Recruitment Special 2009

2009

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Special Features

Recruitment and the credit crunch

Women in the oil and gas industry

Life as a geoscientist

Don’t panic!

An introduction by John Kingston, editor of this ­ special supplement on the recruitment of geoscientists and engineers for the oil and gas industry.

New technology is providing cost-effective solutions for companies to develop staff and, at the same time, build and save corporate knowledge. There is an increasing requirement, particularly among developing countries, for higher levels of local content, including the employment of indigenous staff. This is creating new opportunities for academic and commercial recruitment, training and workforce skills management organizations.

Times are tough, but they will get better, and the demand for energy will rise. It is essential to stay focused on people and technology, and plan for a successful future.

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As you will discover, we have a very broad range of articles from operators, service companies, academics, consultants and industry bodies. In general, the mood is reassuringly up-beat. Young people remain highly motivated to pursue challenging careers, and are now even more focused on gaining the practical skills that companies require. Universities are keen for closer cooperation with industry, so that they can better prepare students for the real world. Many operators are taking a long-term view; maintaining their levels of investment in exploration activities in order to build reserves for the future. Most companies are continuing to recruit, even if shedding contractors and senior staff at the same time. It seems that we have learned from the mistakes of the past, when hiring freezes left gaping holes in the experience and age demographics of our business. Most companies also recognize the challenge of the departing “baby-boomers”, and there are an increasing number of alumni schemes and mentoring opportunities. The drop in value of many pension schemes will doubtless act as further encouragement for experienced professionals to take a few days off from working on their golf handicaps to help develop the next generation of geoscientists and engineers.

SPECIAL intro kingston • page 1

Last year’s Recruitment Special was published during a period of buoyancy and optimism in the market place. Many of the articles focused on convincing talented young scientists and engineers to look favourably at careers in oil and gas rather than being lured into financial and other businesses eager for their analytical skills. How times have changed! I was worried that companies and organisations would not be interested in contributing to this year’s edition, but am happy to report that my concerns were unfounded.

Table of contents Colophon Publications Officer Neil Goulty, Durham University (publicationsofficer@eage.org) Editor John Kingston (jvictork@hotmail.com) Publications & Communications Manager Marcel van Loon (ml@eage.org)

Recruitment and the credit crunch - Phil Christie, EAGE President The future of graduate recruitment in the light of the current economic downturn.

Senior Publications Coordinator Linda Molenaar (lm@eage.org)

10

Publications Assistant Salima Gader (sgr@eage.org) Account Manager Advertising Stefan van der Kooij (sk@eage.org) Production Co Productions bv (contact@coproductions.nl) Editorial/Advertising enquiries EAGE Office (address below)

EAGE Head Office EAGE Office PO Box 59 3990 DB Houten The Netherlands Tel.: +31 88 9955055 Fax: +31 30 6343524 E-mail: eage@eage.org Website: www.eage.org

Women in the oil and gas industry Read about the attraction to women of careers in the oil and gas sector and some of the barriers they face.

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SPECIAL table of contents • page 2

Regional Office Russia & CIS EAGE Geomodel LLC Starokaluzhskoye shosse, 62 Build. 1, korp. 6, 3rd floor 117630, Moscow, Russia Tel.: +7 495 611 9285 Fax: +7 495 611 9286 E-mail: eage@eage.ru Website: www.eage.ru

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Regional Office Middle East EAGE Middle East FZ-LLC Dubai Knowledge Village Block 13 Office F-25 PO Box 501711 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel.: +971 4 369 3897 Fax: +971 4 360 4702 E-mail: middle_east@eage.org Website: www.eage.org EAGE members change of address notification Send to: EAGE Membership Dept at EAGE Office (address above)

Life as a geoscientist Geert de Bruin and Annemiek Asschert explain what their life as a geoscientist is about.

64 68

News

Young professionals

12 14 20 21 22 23 24

Angola's new recruitment policy Dynamics of the US geoscience workforce Houston companies benefiting from Indian oil industry Talent management in Asia Petrobras hiring personnel and cutting costs Finding the best graduates (Fugro Robertson) How to avoid oil and gas job scams

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Recent starters experiences

Features

36 38 44

Hydrocarbons across the world (OMV E&P) An inventive mind - Harold Vinegar, Shell International Professional networking communities keep talent at hand

Success stories

46 48

Brian Russell, Hampson-Russell Gilles Hennenfent, Chevron

Features

50 52 54 58 60

A world of opportunities (Geokinetics) Leveraging new technology for effective training (PGS) Women in the oil and gas industry How to succeed in job hunting Careers in petroleum (ExxonMobil)

Job insights

64

Life as a geoscientist

Features

72 74

Growing a reservoir monitoring business (Stingray Geophysical) Geoscience careers at Total

Interviews

78

The views of professors and students

Features

88 90

Preparing for the future - a Schlumberger education programme What a difference a year makes (Numerical Rocks)

Headhunters

96

The view from recruiters

Calendar

102

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4 The world's largest multidisciplinary geoscience event 6 Job Centre in Amsterdam 8 The battle of the bikes - student events 10 Recruitment and the credit crunch - Phil Christie, EAGE President

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EAGE news

Geoscience and engineering job seekers who want to learn more about the industry and meet potential employers should mark 8-11 June in their diaries.

The world’s largest

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SPECIAL eage news • page 4

multi-disciplinary From 8-11 June 2009, the 71st EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since 2004, the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) EUROPEC has been incorporated into the meeting to create a truly multi-disciplinary event. Promoting communication and understanding between the experts in each field. Amsterdam '09 includes a large conference, attracting over 6,000 visitors to its 702 technical presentations, and 300 exhibitors presenting the ­latest developments in geophysics, geology and reservoir engi-

neering on the 8,000 m² exhibition floor.

There are also 15 workshops, 3 field trips, and several short courses.

The theme for this year—Balancing Global Resources—captures many major challenges faced by the world. These include balancing energy supply and demand, production and exploration, fossil fuels and renewables, consumption and climate change. How we address these balances will impact our industry and the people of the world well beyond the time the present eco-

nomic retrenchment has moved into the history books.

For the fourth time in its history, the event is being held in Amsterdam, a world-class city that itself strives to strike a proper balance. Since being given a city charter around 1300, the city has built itself into a hub of commerce, banking, manufacturing and shipping, while at the same time maintaining its historic charm. In the “Golden Age” of the 17th century, a global entrepreneurial approach enabled an extraordinary flourishing of art and culture

For the past decade, there has been increasing concern in the oil and gas industry over the growing demand for technical exploration and production (E&P) personnel. In order to meet this demand, Amsterdam '09 features an exciting student programme and a Job Centre on the exhibition floor. First introduced at the

2006 meeting in Vienna, the Job Centre provides a platform for recruiters, students and professional job seekers to meet.

The opening ceremony in the Amsterdam RAI congress centre features an impressive line-up of keynote speakers, including Malcolm Brinded, Shell; Richard Meganck, UNESCO-IHE; Klaas Wester, Fugro; and David Lawrence, Chairman of the Local Advisory Committee for Amsterdam '09.

To complement the conference and exhibition, EAGE has organized a social

programme that offers delegates and family members culture, hospitality and gastronomy in original surroundings. The conference evening on Wednesday 10 June will provide a unique opportunity to enjoy entertainment, food, beverages and decoration that reflect the vibrant Dutch identity.

For more information, and to ­ pre-register for Amsterdam '09 please visit www.eage.org.

See you in Amsterdam!

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in the city. Today, Amsterdam combines extensive cultural diversity and a liberal society with its role as a major trading and transport hub. It is the ideal place for us to consider “Balancing Global Resources”.

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geoscience event

Visit the EAGE Job Centre in Amsterdam many workers hired in the 1970’s are coming up to retirement. Now is a good time to be looking for jobs in the oil & gas industry!

The current worldwide economic situation has not prevented companies from booking recruiting space in the EAGE Job Centre. The now familiar red carpet once again holds companies from different corners of the industry. Visitors will find oil companies (BP, OMV, Maersk), representatives of the service industry (PGS, Argo) and recruiting firms (Worldwideworker, Working Smart, Scout Recruitment). Most of these companies are aware of the value of the Job Centre through having participated in previous years, and all exhibitors are keen to meet visitors of EAGE Amsterdam 2009.

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Student presentation at the Job Centre.

Following successful appearances at ­Vienna in 2006, London in 2007 and Rome last year, the 2009 EAGE meeting will once again feature a Job Centre on the exhibition floor. The 71st Annual Conference & Exhibition will be in Amsterdam 8-11 June. With over 6,000 geoscientists and engineers expected to attend, this event provides a great opportunity for experienced professionals and those seeking their first career to meet with companies looking for staff.

The Job Centre is part of the EAGE’s contribution to tackling our industry’s recruitment challenges. It provides a convenient place where visitors can

browse through job postings, find out about the exhibiting companies and have informal chats with recruiters.

The current economic climate has impacted much, although not all, of the oil and gas industry, but the industry has ongoing recruitment challenges. Jobs in the oil industry are highly sought after, and international oil companies are still investing in exploration. Forward-looking companies are aware of the importance of a sustainable workforce, and this means that new jobs and long-term careers are still being offered. Another reason for optimism, particularly for young job seekers, lies in the fact that

In addition to exhibits and company ­representatives, the Job Centre will have a job wall with career openings in the industry. The job wall was introduced at the EAGE annual meeting in London in 2007, where it proved to be a success. The Job Centre in Amsterdam will also feature a coffee point, around which job seekers and employers will be able to chat in an informal and relaxed environment.

If you are attending this year’s meeting at the Amsterdam RAI congress centre, be sure to walk by the Job Centre in Hall 11, meet the exhibitors and have a look at the vacancies that need to be filled. For information about exhibiting at the Job Centre, visit www.eage.org/ jobcentre. If you cannot attend the Amsterdam meeting, all the jobs being presented in the Job Centre will be in the ‘Job Opportunities’ section of the EAGE website www.eage.org.

He knows there’s a well out there.

So do we.

www.omv.com

Why are nine out of ten appraisal wells drilled by OMV Exploration & Production GmbH successful? Just as the camel finds water where others see only sand, we find oil where others can’t. Our experts use the most advanced technology, such as fine-tuned 3D seismics, prestack depth migration and CRS processing. With a success rate 20 per cent above the global average, our results speak for themselves.

To become part of OMV’s worldwide team of experts apply online and go to: www.omv.com/jobs

Move & More.

The battle of the bikes

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SPECIAL succes story • page 8

is on for students in Amsterdam!

The highlight of the Student Programme is the, now famous, “Geoquiz”, which challenges university students to prove the geoscience and engineering knowledge and skills learned during the course of their studies. The quizmaster - Dr. Patrick Corbett - will put this challenge to the test as 15-20 teams compete to outwit each other; striving to win fabulous prizes sponsored by the PetroSkills training alliance. The EAGE is also pleased to announce its new and improved EAGE Student Evening, taking place at the Strand Zuid city beach (near the RAI conference centre) on Tuesday 9 June from 18:00 to 23:00, offering a BBQ dinner, drinks, DJ, dance floor, VIP industry professionals, EAGE board members, an international environment, beach front atmosphere, beach volleyball, eventful and entertaining industry interactive activities and lots of fun.

All participating students will also receive a special student gift during the celebration.

The Student Programme provides several other special presentations and entertaining activities, including the “Battle of the Bikes” challenges and the “BeeWise Bike Show” in the Student Court.

Exhibition Tours The Student Court is also the meeting point for the daily Exhibition Tours, which will visit different company representatives offering student-specific information and promotional items on their company. ­Students can register for the Exhibition Tour during their conference registration, and will meet with the EAGE Student ­Coordinator at the Student Court.

Young Professional presentations The Student Court will also provide an informal setting for the Young Professional presentations. Given by volunteers who have recently started new jobs, these presentations provide students with an overview of their personal experiences in successfully finding careers in the industry. The young professionals will offer a clearer understanding of what it is like to be working for your potential future company, including information about their training programmes and what is expected of employees. The presentations will also provide an overview of the “day in the life” of these young professionals, and information about employee benefits and job challenges.

They will help students to research future potential employers and gain insight into what personal development and growth opportunities are offered by different companies and career paths.

across a wide variety of fields. The Student Short Courses (SSCs) are designed to cater to an intimate audience, and offer a more personal and interactive learning experience. The SSCs will help students to gain technical knowledge and information about career development in the industry.

There will be 5 SSCs, each lasting 3 hours, starting at 09:00 and 13:00 each day except Thursday, when there will be only a morning short course. The courses are: • SSC 1: Integrated Reservoir Modelling, Dr. Andrea Moscariello SGS Horizon BV • SSC 2: Geoscience Computing in E&P: Principles of Interpretation and Modelling, Alejandra Reynaldos-Rojas, Schlumberger • SSC 3: Exploration Prospect De-risking, Bruce Levell, Shell • SSC 4: Create and Deliver Effective Presentations, Jim Morris, S&N ­International • SSC 5: Special Core Analysis (SCAL) - a key step for reservoir characterization, Patrick Egermann, GDF SUEZ

Practice, practice, practice!

Trial Interviews, held from Tuesday to Thursday between 10:00 and 16:00, offer an amazing opportunity for students to sign up for a 30-minute official interview, including a 10-minute feedback session.

