Speaker – Baltic Carbon Forum 2026

Conference Committee:

- Alla Shogenova, Estonia
- Sarah Eileen Gasda, Norway
- Tom Haselton, Lithuania
- Shruti Malik, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania
- Monika Konieczyńska, Poland
- Michal Wendolowski, Belgium
- Auli Niemi, Sweden
- Peter Molander, Finland, treasurer
- Mayur Pal (Chair), Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania
- Anna Horbenko (Secretary), Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Lithuania
- Janis Volberts (Vice-Chair), Bellona, Latvia
- Parsa Alimohammadiardakani, KTU, Lithuania

"BCF 2026 Invited Speakers"

Bruno Gerrits

Bruno Gerrits works at Norwegian CCS consultancy Carbon Limits in the role of Client Engagement Manager Europe. Covering a vast and -also in CCS terms- vastly different region his team works with members, policy makers and stakeholders across many countries and industries: from oil & gas to cement and steel, to technology and services.

Žilvinas Danys

Senior Counsellor to the Ministry
Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania.Lawyer, Vilnius University. Since 2019, he has been working at the Ministry of Energy, taking care of energy innovation issues. Professional in innovation ecosystems development & implementation, energy innovations management, hydrogen & CCS/CCUS technologies.

Inga Žilienė

Inga Žilienė is the Vice-Minister of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania since January 2021. She has a Master of Management and Business Administration (2008) and a Master of Applied Mathematics (1993) from Vilnius University, She has extensive experience in energy and regulatory sectors. She has previously chaired the National Energy Regulatory Council (2019–2021) and the National Control Commission for Prices and Energy (2015–2019).

Žilvinas Danys

Dr. Auli Niemi (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Auli Niemi is Professor Emeritus in Groundwater Modeling at Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her earlier positions include e.g. Research Professor & Leading Research Scientist at Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Andreas Busch (HWK, United Kingdom)

Prof. Andreas Busch leads the GeoEnergy research group at Heriot-Watt University since joining in 2016. Prior to moving to Edinburgh, he worked in R&D at Shell Global Solutions in Rijswijk, the Netherlands.

Eglė Jankauskienė

Mrs. Eglė Jankauskienė has Master of Economics. She is sustainability and project coordinator at AB Akmenės cementas. She is working with the implementation of the projects for almost 10 years as an auditor and proejct coordinator.

Rouhi Farajzadeh

Rouhi Farajzadeh is an Associate Professor of Reservoir Engineering at TU Delft and a Senior Reservoir Engineer at Shell. His expertise spans enhanced oil recovery, CO₂ sequestration, and flow in porous media. He also holds an adjunct position at Rice University and received the 2018 SPE Regional Award in Reservoir Description and Dynamics. His work bridges academia and industry with a focus on sustainability and applied research.

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Prof. Krzysztof Galos

Prof. Krzysztof Galos is a graduate of the Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection at the Stanisław Staszic AGH University of Science and Technology. in Kraków. He holds a PhD in earth sciences in geology and has been a science and natural sciences professor since 2020. Before taking up his post, he worked as a director of the Mineral and Energy Economy Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Sustainable Mineral Resources Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has over 30 years of experience in economic, deposit, and mining geology, mineral resources management, mining economics, raw materials and energy policy. He is the author and co-author of more than 270 scientific publications and more than 100 expert reports for the Ministry of the Environment, other ministries and economic entities in geology and mining. He speaks English and Russian.

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Radosław Gnutek

Radosław Gnutek is a seasoned energy leader with 25 years of experience in CO₂ capture, hydrogen, and renewable energy technologies. Since March 2025, he has served as CO₂ Capture and Storage Project Director at Holcim Polska S.A., where he leads a key project in the area of industrial decarbonization.

Eglė Jankauskienė

Ms. Shruti Malik earned her Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. She is working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Mathematical Modelling, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania.

Holcim Group

Holcim is a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. Our 65,000 people around the world are driven by our purpose to build progress for people and the planet.

Justinas Jazbutis (KN, Lithuania)

Involved in floating LNG regasification project developments in EU, Latin America, SE Asia. Lately major focus on Carbon Capture Storage initiatives. Taking a role of PM for CCS value chain feasibility study performed by KN and international partners.

Dr. Adam Wójcicki (PGI-NRI, Poland)

Adam Wójcicki, Ph.D., Eng., geophysicist working at PGI-NRI, has been involved in CCS activities supported by the EU FP6 since 2004 (CASTOR, EU GeoCapacity, CO2NetEast).

