John Varsek

John teaches about pathways for a sustainable energy transition. The perspective is the global energy system, how it became, and how it could evolve in the 21st century in response to demographic and climate challenges. Practicality stems from analysis of real-world constraints on continental, national and regional energy systems, in both the developed and developing world. John draws on a career as an earth science researcher and leader, petroleum development manager and corporate strategist, and founder of a net-zero carbon fuels company. 

John grew up in Vancouver BC and obtained a BSc in geophysics from the University of British Columbia. After joining the petroleum industry in Calgary, he completed an MSc (seismology) and PhD (continental tectonics) at the University of Calgary. John’s early and mid-career involved petroleum discoveries and development mainly in western Canada. In that span, he was a noted developer of seismic technologies for high fidelity recordings and quantitative detection of reservoir properties.

In later career, John became a natural gas development manager at EnCana, then one of North America’s largest natural gas production companies. He led teams who created industry-leading coal-bed methane production practices. He supported academic-industry research on geological storage of CO2 and was the driver for Cenovus’s contribution of surface and mineral rights to Carbon Management Canada for their research station near Brooks, Alberta.

John managed strategy development at Cenovus Energy, a major Canadian oil sands producer, until his retirement in 2015. He guided the design of its environmental, technology and innovation, communications, organizational, and markets and products strategies. 

John also served as president of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in 2010, with 3000 members and 300 volunteers. He was charged with revitalizing the vision for the society in response to the changing industry environment.

Along with teaching for the Queen’s MEERL program, John recently completed the chemical engineering IP designs for a net zero carbon synthetic diesel fuel company, OCHIUS. When time permits, he’d like to compile his lectures into a book that explains truly scalable energy resources and why building a CO2-neutral energy system will take this century.

EERL 801 Resource Life Cycle Overview

EERL 809 Energy Life Cycle