This opportunity allows students to experience an interview and learn from the professionals. The time slots are limited, so get booked in as soon as possible. Last year in Rome, several students were offered real jobs through these trial interviews, so anything is possible in Amsterdam!

Bridging the gap

Student Poster Presentations

Student Short Courses

The EAGE hopes to assist as many students as possible in bridging the gap between their academic lives and becoming working professionals. The Student Programme in Amsterdam is designed to offer all participating students opportunities to explore options leading to a bright future within this competitive, but rewarding, industry.

The Student Programme and EAGE Student Evening are sponsored by the EAGE Student Fund, Shell, SGS Horizon BV, ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, StatoilHydro, CGGVeritas, Total and ENI.

Key activities of the Student Programme include the Student Court activities, Student Short Courses and trial interviews.

The conference Technical Programme provides opportunities for students to learn about the latest developments

The Student Programme schedule overview is available at www.eage.org.

SPECIAL eage news • page 9

Fun events for students

Student Court activities, running from Tuesday 9 June to Thursday 11 June, include 32 Student Poster Presentations, mostly given by EAGE travel grant award winners, presenting an overview of their study specialization and research during their university education. The Student Poster Presentations are intended to assist students to better understand what research institutes and universities around the world are focussing on. They also provide a perspective of different presentation skills and, of course, knowledge and information about a broad range of technical topics.

The student posters will be officially reviewed by three members of the EAGE Student Affairs Committee, and awards will be given to selected students.

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EAGE student and professional participants at the 71st annual Conference and Exhibition will be able to battle their way by bike in Amsterdam to win some great prizes! The EAGE Student Court, themed “Battle of the Bikes” will offer enticing activities as well as a technical and practical Student Programme for all student participants. The Student Programme has built on experience from previous years and should be the best yet, while maintaining its core fundamental offerings of up-to-date industry knowledge and skill development; giving student participants the best opportunities towards pursuing their careers in Geology, Geophysics and/or Petroleum Engineering. Students should be particularly interested in attending this event during this economic crisis, as the Student Programme links with the EAGE’s extensive network, offering exceptional opportunities for students to meet industry professionals who have a specific interest in students.

Phil Christie, EAGE president, considers the future of graduate recruitment in the light of the current economic downturn.

Recruitment and the credit crunch

Phil Christie, EAGE president, with the winners of the student Geoquiz in

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SPECIAL eage news • page 10

Tunis 2009.

“Phil, I need someone to be the quizmaster at our student Geoquiz event in Tunis—and that someone is you,” said EAGE Student Coordinator, Shannon de Groot. And such is her power of persuasion that, in March 2009, your multi-tasking president found himself posing geoscientific questions to teams of students from all countries between Libya and Mauritania, plus a few European nationalities thrown in for good measure. The students had come to the EAGE North African–Mediterranean conference for three days of intensive activities including in-depth technical sessions, poster presentations, interview techniques, team-building activities, socialising and networking and, of

course, the Geoquiz. Although I lacked the pointed hat and gown so elegantly worn by previous quizmaster, DISC Lecturer Pat Corbett, we all had a great time nonetheless. And, despite the encroaching recession, I felt this was time well spent and came away greatly encouraged by the vitality of the students. After all, these young folks are the future lifeblood of our industry and our university departments, and they need to be reassured that there is a future for them even in these tight financial times. To maintain and build their confidence, we must also have faith in the future of our professions, and it was gratifying to see that both ExxonMobil and StatoilHydro, as sponsors of the student event, shared this faith and were putting their time and resources into supporting this worthy cause.

By the time you read this, I will also have attended an open forum in Scotland with Prof. Martin Siegert and students from Heriot-Watt University, the University of Edinburgh, the British Geological Survey and other British universities to review opportunities for geoscience students in both industry and academia, in the light of the current economic downturn. I believe that my preparation for this event allows me to share insights into the current and future situation and, hopefully, offer some words of encouragement.

Wallace Pratt, the eminent petroleum geologist, stated that “oil is found in the minds of men,” and this truism derives support in the production sector from a strong correlation between the number of petrotechnical professionals PTPs (geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers) - in a company and the volume of its production: statistically, one PTP corresponds to about 2,000 boe/ day. Hence, the more professionals, the more oil, though which is cause and which is effect is not immediately obvious. Nonetheless, as significant discoveries get harder to find, and the exploration focus moves to deeper water, inhospitable areas and ever more remote locations, the long-term demand for innovative and imaginative geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers is bound to increase.

“That’s all very well,” I hear you say, “but are we not experiencing the deepest recession since the 1930s, with layoffs taking place across the industry?” It is true that we are in the early stages of what looks like a sharp recession, and many companies are adjusting capacity to meet projected demand in the one to two year timeframe, but the fundamental position is one of relatively tight supply going forward, and when the global economy starts to emerge

Although we are probably now experiencing the most painful period of the recession, and every job cut can be a personal tragedy, there will be a recovery, and those companies that are mindful of their future competency needs will continue to hire, even through the downturn, to ensure they are well-posi-

tioned to take advantage of the eventual upturn. The professional societies also have a role to play in encouraging and facilitating development throughout a PTP career, and the above analysis suggests that supporting students represents a particularly sound investment for the future well-being of the industry and also the wider community. Clearly, the excellent turnout of students at the EAGE North African–Mediterranean student event demonstrated that these young people had come to a similar conclusion.

SPECIAL eage news • page 11

The great crew change, of which we have heard so much over the past decade, is real enough, but it seems to be a preoccupation mainly of North American and European oil and gas companies, many of which have a high proportion of their staff close to retirement age. Asian, and especially African, companies are in much better shape with a generally young workforce. On the supply side, the number of PTP graduates in Europe and North America is unlikely to satisfy future demand, while graduates from Asia, India, and Africa may find their best opportunities in international appointments. All companies will need to focus on competency management and skill-building, with the time taken to develop a new hire into an autonomous professional being a key indicator to business success. There will be a need, and hence opportunities, for

pre- or post-retirement professionals to pass on their experience and best practice to younger employees. Mentoring and coaching programmes will also assist in bringing new PTPs up to speed.

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from recession the demand for energy is likely to rebound. Price is determined by the small margin between demand and supply, and even maintaining current supply levels requires replacing oil and gas reserves, which are in decline.

Furthermore, the current layoffs should be seen in the context of an unprecedented growth in recruitment over the past few years; excluding China, annual recruitment has soared from fewer than 4,000 graduating PTPs to around 10,500 last year. Without layoffs, annual attrition is around 1.5 percent (about 2,000) of the PTP workforce. The other factor, especially important in companies based in North America and Europe, is the “great crew change” whereby about 7,500 people a year are expected to move into retirement. For many years, these companies did not recruit and, as a result, are now facing skills and headcount deficits which will become even more acute as the major economies start to recover from recession.

Consequently, although recruitment in 2009 is unlikely to be at the record levels of 2008, it will almost certainly continue at modest levels through the downturn and will return to pre-credit crunch levels once the global economy moves into recovery.

Angola announces new recruitment policy in oil industry

Most oil producing countries apply local content regulations, ranging from the enforced employment of nationals by foreign companies, supply of materials and goods by indigenous companies and facilitating joint venture efforts between foreign firms that have expertise in sophisticated services with understudy local partners. This is not only the case in developing countries. Saudi Arabia, for example, expects companies to

hire ­Saudis and there is a practical ­requirement for a foreign investor to have a Saudi business partner.

In many developing countries, suitably trained and qualified engineers are in short supply, often because of limited appropriate local higher education facilities. International oil companies are often expected to support the development of in-country technical training and higher education facilities aimed at increasing the indigenous supply of quality geoscientists and petroleum engineers. Many companies also support the training of sponsored students and employees from their global areas of operation in countries with established petroleum-related education centres of excellence, such as the US, UK, France, Norway and Netherlands. The need for training and knowledge transfer also provides a business opportunity for academic and commercial recruitment, training and workforce skills management organizations.

SPECIAL news • page 13

According to the new recruitment policy, oil industry employees, whether they are

foreigners or Angolans, should be paid the same salaries and enjoy the same social benefits and the same working conditions if they work in the same category and posts. Any kinds of discrimination are forbidden, said the new recruitment policy. Oil companies must also sign a contract with the Ministry of Petroleum in which the obligations regarding their human resources development should be established. Angola is one of the leading oil producers in Africa with oil production of some 1.9 million barrels per day.

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Angola's official news agency ANGOP reported in January that the Angolan government had announced a new recruitment policy for the oil industry under which all oil companies must employ Angolans in all categories and posts. The hire of foreign employees will only be done through the authorization of the Ministry of Petroleum, ANGOP quoted a new government document as saying. Under the new system on the recruitment, integration, training and development of employees in the oil industry, the document said oil companies already operating in Angola must send to the Ministry of Petroleum a list of the names of foreign staff employed by them and indicate their names, occupations, wage standards and any other social privilege to justify their recruitment as well as a confirming document of their qualification and description of their work posts.

Dynamics of the

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SPECIAL news • page 14 

US geoscience workforce

Leila Gonzales and Christopher Keane of the American Geological Institute (AGI) review past, present and future trends in geoscience education and employment.

These issues are distinctly pronounced in the US, where over half of the global geoscience workforce of 400,000 geoscientists are employed, as estimated by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Additionally, by most measures, the US is the single largest producer of new geosciences graduates. Although the dominant position of the US in science and technology has waned over the last few decades, the momentum of the geosciences enterprise in the US sheds light on the dynamics of geosciences within the global economy.

Current status of the US geoscience workforce In the United States, geoscientists are employed across many industrial sectors including resource extraction, environmental services, scientific and technical consulting, finance, academia, and government.

Despite the current economic downturn, several critical US industries face serious geoscience workforce shortages in the

Between 2006 and 2016, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the number of US geoscience jobs is expected to increase by 22 percent, with most new jobs occurring in the scientific and technical consulting sector (a 45 percent increase between 2006 and 2016). Geoscience job growth is more than twice the projected growth for all US employment, and 6 percent more than all other physical science jobs.

Geoscientists graduating with Masters or doctoral degrees in the next 5 to 10 years will be well-positioned to enter a rich job market flush with opportunities that involve finding energy, mineral and water resources, mitigating the effects of environmental and natural geologic hazards, and global change.

In order to understand some of the factors restricting the supply of geoscience graduates, we examined trends in earthscience education at the high-school level as well as trends in geoscience education at two-year and four-year institutions.

We also looked at the career pathways of graduates as they transition from student to professional, and we explored the future trends in geoscience careers.

High school education Since 1982, the percentage of high school graduates taking earth-science courses has been much lower than those taking other science courses (Figure 2).

Whereas the percentage of high school graduates taking earth-science courses has increased from 14 to 23 percent between 1982 and 2005, the percentages of high school students who have taken chemistry and physics have increased to 66 percent and 33 percent respectively.

The percentage of students taking biology has remained at approximately 90 percent. Additionally, the percentage of high school science teachers in biology,

chemistry, physics, and earth science has grown in the past 18 years (1990-2006); however, earth science has had the lowest growth rate at 21 percent (Figure 3).

Low earth science enrolments at highschool level are partly driven by the fact that earth science is not required for high school graduation in most states.

Only seven states in the US require earth science for high school graduation; 24 states include it in their recommended curriculum. Furthermore, if a high school student takes an earth science course in high school, it counts towards graduation in only 33 states.

High school graduation is a critical juncture in a student’s life as graduates decide whether to continue their education or exit into the workforce.

Since 2004, the majority (78%) of US high school graduates planned to continue their education within a year of high school graduation (Trends Among High School Seniors 1972-2004, 2008). In 2007, the College Board (a national testing organization for college-bound high school students in the US) stated that 44 percent of responding seniors indicated that they planned to obtain a graduate degree (26% Masters and 18% PhD), and 23 percent intended to obtain a terminal Bachelor degree (College-Bound Seniors, Total Group Report, 2007). Given that graduate degrees are generally necessary in science careers, the achievement of a graduate degree does not appear to be a significant hurdle in the minds of prospective geoscience students.

Two-Year colleges Of the 30 percent of high school graduates that enrol in two-year (Community) colleges, 66 percent transition to fouryear institutions (National Center for Education Statistics, Special Analysis of Community College Students, 2007).

Unfortunately, at the community college level, there are few geoscience programs.

Only 14 percent (233) of all US community colleges have degree programs in the geosciences or related physical sciences (Figure 4), and the majority of these institutions offer general science programs that incorporate geoscience topics into

SPECIAL news • page 15

As recently discovered by the armed forces in the US and UK, this generational change can have profound implications on operational success. This was most recently demonstrated in the armed forces by their lack of institutional knowledge about a key maintenance component on a specific nuclear warhead model. The loss of critical knowledge continuity in many geoscience endeavours may not have the same public heart-stopping effect, but for companies, the headaches are no less pronounced.

next 10 to 15 years as the current geoscience workforce retires (Figure 1). This problem is exacerbated by an insufficient supply of geoscience graduates from four-year institutions inside or outside the US that will fill the workforce gap, retain the infrastructure to educate future geoscientists, and pursue basic research.

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The current global economic turmoil, coupled with the sharp drop in oil and many other commodity prices, have some geoscience employers retrenching. Yet many employers with sufficient financial resources are taking a long-term perspective on the current situation, and are taking measures to address the future geoscience demands that will exist once the global economy recovers. One of the major concerns facing all technical industries in the near future is what is termed “The Great Crew Change” – the exit of a large cadre of experienced technical workers that will be replaced, at best, by an inexperienced technically-trained workforce.