Ehsan Marzban

Ehsan Marzban, a futurist and foresight researcher, specializes in alternative thinking and scenario development, focusing on social aspects of energy transition, governance, sustainability, and uncertainty management.

Adam Bott

Adam Bott is the Business Development Manager for CCS across Europe for SLB. Starting his career 30 years ago as a SLB Wireline Engineer he has held a number of technical, commercial and management roles around the world.

Agnieszka Baran

Agnieszka is the Director of the CCS Programme Office since the beginning of 2023 (in ORLEN since 2016). Her responsibility is to implement and coordinate CCS projects in the whole ORLEN Capital Group (e.g. ECO2CEE project).

Ignas Vaičeliūnas

Ignas Vaičeliūnas is the Head of the Gas Storage Department at UAB "Minijos nafta" with 50 years of experience in petroleum geology. He graduated from the Gubkin Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas Chemical Industry.

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Friso Veenstra

Friso is business lead CO2 storage at TNO–Geological Survey of the Netherlands. In this role he is focused on developing multi-stakeholder applied research projects, working with national, European, and worldwide partners. He has been at TNO for 13 years. Prior to that he worked as director of market development and publisher at the global publishing house Elsevier. Friso is a geologist by training.

Aliaksei (Alex) Patonia

Aliaksei (Alex) Patonia is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, focusing on commercial hydrogen development within the Hydrogen Research Programme. He explores challenges and opportunities in the hydrogen value chain, drawing on prior energy sector experience in Europe and Southeast Asia. Alex holds graduate degrees from the Universities of Liverpool, St Andrews, and Oxford.

Nerijus Virbickas

Nerijus Virbickas is a Head of Innovation at Green Genius with over 20 years of extensive experience in the global energy sector. He is also a mastermind behind the InnoSolveGreen project, recognized by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).

Aliaksei (Alex) Patonia

Harri Laurikka

Harri Laurikka has been the Managing Director of the Bioenergy Association of Finland since 2016. Previously, he served as a climate change negotiator for Finland at the UNFCCC and the EU from 2007 to 2016, culminating in his role as Chief Negotiator at COP21. Laurikka holds a doctoral degree in Energy Economics from Aalto University.

Thomas Andolfsson

Thomas Andolfsson, PhD (2017), is since 2023 a geologist at SGU, Swedish Geological Survey, working exclusively on the current CCS project. With a background in geology, geophysics, and offshore civil engineering in both academia as well within the Swedish nuclear waste program, holds he currently a fluid role within the CCS project.

Roman Berenblyum

Roman Berenblyum holds a PhD (2004) from Danish Technical University. Since 2006 Roman has worked in NORCE focusing on carbon dioxide utilisation and storage, geothermal energy, hydrogen, fluid behavior and reservoir simulation related to IOR/EOR. Roman is currently serving as a member of the CO2GeoNet Executive Committee.

Kazbulat Shogenov

Kazbulat Shogenov (TallTech, Estonia)
Dr Shogenov is a Researcher at the Department of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology (Tall Tech) and founder and CEO of the SHOGenergy consulting company.

Lena Østgaard

Lena Østgaard a Legal Advisor on International Law working on projects related to CCS, CCUS, negative emissions technologies and the energy transition. She has experience working with the regulatory issues and key legal requirements for cross-border transportation of CO2 and offshore storage.

Asle Solheim

Asle Solheim is the Project Advisor for the CCS value chain at Lime Petroleum AS in Oslo, Norway, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is involved in the Iroko project, which aims to store 215 million metric tons of liquefied CO2 annually for 30 years.

Roberts Misurovs

Active in energy efficiency, power self-supply and co-financing projects, Roberts is also involved in the CCUS efforts of SCHWENK Latvija. He is part of the team trying to make sense of the various technological concepts on offer, with the aim of choosing the best suitable solution within this rapidly developing field and making carbon capture a reality at Brocēni cement plant.

Prof. Brijesh K. Yadav

Prof. Yadav is working at dept. of hydrology IIT Roorkee, India. His research works is in the area of Remediation of Soil-water systems, Bioremediation of NAPL, PRB, Phytoremediation of heavy metals, Vadose zone Modeling, Plant water and solute uptake modeling, Groundwater Modeling, Numerical simulations, Nitrate and arsenic movement in Subsurface, MODFLOW, HYDRUS, Multiple Phase Flow, CO2 Sequestration and risk assessment.

