Main Team

Renato Bertani is the CEO of Barra Energia since May 2010, responsible for defining business strategies, implementing an investment plan for exploration and development of production in certain sedimentary basins, and for the operational and corporate management of the company.

In December of 2011 Mr. Bertani was elected President of the World Petroleum Council, an organization that congregates 66 member countries whose main objectives are to promote the development of oil and gas resources to the benefit of mankind and promote the debate of the global energy issues. He previously served as Vice President of the WPC since 2005 and was responsible for the technical program for the World Petroleum Congress that took place in Doha, Qatar, in 2011, and Madrid, Spain, in 2008. He serves in the advisory board of the board of the Maguire Energy Institute of the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He served as a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Brazil Texas Chamber of Commerce from 2002 to 2007, and as Director of the Brazilian Petroleum Institute from 1995 to 1997.

Before assuming his current position at Barra Energia, he was the CEO for Thompson & Knight Global Energy Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Thompson & Knight established to provide development services and business portfolio management for the energy industry in general.

Previously, Bertani worked for 31 years at Petrobras, a Brazilian state oil company, performing various roles in technical level and senior management. Among them, he served as the President of Petrobras America, Inc., a subsidiary of the Brazilian state company with headquarters in Houston, where he was responsible for an investment plan very successful, resulting in the creation of a valuable exploration and production assets portfolio (2001-2006). He was also Executive Director of Petrobras UK (1998-2001) and International Director of the Petrobras E&P Group (1992-1997).

He has over 33 years of international experience in exploration and production projects, acquisitions and divestitures in Latin America (particularly Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina), West Africa, UK and Gulf of Mexico (USA), being directly responsible for implementing innovative strategies and leading teams that led to major discoveries of oil and gas such as gas fields of San Alberto and San Antonio in Bolivia, the offshore oil fields of Akpo and Agbami, in Nigeria, and the Cascade, Chinook, Saint Malo in the Lower Tertiary in the Gulf of Mexico (USA).

Renato T. Bertani holds a degree in Geology from the University of Rio Grande do Sul and obtained the degrees of Ms. Sci and Ph.D. in Sedimentary Geology and Geochemistry from the University of Illinois, USA. He also developed and taught a course in E&P Business Management that has been taught with great success in Houston (five times), Rio de Janeiro (four times), China, Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Brian Byrne has been Chief Financial Officer since November 2013 and Vice President Business Development since May 2010. Mr. Byrne’s responsibilities include directing Barra Energia’s corporate finance activity, overseeing its accounting and control functions, maintaining relationships with key financial institutions and independent auditors, and optimizing Barra Energia’s international tax structure. Mr. Byrne is also responsible for Barra Energia’s transaction evaluation, structuring and execution activity.

Mr. Byrne has been involved in the oil and gas industry for 20 years, working as an investment banker as well as a member of project execution teams at an integrated oil major.

Prior to joining Barra Energia, Mr. Byrne served as a Director in Citigroup’s Global Energy investment banking group where he was responsible for origination and execution of merger and acquisition initiatives as well as capital markets transactions in the oil and gas sector. Before joining Citigroup, he was an Associate in the Energy Group at Wasserstein Perrella & Co where he also focused on mergers and acquisitions in the E&P space.

Mr. Byrne began his career at Atlantic Richfield Company where he was involved in executing capital markets transactions as well as acquisition and divestiture projects.

Mr. Byrne received a BA in Political Science from Syracuse University and an MBA from Georgetown University where he received Beta Gamma Sigma honors.

Cesar Cainelli is currently the Vice President Exploration and Production since Out/2010, being responsible for the company's upstream activities that lead to a formation of a balanced and profitable portfolio of exploration and production assets, mainly in the Santos, Campos and Espírito Santo basins.

Before joining Barra Energia, he worked 31 years at Petrobras - Petroleo Brasileiro S/A (1979-2010) in several management and technical functions, being his last post, from 2008 to 2010, in Petrobras´ headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, as Exploration Manager of the Espírito Santo basin, in 15 large offshore exploration blocks in addition to supervising the activities on the land area of the basin.