Figure 2 Percentage of US high school graduates taking Figure 1 Age distribution of the geoscience workforce.

­science courses in high school 1982-2005.

Figure 4 Number of US two-year (Community) colleges that offer programs in geoscience disciplines.

Figure 5 Geoscience Associates degrees by type of

Figure 6 Mean size of US geoscience departments by

two-year program.

number of faculty and by number of students 1984-2007.

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SPECIAL news • page 16

Figure 3 Number of US high school science teachers 1990-2006.

Four-Year universities A Masters degree is generally required for professional geoscience careers and a doctoral degree is required for the majority of academic positions. Thus, the size and productivity of geoscience academic departments directly affect the supply and expertise of the future geoscience workforce. Since 1999 the median size of departments, as measured by both the number of faculties and the total number of students, has steadily decreased (Figure 6). However; most geoscience departments have relatively low student-to-tenure-track faculty ratios (10:1 or less), which is often cited as a benefit for education quality at the undergraduate level.

The number of students enrolling in, and graduating from, US geoscience programs has remained relatively steady over the past few years (Figures 7 and 8).

Although geoscience graduate programs attract students primarily from geoscience and other science, mathematics, and engineering academic backgrounds, 12 to 14 percent of geoscience graduate students have Bachelors degrees from non-science and engineering fields (Figure 9). Additionally, a small percentage (14 percent) of geoscience Masters degree recipients have two Masters degrees, and 47 percent of the second

Career pathways of geoscience graduates Perceptions of career opportunities influence where students choose to start their professional careers. Geoscience Masters degree recipients tend to search across many sectors and half find initial employment in the private sector (21% oil & gas industry, 20% environmental industry, and 9% in other private sector industries) (Figure 11). These career path choices may be driven by the high percentage of geoscience Masters student with a positive perception of employment in the environmental industry (61%) and in the petroleum industry (42%).

Although jobs exist in many sectors of industry for geoscience doctoral graduates, an overwhelming majority (81 percent) of geoscience PhDs search for

jobs in academia. Since 1996, the majority of new geoscience PhD graduates have entered into academic positions (both post-doctoral and non-postdoctoral) (Figure 12). The increase in new geoscience PhD recipients taking academic post-doctoral positions since 2000 is due to a combination of a decrease in job opportunities during the dot-com bust (1999-2001), an increase in federal funding of the geosciences, and the fact that geoscience doctoral graduates primarily search for employment within academia.

The future of the geoscience workforce In the future, the nature of geoscience work is expected to change as the demand for finding new energy sources increases and new technologies are developed. Across all fields, geoscientists will need to be equipped with a strong set of fundamental skills in geoscience and mathematics that can be transferred across industrial sectors and applied to different geoscience challenges, whether it is water resources, energy, minerals, hazards and climate issues, or training the next generation of geoscientists. A geoscientist working on reservoir characterization in the petroleum industry today may be required in the future to use his or her knowledge and training to develop

SPECIAL news • page 17 

Associate degrees in geoscience disciplines have not exceeded 2,000 per year since 1985 (Figure 5), and degrees from dedicated geoscience programs, such as geology, earth sciences, oceanography, atmospheric science and hydrology, have comprised approximately 10 percent of all geoscience-related Associate degrees since 1992 (Figure 5). Considering that 9 percent of geoscience Masters degree recipients and 4 percent of geoscience PhD recipients have Associate degrees, students from two-year (Community) colleges represent an important untapped resource of diverse talent for the geosciences.

Masters degrees are from non-science or engineering fields (Figure 10). Additionally, geosciences degree completion rates for Bachelors and Masters degrees are lower than for other science and engineering fields (Bachelors: 13% compared to 59%; Masters degrees: 20% compared to 19%). Yet, geoscience doctoral degree completion rates are higher than for other science and engineering fields (20% compared to 9%).

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their curriculum. Only five percent of all US two-year (Community) colleges offer dedicated geoscience programs (76 colleges) (Figure 4).

Figure 8 US geoscience degrees granted 1973-2007.

Figure 9 Bachelors degree fields of terminal geoscience

Figure 10 Second Masters degree field of those who also have

graduate degree recipients 2003.

a geoscience Masters degree 2003.

Figure 11 Employment sectors of recent geoscience Masters

Figure 12 Employment sectors of recent geoscience doctoral

degree recipients 2006.

degree recipients 2006.

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SPECIAL news • page 18 

Figure 7 US geoscience enrollments 1955-2007.

Figure 1 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Society of Economic Geologists, National Ground Water Association, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, US Geological Survey, and the US Office of Personnel Management). Figure 2 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the National Center of Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2007). Figure 3 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the Council of Chief State School Officers, State Indicators of Science and Mathematics, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007). Figure 4 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data

Figure 13 Oil & Gas industry demand for geoscientists 1995-2030.

derived from the National Center of Education Statistics, College Navigator).

Figure 5 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System). Figure 6 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived AGI’s Directory of Geoscience Departments and 2003 Report on the Status of Academic Geoscience Departments, Katz, B.J., 2003).

Figure 7 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from AGI’s Directory of Geoscience Departments). Figure 8 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program,

The juxtaposition of the increase in demand for skilled geoscientists, the wave of retirements from the geoscience workforce in the next 10 to 15 years, and the low rate of new entries into the geoscience profession, means that the demand for skilled geoscientists within the next 5 to 10 years will be much higher than it has been in recent years. Undergraduates entering into geoscience programs today and continuing on to complete a geoscience Masters degree will be well-positioned when they graduate 5 to 7 years from now and enter a rich job market flush with opportunities.

data derived from AGI’s Directory of Geoscience Departments). Figure 9 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the National Science Foundation, National Survey of College Graduates, 2003). Figure 10 (Source: AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from the National Science Foundation, National Survey of College Graduates, 2003). Figure 11 (Source AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from AGI/AGU Survey of New Geoscience Master’s (2006)). Figure 12 (Source AGI Geoscience Workforce Program, data derived from AGI/AGU Survey of New Geoscience Ph.D.’s (2006)). Figure 13 (Source: AGI

Details of the research referred to in this article can be found at www.agiweb.org/ workforce/reports.html.

Geoscience Workforce Program).

SPECIAL news • page 19

Michael G. Loudin, manager of the Global Geoscience Recruiting & Early Career Program at ExxonMobil, comments “There are some pretty fundamental factors underlying the oil and gas industry’s robust need for well-prepared earth scientists.

First, despite the current economic slowdown, long-term global economic growth means that oil and gas will likely continue to account for more than half of the world’s total energy supplies for at least the next few decades. This is true even after we account for aggressive conservation efforts and unprecedented growth in alternative energy sources like wind and solar. Second, we are not running out of energy supplies. There is much more oil and gas remaining trapped in underground reservoirs than has been produced so far.

But finding and recovering these resources will require increasing technology development and application. And finally, many of the "baby boomer" generation, who make up the majority of current oil and gas geoscientists, are rapidly approaching retirement. All of this adds up to extraordinary global career opportunities for people trained in areas like sedimentology, structural geology, fluid flow in porous media, petrophysics and geophysics.”

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technologies for carbon sequestration, or to locate and characterize underground water resources. Additionally, as oil and gas fields become smaller and more difficult to locate, geoscientists will need to employ new technologies for exploration and develop other avenues for energy production. However; in the petroleum industry, like in other industries which employ geoscientists, the supply of geoscientists is insufficient to meet expected future demand (Figure 13).

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SPECIAL news • page 20

Houston companies benefiting from Indian oil industry The Houston Chronicle reported in March that its local energy and technology companies are benefiting from India’s growing energy sector, at a time when the exploration for new oil and production of existing reserves are slowing around the world. Houston energy nameplates ­Schlumberger, Transocean, Baker ­Hughes and Halliburton Co., all of which have offices in India, are picking up a steady stream of contracts from India’s biggest oil and gas producer, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).

The Houston based software company Paradigm had 13 employees in Mumbai when Ankur Gupta left Houston to run its India operations five years ago.

Today, the company has 50 people

in the country, selling its software and analyzing well data for Indian oil companies. “Most companies develop software in India and sell it overseas,” Gupta said in his office overlooking northern Mumbai. “We develop it overseas and sell it in India”.

Earlier this year, Houston oil well firefighter Boots & Coots International Well Control announced that it had just renewed a contract for training, inspection and control blowout for ONGC rigs. Houston-based software company Seismic Micro-Technology also recently announced a seven-figure deal with ONGC. Company officials wouldn’t put a dollar figure on the contract’s value but said Seismic Micro-Technology sees India

as a big enough growth area that it’s considering opening an office there.

Though ONGC has seen its profits squeezed lately, it continues to grow through acquisitions, with plans to spend $15.6 billion between 2007 and 2011, said Sudhir Vasudeva, the director of Offshore at ONGC. “Fortunately, so far, we have not been forced to put any of our projects on hold,” Vasudeva said. “We are not even revisiting them”.

The company conservatively pegged projects at $35 to $45 oil, he said, taking a long-term view of its investments.

“India is now going to rise in terms of importance,” noted Pradeep Anand, head of Houston-based consulting firm Seeta Resources. “North American E&P

expenditure is estimated to decline more than 30 percent, so a larger ­proportion of revenues for oil field ­service companies will come from national oil companies such as ONGC in India”.

Some private companies in India have pulled back on their spending as oil prices plummeted and it became clear the global recession will slow growth in India. But Reliance Industries, perhaps the most ambitious of India’s private-sector exploration companies, is forging ahead.

The Indian oil and petrochemical company has spent $4.7 billion on work from

Houston companies in the past two years, said Srinivas Betté, president and CEO of Reliance International, the company’s exploration and production leg. The company also plans to tap Houston workers as it fills its new Texas digs. Late last year, the company leased 12,000 square feet in the Westchase area and has plans to establish its North American headquarters and a technical center in Houston. “That’s where the technology is, that’s where a lot of talent is,” Betté said. “There’s stuff going on in Europe, and you can talk about the U.K. and Brazil. But you know Houston. It’s an oil town”.

India, with a population of more than 1 billion, imports more than 70 percent of its oil. In 2007 it consumed 2.8 million barrels per day and produced 881,110 barrels pre day. How long India’s growth and energy demands will last as the global recession deepens is anyone’s guess.

Analysts have noted that sustained low oil prices will affect even the larger companies’ plans. But for now, Betté remains bullish. “Whether it be ONGC or Reliance, this is the time to be looking at expansion projects because the demand is going to be there,” he said. “Are we going to be ready?”

Talent management in Asia The energy industry, particularly the oil & gas and the renewable energy ­sectors, is expected to grow in Asia despite the global economic slowdown.

However, according to Global Energy ­Talent, there is a shortage of skilled technical and commercial professionals that work on projects to fulfill this demand.

Globally there is expected to be a 40% crunch of technical talent in this industry by 2010. This ‘talent crunch’ is not only limiting future growth and development, but also seriously impacting current operations in the field.

Finding the right person for these jobs can be complicated. Often the best judges of technical talent, such as geosciences or production engineering, are professionals who work in those disciplines. Global Energy Talent says that it uses a network of subject matter experts with more than 700 years of cumulative hands-on experience in the industry to evaluate candidates. As a result, clients are ensured of top quality professionals with a strong technical and cultural fit.

“This partnership brings together two key capabilities: deep industry and domain expertise in energy and an extensive on-the-ground footprint across Asia,” said Yagya Ahuja, CEO of Global Energy Talent.

“Companies in the energy industry that are looking to hire,” said Louisa Wong Rousseau, Group Managing Director of Bó Lè, “can be assured of finding the right people for the right job at the right place and time throughout the region”.

SPECIAL news • page 21

techno-commercial positions throughout Asia including China, Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

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Global Energy Talent, a provider of talent management solutions for the energy industry, announced in February a partnership agreement with Bó Lè Associates to jointly help energy companies source and deploy talent for their projects in Asia. The company says that Global Energy Talent Bó Lè is now Asia’s leading executive search firm and the largest in China. With this partnership, energy companies have access to effective recruitment solutions for technical and

Petrobras hiring personnel

and cutting costs elsewhere

Dow Jones reported in January that Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, is hiring personnel and cutting costs in research and development and ­elsewhere. Chief Executive Officer ­Sergio Gabrielli said. “We are hiring.”

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SPECIAL news • page 22

According to Gabrielli, about 60% of the Petrobras workforce has been

with the company for more than 18 years and getting ready to retire.

Moreover, labour costs are about 5% of the company’s costs, which pale in comparison with other areas, such as capital-improvement expenses. Large cost-cutting measures will come from standardization of R&D equipment and projects. Petrobras will go more for off-the-shelf equipment as opposed to

tailor-made equipment, which is significantly more expensive.

In addition, Petrobras will intensify talks with suppliers to lower costs. “We are going to be (tougher) in price negotiations with suppliers,” said Gabrielli. He made the comments moments before a Petrobras conference with analysts and other market participants in New York.

"Petrobras will intensify talks with suppliers to lower costs."

Finding the best

graduates Fugro Robertson offers a graduate workshop to its potential new recruits and has developed a new petroleum geoscience diploma to help companies attract and retain staff.

they have already been immersed in the Fugro Robertson culture, enhanced their skills and made new friends.

