"On a rig, in a mine or on geological fieldwork, you cannot hide from your colleagues and you certainly cannot choose them, so you better get along with them."

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Alexander Van Noort

Born in the Netherlands, 1972
MSc in Engineering Geology

Delft Technical University, 1998

Fields of Work

Petroleum engineering

Other Interests

Squash, tennis, soccer, hockey, skiing, cooking

I grew up in the South part of the Netherlands, in a city called Maastricht, very close to the Belgium and German border. We used to live in a large house with too many brothers, a lot of woods. And with my father’s tool shop. I was not so much interested in the science of things as building things. We always would construct, huts, carts, scooters, and our own bikes.

I went to kindergarten, elementary and secondary school all in the same city. I graduated from the Jeanne d’Arc college at the age of 17, very much ready to go to university.

I started my university career, as a student in Space and Aeronautical engineering, but grew bored of too much mathematics within a few months. What I really wanted was have an international career, with very large growing potential. For that reason I started looking into my other interests during this first year. Next to my interest in aviation, I found myself interested in the Earth and something more applied: Mining and Petroleum engineering at Delft Technical University.

It is not entirely fair to say that the choice of switching my university education to Mining and Petroleum engineering was totally based on interest, but for a large part, it was. Another good reason for switching my field was the international character of the study and the small faculty. The small faculty prepared us for the professional relationships that you so often have to create with all the people in the middle of nowhere. On a rig, in a mine or on geological fieldwork, you cannot hide from your colleagues and you certainly cannot choose them, so you better get along with them.

I had great times with my fellow students, and still visit many all over the world. I graduated with a MSc in Engineering Geology in 1998. I traveled in all my free time, to several countries like Canada, Nepal, South-Africa, all over Europe, Mexico and many more. During my studies I did internships in three different companies, one of them in South Africa and performed two geological fieldworks (France and Spain).

Before I finished my master thesis, I was recruited by Schlumberger and at the same time moved to Amsterdam. For concentration I said, but actually I thought that Amsterdam was more a city close to my heart: alive, multicultural, theaters and restaurants as well as a city with many of my friends. I wanted to enjoy the last year of University before starting as a wireline engineer. The latter never happened, because two weeks before my internal Schlumberger education would start, the management asked me to switch and become a testing engineer. I never regretted the choice.

Thus I started my Schlumberger career, in January 1999 as Junior testing field engineer. Within weeks I had made my name as the social man and chef-cook of the engineers. I tried very hard and succeeded still in keeping the name of chef by cooking every now and then for whoever is around in whatever place in the world.

I specialized in surface testing and after finally getting the hang of things, my manager sent me to another school again. A new project was to test a Multi Phase Flow metering tool and this school had to produce leading people for the field introduction of the tool. I became the Central Europe field test coordinator for the PhaseTester: a very small device, compared to surface testing equipment, which measures the flow of oil, gas, and water simultaneously with the help of a venturi and radioactive source. The year 2000 started with me working in many different countries with this new technology. From Angola, to Aberdeen and from Malabo, to Denmark, very swiftly I grew to be one of the 10 experts in this field. As this field kept growing, my direct manager asked my to focus on a large area of potential. I accepted the new position as lead engineer in Multi phase flow metering for the Caspian region and Russia in April 2001. I combine the tasks now, with an Engineer in Charge position in Kazakhstan and hope to manage my personal life entwined with it.

What people tend to forget, even for engineers in the field, is that a lot of work is behind a computer or behind a desk. I was already too energetic for that during high school and university, let alone that it diminished in my working years. For this reason I play as many sports as possible. Often it is difficult to find partners in new locations for sports like squash, tennis, or even soccer and hockey, and thus am I depending on running, swimming and the gym. Next to these I really love skiing and try to grab each opportunity in life to travel down the mountains. I have to admit that the traveling (I worked in 17 different countries over the last 3 years), took a lot of opportunities from me, to show off my skills in cooking, but I gained a lot of friends to cook for. As that is next to sports my second largest passion.