Among his most important positions, he was the Exploration VP for PETROBRAS AMERICA INC. in Houston (USA), from 2004 to 2008, acquiring over 200 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico and driving the company´s findings and/or delimitation of important discoveries such as Cascade, Chinook, Saint Malo, Stones and Tiber. Between 2002 and 2004, he was the Exploration Global Manager of Petrobras, being responsible for all the international activities of the company, especially in the Americas and Africa.

Mr. Cainelli has over 30 years of experience in the national and international oil sector, being recognized by the industry as an experienced geologist oil finder. He has great knowledge of the depositional models and petroleum systems of deep waters in Brazil, West Africa and Gulf of Mexico, and in the formation and management of multi-functional teams to identify areas with high hydrocarbon potential, explore and delineate large accumulations of oil and gas in deep waters.

Cesar Cainelli holds a degree in Geology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), and a PhD degree in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin (USA). In addition, has participated in dozens of conferences, seminars and symposiums in Brazil and abroad as a participant, lecturer, professor and chairman. Has taught several courses in Stratigraphy, Sedimentation and Oil Systems in the Brazilian and foreign universities as a visiting professor and in the guidance of masters and doctoral students, being instructor of the AAPG, SEPM, and SEG courses on the geology of Brazilian sedimentary basins.

Shiniti Ohara is Vice President Operations at Barra Energia, responsible for analyzing and following drilling performance, cost calculation and helping on technical and business strategic analysis. He also is responsible for the implementation of the Health, Environment and Safety Management System.

Shiniti is also a collaborator Professor of the Polytechnic School’s Petroleum Engineer Course - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) where he lectures Well Engineering and Advance Drilling Courses since 2005. He also taught Drilling at MBA in E&P Management Course of Brazilian Institute of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuel (IBP) from 2006 to 2010. He was chairman of the Operation Subcommittee of the IBP for several terms. He has deep knowledge of local content definition and requirements for each ANP Bid Round having participated in the Work Group of Local Content of Prominp (Program of Mobilization of the National E&P Industry coordinated by the Minister of Mines and Energy). He also cooperated to write the IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors) Deep water Well Control Guidelines, and he was author and co-author of many technical papers presented in Conferences and published in technical magazines. He also participated in many examination boards of Graduation Projects, Master and Doctoral thesis. He is a member of SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineer), and he was the Director of Technology Transfer from 2003 to 2005 and Director of Continued Education of SPE’s Brazil Chapter. He also participated in various Technical Committees of the Rio Oil &Gas Conference and Exhibition and OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) in Houston and Brazil.

Before assuming his current position at Barra Energia, he was the Drilling Manager of HRT Petróleo e Gás, BP do Brasil and Devon Energia do Brasil Ltda (where he stayed for five years) and managed to drill a Brazilian extended reach record well with 6,500m measured depth and 5,600m departure. He also was the Managing Director of Seapos Ltda, a subsidiary of Shell Brasil Ltda, Vice President of Operations of Pecten, Asset Manager of Merluza (gas production platform), E&P Supply Chain Manager and Drilling Superintendent of Shell Brasil where he worked for six years and participated in the first oil discoveries after the opening the Brazilian O&G market in the blocks BC-10 and BS-4. He participated in the Brazilian water depth record well (2,887m) using surface BOP and dynamically positioned rig. He also was the Technical and Contract Manager for R&B Falcon (Transocean).

Previously, Shiniti worked for 20 years at Petrobras performing various roles in technical level and management. Among them, he was the Manager of the Exploratory Drilling for South and Southeast Region, and Head of the Directional Sector where he leaded the drilling of the first horizontal well of Latin America in 1989 in the Bonito Field. He was the Deep water Well Control Coordinator and Coordinator of the Dynamically Positioned Safety Program (DPPS). He participated in the drilling of more than 500 offshore wells being 200 wells in deep waters, in his career, being among them the discovery wells of Albacora, Marlim and Roncador giants fields.

