Corporate
Gazelle Energy Limited is an internationally-focused Exploration & Production company founded in 2018. Our goal is to build a highly profitable, environmentally friendly company through the use of innovative petroleum technologies. We will endeavour to achieve this goal by demonstrating a commitment to continuous improvement and excellence in safety, quality and the environment.
Leadership
Ken McNeill
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ken McNeill is a successful entrepreneur and petroleum landman with 40 years of oil industry experience. As a senior officer and/or director, he has been involved in the early start-up and growth phases of twelve oil and gas companies (nine in Western Canada and three internationally).
Through his executive and board-level roles, he has dealt with all aspects of oil and gas corporate development. Mr. McNeill was a founding Director of Altius Energy Corporation. In 2015, Beaumont Energy Inc., a company he co-founded and helped lead as Executive VP Corporate Development, sold to Whitecap Resources for C$535 million. Mr. McNeill is currently Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, for Karve Energy.
Michael Volcko, P.Eng.
President & CEO, Director
Michael Volcko is a reservoir engineer with more than 30 years of petroleum industry experience. Mr. Volcko is the CEO and director of Allied Petroleum Exploration Inc., a private company which operates a large exploration block in Oman. Mr. Volcko is also a partner in Anadime Energy LLP, which has drilled and operates horizontal multi-stage fractured (HMF) wells in the prolific, world-class Cardium formation of Alberta.
He was founder and President of Altius Energy Corporation, a private Canadian oil company which acquired, developed and operated oil production in Kazakhstan. Under Mr. Volcko’s leadership, Altius grew to nearly 2000 bbl/d prior to being acquired by Arawak Energy Corporation. He subsequently served as Vice President, Business Development and Executive Director of Arawak Energy.
Previously, Mr. Volcko worked for PanCanadian Petroleum Limited for over thirteen years, initially performing reservoir and production engineering functions for domestic Canadian operations, and subsequently performing technical evaluations for the International Division, including projects in Southeast Asia, Australia, North Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Upon the company’s exit from Kazakhstan, Mr. Volcko became Project Coordinator, South America and in 1998, Manager, Engineering and Development, International.
Mr. Volcko holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary.
David Kisilevsky, P.Geol.
Executive Vice President - Exploration & COO, Director
David Kisilevsky is a structural geologist and petrophysicist with 26 years’ experience in the petroleum industry, and related geosciences. For the past 8 years he has operated his own consultancy, providing services to a variety of companies. For most of 2014 and 2015 he managed exploration and geoscience for a company with production in Egypt and an exploration concession in Cameroon, and has been actively involved with clients operating in Turkey, New Zealand, Chile, Ukraine, Germany and Kurdistan.
Before striking out on his own, Mr. Kisilevsky spent 12 years with Petrel Robertson Consulting, where in addition to his technical role he simultaneously held managerial and Executive-level positions of increasing influence and responsibility. At the time of his departure, he had served as Vice President, was a corporate Director, and a Principal Shareholder. Previously, he worked as a wireline engineer for Halliburton, and mapped in the field for the Geological Survey of Canada.
Mr. Kisilevsky holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geological Sciences, and a Master of Science in Structural Geology & Tectonics, both from Queen’s University.
Graeme Bate
Vice President – Business Development
Graeme Bate is an experienced petroleum executive, with 30 years of varied industry experience around the world. He has a long history as one of the industry’s leading petroleum economists, advising governments across Africa, the Middle East and Asia as well companies investing in opportunities in those regions.
Mr. Bate led the design and negotiation of Production Sharing Contracts and/or Service Contracts in many countries, in particular in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Pakistan and Gabon. He is a petrophysicist and reservoir engineer by training and worked in several African and European countries as a field engineer and manager with Schlumberger.
For many years he was a Partner and the leader of the Canadian oil and gas industry consulting business of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Bate holds a M.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University and a Diploma in International Relations from the London School of Economics.