CGG (Pakistan) and later joined Pakistan Oilfields Limited, Orient Petroleum International Inc. and is now working with New Horizon Exploration & Production since February 2007 as Chief Geophysicist. During his over 17 years in E&P industry, he has been involved with seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation of both onshore and offshore 2D / 3D data sets. Interpretation was also carried out manually where the vintage data was not available on workstation. His key interest remains in seismic data interpretation using workstation (Geoframe, Landmark and Petrel). He has worked on various interpretational projects in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and UAE. His innovative thinking in the structural modeling of the areas was followed in the interpretation that resulted in 20 – 55 MMBLS discoveries in the Potwar sub-basin of Pakistan (Pariwali, Pindori, Chanda, and Mirpurkhas – Khipro Fields). He also took active participation in Annual Technical Conference (ATC – 1998) held in Islamabad. He is founder member of Karachi Unversity Geology Department Alumni (KUGAA). Raza is an active member of Association of Petroleum Geoscientists (PAPG-an affiliate of AAPG), a global member of Society of Exploration Geophysics (SEG) and is a founder member of Karachi University Geology Alumni Association (KUGAA).


Shah Mohammad Contracts & Procurement Manager Shah Mohammad has over 27 years of experience with multinational companies. Shah has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NED University in 1980. He has been a member of Institute of Engineers, Pakistan, since 1980. He is also a member of Institute of Supply Management. His vast experience includes working with ENI (Pakistan) Limited, Marriot Hotels and Tungsram Electrical Industries Pakistan Limited. He has performed his duties in the capacities of Procurement Officer, Plant Support Engineer, Maintenance Engineer and Deputy Chief Engineer. Prior to joining New Horizon Exploration & Production Limited, he was working in the Contracts and Procurement Department of ENI for several years and was involved with the procurement of high value items. His expertise includes procurement of technical items related to upstream oil and gas industry. Mr. Mohammad joined NHEPL in May 2007 as Contracts & Procurement Manager.


Ahsan Rizvi IT Manager Ahsan Rizvi joined NHEPL as the IT Manager in August 2008 and is now leading the IT team. Ahsan graduated with a BSE in Computer Systems Engineering from Arizona State University – Tempe, Arizona, USA and then went on to do his MS in Computer Science from the same university. Prior to joining NHEPL, Ahsan was working as Manager, Data Management Services at Instec Digital Systems. Before this he was working as Manager, Database Services at Softchoice Corporation - Toronto, Canada. He also had the chance to work at BP Pakistan Exploration & Production Inc. as the Applications Team Lead. Being an Oracle Certified Professional, Ahsan specializes in design, implementation, recovery, and security of databases and also has extensive experience in implementation and support of ERP applications. He has been involved in planning and implementation of disaster recovery strategies for large scale environments. In addition, he has experience in conducting IT Audits and has vast knowledge about IT Best Practices. At NHEPL, Ahsan manages all aspects of the company’s IT Infrastructure including networks, workstations, servers, telecommunication, printers, databases, and business applications. He directs the efforts of a team of IT resources to ensure 24x7 operations across enterprise and is also responsible for developing and maintaining all IT policies and strategies including: Backup Strategy, Security Policy, Change Management Policy, Configuration Management, Service Management, and Disaster Recovery Strategy. During his career, Ahsan has managed various teams comprising of System Administrators, Database Administrators, Service Desk, Data Center Operations, Developers, and Application Specialists. Ahsan is a member of Project Management Institute (PMI) – Karachi Chapter and also has awareness of Six Sigma Methodology.


Asim Masood Khan HR & Admin Manager Asim Masood Khan graduated in Economics from Karachi University and later did his MBA in Marketing from Preston University, Karachi. He has over 25 years of varied work experience of Management and General Administration in the areas of Textiles, Supermarket & Department Store, Construction and Hospitality Industry. Asim’s last assignment was in Ethiopia (East Africa) as a Systems Manager for Almeda Textile PLC, Ethiopia. He was responsible for the recruitment, selection, Performance Appraisals, Compensation, training & development of staff as well as formulation, implementation and compliance of company’s policies and procedures. Asim also worked as General Manager Operations for EBCO (Supermarket & department Store) where apart from supervising administrative and human resource activities, he was also responsible for devising and implementing systems and ensuring provision of quality products and services to customers. He worked at several management, and Human Resource & Administration related positions at Karachi Sheraton & Marriott Hotel, Afghan Carpets (Image), Hasni Hosiery Mills limited (Habib Group) & Almeda Textiles and The Forum. He attended several courses and seminars on Management, Marketing, Labor Laws, Safety, Security and Environment etc. He won awards for outstanding quality performance at Sheraton Hotel, Karachi. Asim joined New Horizon in December, 2007.


Muhammad Naseer Anjum Legal & Commercial Manager Muhammad Naseer Anjum is the Legal Advisor at New Horizon Exploration and Production Limited. He holds LL.B (Honors) and LL.M (Corporate Law) degrees from the International Islamic University Islamabad and is enrolled as an advocate before the Peshawar Bar Council. He is an active member of the Petroleum Policy and Rules Committee of the Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association (PPEPCA). Anjum attended several courses and seminars in Pakistan and abroad covering petroleum and environmental laws. He has over 20 years of experience in the legal and commercial side of the petroleum exploration and production industry business. He started his career with OGDCL as a Corporate Law Officer and worked there for seven years (1988-1995). He then later moved to POL where he worked as Assistant Manager Legal for another seven years (1995-2002). He also worked as a partner at Jillani & Associates (Corporate Law Firm) and at the office of Dr. Sohaib Qadar (Specialized Petroleum Law Firm) (2002-2005). Anjum also worked with BP Pakistan Exploration and Production Inc as Legal Consultant for two years (2006-2008). He joined New Horizon Exploration and Production Limited as Legal Advisor in September 2008. His experience includes negotiation, drafting and execution of petroleum concession agreements, production sharing agreements, petroleum sales agreements and other agreements covering seismic, drilling services and facilities construction and rendering legal opinions on legal matters concerning oil and gas industry business.


Osama Ahmad Finance Manager Osama is an Associate Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountant of Pakistan (ICAP) and also passed 1st & 3rd level of CIA by The Institute of Internal Audit, USA. He has 8 years of working experience that includes 5 years in the banking industry and 3 years with the manufacturing sector. He has completed four years of articleship with Deloitte & Touche (D&T) one of the largest firm of public accountants and management consultants, under a local name of Husain Rahman Chartered Accountants, in January 2002. Prior to joining NHEPL he has been serving as Group Manager Systems & Audit in Gulistan Group of companies. He was associated with the NIB Bank in the capacity of Head- MIS and Head- Lease Operations & Finance. He has also worked for SILK Bank in the capacity of Manager Finance. During his articleship, Osama managed various financial advisory, due diligence, audit and assurance assignments. He supervised the compliance review and due diligence of different Banks. His area of expertise includes financial management, reporting, audit & advisory He joined NHEPL in April 2010.