Juan Carlos Llinas is an experienced geologist and petrophysicist with a strong background both in the energy industry and in academia. Areas of expertise include stratigraphy, sedimentology, petrography, petrophysics, carbonates and reservoir characterization.

Juan Carlos grew up surrounded by the Andes mountains in Bogotá, Colombia. The son of a geology professor, he developed a love of science at an early age. After receiving a geology degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Juan Carlos worked in exploration activities for Texaco, Triton and La Luna Oil Company. He moved to The United States in 2000 and received his Master’s and PhD from The University of Alabama. During his time as a graduate student and assistant researcher, he authored several articles for the AAPG Bulletin and other publications.

After his graduation, Juan Carlos spent eight years in Houston working for Kerr McGee Oil and Gas Corporation and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, where he worked in deep water exploration, operations and petrophysics in the Gulf of Mexico, Mozambique in Brazil. He relocated to Bogotá in 2012, where he started a petrographic consulting company with his father. He joined Colombia’s national oil company, Ecopetrol, in 2013 and has worked in a variety of projects as a reservoir specialist for the Caribbean Offshore Exploration Group.

Juan Carlos was involved with the historic Kronos and Gorgon discoveries in the Colombian offshore in 2015 and 2017. He currently conducts reservoir characterization, including stratigraphy, sedimentology, petrography, and petrophysics for all of the Ecopetrol’s Colombian Offshore exploration teams.