Ole Rom Andersen

Ole Rom Andersen - Chief Innovation Officer with Greenport North and a key member of the Greenport Scandinavia (GPS) CC(U)S team. Ole is spearheading developing knowledge and initiating activities in the green fuels arena, facilitating sustainable business development for commercial enterprises and ports in the fields of energy, transportation, and circular industries.

Dr Alexandra Constanta Dudu

Dr Alexandra Constanta Dudu, head of CO2 geological storage department within GeoEcoMar, is a geophysicist graduated from the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics – University of Bucharest, with a PhD Degree in Geology and a master in Evaluation of Sedimentary Basins. She is deeply involved in the research of CO2 geological storage and participated in many national and international projects.

Krists Mertens

Krists Mertens is Director of Decarbonisation and Energy Projects at SCHWENK Latvija SIA. Mertens gained his experience in management and the energy sector in Latvia, having worked for Enefit for the last eight years. He has served on the company's Board of Directors since 2018 and as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board since 2020. Previous work experience related to financial consulting and banking sector. Mertens holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Economics from Riga Technical University and a Master's degree in International Business Administration (MBA) from Riga Business School.

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Carlo Maccherini

Carlo Maccherini is Senior BD Lead Europe for Global CCS Institute. He has over 15 years of experience working in Business Development and Account Management roles for Financial Institutions, Private companies, European Institutions and Startups operating both in solar and energy storage.

Daiva Tušienė

Sustainability and Project Coordinator, AB Akmenės Cementas Daiva Tušienė is an experienced project management professional with more than 20 years of expertise in investment planning, strategic development, and the implementation of large-scale EU-funded projects. At AB Akmenės Cementas, she coordinates sustainability and development initiatives, supporting the company’s transition towards low-carbon and innovative industrial solutions. Her professional background includes project coordination, preparation of feasibility studies and technical documentation, public procurement management, and stakeholder collaboration. Daiva holds a Master’s degree in Management and Business Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.

Ole Johan Østvedt

Ole is Managing Director of Nemo Maritime. He is a geologist of background and before joining Nemo in 2021 he worked 35 years in the oil and gas industry, holding both technical and managerial positions. The first 20 years were spent within exploration, resource management, and field development activities, working for Exxon, Equinor (Statoil) and the NPD. He then moved into business development and portfolio management working for start-ups and new-entry companies before joining Edison Norge, where he became Managing Director.

Dr. Alla Shogenova

Dr. Alla Shogenova is a senior researcher at the Department of Geology, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and a Director for Research in the SHOGenergy NGO. She was a leader of Estonian team in EU GeoCapacity, CO2NetEast, CGS Europe, CO2Stop and ESTMAP (EU FP6-7), CGS Baltic (EUSBSR), RouteCCS, and H2020 projects ENOS and HyStories. Dr. Shogenova coordinated work packages in the CLEANKER (H2020) and CCUS ZEN (Horizon Europe) projects. Dr. Shogenova is a supervisor of Master and Ph.D. students on CCS, visiting Professor in CO2 Geological Storage in University of Warsaw in 2013 and Sapienza University of Rome in 2020-2023, and participated in ERASMUS+ CIRCEXTIN project. Dr. Shogenova was a President of the ENeRG network in 2007 and 2022. Now she participates in Horizon Europe projects HERCCULES, CETP CTS, CO2Site and ERASMUS+ project Hy-EDU. She was/is a Management Committee member of the COST Actions Geothermal-DHC and TrANsMIT. She is a BASRECCS Board member and TalTech representative in the ENeRG and CO2GeoNet networks, and member of the HELCOM CCUS Environmental WG, nominated by Ministry of Climate of Estonia.

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Carl Emil Meier

Carl joined Bellona in March 2026 as a policy advisor with a special focus on the Nordic countries. Within this region he works on several topics such as CCS and CDR, Energy Systems, Carbon Accounting, and sustainable markets for industrial decarbonisation. Carl has experience with European energy and climate policy from the European Commission, the Permanent Representation of Denmark to the EU in Brussels, and the Danish Energy Agency. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Copenhagen, where he specialised in European energy policy.

Dr. Adam Wójcicki (PGI-NRI, Poland)

Adam Wójcicki, Ph.D., Eng., geophysicist working at PGI-NRI, has been involved in CCS activities supported by the EU FP6 since 2004 (CASTOR, EU GeoCapacity, CO2NetEast).