Fugro Robertson has also developed a unique industry-university partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London, to offer a Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Petroleum Geoscience. Launching in 2009, this is aimed at new recruits in companies that are subject to timeconstraints. The course offers all the key elements of Royal Holloway’s 50-week fulltime course programme, but delivered in bite-sized chunks over a three-year period, enabling participants to obtain a higher

degree whilst continuing to work full-time.

Course modules are provided either within the Royal Holloway Department of Earth Sciences facilities in Egham, near London, or the Fugro Robertson training centre in North Wales. Course participants are expected to have undertaken some prior training at postgraduate level in their selected subject areas either through courses or work experience. Fugro Roberston says that, while not providing the same opportunity to judge ability as a graduate workshop, this new course will provide companies with an attractive incentive for new recruits looking for training as part of their career development.

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In an attempt to attract and identify the best recruits, Fugro Robertson offers a month-long graduate workshop to tailor their skills and enhance their knowledge of the exploration process.

Working in teams, the graduates use real sub-surface and geological outcrop data to evaluate basin development, fill and prospectivity, from seismic and structural appraisal to economic evaluation of potential reserves. The results are presented to Fugro Robertson management, thereby enhancing presentation skills as well as technically challenging the participants. When successful participants are eventually offered positions,

SPECIAL news • page 23

Attracting quality recruits in the upstream oil and gas industry was, until recently, a competitive business, particularly if you were close to the bottom of the food chain, as was the case for many service companies. In the last six months, however, the pressures on recruitment from an employer’s perspective have changed drastically, especially at the graduate level. The challenge now is to identify the best recruits and offer them a career path with excellent training. The quality of schooling from Earth Science departments varies considerably and few recruits will arrive with a full understanding of work in the oil sector.

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SPECIAL news • page 24

How to avoid

oil and gas job scams

The 2008 boom in overseas oil and gas jobs sparked the interests of thousands of job seekers looking for employment.

When there is so much interest in a new line of work, job scams are undoubtedly soon to follow. Some general information to keep in mind when you encounter a possible job scam is to remember that legitimate employers do not usually

need your bank account numbers, ask you to sign contracts before you get all of the facts, and they certainly do not need money up front to get you started.

For anyone who doesn’t know what a job scam is, it is a form of fraud where certain persons or scammers pose as recruiters or as employers in the oil and

gas industry to offer really attractive employment opportunities. Subsequently you, the jobseeker, are required to pay them money in advance, usually under the guise of work visas, air travel expenses, and out-of-pocket expenses.

Usually, this particular type of job scam form is called “Advance Fee Fraud” or “419 Fraud”.

You can protect yourself against

1 Look at the company name. Have you heard of it before? Ask friends and colleagues if they have heard of it.

employment scams by using ­common sense, and by ­following a few basic rules.

2

Does the email domain name match the name of the company?

3 Run a search to find the company website and if the same company or email address has been involved in job scams with other people.

4 Ask for references.

5 6 7 8 9

sk the company to provide you copies of their incorporation A certificate or proofs of Government registration, or tax (e.g. VAT) number.

Forget about companies or oil and gas job recruiters with no legitimate street address.

Get everything in writing. Beware of an agency or recruiter that is unwilling to give you a written contract. e very sceptical of overseas oil and gas employment B opportunities that sound “too good to be true”. ever send cash in the post, and be extremely cautious with N firms that require a money order. This could indicate that the firm is attempting to avoid a traceable record of its transactions.

10 Do not be fooled by official-sounding names. Many scam artists operate under names that sound like those of long-standing, reputable firms.

11 Avoid working with firms that require payment in advance.

12 Do not give your credit card or bank account number to telephone callers.

13 Read the contract very carefully. Get legal advice about any documents you are asked to sign.

14 Do not hesitate to ask questions. You have a right to know what services to expect and the costs involved.

15 Do not make a hasty decision. Instead, take time to weigh all the pros and cons of the situation. Be wary of demands that “you must act now”.

This information is provided courtesy of Oil Offshore Marine, a provider of career and recruitment management services, and OilandGasJobVacancies.com.

More advice is available at www.oil-offshore-marine.com/bewarejobscams.php, including a free checking system to establish if a job offer is a scam or not.

16 Keep a copy of all agreements you sign, as well as proofs of any payments you make to the company.

17 Watch for overly descriptive “fraud” giveaway phrases in job listings. The list includes “package-forwarding,” “money transfers,” “wiring funds,” “eBay,” and “PayPal.” World Privacy Forum researchers also found that the term “Foreign Agent Agreement” often appears in contracts and emails sent to job seekers.

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young professionals • page 26

Starters

EAGE Recruitment Special interviewed some recently employed graduates about how they got the jobs they are now doing and what advice they can give to geoscience and engineering students about finding opportunities in the upstream

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SPECIAL young professionals • page 27 

oil and gas industry.

Recent starters:

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SPECIAL young professionals • page 28 

Alexandre Lesage

Alexandre Lesage, 26, is a reservoir engineer with Total, specializing in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) simulation. He holds a Masters degree from the Engineering School of Chemistry, Toulouse, France, and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering and Project Development from the IFP School, Rueil Malmaison, France.

"I have always been interested in working for an energy company"

Why did you choose to work for an oil company?

I have always been interested in working for an energy company. My studies at the IFP School and my training made me discover the interesting work of a reservoir engineer. I consider IOC’s to be major actors to supply energy for tomorrow. Total is becoming increasingly global and is no longer focusing only on oil and gas.

I want my career to be multidisciplinary, and in the future I would like to work on projects aiming at supplying energy through various resources. One reason why I chose Total is because it may offer me this opportunity.

What is your position and what tasks does it require?

I am a reservoir engineer specialized in EOR simulation.

I am working in a team of 5 people, which is part of a unit of 45 people encompassing both the experimental and simulation aspects of hydrocarbon recovery. Our team has two main tasks. The first is to respond to the needs for EOR expertise from affiliates operating around the world, and to study the potential of EOR for additional oil recovery in targeted fields. The second main task is R&D in EOR simulation.

immediately integrated into Total through invitations to meetings and team building exercises. These help to develop self-confidence and communication skills. The various projects we work on make us develop a greater knowledge of the company’s oilfields. I would appreciate the opportunity to take part in more operations, to see different aspects of a reservoir engineer’s tasks. That will be the case in my future assignments.

How do you find the match between theory and practice?

My studies at the IFP School were adapted to my current work. I studied reservoir, drilling and surface installation engineering. Reservoir engineering is useful in my everyday tasks. The global knowledge we acquired about upstream is a great advantage for my future career. I thus found a good match between theory learned at the IFP School and practice in my job.

Are you currently taking any courses to develop your career?

Total has created the “Training Passport” to ensure a high level of competence among its workers. The courses we follow depend on our basic education and are anticipated to continue during the first 5 years. We have at least 5 weeks of training every year. They aim at developing technical skills in our domain of expertise and extend our skills to other domains of the upstream business. During my first year of working, I took part in 7 training courses dealing with petrophysics, EOR, reservoir simulation and global knowledge about Total.

In what position do you see yourself in ten years from now?

I would like to be abroad working as a reservoir engineer and being leader in some challenging projects.

What do you like about the job, and what don’t you like?

What advice would you give to students preparing for the job market?

I like being part of a closely-bound team working on a developing subject. As new employees, we are

Get ready to be very mobile and interested in global energy technologies.

SPECIAL young professionals • page 29

A large proportion of our teachers at the IFP School were workers from Total. They were trained by Total and are willing to transfer their knowledge. Total is known for being one of the most technological international oil companies (IOC’s), including deep offshore, high temperature high pressure (HPHT) reservoirs and sour gas (natural gas containing significant amounts of hydrogen sulphide). Worldwide, the company operates in more than 130 countries. I applied via the Total careers website and rapidly got interviews and a positive answer.

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How did you start working for Total?

Recent starters:

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SPECIAL young professionals • page 30

Averrouz Mostavan

Averrouz Mostavan, 27, is a trainee geophysicist with PGS, where he is part way through the company’s two-year global training programme. Averrouz holds a Bachelors degree in Geophysical Engineering from the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia and an MSc in Applied Geophysics from TU Delft, The Netherlands.

How did you start working for PGS?

What do you like about the job, and what don’t you like?

When I was studying for my MSc, I joined the Delft Organization of Geophysics Students (DOGS). DOGS organized a visit to companies in Indonesia, and I took advantage of this opportunity. PGS was one of the companies that we visited, and there I met with a PGS representative who I asked about the possibilities in the company. After that, I sent my CV to the PGS representative, which led to an interview followed by the job offer.

I am pleased that I am able to learn new skills and ­develop my knowledge. In addition, I am benefitting from the experience of people who have been in the industry a long time. At the moment, I can’t find ­anything that I don’t like!

Why did you choose to work for a service company?

Because working in a service company is suited to my educational background, and by working in a service company, I expect to be able to develop and share my knowledge.

What is your position and what tasks does it require?

I am a trainee geophysicist in the PGS global trainee programme. This involves working in three different departments over a two year period. I have finished my first assignment working in a Geophysical Support Department. I am currently working onboard a seismic vessel as a QC Geophysicist.

How do you find the match between theory and practice?

The theory generally matches with the practice, although sometimes, some aspects cannot be applied due to limitations resulting from non-optimum operating ­conditions.

Are you currently taking any courses to develop your career?

Yes, I have joined several courses both inside and outside the company. As a part of a team, I also give courses to universities.

In what position do you see yourself in ten years from now?

Ten years from now, I see myself as a senior geophysicist and head of some projects.

What advice would you give to students preparing for the job market?

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"Students should take part in events related to their interest or their educational background"

SPECIAL young professionals • page 31

Students should take part in events related to their ­interest or their educational background.

Alejandra Reynaldos Rojas, 29, is a Petrel software support engineer with Schlumberger Information Solutions, working in The Hague, the Netherlands. She started studying geosciences at the University of Utrecht in 1999, did her final thesis with the geodynamics group and obtained a Doctorandus degree (equivalent to an MSc) in 2006.

Recent starters:

Alejandra Reynaldos Rojas

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SPECIAL young professionals • page 32

How did you start working for Schlumberger?

In summer 2007, I left my position of education ­coordinator with the EAGE and started to send applications to oil and gas companies. While I was going through the interview rounds, a person from my EAGE network forwarded my CV to the HR department of Schlumberger, which called me to ask if I would be interested in an interview. After the assessment, I had two interviews and I was offered a position starting October 2007.

Why did you choose to work for a service company?

When I started studying, my first idea was to pursue an academic career, since I had always admired the University as an “institute of knowledge” and I wanted to be part of it. However, when I started my final thesis I decided that a career in the research was not meant for me, since I lack the dedication for just doing one thing.

By then I was already working for the EAGE, and my work there had allowed me to meet many E&P professionals, who enthusiastically told me about their experiences working in the oil and gas world. I have always been drawn by the idea of working in different countries

and being part of an international team, and industry offers both factors. As for the choice between a service company or operator, my first intention was to work for a large oil company: partly because of the brighter financial picture, but mostly because I had no direct background in petroleum geology and realized I needed additional training. I knew that, generally, operators have a set training program for the first 2-3 years of your career to make sure any skill gaps are closed and that really appealed to me. Luckily Schlumberger sees it as one of its objectives to educate its employees, and within the industry it has a good reputation on this point.

What is your position and what tasks does it require?

My current position is software support engineer.

I mainly work with Petrel, the Schlumberger seismic-tosimulation software. My main task is to support clients’ questions and problems that they have building their reservoir models. This can be either through the ‘phone or on-site, depending on the complexity of the issue.

In addition I do software training for clients, and am in charge of organizing informal client events where a

technical presentation is followed by drinks. Besides my normal duties I am a member of the Loss Prevention Team of my location, dealing with QHSE issues within the office. In addition, this year I am the chair of the SPE Netherlands Young Professionals board.

How do you find the match between theory and practice?

I apply the knowledge I learned at university to a certain degree. For example, I need to know what a client means when he wants to make a “facies model of a prograding delta”. Knowing what clients are talking about helps me communicate with them more effectively. However, most of the time I am dealing with problem solving, and that is not specifically related to my Geology degree.

As an academic you learn to develop an analytical way of thinking, and a systems engineer needs this skill set as well.

To give a rough indication, I would say I use 40% of what I learned at university and 60% what I have learned on the job. Something that you definitely learn on the job are soft skills such as communication, project management and people skills. These were not taught at my faculty, at least not when I studied there. My job at the EAGE also helped me tremendously to learn these things.

Are you currently taking any courses to develop your career?

Schlumberger takes the education of their employees seriously. Whatever your position, you start with a 3-year

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I like the variety of tasks and projects. Talking to former class mates who work for operators, I get the impression that in an oil company I would have been assigned to one project for one to two years, whereas now I see many different kinds of prospects and deal with different operators. Each of our client companies has a different approach, and being in a service company you learn from all of them. The only disadvantage of seeing many projects is that you seldom get the chance to build a model from scratch all the way to the production phase: we only see the parts where our clients encounter difficulties. Another thing I like about my job, or more specifically of Schlumberger, is the informal structure within the company. Of course there are managers and team members, but I have the impression that if you really want to achieve something you can start making a difference within the company from day one. Last, but not least, I enjoy the travelling. In the past 17 months I have been to Houston, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Hamburg and Regensburg for training and client visits.

SPECIAL young professionals • page 33

What do you like about the job, and what don’t you like?