Shiniti Ohara holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) where he also attended B.S. in Computer Science Course (incomplete) and received the M.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineer from the same University. He also holds a Ph.D. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU) in the U.S. He was elected by the students the Honored Professor of the first graduation ceremony in Petroleum Engineer of UFRJ in 2009 and again in 2014. He is a member of the honorific Petroleum Engineer Society Pi Epsilon Tau.

Luis Groppo has been the Administration and Human Resources Manager with Barra Energia since May 2016, with responsibilities over the pay roll, including employee’s benefits and labor regulations, management of administrative contracts, selection and hiring of new team members and support to the upper management of the company in all admin/hr and labor related matters.

Mr. Groppo is a senior executive with professional experience in the areas of Human Resources, Administration, Quality and Compliance, is very result oriented, with a well established experience working with national and multi-national large companies, directly involved in the direct and indirect management of professional teams. His past experience includes 18 years working with Lubrizol do Brasil, a multi-national company in the fuel additives business, and 11 years with Othon Hotels Group, always actively involved in the Human Resources and Admin areas.

Mr. Groppo has more than thirty years of experience in the Admin/HR sectors, has a degree in Corporate Administration with focus on Systems Management and received an MBA degree in Corporate Management from CEFET/RJ.

Adhara Lopes is Commercial Manager of Barra Energia since January 2016, responsible mainly for the commercial and operational management of the company's oil production.

Previously, Adhara worked during four years in OGX/OGPar as Commercial Analyst and Commercial Coordinator. Among her main activities, was the development and coordination of the company's exportation model and the monitoring and analysis of the oil market and transportation. She was also responsible for the qualifications and company registrations for oil export purposes upon the Brazilian authorities.

Prior joining OGX/OGPar, Adhara worked for eight years at Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro), in the commercial area of Import and Export of Oil. Among her responsibilities, which were related to the oil operational area, were imports and exports, offshore sales and domestic sales, through international experiences in Singapore and London. Adhara started her career at Global Transporte Oceânico, being responsible for maritime monitoring and programming of ships.

Adhara Lopes graduated in Foreign Trade from the University Estacio de Sá and has MBE in Foreign Trade from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ.

Antonio Rocha is a Senior Geophysicist at Barra Energia since October 2010. He works with the interpretation of BM-S-8 Block, with particular focus in the appraisal interpretation of Carcará Field, in the Pre-Salt, including reservoir static model building. In BS-4 Block, he has performed a complete exploratory evaluation of all leads and prospects, working as secondee for the operator, QGEP. Moreover, he has done a detailed interpretation of Atlanta Field. He has worked also in the new ventures, with the evaluation of exploratory blocks offered in the Espírito Santo Basin in the Round 11 and also in the integration of all available data aiming Pre-Salt in Santos Basin.

Before assuming his current roles at Barra Energia, he was team leader at BG E&P Brasil, being responsible by the operation of BM-S-52 block and by the studies and follow up of the exploration of the blocks BM-S-50, BM-S-10 and BM-S-9 (exploration part), all in the Pre-Salt of Santos Basin. He was also in charge of the new areas evaluation of this basin. Rocha worked for more than 23 years in the international branch of Petrobras, a Brazilian state oil company, performing several technical roles and some in the management, among them as Exploration, Reserves and Reservoir manager of Bolivian assets between 2000 and 2004. In this period, he was the responsible for the program and follow up of the appraisal program of the giant gas fields of San Alberto and Sabalo and also for a new ventures aggressive approach that allowed the acquisition of three exploration blocks. Later, acted as coordinator in the Southern Cone portfolio management. After leaving the company and worked for Hocol in Colombia, he came back as Exploration Manager of a Libyan asset, including new ventures roles of Libyan and Algerian basins.