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Gabriela von Goerne

Gabriela von Goerne is head of the sub-department „subsurface use“ at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany. She holds a PhD in geology. Her main research topic covered fluid-rock interactions, first focus on the mineral tourmaline and ore-bearing fluids at CSIRO Australia, later focus on geological storage of CO2 at the GFZ Potsdam, Germany. Gabriela also contributed as lead author to the IPCC Special Report on "Carbon dioxide capture and storage".

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Maren Sundve

Maren Sundve is an associate lawyer at IOM Law and holds a masters of Laws from the University of Oslo. Maren works on projects related to CCUS, negative emissions technologies, and the energy transition, with a special interest in EU and EEA law.

Renata Cicha-Szot

Renata Cicha-Szot, PhD, is Head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the Oil and Gas Institute–National Research Institute (INiG–PIB). Her work addresses key challenges of the energy transition, including the application of oil and gas industry expertise in subsurface engineering, reservoir characterization, and rock–fluid interactions to low-carbon solutions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), geothermal energy, underground hydrogen storage, and the decarbonization of mining operations. She investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with offshore and onshore CO₂ injection and other subsurface energy applications.

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Agnieszka Baran

Agnieszka Baran is a seasoned energy sector professional with extensive experience in project management, financial analysis, and strategic development. She joined ORLEN Capital Group in 2016 and has since played a key role in delivering and advancing major strategic initiatives. Currently, she serves as Director of the CCS Development Office at ORLEN S.A., where she is implementing the CCS Program, covering all stages from CCS project initiation to investment closing decisions.

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Yuvraj Singh Panwar

Yuvraj Singh Panwar completed his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering at Delhi Technological University, India, in June 2026. The work he is presenting here comes from his research internship at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania, where he ran experiments and simulations on subsurface hydrogen–brine displacement for underground hydrogen storage. Before that, he worked on hydrogen markets at IOCL R&D, India; tested automotive emissions at HORIBA India in Pune; and worked on plasma gasification as a research intern at IIT Roorkee. He represents Urja Geo Energy Private Limited at this forum, a start-up incubated at TIDES, IIT Roorkee. He is drawn towards understanding net-zero technologies, mainly CCUS and hydrogen, and hopes to spend his career finding cleaner ways to meet the world's energy demand.

Mirosław Wojnicki

Mirosław Wojnicki, PhD Eng., is a Geologist and Petroleum Engineer, currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Petroleum Engineering Department of the Oil and Gas Institute - National Research Institute (INIG - PIB), Poland.

Henrik Von Zweigbergk

Henrik Von Zweigbergk works as an environmental lawyer at the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU), since 2021. Before that he has worked for 14 years as an environmental lawyer at the County Administrative board in Jönköping, Sweden, mainly with issues regarding contaminated sites.

Eugene Holubnyak

Eugene Holubnyak is the latest center of excellence director in the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources (SER), taking the helm in the Hydrogen Energy Research Center (H2ERC). Before joining SER, Holubnyak established himself as an expert in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), with more than 14 years of experience in applied geoscience and energy-related research. He previously served as a CCUS program lead at Kansas Geological Survey and spent substantial time working on the Plains CO2 Reduction.

Viktor Weber

Viktor Weber is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. He completed his doctorate in the ‘ECO2 - Sub-seabed CO2 Storage’ consortium at the University of Southampton (UK). He has also been a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Norwegian CCS (NCCS) consortium between 2018 and 2021 at the University of Oslo. Apart from CCS, Viktor holds a specialization in Maritime Law.

Varun Pathak

Varun is a Senior Implementation Manager and CCS Champion at CMG, based in the UK. He has over 20 years of experience spanning petroleum engineering, reservoir simulation, and product and project management. He has worked globally on a range of energy projects across both oil & gas and the energy transition, with a particular focus on CCS. At CMG, he supports operators in implementing modeling solutions for CCS projects and contributes to the development of software that addresses emerging industry challenges. Varun also serves on the SPE and EAGE CCUS technical sections. He holds an MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta, and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, India.

Gianluca Di Federico

Gianluca brings over 20 years of international experience in the oil & gas and energy sectors, with the last 15 years dedicated to advancing CCUS technologies. Over the course of his career, he has worked across the full CCUS value chain—from CO₂ capture to compression, conditioning, and liquefaction—supporting integration into industrial applications including waste-to-energy, biomass power generation, and cement production. He currently leads a multidisciplinary team, combining deep technical expertise with diverse perspectives to deliver innovative solutions, with a strong focus on accelerating the deployment of CO₂ management technologies that contribute to sustainability and long-term impact.