"Make your networks

grow and use them"

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SPECIAL young professionals • page 34

training program. Depending on the department you work for, you will get specific courses, but everyone also has to go through three general courses which focus more on the way the company works, including its finance, safety and people management. After the 3 year program, Schlumberger expects you to have developed to a level at which you are ready to take on a job with more responsibilities. My third course is ­coming up this July and will be held in Kuala Lumpur so I am quite excited!

As a general remark, I often hear people say that your technical skills will grow faster in an oil company than a service company. I think that this statement is not necessarily true, and also that a person’s development is highly dependent on their motivation. In an oil company you are the “owner” of your project; it’s your baby from start to end, so you know each and every detail of it.

In a service company you are constantly dealing with different projects in different environments, so you need to know a bit about everything and can also choose one topic that you are really excited about and make that into your niche. Also, in a service company you must keep up with the latest technologies and modeling techniques. It’s not as if you can say “I know how to handle the software” and then learn nothing for the rest of the year”. If you have that attitude your clients will not stay with you for long. Irrespective of the type of company, you learn as much as you decide to learn by going through the knowledge base, making little side projects of things that interest you and, most importantly, sitting with experienced people and picking their brains as often as you can!

Last but not least, in 2008 I participated in two career strategy workshops that we organized as SPE Young Professionals and I must say that if you get a chance to follow a similar workshop, it is worth it. There are simple tools that will help you to guide your career to the point you would like it to be, but only if you take the time to think about what you want to achieve.

In what position do you see yourself in ten years from now?

That is a tough question, because you never know what life will bring, but I would say that I would like to be in charge of a small team; perhaps 5-10 people. Within my business segment I see either a role in Project Management or becoming a Business Development Manager, in charge of setting out the strategy for software products. Training has also always appealed to me, so ideally I’d like a position that somehow combines these three. I can imagine the question arising “why choose management and not a technical career?” I think this has to do with knowing what you are good at. I know I can do technical things and that I enjoy doing them, but I also know that there are people in the company who are much better in a technical sense. I also know that I have always enjoyed making people enthusiastic, connecting people and arranging things for others. I apparently possess natural leadership, so a management position rolls out pretty quickly. However, a manager leading a technical team who knows nothing about the topics will never be as respected as someone who is knowledgeable. Therefore I need to continue to develop myself in both fields.

What advice would you give to students preparing for the job market?

• Start early with your applications to companies, but be realistic about giving expected graduation dates • Network! Get into networks, make your networks grow and use them.

• Work on your soft skills: it does not matter how smart you are. If you cannot express yourself and present your work, then nobody will care • Participate in professional organizations. This is not only good for networking, but actively participating in activities will also look good on your CV. • Know what you want to do. Don’t just apply and expect a company to tell you what you will become.

Talk to people to get an idea of the position you are applying for.

Hydrocarbons

across the world Robert van Lieshout, senior recruitment consultant at OMV E&P, describes how the company is building its ­global talent pool to achieve ambitious growth targets.

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SPECIAL omv feature • page 36

OMV is an integrated energy group covering every stage of oil and gas exploration, production, processing and marketing, as well as petrochemicals.

OMV Exploration and Production (E&P) is one of the three core businesses of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, alongside Refining & Marketing and Gas & Power.

Starting 50 years ago from an initial base in Austria’s prolific Vienna Basin, OMV’s oil and gas E&P operations have spread across the world, including northwestern, central and eastern Europe, the Caspian, North Africa, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Today, OMV E&P is as likely to be working offshore in distant oceans as it is in its heartland of central Europe; in conditions ranging from the heat of the North African desert to the stormy waters of the Atlantic Margin; and from within the Arctic Circle offshore Norway to south of New Zealand - one of the southernmost exploration areas in the world.

OMV E&P international activities are supported by a skilled and experienced international workforce. The company has strong technical expert groups in Geophysics, Formation Evaluation, Reservoir Characterization, Production Geology, Reservoir Management, Drilling & Well Completion and Production

For OMV E&P, technology is the core for creative efficiency and innovation.

While technology will continue to drive production growth, maintaining and continuously strengthening in-house expertise is a critical success factor.

OMV E&P has created a working environment that emphases open communication, respect for the individual, continuous career development and a healthy balance between work, personal and family life so that all employees

derive a sense of accomplishment, contribution and pride.

OMV relies upon its global talent pool in order to achieve the company’s ambitious growth targets, and the number of experts deployed in its worldwide branch offices has increased significantly in recent years.

The company has developed integrated, coordinated programs to further increase its skill base for future challenges and strategically align and efficiently coordinate its human resources (HR) worldwide.

To provide career development opportunities to all E&P professionals, the company has introduced its comprehensive Skills Training & Enrichment Program (STEP).

STEP combines modern HR practices such as job analysis, competence-based assessment and development planning, and skill pool management supported by an annual feedback cycle. Skill pools have been established to manage the competency framework and to provide guiding support for recruitment and succession planning.

For more information about career opportunities for students and professionals visit OMV E&P at stand JC5 at the EAGE Conference & Exhibition.

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OMV E&P manages technical skill pools to keep its technical staff on top of the game. Constant training of staff is seen as an essential parameter to motivate employees and develop exciting career opportunities in the oil and gas business.

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Engineering. About 300 technical experts are deployed among the company’s 20 worldwide branch offices to provide technical support to local operations staff and share high-level global experience and expertise.

An inventive mind The eventful 32-year career of scientist Harold Vinegar and his mission to unlock new energy resources with

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Shell International.

Winter can be tough in the Piceance Basin in north-western Colorado – a desolate area nestled in a wild and remote stretch of the Rocky Mountains.

Pioneers first settled there in the late 1800s. Deep snow regularly blankets the rugged landscape as average temperatures fall well below freezing.

The dirt track roads that snake through the mountains are often impassable. So when in 1981 Harold Vinegar, a promising young scientist at Shell, and a small team of researchers worked there on a shoestring budget to conduct field research, he knew conditions on the project would be far from luxurious.

The goal was to explore new, more efficient ways to unlock the region’s vast deposits of oil – estimated by the US government at one trillion barrels – locked in underground rock known as oil shale.

Starting in late summer, the first phase of the project lasted longer than expected and the team pushed on through the winter. Holed up in a primitive log cabin, the team often ate deer, elk and even bear – trapped by their mountain guide.

Mud covered the floor between bunk beds. Days were spent outdoors, riding snowmobiles to the site or stamping feet to keep warm during experiments. The high elevation – 9,000 feet (2,740 metres)

– meant Vinegar woke each day with a headache and had to take aspirin every morning.

Despite the bitter cold, Vinegar remained upbeat. “These were severe conditions,” says George Stegemeier, who was a member of the team from Shell’s Bellaire Research Center in Houston, Texas, and has worked with him on and off ever since. “Harold always sees the bright side of things and is optimistic under the most trying conditions.” To save money, the team used a hand-operated drill to collect samples, rather than a more costly truck-mounted rig. When it wouldn’t

From Brooklyn to Bellaire Since those early days in Colorado, Vinegar has had an eventful career. He has well over 200 patents to his name and has written countless papers in scientific publications. He is a member of the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering – which counts the world’s most accomplished engineers among its peer-elected members – as well as the US National Research Council and a host of other bodies. And in 2005, Shell appointed him as one of the company’s seven chief scientists – a newly created role to champion innovation and technology inside and outside the company and mentor young scientists.

“It’s been a record of continuous successes doing things many people thought were

undoable,” says George Hirasaki, Hartsook Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rice University in Houston, and a fellow member of the National Academy of Engineering. Hirasaki has known Vinegar for many years, and worked directly on research projects with him. “He made paradigm shifts one after another.”

Vinegar has lost none of the boyish passion for science that first captured his imagination as a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, New York. His uncle, Bernard Goldberg, was a Shell mathematician who worked on calculating the probability of finding oil and gas during exploration. During World War II he had worked on the atomic bomb programme at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. “Bernie’s tales were really exciting,” says Vinegar. “To a kid, what he was doing sounded amazing.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from Columbia University, Vinegar

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For Vinegar, it was a dream come true – a chance to work with leading scientists and conduct research that might help transform the energy fortunes of the USA in the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s.

Over the following years, Vinegar focused on developing a range of new ways to find and extract difficult, unconventional energy resources, including oil shale and oil sands, a blend of tar-like oil called bitumen, clay, sand, and water. His ongoing

research work has helped make that a real possibility at a time when concerns over energy supply and security are on the rise once again.

At this site in Colorado, Shell is testing ‘in situ’-heating-technology.

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penetrate the tough oil shale, he cajoled his colleagues to put their weight behind the project – quite literally: by leaning all their weight on the drill frame the scientists created enough downward pressure for the drill to bite firm and collect important core samples. “He always had a love of getting things done and doing them himself,” recalls Eric de Rouffignac, another colleague on the trip. “That was probably the most expensive use of PhD talent possible!”

Equipment at Colorado test site.

gained a PhD from Harvard University specialising in nuclear magnetic resonance – the study of the magnetic properties of the nuclei of atoms. After graduation in 1976, he joined Shell’s Bellaire Research Center.

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At the time, the USA was still reeling from the energy crisis sparked by the OPEC oil embargo imposed on countries that supported Israel during its conflict with Syria and Egypt in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. With the memory of lines of American motorists desperately queuing for petrol still fresh in people’s minds, and a real fear taking hold of how vulnerable the economy was to supply problems, the hunt was on for technology that would get the most from existing domestic energy resources and unlock new ones.

Vinegar describes that time as a golden era for the Bellaire Research Center scientists. “We were given the freedom and money to conduct pure research – pure science. We were constantly learning.

Energy just seemed such an important field to work in.”

From scans to pie in the sky Over the next 30 years Vinegar worked on a range of projects. In one of the earliest he was keen to see whether new

medical scanning technologies – that used a range of techniques to produce highly detailed images of the inside of patients’ bodies – could be used to analyse field cores, long cylindrical samples of rock and earth obtained by boring into the ground with a hollow drill.

Until then, scientists had analysed small individual samples of earth and rock – pulling them apart to test their electrical resistance, how porous they were and other properties. They then used the findings to try to predict the underground characteristics of oil and gas reservoirs. But these samples were often disturbed while being collected and often not typical of actual conditions in the field. Vinegar hoped that using scanners on long core samples would give more representative measurements.

He asked an old friend – Dr Arnold Goldman, a radiologist at the Playa Del Oro Hospital, in Texas – for help. When Goldman wasn’t using the hospital’s CT scanner for patients, he let Vinegar scan a core sample of sandstone prepared by saturating sections with oil and water.

The results were promising: Vinegar was able to see clearly the distribution of oil and water in the sample on the

CT scan. Further tests followed, but conditions weren’t ideal: experiments would sometimes be interrupted as doctors wheeled in patients. “We’d have to stop, take our rocks out of the machine and wait for the doctors to finish,” remembers Vinegar. So he convinced Shell to buy its own CT scanner, a machine that uses a series of X-ray images taken in slices to build three-dimensional images of objects.

He began researching how fluids and gas flow in rocks. Since Vinegar’s early successful experiments, others in the industry have followed suit, and the CT scanner has become a standard tool for evaluating oilfield cores and an essential tool for oilfield research.

One of Vinegar’s most significant achievements was developing a way of using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tools to search for gas underground. At the time, scientists thought the tools – which are lowered down oil wells, fire magnetic pulses and measure signals from the nuclei of hydrogen present in fluids – could only detect oil and water.

Vinegar’s breakthrough occurred in 1994 as he puzzled over the origins of an unidentified signal in test results obtained in a well in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s a wonderful thing to think you’re the only person in the world to know something like that.”

Harold Vinegar in lab.

Vinegar has been involved in countless other projects large and small during his career. But among them, the work on unconventional oil stands out. He doggedly continued his research efforts to unlock the vast potential of oil shale and oil sands and was lead scientist of EPW Unconventional Oil, a Shell organisation set up to develop them. The world’s so-called unconventional resources – including oil shale, oil sands, bitumen and heavy oils – are thought to contain oil equal to the world’s known conventional resources. That is a tantalising prospect at a time when reserves of easy-to-access oil are in decline and concerns over energy security are running high. And recent high prices for energy mean oil shale and oil sands – found in many countries around the world – are once again looking more attractive as economicallyviable resources.

In the case of oil shale, people have been trying to find ways of extracting it profitably for at least a century. One method involves mining and crushing the shale and heating it in airtight kilns. This process – still being used in places such

as China, Estonia and Brazil – uses large amounts of water and produces mountains of spent shale. The resulting oil is a heavy tar that requires further intensive processing and refining. It’s a costly and dirty process and helps explain why oil shale has yet to live up to its astonishing potential. Instead of removing and processing the oil shale, Vinegar and his colleagues experimented with an in situ method to accelerate the conversion of kerogen – a solid organic material in the rocks – into high-quality, liquid hydrocarbons. Heaters lowered into drillholes slowly heat the rock to more than 300°C (572°F), turning the kerogen to light liquids and gas that are easier to refine into high-quality fuels such as naphtha, jet fuel and diesel.

