Bob Erlich began his career with Amoco in New Orleans in 1980, working on domestic US and Latin American projects as a junior geologist. He moved to Amoco’s Houston International office in 1987 as a senior geologist and progressed through positions as a senior field geologist, technical team leader, and as Regional Geologist for northern Latin America and the Caribbean. Bob joined Burlington Resources in 1999 and was named General Manager for Peru, where he led technical and operational programs that resulted in the discovery of several major oil and gas fields. He returned to BP in 2006 to head their New Ventures exploration efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in 2008, was named Corporate Vice President of Exploration for Petrolifera Petroleum Limited, a Canadian independent with operations in Peru, Colombia, and Argentina. In 2011 he moved to Hess Corporation as a senior advisor to the Senior Vice President of Exploration, and in 2012 moved to PanAtlantic Exploration Company, where he served as President and CEO until March 2016. During his career, Bob has worked assignments in a number of countries, including Trinidad, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Suriname, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, the United Kingdom, and the People’s Republic of China.

Bob received his BS degree in Geology from the University of Miami, his MS degree in Sedimentology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his PhD in Paleoceanography from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has published extensively on the geology of northern Latin America with an emphasis on Cretaceous petroleum systems, and has significant experience exploring Cretaceous depositional systems of the Equatorial Atlantic margins.