Rocha has more than 34 years in exploration/development projects. He worked in basins of all South American countries with petroleum tradition (Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia e Venezuela). As far as African basins are concerned, he worked for a long time with Angola exploration and new ventures in Gabon, Congo, Ivory Coast and Algeria.

Rocha has a degree in Geology by the São Paulo State University in Brazil and a Ms. Sci in Petroleum Geo-engineering by Campinas State University (also in São Paulo State, Brazil), with thesis in the reservoir geophysics area.

Liliane Tucci has been Controller of Barra Energia since May 2014 and is responsible for preparing all the Company’s financial statements and other managerial reports used in internal deliberations and executive decision making. Ms. Tucci also oversees the Company’s accounting compliance and control functions and is the primary interface with Barra Energia’s outside auditors. She joined the company in July 2011, initially serving as Accounting Manager where she was an integral member of the team that developed the Company’s financial reporting infrastructure and ERP system. Prior to joining Barra Energia, Ms. Tucci worked as Accounting Coordinator at Anglo Ferrous Brazil (producer of iron ore pellets).

Ms. Tucci spent nine years at the largest accounting firm in Rio de Janeiro, Domingues and Pinho Contadores, where she was a managing partner responsible for an accounting department focused primarily on service providers. She was also in charge of development and administering training for employees, customers and new trainees.

Ms. Tucci has over seventeen years of professional accounting and control experience and received her degree in Accounting from Centro Universitário da Cidade and her MBA in Controlling and Finance from Universidade Cândido Mendes.

Will Honeybourne joined First Reserve in 1999 and is currently a Managing Director based in Houston. Mr. Honeybourne's responsibilities include investment origination, structuring and monitoring, with particular emphasis on the equipment, manufacturing and services sector, upstream oil and gas and international markets.

Prior to joining First Reserve, Mr. Honeybourne served as Senior Vice President of Western Atlas International. Prior to that time, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Alberta-based Computalog. His earlier career was primarily with Baker Hughes, including positions as Vice President and General Manager at INTEQ and President of EXLOG.

In addition to serving on the boards of various oilfield services and E&P portfolio companies in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Singapore, Mr. Honeybourne served as a Director of Hong Kong listed CNOOC Ltd.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Oil Technology from Imperial College, London University, and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He also serves as a Director for the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association.

Michael G. France, Director, joined First Reserve in 2007. His responsibilities range from deal origination and structuring to due diligence, execution and monitoring, with particular focus on the reserves sector.

Prior to joining First Reserve, Mr. France was a Vice President in the Natural Resources Group, Investment Banking Division, at Lehman Brothers. Prior to Lehman Brothers, he was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche.

Mr. France holds a B.B.A. Cum Laude in Finance from the University of Texas and an M.B.A. from Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

Mr. Lancaster joined Riverstone in 2000 and is responsible for the sourcing and management of investments across the energy industry, with a particular emphasis on the oilfield service and exploration and production sectors.

Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Lancaster was a Director with The Beacon Group, LLC ("Beacon"), a privately held firm specializing in principal investing and strategic advisory services in the energy and other industries.

Mr. Lancaster began his career at Bankers Trust and later at CS First Boston, spending time as an investment banker and equity research analyst focused on the oil service and unregulated gas transmission sectors of the energy industry.

Mr. Lancaster serves on the Boards of Directors of Cobalt International, Titan Specialties, Dresser Industries, Dynamic Industries, Dynamic Offshore Resources, Enduro Resource Partners, Cuadrilla Resources, Hudson Products Corp. and Liberty Resources. Mr. Lancaster received his B.B.A. from the University of Texas, where he serves on the McCombs School of Business Advisory Council, and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Tichio is a Principal of Riverstone. He is based in New York. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2006, Mr. Tichio was in the Principal Investment Area (PIA) of Goldman Sachs which manages the firm's private corporate equity investments.

Mr. Tichio began his career at JP Morgan in the Mergers & Acquisition group where he concentrated on industrials with assignments including public company combinations, asset sales, takeover defenses and leveraged buyouts.