The project came a long way since its first tests. “It was real pie in the sky stuff,” jokes Vinegar. “The first effort in the 1980s was literally off the back of a pickup truck.” Back then the team dangled a metal bailer from a fishing rod to draw small amounts of shale oil from the test wells. Step by step, more than a quarter century of continuous research has shown that the basic principle of heating the rock to release the oil works. On a 30-by-40 feet (around 9-by-12 metres)

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Struggling to contain his excitement, Vinegar spent most of the night writing a description of his discovery and multiple ways it could be used. The next morning he rushed the invention description to a patent attorney. Over the next two years, he and a couple of colleagues obtained several patents for inventions based on the breakthrough. While other tools measure characteristics of reservoirs such as density and electrical resistance, NMR logging remains the only way to directly

determine how much oil, water and gas are held in a reservoir.

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He had a hunch that the signal was not from water but from natural gas. It was Sunday evening when he returned from the field, but instead of heading home to his family, Vinegar spent the evening scouring dozens of scientific papers to find support for his theory in the library at Houston’s Rice University. Suddenly there it was – a single study by scientists in the Netherlands on the NMR properties of methane, the main component of natural gas. “Sure enough, sitting there in the stacks at two in the morning, I saw that the numbers for methane were unique and exactly matched the signature I’d found.” It was a Eureka moment. “It’s a wonderful thing to think you’re the only person in the world to know something like that.”

testing area, Shell successfully recovered 1,800 barrels of oil during a demonstration project in 2004 and 2005.

Nevertheless, a number of technical challenges remain that need more research. The focus now is on improving the heater design to make them more energy efficient and robust enough to withstand years of operation at high temperature. Further work is going on to study the impact on the environment.

The project is now testing a freeze wall in Colorado to prevent water entering the heated zone and oil leaving it. The freeze wall is formed with pipes containing refrigerated liquids that cool the rock surrounding the heated area until it becomes an impermeable frozen barrier.

Shell is investigating various ways to provide more affordable energy required to power the heaters and reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions from the process.

Though still a research project, Vinegar’s work with oil shale might one day have

the potential to transform the global energy scene. It has already taken years of commitment, pursuing a challenging technology that could have dramatic results if successful. “I’m convinced unconventional resources such as oil sands and oil shale will play a key role in our energy future,” he says. “This is longterm thinking.”

Leading by example It is also a reflection of Vinegar’s optimistic approach to research, which treats every failed experiment as a valuable lesson rather than a setback. Getting the long, rod-like heaters to work properly has been one such process of trial and error. In early tests, the heaters were overheating when adjacent to rock layers rich in kerogen, which conducts heat poorly. The heat they generated failed to dissipate through the shale: they became too hot and buckled. Despite the disappointment, Vinegar urged the team back to the drawing board. Further research led them to invent self-regulating heaters, a new design that produces less

heat in the hot spot if the temperature exceeds a certain limit.

That determination to overcome setbacks, and his ability to coax the best from colleagues, has made Vinegar well suited for a role as mentor and coach. His willingness to encourage researchers to pursue hunches and give credit when those gambles pay off has helped countless younger scientists. “He was constantly pushing me, challenging me,” says Ilya Berchenko, a researcher who began his career in 1998 under Vinegar. “He treated me as an equal and made me visible to senior guys. I owe my career to Harold.”

Despite that talent to inspire people, Vinegar would probably like nothing better than to be back in that cold mountain cabin working to unlock one of the world’s greatest energy resources. “It was just great fun! There was a beauty about the hills and valleys. What more could I have asked for?” Vinegar was with Shell for 32 years and retired on 31 October 2008.

(Source: Shell World Online)

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Register now!

Balancing Global Resources

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www.eage.org

71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition | Incorporating SPE EUROPEC 2009 | 8 – 11 June 2009 | Amsterdam RAI

12330-AMS-V*H.indd 2

30-10-2008 16:29:09

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Professional networking communities keep talent at hand Cathy Clonts, president of Alumni Web Services (AWS), discusses the value of online networking communities for providing employment opportunities to a company’s former employees and helping to meet corporate needs for experienced talent.

Recruitment managers recognize that there is still a need for experienced professionals—today and into the future.

Says one recruiter: “We have always had a culture which recognizes the value of our permanent hires. Our focus is to redistribute our talent from areas that are slowing down to growth assets. In addition we cut contractors before our permanent hires and this ensures we are prepared when oil prices rebound.”

The current economic climate might improve recruiting and retention.

Recruitment managers have long feared the “Big Crew Change”, in which baby boomers hang up their working hats to head off into retirement, but the current economic climate appears to have slowed that trend. One human resources executive estimates that the economic downturn has bought the industry another five to seven years.

But be wary. Companies should use the extra time to focus on retention of experienced talent. The Big Crew Change will still happen, and when it does, the oil and gas industry could lose up to 60 percent of its technical workforce.

Forward-thinking companies are offering their experienced talent flexible work opportunities. Employees take their retirement packages on time but are then open to return six months to a year later when tax laws enable them to work contract assignments.

Tapping into a pool of experience During these down economic times, everyone is looking for ways to protect their assets, and former employees are no exception. In fact, many “retirees” have turned into “returnees” as they reenter the workforce. These experienced professionals are especially valuable in fast-tracking the training process for young recruits. Such industry veterans often have decades of experience and understand the inner-workings of the industry. Furthermore, leading industry human resources personnel relate that industry experience and knowledge stays valid for up to 10 years.

“I wasn’t quite ready to retire; I was just seeking greater flexibility,” says Stephen Ziman, a 31-year veteran of Chevron. Today, Ziman not only consults on project work, but is a teacher in Chevron’s Horizons training program for new hires with zero to five years experience. “It’s exciting to see how new employees interact and to be able to share with them fundamental elements of our corporate culture, like the importance of credibility in everything we do.”

A recent poll by AWS found that 62 percent of its members plan to pursue flexible working opportunities after exiting the workplace. Of those members who have no plans to work after retire-

ment, 13.2 percent will wait until age 60 to retire. What that means is that companies have a greater opportunity to fill project needs and train new hires.

AWS works with a number of major oil and gas companies to tap into this talent pool through online networking communities. The sites serve as a strategic recruiting tool for attracting former employees and retirees for training, mentoring and long- and short-term assignments around the globe.

Welcoming professionals back into the fold is an easy task since many have spent years garnering relationships with employees throughout the company.

“We’ve got decades of experience and networks of colleagues and friends with whom we have worked together over the years to find solutions and solve problems. And, we are willing and able to help ramp up young hires and get the company positioned to handle the knowledge gap left by retiring baby boomers,” relates Katherine Hoenke of Chevron who, like Ziman, wasn’t ready to fade out into the sunset after retirement.

With this level of enthusiasm and willingness to solve the problems of the future in flexible ways, the industry might indeed be better prepared than after the cut-backs of the ’90s. The use of former employees—whether attracted back from retirement, family leave or another position—gives a company the opportunity to promote its brand, meet today’s project needs and stem the knowledge gap.

For more information, visit www.AWSinternational.com.

Alumni network events support professional ­networking. Pictured at the Houston event are Terry Ayer, Terri Wesley, Robert Langley, Jim Sikes, Tom Smouse, Jane Jones and Mike Dodson.

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Retaining and ramping up

“After 28 years in the industry, I took early retirement at BP when I turned 50, complete with benefits and a pension.

But I still have a child in college and always intended to return to work,” says Charlie Bondy, who is now a fulltime contractor for Hess Engineering.

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We may be down, but don’t let the seemingly constant barrage of poor economic indicators make you forget that some sectors are holding their own and even growing. That’s the message reverberating throughout the oil and gas industry.

Pemex, Petrobras and CNOOC all recently announced hefty increases in their offshore budgets, despite low oil prices, and with nearly $40 billion in its coffers, giant ExxonMobil is poised to change the landscape with what could be the biggest round of deal-making since a fertile period 10 years ago when oil sold for less than $10 a barrel. It seems that oil companies are mindful of not repeating the errors of the 1990s when many companies reduced activity to such an extent that rebounding when prices rose was costly.

Success story Brian Russell, vice president, Hampson-Russell geophysical software and services

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Brian Russell holds a BSc from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, a MSc from the University of Durham, UK, and a PhD from the University of Calgary, all in Geophysics. He joined Chevron in 1976 and later spent time with Teknica Resource Development and Veritas. In 1987, he co-founded Hampson-Russell Software Services, now a CGGVeritas company. He is a past-president of both the Canadian SEG and the SEG, and has received many prestigious industry awards.

What brought you into this industry?

At university I enrolled in the pure physics program, but after three years I realized that I did not want to be a particle physicist and nor did I have the necessary skill set. Perhaps remembering my uncle’s advice, I switched to the exploration geophysics program. When you graduate from the University of Saskatchewan with a BSc in exploration geophysics, your next step is invariably a job in Calgary with the oil industry, so, when I was offered a job with Chevron, I jumped at the chance.

What would you regard as your career highlights/achievements and why?

I have had an absolutely wonderful career in geophysics, and there have been many highlights. The early years with Chevron were a great learning experience, as was

my stint with Roy Lindseth at Teknica Resource Development. But the highlight had to be meeting up with Dan Hampson at Veritas and eventually forming Hampson-Russell. It has been a great experience developing the software and travelling the world meeting with clients and giving training classes. Luckily, since selling the company to VeritasDGC (now CGGVeritas), Dan and I have been left largely alone to run the software part of the company in the same fashion, so I continue to really enjoy my vocation - I don’t really think of it as a job! On the non-career side, being President of SEG was certainly the greatest highlight.

and interpretation could be improved, which has in turn lead to my research into amplitude-versus-offset (AVO), inversion and multi-attribute analysis.

What were the defining moments of your career path and how did these moments influence you professionally?

What goals would you advise someone starting out in the industry to set for themselves to become successful?

While at Chevron, I switched from the interpretation side of the business to the algorithm development side, and discovered that this fit my interests and abilities much more - after all, I did start in physics and mathematics. This led me to Teknica, where I first learned to love seismic inversion, and then to Veritas, where Dan and I worked on a number of interesting seismic processing applications. As I said in the previous answer, my biggest defining moment was helping start Hampson-Russell software, but I think that my previous career choices helped make that transition easier. Professionally, these moments inspired me to look for the ways in which our data analysis

First of all, find out what you like the most and are best at, such as interpretation, processing or research, and then work hard to make your mark. Continually upgrade your knowledge through short courses, reading journals and, most importantly, getting hands-on experience. Avoid stagnation, since our industry changes so rapidly that even a year away from the day-to-day business can make you less valuable. Always keep up your contacts, such as by going to conferences and workshops. Finally - don’t let the external things that you have no control over, like the price of oil, get you depressed. That is where your skills and contacts will always help.

Have you undertaken any further studies/ courses throughout your career?

Yes. While I was at Chevron I took a one-year leave of absence to complete my MSc in geophysics at the University of Durham. From 2000 to 2004, I spent a very intense, but enjoyable, time at the University of Calgary completing a PhD in geophysics with Professor Larry Lines as my supervisor. This fulfilled a lifetime goal of mine.

"Continually upgrade your knowledge through short courses, reading journals and, most importantly, getting hands-on experience."

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As a small child I can’t remember any burning ambitions for a job. I just enjoyed playing outside with my friends and thought that would go on forever.

But, in my early teens, my uncle showed me a career advertisement for a mining geophysicist in “The Northern Miner”, a Canadian mining publication, which he read because he dabbled in buying and selling mining stocks. This looked like a fun job, since you got to spend all day hiking in northern Canada. I was also starting to get interested in science at the time.

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What did you want to become as a child?

Gilles Hennenfent was born and raised near Strasbourg, France. He graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg (ENSPS), where he pursued a curriculum in applied & engineering physics. After that, he moved to Vancouver, Canada, where in 2008 he was awarded a PhD in Geophysics from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is a research geophysicist at Chevron and lives near San Francisco, California.

Success story Gilles Hennenfent, research geophysicist, Chevron

What did you want to become as a child?

My parents tell me that, as a child, I kept saying I wanted to become president of France… I do not quite remember that, or perhaps do not want to admit it! What I do remember is that I wanted to become a pilot in the French air force.

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What brought you into this industry?

It was a series of small events and coincidences that brought me into the oil and gas industry. The first event was a 3-month internship I did at the Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRL) in Natal, in the northeast of Brazil. I found the project work, which was sponsored by Petrobras and focused on reservoir visualization, very interesting. A year later, I was doing an internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working on holographic optical interconnection elements for a compact optoelectronic neural

network co-processor. Note that this had no connection whatsoever with geophysics! My former supervisor from Brazil, Dr. Silvio J. Bezerra, contacted me because he knew that Dr. Felix J. Herrmann, of the department of Earth & Ocean Sciences at UBC, Vancouver, was looking for graduate students in the area of geophysics. At first I was not so interested because I did not know anything about geophysics, but I still decided to give it a chance. My first phone call with Dr. Herrmann was quite an experience. I had never before heard someone talking about research with so much enthusiasm - that’s how it started.

What would you regard as your career highlights/achievements and why?

The highlight of my short career so far was probably receiving the Arie van Weelden Award from the EAGE in 2008.

It was a real pleasure to see that people

value the research I do and that I enjoy doing every day. It is also a great satisfaction to know that I can contribute to some disciplines in our field.

What were the defining moments of your career path and how did these moments influence you professionally?

There were two defining periods that truly influenced me, not only professionally but also personally. The first period was the “classes préparatoires”, a 2-year preparatory course taken before attending an engineering school. The work was far from easy but I learned so much! I cannot remember a lot, but it clearly showed me how far I was capable of going. There was no other choice than learning how to focus, prioritize, and work efficiently.

