OUR STORY
In 2017, when Henk attended a committee meeting for the Devex Conference in Aberdeen, an operations geologist from Fairfield mentioned that they were keen to rehome some of their Dunlin core that was marked for destruction. This was the starting shot for Henk to start saving some nice Brent core, and his garage quickly filled up as a result. In 2018, in partnership with Kirstie, they set up North Sea Core to collect and now also to distribute this core material, all the while more companies started to donate core.
As geologists, we believe long after core has served a purpose in the petroleum industry, it still has the potential to answer new questions. Core can have a second life in making geology accessible to non-scientists, educating the next generation of geoscientists and aiding in the research for future energy needs.
Since 2018, we have grown into an established small business, helping to create employment opportunities, facilitate new links between industry and academia and becoming recognised as a centre for UKCS core material and knowledge.
MEET THE TEAM
Our team consists of professionally trained geoscientists who work with geological data every day and recognise the value of core.
Henk Kombrink
Director and Founder
Henk is a geologist with a background in North Sea regional geological studies. He started North Sea Core in 2017 and continues to passionately drive its mission to rehome, repurpose and share the stories of this unique geological material that would otherwise have been disposed of.
Angie Bruce
Geological Assistant
Angie is a geologist with a background in core damage and formation testing, having managed large projects for several major oil companies. She is excited to be involved in the work North Sea Core CIC does and appreciates the importance of preserving our offshore geoheritage.
Mariël Reitsma
Data manager
As a geochemist and geologist, Mariël has always had an interest in the analytical and data side of geoscience. That's why she is responsible for the data associated to the core in our archive, as well as liaising with recipients of core to make sure that supporting information is shared.
OUR SUPPORTERS
We are supported by a group of wonderful people who help us collect material, source geological data and prepare resources for shipping.
Kirstie Wright
Past Director
Kirstie kickstarted North Sea Core in 2018 when she teamed up with Henk to make the initiative better known. She was subsequently a director of the company when it officially launched in 2020, until she decided to refocus her career in 2025. However, Kirstie continues to function as an advisor and a volunteer as she keeps supporting the company and its mission to make core available for the geoscience community
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Emma Fraser
Past Geological Assistant
Emma previously worked as the North Sea Core Geological Assistant before moving on to start her career with Fugro. She believes North Sea Core is an excellent initiative and recognises examining core is invaluable in so many aspects of geoscience. She is excited to be involved in such a worthwhile project and enjoys being exposed to a wide variety of fascinating core.
Emily Tame
Past Geological Assistant
Emily previously worked as the North Sea Core Geological Assistant before moving on to start her career with Fugro as a trainee Geophysicist. Fascinated by rocks, she enjoyed the chance to handle such a wide variety of relinquished core, especially famous formations from her previous studies. She is a firm believer in North Sea Core importance to the geology community.
OUR VOLUNTEERS
Duncan Anderson
A chemist by training, Duncan is an amateur geologist and has an almost 25 years association with subsurface geology. Duncan helps to prepare core material to help educate the next generation of geologists.
Noah Jaffey
Noah volunteers for North Sea Core by helping prepare samples as he thinks it’s an excellent initiative and he gets to see a variety of beautiful core material, which is a total win-win.
Ben Hedley
Ben helps out now and then by moving and packaging core, while getting distracted by all the wonderful sandstones in the North Sea Core collection.
Lawrie Cowliff
Lawrie helps out by trawling the public domain literature and databases to add useful and interesting metadata to the core supplied.
OUR SUPPLIERS
We are fortunate to collaborate with skilled suppliers who work with us to produce the materials we distribute.
Pat McCabe
Joiner and Carpenter
Pat is a joiner and carpenter with many years of experience, working in and around Aberdeenshire. He creates beautiful frames to display our slabbed core material, as well as installing work space at the North Sea Core HQ and Core Store to help us store and work with the large amount of core material we have.
Jamie Watson
Graphic Designer
Jamie is director of Studio No7 and has over 13 years’ experience in graphic design. He is accustomed to delivering innovative art and design that reflects the core values of a company, and has worked with North Sea Core on serveal projects. For more information please see his brochure or contact him at jamie.watson@studio-7.co.uk.
CORE DONATION
All the core we receive is from company samples and has been cleared for donation under the Petroleum Operations Notice (PON) 9 guidance set out by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). We also collaborate with the British Geological Survey (BGS) to identify key sections for the BGS Core Store and National Archive, with this taking priority over the selection of material for redistribution through North Sea Core.
We are grateful to the following companies for supporting North Sea Core by donating material:
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PROJECT SPONSORS
Our work is largely self funded through our products and projects, with the money reinvested into our inititative (we are a Community Interest Company). If you or your organisation are interesting in supporting North Sea Core to help us continue our work, please contact us.
Our inititative has been previously sponsored by the following organisations:
We would also like to acknowledge the following organisation for their assistance in our operations. We are grateful to DUG for the provision of their DUG Insight software which helps us provide subsurface data to accompany our core material. Iron Mountain and Premier for their assistance in storage and cutting legacy core.