Mr. Tichio serves on the Boards of Directors of Phoenix Exploration, Titan Operating, Gibson Energy, Eagle Energy, Canera Resources, Three Rivers Operating, Mistral Energy, and ILX. Mr. Tichio received his AB from Dartmouth College as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and later received his MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

From January 1st, 2009, until August 2010 John served as the Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer of Smith International Inc. John joined Smith International in 2008 as the Executive Vice President and President of Smith Completions and Production Services following the successful acquisition of WH Energy.

John was elected to Smith’s Board of Directors in 2006 and remained on the board until the sale of Smith to Schlumberger in August 2010. As the CEO of Smith International John led the negotiations with Schlumberger and then played a key role in the extensive pre-merger integration planning process.

Before joining Smith, John spent 27 years with Schlumberger, Ltd. His roles within Schlumberger included numerous operating management and staff positions throughout Latin America, Europe, North Africa, and North America. Between 1998 and 2006, John served as the President of Dowell, the Marketing Director for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, the Finance Director for WesternGeco, the Controller for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, and the President of North and South America, Oilfield Services.

Mr. Yearwood received a Bachelors of Science Honors Degree in Geology and the Environment from Oxford Brookes University, England.

Mr. Yearwood also serves on the Board of Directors of Nabors Industries Ltd., NFR Energy and Sheridan Production Partners, and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers."

João Carlos de Luca is one of the founding members of Barra Energia, performing the post of Director of the company. He was President of IBP - Brazilian Institute of Oil and Gas and Biofuels for 14 years (2001-2015), through which he led and participated in the discussions of the main themes of the oil and gas industry in the country. Besides that, he is the President of the CCE / FGV, Business Cooperation Committee of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, one of the most prestigious Foundations of Economic Studies in Brazil.

He was President of Repsol YPF in Brazil for 11 years (until 2009), a company he helped found in 1998. He was one of the responsibles for creating the important E&P portfolio of that company in Brazil, with emphasis on the correct and pioneering strategic decision to enter on the blocks of pre-salt of Santos Basin, which resulted in potential resources for Repsol in the order of 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and a market value (2010) of about US$ 12 billion.

He was Director of Exploration and Production (E&P) of Petrobras - Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - between 1990 and 1995, being simultaneously member of the Board of Directors of Petrobras Holding and its Subsidiaries. Being responsible for Exploration, Drilling and Production areas of Petrobras in Brazil, De Luca managed almost 22,000 people and 837 managers.

In the 24 years he was in Petrobras, De Luca held several technical and management relevant positions, including the General Manager of Campos Basin (1986-89) which was the most important oil province in the country, and General Manager of the Production Department at the Company Headquarters (1989-90). Was directly involved and leading the teams operating techniques that helped to develop the subsea deepwater production technology, which enabled the production of giant fields located in more than 1,000 feet of water. During this period, several world records were set forth, making the Campos Basin a true laboratory of world technological development in deep waters, consolidating Petrobras as the world leader in high technology subsea exploration and production.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of IGU - International Gas Union - since 2006. Is Secretary of the National Committee of the WPC - World Petroleum Council - since 1997, and was Chairman of the Organizing Committee of 17th World Petroleum Congress held in Rio de Janeiro, in 2002, and member of the Executive Committee (2000-2008). De Luca participates in numerous other Councils Associations and companies related to energy (Promimp, EPE, ONIP FIESP, IBEF-RJ, CNI, ABDIB).

He received several awards, including: "O Executivo do Ano” (The Executive of the Year), in 2002, and the Trophy “O Equilibrista” (The Equilibrist)" by IBEF (Brazilian Institute of Finance Executives); "Oil Personality 1994", awarded by the Union of Engineers of the State of São Paulo; "Pedro Ernesto Medal" and the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Rio de Janeiro, the highest honor of the Town Hall of Rio de Janeiro (2003); "Tiradentes Medal" (2003), the highest honor of the Legislative Assembly State of Rio de Janeiro, and the title of Meritorious Citizen of the State of Rio de Janeiro. In 2009 De Luca received the title of "Ambassador of Culture of Peace and Brotherhood", and the first "Medal Ambassador Sergio Vieira de Mello" instituted that year by the UN and the "Institute for High Honors in Brazil" in honor of Ambassador Sergio Vieira de Mello, killed in official mission of the UN in Iraq.