The second defining period of my career path was at the Seismic Laboratory for

15 students and staff from very diverse backgrounds. This was quite a challenge at first. No one really spoke the same technical language. Our research interests were rather different but we learned to widen our research horizons, really listen to each other to try and try hard to understand where each other came from; simply communicate together. The effort was quite considerable but so were the rewards! This experience totally changed the way I look at research projects and interact with fellow scientists. For that I am very grateful to the whole SLIM team, and in particular to Dr. Herrmann.

As a Chevron new hire, I take classes on a regular basis to broaden my skills.

What goals would you advise someone starting out in the industry to set for themselves to become successful?

I am not sure about goals but here are a few thoughts: I think that there is no single path to a long term objective.

Also, in my experience, a long term objective is rarely a steady target. One refines, or even changes it with time and life events. Know what you like to do, be good at it, and be ready to seize any opportunity that points into the right direction for you. Good luck! And a last word to the wise: someone told me recently that the harder you try, the luckier you get...

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Imaging & Modelling (SLIM) at UBC. I made the choice of joining this newlyestablished research group, led by Dr. Herrmann, with the hope that I would work on exciting research topics with an accessible faculty member. My hopes were exceeded! Dr. Herrmann had created a fantastic research environment and I was fortunate enough to participate in its development. When I started we were just three students and Dr. Herrmann. By four years later, the group had partnered with Dr. Michael Friedlander from Computer Science and Dr. Ozgur Yilmaz from Mathematics, and had about

Have you undertaken any further studies/courses throughout your career?

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"It was a real pleasure to see that people value the research I do and that I enjoy doing every day."

Geokinetics says that investment into employees' futures and ability to offer ­varied career paths result in high retention rates.

A world of opportunities Geokinetics provides a broad range of specialized geophysical services, including land, shallow water ocean bottom cable and transition zone seismic data acquisition, and advanced processing and interpretation. The company has offices in 15 different countries and extensive experience of working in areas of diverse culture and environmental sensitivity around the globe.

to recruit new graduates a well as experienced personnel. Not every industry, or even career within the oil industry, can provide the range of unique experiences from around the world offered by Geokinetics, and the company is seeking individuals with the drive to succeed and able to rise to the challenges of its diverse worldwide portfolio of services.

Recruitment and training of talented individuals remains high on Geokinetics’ list of goals, and the company is continuing

Geokinetics claims a high employee retention rate, thanks to its investment into employee’s futures and ability to

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Varied career paths

Accommodation vessel with attending work boats at station in the Mediterranean.

offer varied career paths. Employee training is a key focus, both through courses conducted by company specialists and by third-party industry specialists. Geokinetics is keen to see its employees grow and develop within the company, and a large percentage of its regional management team started their careers in one of the disciplines that make up a seismic crew, such as mechanic, geophysicist, observer, surveyor, technician and HSE specialist. The company believes that field acquisition work is a great way to enter into a seismic career, and that hav-

Planting geophones among tea gardens in Bangladesh.

Geokinetics has a highly multinational workforce, and employees often find themselves sitting around a table or working in a team on a field crew with people from many different parts of the globe. Many employees take advantage of this opportunity by learning additional languages. Geokinetics is now sufficiently large that it is confident in its ability to provide the expertise and cutting-edge equipment required for some of the worlds’ most challenging projects, whether they require single, dual or four component seismic data. Although it continues to grow rapidly, Geokinetics is proud to have retained a family feel among its workforce and strong caring between employees and for the environment in which they work.

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Geokinetics tries to avoid its field specialists being “pigeon-holed” into either purely land or marine operations, and expects them to work in both. In particular, as global transition zone specialists, field employees often have the opportunity to work on projects that contain both land and marine components, frequently deploying a mixture of vibroseis, dynamite and airgun seismic sources.

Diverse workforce

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ing had a good grounding in the field side of operations stands employees in good stead if they subsequently migrate to crew support or management from one of the many regional offices, or transfer to processing or interpretation groups.

The company accepts that not everyone will be suited to the rotational nature of field work, but many love the challenge and lifestyle offered by such a career.

Leveraging new technology for effective training

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Elisabeth Hestnæs, global learning manager, PGS.

PGS says that it is continuing to put great effort into hiring talented and skilled staff; both new graduates and experienced professionals. The company also says that, of equal importance to attracting the right talent, is making sure its new recruits settle in and perform to their best as quickly as possible. PGS recognizes that sufficient training will give new employees a good start, and help them settle into their new role, but extensive training is also important in order to give new employees a personal feeling of being competent and comfortable with the work they are doing. PGS considers this to be both a performance and safety issue.

All new employees in PGS receive training when they join the company, however special attention is given to the offshore crews. The company operates a worldclass seismic fleet, and considers that

specialized training is required to help new hires settle in and perform at a high level in their new position on a technologically advanced vessel such as the Ramform Sovereign. All new hires that are going offshore therefore complete extensive training as part of their trainee period. The training helps them to do their work efficiently, focusing both on quality and safety onboard. Torgny Hallingstad, Training Manager for PGS offshore crews, emphasizes that part of the training starts even before the trainee has begun working for the company. “After a new hire has signed a contract with PGS, we invite him or her to go through a basic online training course to prepare for life onboard. This course answers a range of questions the new employee might have, from travel arrangements to technical issues”.

both e-learning and structured on-the-job training,” says Hestnæs. “The e-learning will provide the trainees with essential theoretical knowledge, and on-the-job training will provide essential practical experience where the trainees can put their theoretical knowledge into good use”.

“The whole e-learning program is divided into approximately 20 e-learning courses, with exams covering topics within seismic, navigation and mechanics,” says Hallingstad. These courses will be uploaded to servers on the vessels for the trainees to access. The e-learning system will provide trainees with accurate 3D models of the vessels, giving them a real feeling of the whole vessel, and helping them to take on different roles during their training. PGS says that seeing and understanding the different challenges onboard a vessel is

State-of-the-art marine seismic training To be able to deliver high quality training after new crew members get on to its vessels all over the world, PGS will offer onboard e-learning to all offshore trainees as part of a blended learning program called Marine Seismic Training (MAST).

PGS says that, using new technology and innovative learning solutions, MAST will put the company in a leading role when it comes to competence development for offshore personnel. Elisabeth Hestnæs, the company’s Global Learning Manager, explains that blended learning means incorporating many different learning styles, and can be accomplished through the use of blended virtual and physical resources.

“Our blended learning program consists of

Torgny Hallingstad,training manager - offshore crews, PGS.

“Our state-of-the-art training program, tailored for offshore crews, will set a new standard for new-hire competence development in the industry” Elisabeth Hestnæs, global learning manager, PGS.

Each e-learning course in MAST will start with an introduction and an overview of all the main equipment on board. By integrating a user-friendly menu, a 3D model of the vessel, and a virtual tour each time the trainee enters a new course, PGS expects to provide a vivid introduction of the vessel. During the course of the training, trainees will always have access to the 3D-model to help them relate the learning content to the appropriate location on the vessel. To make it even more accurate, the courses will include relevant photographs and short videos of the working environment. The creators of the program recognize that extensive use of media, including text, illustrations, photos, music, speech, animations and simulation, will engage and motivate the trainee. “The layout of the e-learning courses is designed in close cooperation with subject matter experts in PGS to make the virtual presentation as real as possible,” says Hallingstad.

In addition to technical training, the e-learning courses will focus on Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) onboard.

Each module will include an example of a relevant unwanted incident or best practice to give a trainee an understanding of how each person onboard can make a difference. The e-learning program will finish with an exam based on the topics covered in the course. The results will be tracked, and to pass the exam a trainee will need to correctly answer 80% of the questions.

A passed exam will give a trainee the internal certification needed to continue working onboard PGS seismic vessels.

Training for all new employees Elisabeth Hestnæs emphasizes that, while the MAST project is particularly impressive, specialist training at PGS is not limited just to its offshore crews.

The company offers general introductory training for all new employees and provides specialized training for new hires in other specific units. For example, the company’s Data Processing and Reservoir units also offer tailored training for all new employees. “In addition, we offer 50 skills development courses covering a wide range of topics such as project management, finance, sales and communication; Microsoft office applications; an online new employee training module called “The PGS Journey” and location-specific induction courses for all new employees starting in PGS,” explains Hestnæs. She considers The PGS Journey to be particularly impressive as it takes form of a game in which the new employee visits several PGS offices to get to know the whole company. The online e-learning journey gives an introduction to PGS, explains the Marine, Data Processing and Onshore business activities, the company's core values, what is expected of employees and the benefits of working for PGS. To really emphasize

that PGS is a technology company, all training activities for employees—not only new employee introductions—are published in a Learning Management System (LMS) to make them easily accessible by all employees. PGS employees can find the LMS on the PGS intranet, and new employees are invited to the site to get an overview of opportunities.

Thinking out of the box PGS says that its focus on the development of new employees and the implementation of the MAST training program gives a good picture of the way the company runs its business: thinking out of the box, challenging established truths and trying out new ideas that make more commercial sense than the old ones. “To get ahead of the crowd, you’ve got to be willing to step out of the main stream and find new answers,” says Hestnæs. “PGS is doing just that with its new employee training programs, which will be launched later in 2009”.

SPECIAL pgs feature • page 53

Virtual reality vessel tours

There is no exam for the equally important on-the-job training part of MAST. Instead each trainee will be given a checklist for their Department Chief to sign off, confirming that the trainee has actually completed each part of the on-the-job training. A summary of the information learned through the MAST courses will be readily available in a small MAST handbook given to each trainee, in case they want to brush up some of their basic knowledge in the old fashioned way.

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essential to understanding how different crew members are dependent on each other.

Women in the oil

and gas industry

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SPECIAL women in the industry • page 54 

Louise Kingham FEI FRSA, chief executive, Energy Institute (EI), looks at the attraction to women of careers in the oil and gas sector and some of the barriers they face.

It is also no secret that the industry has an ageing workforce profile compared to the UK economy as a whole. This, and the fact that 90% of jobs in the industry are full-time, contributes to the continued unchanging nature of those employed in the industry, with significant under-representation by sectors of the workforce that could contribute positively to solving the skills shortage.

Women are beginning to be represented in the energy industry in larger numbers.

Of the EI’s membership, just 8% are female compared to the energy industry workforce representation of 16%. The EI’s membership tends to reflect the professional and technical employees in the energy industry, indicating an even worse representation of women amongst the more highly skilled job roles.

• 75% chose a career guided by teachers, friends and family, although some had still felt pressured to go for more traditionally ‘female’ roles.

• In the past 20 years, women entered the oil and gas industry (i) by chance or accident, (ii) to make a difference or solve major challenges, (iii) for the remuneration, benefits and travel opportunities, and (iv) with a genuine interest in the subject.

• 67% had no knowledge of the industry before they joined it.

• 50% say the opportunities for men and women are the same; 50% didn’t.

• 67% spoke highly of their bosses as effective mentors.

• 95% said the oil and gas industry was a good career choice.

There’s a lot of good news here: twothirds of respondents were not put off by the industry’s supposedly poor image.

In addition, two-thirds have experienced good levels of support from mentors and line managers, male and female, once employed in the industry. Another interesting finding was that, although 33% of those questioned had been in the industry for less than five years, some 27% had been in it for over 20 years, suggesting that women in the oil and gas workforce are here to stay.

Women tend to break through to senior levels in the industry via routes other than technical ones. They tend, therefore, to make more sideways as well as upwards movements, meaning their career paths are less obvious. Their greater likelihood for interrupted career paths – through family and other commitments – means that their route is also often slower, but no less valuable. But there are some big and small employers leading the way on diversity, flexibility and equal opportunities.

Solutions The EI believes there are a number of ways in which the profile and presence of women in the oil and gas sector could be enhanced and improved: • We should say ‘No’ to ‘women only’ campaigns but ‘Yes’ to a change in the language we use. Women acting alone won’t change things, but women in the mix can.

• Let’s talk about talent as the defining characteristic, not gender, religion, ethnicity or any other form of differentiator.

• Let’s explain the link between talent and the bottom line.

• Let’s champion the ‘good companies’ and others will follow.

• Let’s tackle the industry’s reputation where it is poor.

• Let’s act as role models whenever we can and lead by example.

SPECIAL women in the industry • page 55

The UK’s Department for Business and Regulatory Reform (BERR) figures indicate that in 2007 over 135,000 people were directly employed by the UK energy industry, with a further 260,000 people indirectly employed in support of UK Continental Shelf production. However, 84% of the oil and gas industry workforce is male compared to national figures of almost 53% of the workforce. This imbalance undoubtedly gives the industry a disadvantage when it comes to competing for scarce human resources in the future.

In a survey to female members employed in the oil and gas sector:

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With increasing media and public interest in climate change, it is quite clear that we are looking at the most significant period in the energy industry for some time. Global demand for energy is rising fast and the days of cheap energy are gone. Taking on this challenge requires well qualified scientists and engineers.

However, the energy industry is experiencing a shortage of skills, with a decline in the take-up of science, engineering and technical careers among young people.

The oil and gas sector in particular is suffering an acute shortage of talented new recruits. One of the simplest solutions is to broaden the industry’s diversity, particularly with regard to its representation by women.

