Mahmoud Khalifeh is Associate Professor at University of Stavanger (UiS). He hold a PhD in plug and abandonment of wells with a focus on materials optimized for permanent P&A. Dr. Khalifeh has developed the permanent P&A (Plug and Abandonment) subject (MSc level) at UiS. He has published several articles in scientific journals and conferences. Dr. Khalifeh represents UiS as observer at Norwegian Plug and Abandonment Forum (PAF) since 2012.

Arild Saasen has a position as adjunct professor at the University of Stavanger. Parallelly, he works for other companies including his own company ALKAS Atlantic AS. He has previously worked as drilling and well fluid specialist in Det norske oljeselskap (now named AkerBP) and Statoil (now named Equinor). Earlier he worked for Rogaland Research (now named Norce). He holds a MSc in fluid mechanics from the University of Oslo, Norway, and a PhD from the Technical University of Denmark. Throughout the last three decades, he has published numerous articles about drilling and drilling fluids. He has been awarded the Nordic Rheology Society's Carl Clason Rheology Award in 2012 and the SPE North Sea Regional Drilling Engineering Award in 2018.