João Carlos de Luca holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Universidade Federal do Paraná (1973) and in Petroleum Engineering by SEN-BA / Petrobras (1975), with specialization (1989) in Management of Oil by “Arthur de Little Management Education Institute” (Cambridge, Massachusetts - USA).

Renato Bertani is the CEO of Barra Energia since May 2010, responsible for defining business strategies, implementing an investment plan for exploration and development of production in certain sedimentary basins, and for the operational and corporate management of the company.

Bertani is also Vice President of the World Petroleum Council (WPC) since 2005, being responsible for the technical program of the last World Petroleum Congress held in Madrid (2008), and for the next to be held in Doha (Qatar) in 2011. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Maguire Energy Institute at of the Texas Southern Methodist University, Dallas. He served as curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2003-2006) as President of the Chamber of Commerce Texas-Brazil (2002-2007), and as Director of the Brazilian Petroleum Institute (IBP) from 1995 to 1997.

Before assuming his current position at Barra Energia, he was the CEO for Thompson & Knight Global Energy Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Thompson & Knight established to provide development services and business portfolio management for the energy industry in general.

Previously, Bertani worked for 31 years at Petrobras, a Brazilian state oil company, performing various roles in technical level and senior management. Among them, he served as the President of Petrobras America, Inc., a subsidiary of the Brazilian state company with headquarters in Houston, where he was responsible for an investment plan very successful, resulting in the creation of a valuable exploration and production assets portfolio (2001-2006). He was also Executive Director of Petrobras UK (1998-2001) and International Director of the Petrobras E&P Group (1992-1997).

He has over 33 years of international experience in exploration and production projects, acquisitions and divestitures in Latin America (particularly Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina), West Africa, UK and Gulf of Mexico (USA), being directly responsible for implementing innovative strategies and leading teams that led to major discoveries of oil and gas such as gas fields of San Alberto and San Antonio in Bolivia, the offshore oil fields of Akpo and Agbami, in Nigeria, and the Cascade, Chinook, Saint Malo in the Lower Tertiary in the Gulf of Mexico (USA).

Renato T. Bertani holds a degree in Geology from the University of Rio Grande do Sul and obtained the degrees of Ms. Sci and Ph.D. in Sedimentary Geology and Geochemistry from the University of Illinois, USA. He also developed and taught a course in E&P Business Management that has been taught with great success in Houston (five times), Rio de Janeiro (four times), China, Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Brian Byrne has been Chief Financial Officer since November 2013 and Vice President Business Development since May 2010. Mr. Byrne’s responsibilities include directing Barra Energia’s corporate finance activity, overseeing its accounting and control functions, maintaining relationships with key financial institutions and independent auditors, and optimizing Barra Energia’s international tax structure. Mr. Byrne is also responsible for Barra Energia’s transaction evaluation, structuring and execution activity.

Mr. Byrne has been involved in the oil and gas industry for 20 years, working as an investment banker as well as a member of project execution teams at an integrated oil major.

Prior to joining Barra Energia, Mr. Byrne served as a Director in Citigroup’s Global Energy investment banking group where he was responsible for origination and execution of merger and acquisition initiatives as well as capital markets transactions in the oil and gas sector. Before joining Citigroup, he was an Associate in the Energy Group at Wasserstein Perrella & Co where he also focused on mergers and acquisitions in the E&P space.

Mr. Byrne began his career at Atlantic Richfield Company where he was involved in executing capital markets transactions as well as acquisition and divestiture projects.

Mr. Byrne received a BA in Political Science from Syracuse University and an MBA from Georgetown University where he received Beta Gamma Sigma honors.