Go straight to content
<
<
Randi

Randi Valestrand

Research Director Data Assimilation and Optimization

rava@norceresearch.no
+47 51 87 56 39
+47 934 40 899
Nygårdsgaten 112, 5008 Bergen, Norway

I finished my PhD (Dr. Scient) in Physics from the University of Bergen in 2002 at age 28. From 2002-2008 I worked as a research scientist at the International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS), and from 2008-2014 as a senior research scientist. From 2014 my position has been Research Director and currently I am heading the group “Data assimilation and Optimization” at the Energy department of NORCE. I am also a permanent member of the leader group at the Energy department.

During my career I have led several large Joint Industry Projects (JIP) funded by the Research Council of Norway and several industry partners. I have been part of large Centre developments and Centre management teams. 2015-2021 I was the Research Director of Theme 2 in the National IOR Centre of Norway, and a permanent member of the management group of the Centre. Currently, I am Task Force leader of digitalization in the newly awarded Petrosenter NCS2030. For the last three years I have also headed the NORCE strategic effort on Offshore Wind across the company, and I am currently work-package leader in the capacity lift project ImpactWind SouthWest.

My interests include leadership and strategic developments. Topic-wise my focus is on energy research and energy transition strategies, and especially digitalization within the energy transition we are in. Digital tools are important to improve decisions in many aspects, e.g., increased value creation, reduced risk, improved safety, reduced carbon footprint, accelerated social acceptance and prevented environmental footprint.

With regards to innovation, the Data Assimilation & Optimization Group has developed a digital methodology for petroleum reservoir management which has led to a worldwide paradigm shift on how reservoir management is done. The technology has huge potential beyond today's use, and in 2022 NORCE decided to publish this background, developed over 20 years, as open-source code. This is aligned with the NORCE strategy: use the advanced digital methods developed for petroleum towards the green shift and contribute to accelerate worldwide growth of renewable energy.

Projects

See all
See all
Publications
Simultaneous assimilation of production and seismic data: application to the Norne field – Computational Geosciences 2019
History Matching the Full Norne Field Model Using Seismic and Production Data – SPE Journal 2019
Correlation-Based Adaptive Localization for Ensemble-Based History Matching: Applied To the Norne Field Case Study – SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering 2018
History Matching Of Real Production And Seismic Data In The Norne Field – 2018
History Matching Using an Iterative Ensemble Smoother with Correlation-Based Adaptive Localization - A Real Field Case Study – 2018
Correlation-Based Adaptive Localization for Ensemble-Based History Matching: Applied to the Norne Field Case Study – 2018
Integration of IOR Research Projects through Generic Case Studies – 2017
Integrated Workflow of Preserving Facies Realism in History Matching: Application to the Brugge Field – SPE Journal 2016
On an Alternative Implementation of the Iterative Ensemble Smoother and its Application to Reservoir Facies Estimation – 2014
Estimating Geo-modeling Control-parameters from Historical Data by Means of the EnKF – IRIS 2014
On an Alternative Implementation of the Iterative Ensemble Smoother and its Application to Reservoir Facies Estimation – IRIS 2014
Estimating geo-modeling control-parameters from historical data by means of the EnKF – 2014
Smart Wells for Improved Water Management in the Presence of Geological Uncertainty – 2014
Comparing the adaptive Gaussian mixture filter with the ensemble Kalman filter on synthetic reservoir models – Computational Geosciences 2012
Evaluation of EnKF and variants on the PUNQ-S3 case – Oil & gas science and technology 2012
Natural and conventional tracers for improving reservoir models using the EnKF approach – SPE Journal 2010
See all publications in Cristin