Welcome to the Spirifer suit of pages. In this set I would like to invite you my life, both professional and private.  

In professional life I am a geological consulant and CEO of Spirifer B.V. a commercial firm established in The Netherlands and active in this field. I am also a founder and director of Argo Geological Consultants. I hold a MSc in geology at the State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. After my studies which were in the fields of Stratigraphy, micro-palaeontology, structural geology and computer geosciences I have been active as a geological consultant serving the oil and gas industry in The Netherlands and abroad. In the 22 years that followed I have been a consultant for NAM, ExxonMobil, Winstershall and Shell. Mainly as a seismic interpreter, regional geologist and plate modeller. The last 5 years in the Research Lab of Shell in Rijswijk. A few pages contain my professional CV and the subjects I am interested in. Both from my own current and past research as well as particular subjects I have been studying or publishing on.

In private life I am married with four children to Marlene Ammerlaan. Marlene, Bart, Jelle, Olaf and Anne have their own set of pages in which they update you on their own interests. Bart has his own Hyves page and helped me in making this Spirifer Homepage.

Spirifer is named after a fossil which is commonly found in the Devonian strata of the Eifel mountains. Being a fossil collector since the age of 12 I have been exploring the sites around Gerolstein. A big fossil collection was build over the years with the help of first my brothers Marc and Paul and now with the kids. The digital fossil collection gives you a glimpse on some of the nices pieces in our collection and a couple of Spirifers cannot be missed.

Spirifer also stands for the spirtitual part in me. Being an active catholic in our little parish in Bleiswijk since my childhood. And it is still a driving force behind my actions and the things I believe are important in live.

I hope you enjoy the visit, I will try to update this Homepage and make it an active part of my life so come again and please feel free to contact me on any items of interest.

Cees van Oosterhout