Janis Volberts

Janis Volberts joined Bellona to identify and support the role to be played by ports for industrial decarbonisation solutions, such as CO2 capture, transport and storage. Janis' work is focused on projects in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on the Baltic region.

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Sakura Nishioka, PhD

Deputy Chief Regional Officer for Europe Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) Sakura joined JOGMEC in 2013 and has held positions in resource diplomacy, metals strategy, corporate planning and CCS project development. In the field of carbon management, she worked in JOGMEC’s Hydrogen and CCS Department from 2020, where she developed strategies to support the commercial deployment of CCS, analysed international developments in CCS projects, climate policy and carbon markets, and coordinated with stakeholders in Japan and overseas. She also contributed to the development and drafting of the JOGMEC CCS Guidelines (2022) and the Handbook for CCS Carbon Credits (2023). Since 2023, she has served as Deputy Chief Regional Officer for Europe at JOGMEC’s London Office, where she covers energy policy and regulatory developments and supports project development across the energy sector. Sakura holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Ochanomizu University. Her doctoral research examined social development in developing countries through the lens of the morphogenetic approach.

Sofie Lindström (PhD, Associate professor (LU), Adjunct professor (IGN, UCPH))

Sofie Lindström is senior state geologist at the Geological Survey of Sweden. She has been the project manager of the government assignment on Geological Storage of CO2 in Sweden which ended in 2025, and is currently the project manager for the government assignment on the NZIA, and functional manager for CCS and Geoenergy

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Krzysztof Fal

Krzysztof Fal, PhD in Law, is a lawyer and an expert in economic regulations, climate policy, and the functioning of energy markets. He specializes in analyzing legislative processes and designing regulatory solutions related to the energy transition, climate policy, and energy security. Director of Development in the Wise-Europa, a leading Polish economic & policy research center focused on energy- and climate policies. He gained his experience in public administration, the analytical sector, and expert organizations. Between 2021 and 2023, he served as the Head of the Gas Division and the National Power System Division at the Ministry of Climate and Environment. In this capacity, he directed a team responsible for matters related to the natural gas and electricity markets, as well as drafting legislation concerning the operation and development of energy infrastructure.

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Arsenij Fiodorov

Arsenij Fiodorov is an independent CCS and flow assurance consultant with a strong technical background in CO2 transport systems and petroleum production. Since graduating from Imperial College London, he has worked across the full project lifecycle, from concept selection through detailed design to operations support, alongside in-house research on CO2 phase behaviour and equation of state tuning. The last five years have focused on CO2 transport, covering onshore and offshore pipelines and injection wells, with responsibility for study ownership and delivery. He is a member of IOM3. Arsenij believes the projects he works on will play a vital role in addressing climate change.

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Dr. Paweł Gładysz, Eng

Dr. Paweł Gładysz, Eng. – President of the Board and co-founder of the CCUS Poland Association, an organization supporting the development of CO₂ capture, utilization, and storage technologies in Poland and building dialogue between science, industry, and administration. Assistant professor at the Faculty of Energy and Fuels at AGH University of Krakow, specializing in thermal engineering, LCA and TEA analyses, and energy policy. He managed the CCUS.pl project and the Polish-Norwegian CCS Network.

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Dr Eduardo Luna-Ortiz

Dr Eduardo Luna-Ortiz is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years of experience across energy infrastructure projects, with particular depth in carbon capture and storage, CO₂ transport, flow assurance, technical assurance and project development. His experience spans major CCS developments including HyNet, Porthos, Aramis and Moomba, alongside work across hydrogen, oil & gas and broader energy infrastructure. Over the course of his career, he has contributed to full-chain CCS projects across project development, flow assurance, technical assurance and advisory roles. Eduardo is Chair of the Energy Institute CCUS Flow Assurance Working Group and Co-Vice-Chair of the Energy Institute CCUS Committee. He has also worked across technical evaluation, project development, due diligence and investment-facing engineering, as well as publications and conference contributions. He also serves as Head of Upstream at JEDA Energy, where his work combines upstream technical evaluation and investment support with commercial considerations. Eduardo holds a BSc from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in chemical engineering where he studied phase behaviour of oil mixtures and, a PhD from the University of Manchester (UMIST) in chemical engineering (process integration) where he developed optimization methods for complex industrial processes.

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"BCF 2026 Invited Speakers"

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