We are a smaller, virtual group of experienced chemical process engineers supporting the resources and hydrocarbon industries

We perform specialised studies, and we develop and deliver training courses

You will find us in Australia, the UK, and the USA

We average over 25 years of experience per member, and while we admit we have not seen everything, we have seen plenty. One thing we see often is the repeat of mistakes – usually opportunities lost.

Our core values:

  • Knowledge shared is true knowledge. Knowledge retained and not shared is knowledge wasted.
  • A good idea can be too late. We understand when a good idea can be used, and when it is too late to incorporate a good idea.
  • It is better to be honest. We will be up front with you. We will tell you if we are qualified to perform a service, and if someone else is better suited to a particular task.
  • We believe a happy client is vital to our success.
  • We are willing to work with the universities. If we see talent, we are happy to inform you of our observations.
  • Value has many forms. Improving a schedule, reducing an operating cost, reducing an operating risk, improving an operation, etc.
  • There is no technical reason for something to be “too hard”.

Some of our training courses have been accredited by external organisations.

  • Our heat integration course has been accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) (UK)
  • Our process safety course has been accredited by the Oil Gas Safety Council (OGSC) (Singapore)

Our People

John Westover

Managing Director

John has been involved in numerous aspects of natural gas processing since 1981, including the design, development, and operation of gas plants and pipelines. His career has taken him from the American Rocky Mountains and the Arctic Coast of Alaska to various locations in Australia, with several stops in between. He has previously worked for both owner/operators such as Amoco and BP and the engineering company Fluor. He has first hand understanding of the unique needs and requirements of various stakeholders. He first earned the respect of his operations and maintenance co-workers when he proved some thermocouples were not working properly – he had to wear a safety harness and climb a 35-tray distillation column outside the ladder cage to get some data (the data verified his theory). Since 1984, John has done over 60 pinch analyses, identifying hundreds of millions in CAPEX and OPEX savings. In addition, since 2006, John has delivered over 160 training courses in the Middle East, SE Asia, Turkey, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand, and over 270 live one-hour webcasts which have been broadcast into all seven continents (including an Antarctic island). John works part time for the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University.

Ian H. Gibson

Ian is a qualified as an industrial chemist, chemical engineer, instrument engineer, functional safety engineer with 55 years of experience in oil/gas onshore/offshore, coal, power and other industries, largely with major EPCM contractors. Author of several chapters in Liptak's Instrument Engineers Handbook and member of IEC, ISO ISA and Std. Australia standards committees on functional safety, instrument documentation and flow measurement. Provides guidance to enquirers on several LinkedIn and ISA websites.

Tristan Holland

Tristan has spent 16 years as an engineer designing, and commissioning water and waste water systems for a variety of industries including, coal seam gas, gold processing, iron ore mining, nickel and cobalt processing, power stations and surface oil and gas processing facilities. The water plants designed and commissioned are used for injection water, fire water treatment, treating tailings waters, oily waters, potable water and sewerage treatment. Given the sensitive nature of water and wastewater treatment, the treatment technologies selected for treatment offer practical and economically sound solutions to manage water requirements on the projects.

Rex Greenland

Rex Greenland is a qualified metallurgist and chartered chemist with over twenty five years experience in the mining, mineral processing, water, chemical processing and hydrocarbons industries. Rex has held senior technical positions with major site operations and divisional offices within multi-national companies and has gained experience encompassing a wide range of activities including detailed technical calculations, technical analyses, model simulations, detailed design, plant and piping layouts, through to the commissioning of a range of unit processes.

Patrick Alilovic

Executive Director

Patrick joined John Westover (Process Integration) in 2007 as part of a project team. He is Manager of Business Development and Marketing. Responsibilities include business development, commercial strategies, partnerships, identifying markets for both in-house and public training, focusing on all aspects of pinch analysis.