The Chamber opens it doors to Thibaut Heimermann, CEO of Pole Avenia

Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background ?

I have been Director of pôle AVENIA since 2020, after nearly 20 years in the oil & gas sector where I held various commercial and management positions, including executive roles in oilfield services companies.

Could you briefly introduce pôle AVENIA and its main missions in France and at a European level?

AVENIA is what we call in France a "pôle de compétitivité", or competitiveness cluster. It is the only French cluster dedicated to subsurface industries, with the aim of structuring and promoting France’s strategic subsurface value chains such as geothermal energy, geological storage, mining, oil & gas, natural hydrogen, geotechnics and hydrogeology.
We currently bring together around 270 members, including industrial companies, research institutes and academic organizations, working together to accelerate collaborative innovation in all fields related to the subsurface.

Given the strong expertise of France and Norway in energy, decarbonization and innovation, where do you see the most promising areas for cooperation?

There is a growing awareness across Europe of the need to consider the subsurface as a strategic asset for the ecological and energy transition, but also for industrial and energy sovereignty. This highlights the importance of stronger cooperation frameworks between European countries and for leveraging complementary expertise.
France and Norway share many promising fields of collaboration, from CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) to responsible mineral exploration. There is also great potential in joint R&D around drilling technologies, geophysical data acquisition, artificial intelligence, and other subsurface-related innovations developed by leading research centers and universities in both countries.

You are about to sign a partnership agreement with the French-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce. What are your expectations for this cooperation?

Our expectations are clear: connect our networks, create business opportunities, and support the emergence of joint French-Norwegian research and innovation projects. This partnership is a concrete step to strengthen bilateral collaboration in the subsurface sector. In this context we are exploring the opportunity to co-organize, with the French-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce, a Business Expedition to Norway focused on Critical Raw Materials. The goal would be to bring together key stakeholders from both countries and identify concrete opportunities for cooperation — provided there is strong interest from our members. By the way we would welcome feedback or expressions of interest.