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[TO BE PREPARED ON COMPANY LETTERHEAD] May 8, 2017 United States Department Homeland Security United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Texas Service Center 4141 North St. Augustine Road Dallas, TX 75227 Dear Sir or Madam: I am delighted to write this letter in support of Dr. Gboyega O. Ayeni’s priority worker immigration petition for classification as an outstanding researcher. I am a Winthrop Professor in Geophysics, Woodside-Chevron Chair, and Director, Centre for Petroleum Geoscience, School of Earth and Environment, University of Western Australia (UWA). I have over 15 years of service as an expert advisor to various industry, academic and government organizations, including the US National Academy of Sciences. Prior to joining UWA in 2009, I held several senior positions in operations, research, management in the energy industry, as well as academic positions at various Universities. Over the past 10+ years, I have been the principal investigator (PI) on various research projects totaling more than $120M in competitive grants. In addition, I have published over 70 refereed journal papers and expanded conference abstracts resulting in over 1000 citations. . I received the J. Clarence Karcher Award for Outstanding Research Scientist in 1996 in recognition of my pioneering work in time-lapse imaging. I was a Distinguished Lecturer of Society of Petroleum Engineers between 1998 and 1999, visiting over 30 international lecture sites. Between 2000 and 2001, I served as a Joint Society Distinguished Lecturer of the Society of Exploration Geophysics and American Association of Petroleum Geologists, visiting over 40 international lectures sites. Between 2009 and 2010, I was elected the First Vice-President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, a professional body with global membership of over 35,000. Details of my background, awards/recognition and positions held are contained in my attached Curriculum Vitae. Given my background and international recognition as a subject matter expert in the field of time-lapse seismic imaging, I believe I am well qualified to judge the professional credentials of Dr. Ayeni and his research abilities. My evaluation of Dr. Ayeni is based primarily on his work at the Stanford Exploration Project (SEP), a research consortium of over 20 industrial affiliates recognized globally for its contributions to several key developments in seismic imaging for over four decades. Dr. Ayeni’s primary research at Stanford focused on improving time-lapse (4D) seismic imaging of subsurface reservoirs. Since its introduction as a practical tool for monitoring fluid flow in subsurface reservoirs, time-lapse imaging has found widespread use in the energy industry as the primary tool for hydrocarbon reservoir monitoring. This is because it enables an understanding of the reservoir response to hydrocarbon production and/or fluid injection in oil and gas fields. Time-lapse imaging is also a tool for environmental monitoring (e.g., Carbon dioxide sequestration monitoring). As part of PhD research at Stanford University, Dr. Ayeni developed a linearized joint inversion method that can improve time-lapse imaging of reservoirs under complex overburden. In addition, Dr. Ayeni demonstrated that this method could also attenuate artifacts in time-lapse images, which are caused by inconsistencies between seismic acquisition geometries. Overcoming these challenges can enable monitoring of fluid flow in reservoirs located below very complex overburden such as salt (e.g. Gulf of Mexico) and in areas where it difficult to repeat seismic acquisition geometries between the different seismic surveys. Dr. Ayeni has also presented ways to improve acquisition of time-lapse seismic data sets. One limiting factor against the use of time-lapse imaging is high cost associated with frequent repeated acquisition of seismic data sets. Dr. Ayeni showed that if these data are acquired cheaply using a simultaneous-source technique (an innovative seismic acquisition method), his linearized inversion methods can be used to image such data with sufficient accuracy. Furthermore, Dr. Ayeni has proposed ways to acquire and image directly seismic data sets using permanent encoded arrays. Results from Dr. Ayeni’s research have been presented at several international conferences and workshops within and outside the United States. For example, results from Dr. Ayeni’s work were presented at the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held in Houston, TX. The OTC, which was established in 1969, is a global event sponsored by 13 different professional engineering, mining, marine and geoscience organizations. This conference is attended annually by over 80,000 energy professionals from over 100 countries and by over 2,500 exhibiting companies. Presenting at this conference demonstrates the value placed on his research contributions and the broad interests in his work by the oil and gas industry. This also demonstrates the international significance of Dr. Ayeni’s research contributions. Results from Dr. Ayeni’s work have also been published in Geophysics, a peer-reviewed journal in exploration geophysics published by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). Any Additional comments from my CV…… Dr. Ayeni continues to make important contributions to the field of seismic imaging through his affiliation with the ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. I strongly recommend that his petition for Classification as an outstanding researcher be approved. Sincerely, ---------------David E. Lumley Winthrop Professor, Woodside-Chevron Chair Director, Centre for Petroleum Geoscience School of Earth & Environment The University of Western Australia