The EI sees the value and importance of promoting the industry to prospective new entrants with a variety of technical and specialist skills. Ways to achieve this include tools like the EI’s ­Energyzone educational web portal (www.energyzone.net): an interactive careers website providing a ­comprehensive guide to energy education and training. Offering an insight into the breadth and scope of potential careers, this website also provides information to schools wanting to know more about energy, along with details of how to advance careers in the energy industry and an expanding set of career profiles to illustrate the diverse and exciting nature of the industry.

The EI has also established an industry ambassador scheme, allowing student members to meet with senior industry figures from amongst our most eminent Fellows and Members. In addition, it has been awarded a grant to provide continued professional development (CPD) workshops for teachers and careers advisors on the energy industry and the role of energy engineers in society. These are just some of the ways in which the EI is working to promote the industry and attract the best talent for the future.

Building and retaining talent Findings from ongoing surveys on skillsneeds in the industry and the role of

energy professionals reveal that energy professionals are highly motivated individuals who believe that they make a significant contribution to society by working in the industry. They are conscious of the many challenges the energy industry faces now and in the future.

In testing times, such as those presented by a global economic downturn, there is the temptation, and often the necessity, to at least trim, if not cut deep, for the cloth to fit. This raises the question of what is to be discarded. None of this is good news for the energy industry: an industry which must think, plan and do for the long-term to ensure that global energy systems meet societal needs.

A leading example of women in engineering

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SPECIAL women in the industry • page 56

going away overnight. Some individuals perceive the oil and gas sector as destroying the environment. But this need not be the case. I was keen to join the industry and work in harmony with the environment. As an engineer, I take this responsibility seriously to advance technologies to develop sustainable resources across the whole range of energy generation.”

Emily Spearman CEng MEI, graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2001 with a BEng in Environmental Engineering. Having developed an interest in the energy industry from an early age, Emily completed a summer work placement at Shell when she was just 17, and upon graduation she joined Schlumberger as a junior field engineer.

“I always wanted to work in energy and felt that the oil sector was ‘dirty’ but I was keen to clean it up. You need energy to survive and the oil and gas sector isn’t

After Schlumberger, and later Parsons Brinckerhoff, Emily moved to international consultancy Scott Wilson, where she was senior environmental engineer until January 2009 when she was promoted to principal environmental engineer. Her promotion was the result of much hard work and recognition of her successes, particularly her recent chartership with the Energy Institute, and also as the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Karen Burt Award. This annual award, which commemorates the life of Dr Karen Burt, is presented by the Women’s Engineering Society and aims to encourage more women to take up chartered status and promote the engineering, applied science and IT professions. Each year, the award is presented to a high calibre, newly-chartered female engineer who has demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of her profession.

Emily was the first engineer to join Scott Wilson’s environment and planning team in London and provide a practical engineering perspective to work in the oil and gas sector. Since then, she has been involved in a number of major projects, including the Dibamba Emergency Power Station Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Cameroon, where through her expertise she was able to change the engineering design to benefit the local people and wider environment.

More recently, she has been working with the oil and gas operator OMV, assisting their UK operations in achieving ISO14001 certification. This has involved investigating the company’s’ activities and conducting a thorough environmental risk assessment to develop long-term environmental management procedures.

“I feel passionate about the future of women, but I believe one of the major concerns facing the energy industry is attracting enthusiastic and high-calibre professionals into the sector. The problem begins with perception of being dull and dirty. In a conversation I’ve had with one of my peers, she was amazed at the projects I do and the places I have been.

She commented that had she known more about it then she may have chosen a different path at university.”

Today’s energy challenges are stark: global balancing of demand and supply in the context of significant targets to reduce emissions and manage climate change. In a nutshell: more energy but less emissions.

Being professional, and being recognised as such via designations like FEI (Fellow of the Energy Institute) or TMEI (Technician Member of the Energy Institute), is a personal preference. However, it is increasingly being understood to mean more than that in today’s environment. It is about having your competence and your commitment verified and recognised. It is a commitment to a professional code of conduct, any breach of which could mean removal of professional status and careerlong recognition. It is about gaining public trust in the work that you do. In addition, reaching chartered status in your sphere of work can often influence whether you move into a leadership role on behalf of an organisation.

The EI’s IPSOS MORI poll last year also identified a relationship between higher salaries and professionalism, so

In its role as the professional membership body among the energy industry, the EI works to deliver good practice and pro-

fessionalism to the industry, and is keen to ensure the provision of new recruits to solve the energy challenges. We know it's an exciting industry to be in and therefore I hope many more individuals and organisations will continue to demonstrate that to future generations. The EI is committed to working with governments, organisations and individuals to work towards a more sustainable future, but to succeed it will take contributions from all levels.

The Energy Institute (EI) is a leading professional body and learned society for the international energy industry. With over 14,000 individual members and 300 company members across 100 countries, the EI supports those involved in all aspects of energy addressing the depth and breadth of energy and the energy system. Incorporated by Royal Charter, the EI is a qualifying body to award Chartered Engineer, Chartered Petroleum Engineer, Chartered Energy Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Engineering Technician, Chartered Environmentalist, and Chartered Scientist status. It has branches in 13 regions of the UK and overseas branches in Hong Kong, Houston, India, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The EI serves society by delivering good practice and professionalism, and is an important provider of energy industry guidance, codes of practice and standards. Acting as an honest broker, the EI facilitates debate, feeding sound science into emerging legislation and industry good practice. Offering its members professional recognition, learning and networking opportunities to support career development, the EI provides a network to all those working in energy, and a scientific and technical reservoir of knowledge for industry. Anyone with an interest in energy can become a member and join the Energy Institute. www.energyinst.org.

SPECIAL women in the industry • page 57

So, what is to be done? The EI’s recommendation is simple, and its support in 2009 will be much focused as a result. Now is the time to promote, recognise and reward good practice and professionalism because it is these qualities that will make managing through the difficult times easier, and the outcomes more positive.

the ‘bottom line’ benefit is not to be ignored either. Supporting staff to seek professional recognition and maintain their professional development is the most cost-effective route to ongoing staff development – it is a true ‘win-win’ for employer and employee.

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To be achieved on the scale desired by policy makers, this requires major transformation of energy systems around the world. Such transformation needs the investment of human, technological and financial capacity to deliver the change necessary. So the dilemma emerges.

As energy demand falls back from previous demand growth projections as the economic downturn takes hold, so decisions are being made to delay new energy projects in an uncertain economic environment. However, what happens as economies emerge from a downturn?

There is a strong possibility that energy demand growth could recover much faster than any delayed energy project can be activated and, globally or locally, that is not a welcome scenario.

How to succeed in

job hunting Victor Szilagyi reviews some of our industry’s recruitment challenges and presents a short guide to the range of tools available to help job seekers.

Szilagyi is a senior account manager with Oil Offshore Marine, an independent provider of career and recruitment management services exclusively designed

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SPECIAL oil offshore marine feature • page 58

for the oil and gas industry. www.oil-offshore-marine.com

The oil and gas industry currently faces two major issues in terms of human resources (HR). The first is the ageing of oilfield workers, which has been analyzed extensively by employers and industry associations. The second issue if the diminishing pool of human talent, which has been fought by employers and universities. The ageing of oil industry workers is highly important for HR departments worldwide. By definition, an aged employee is, generally, an experienced one. Once aged employees retire, the only option is to hire new people. This raises the second major issue, because the number of qualified available personnel is decreasing. This skills shortage should be to the advantage of qualified job seekers, whether for early graduate positions or for more experienced staff, however, things are not quite so straightforward.

Although there is strong demand for their skills, globalization of oil workers has led to increasing competition between job seekers. Even in countries where work permits are required, such as the USA, UK, Norway and Australia, there is competition between nationals. In addition, there are an increasing number of people from all over the world working in major oil cities such as Houston, Aberdeen,

Stavanger, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

The increasing competition among job seekers had taken a new course as the financial crisis has spread, step by step, throughout the world. Many oil projects have been put on hold, others postponed, and others have been cancelled for good.

The US and many other world economies are in bad shape, and oil prices remain low, casting shadows on the prospects of obtaining a new, better, job. As a result, job seekers need to work even harder if they are to succeed in their job hunting.

Several options are available for finding jobs: networking, career fairs, direct contact, newspapers, industry magazines and, of course, the Internet. A successful job hunt can result from one or a combination of these options.

Networking: This can bring immense success. People might consider that networking is primarily done for business purposes. However, in reality, networking means socializing and trying to build relationships at various levels. Whenever you network with someone, a direct relationship is established; if developed to a certain level, you can both help and be helped with a job hint, or even with a job opportunity in your network’s

own company or one of their contacts elsewhere – the “friend of a friend” route. There are many opportunities for networking, such as attending oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) events, during breaks in meetings, while enjoying sports, having lunch in a restaurant - virtually everywhere!

Career fairs: There are many careers fairs. Some are strictly related to a certain profession, such as the recruitment of geologists or drilling engineers, while others are more general, such as oil and gas career prospects for graduates or young professionals. Attending career fairs is highly recommended, even for those not actively looking for a job. By participating you can get a better picture of yourself, notice how HR representatives see you, familiarize yourself with interviews and interview techniques and, to a certain extent, do some networking.

Direct contact: This basically means sending unsolicited job applications to HR managers, assistant managers, or recruitment coordinators. This requires a lot of involvement, and good relationship skills. It also requires a lot of time as you not only need to send a lot of speculative applications, but also follow

Industry magazines: Oil and gas magazines are highly targeted, so a lot of companies use them to run their jobs. If you do not have your own subscription, get several magazines from friends, colleagues or look at them in a library.

Internet: During recent years, a big part of the international recruitment process has shifted online. Many companies have either moved entirely to online recruit-

• Dedicated job boards (web career portals) have experienced immense success for both employers and jobseekers due to their worldwide penetration. Many job boards are very general, covering anything from aviation, administration, government, engineering, up to secretarial, trades and shipbuilding. There are also niche job boards that specialize in just one or a few related select industries. While general job boards have a bigger audience and might attract a higher number of employers, it is recommended to use niche job boards due to their dedicated service range and also because specialist oil and gas employers are more likely to focus on niche rather than general job boards.

• Recruitment agencies. Recent studies show that over 90% of all recruitment agencies have an online presence.

Some have a basic website introducing their company, industry segments, services and contact details, while others have more elaborate sites where they present job vacancies and perform online recruitment activities. Most recruitment agencies focus on one or a few related industries, and they aim to excel in providing services for that particular niche. This means that recruiters actually know the industry, have insight into its rates and benefits, and can advise you on your recruitment options.

Employers pay agencies to recruit on their behalf. Services to job seekers are free, so why not use them?

• Blog. This is an online platform that anyone with extremely basic IT knowledge can use. It is free of charge and can have a great impact on your job hunt. Blogs are virtual agendas and virtual CVs where you can present yourself, post pictures of the projects you have been involved in, display copies of your educational certificates, and a lot more.

• Personal website. This is somewhat more complicated than a blog and is more difficult to create. Recruiters may find them useful to get a better look at job seekers credentials before deciding to interview them, or seeking additional details after an interview. While blogs and personal websites can prove to be useful, they are not that popular, and few people in the oil and gas industry currently use them for professional purposes.

• Networking sites. Since 2006 several networking sites have grown from none to millions of active users.

Although they are known mostly for social networking, one can easily use them for employment purposes. The rationale behind these sites is simple: people sign up free of charge, create their profile (education, work experience, hobbies, interests), and upload pictures. When former colleagues, friends and relatives also sign-up, connections can be re-established to build a network. Users can search for people with similar interests, from the same industry (e.g. petrophysicists), and companies to establish new contacts.

There are also dedicated groups where people with similar backgrounds and interests can discuss topics related to their work, projects, conferences, and even job opportunities. By networking and developing contacts, your profile will be viewed more often, your comments will be followed up, and your group memberships will increase.

If you are actively looking for a job, you can apply for jobs advertised on networking sites and keep a look-out for opportunities that might be of interest, such as a “senior geologist in Houston”. Even if you are not actively looking for vacancies, you might be contacted by recruitment consultants, who use networking sites in a process called headhunting, where they are looking to establish your interest in job opportunities they consider might be suitable for you.

Several tools are available to job seekers.

Whether used singly or in combination, these tools will ease your path to finding a good job. Good hunting!

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Newspapers: While the role of traditional newspapers in oilfield recruitment has decreased over the years, this is still an interesting option that you can follow.

Many companies prefer to advertise their openings in oil magazines or on the Internet, but there are still job ads in the traditional media.

ment, or combine their online recruitment campaigns with traditional methods such as newspapers and magazines, university career fairs and HR conferences. The Internet provides several tools that can help job seekers:

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them up either by phone or email, try to get in touch with the appropriate person, and do your best to obtain a personal meeting, which can turn into an ad-hoc interview.

Mike Loudin, ExxonMobil's manager for global geoscience recruiting and early career development, describes how the company is investing in people and technology to meet global energy demand, combined with a ­proactive approach to climate change.

Careers in Petroleum: Economic progress and population growth means that the world will require more energy – about 35% more by 2030 than in 2005, despite significant gains in energy efficiency. The vast majority of this increased demand will be from developing countries. Meeting this demand poses many challenges and will require an integrated set of solutions.

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SPECIAL exxonmobile feature • page 60

Fuel consumers depend on our industry to meet every day needs and the demand for our products is growing.

Growing populations continue to advance economically over time and seek better living standards, which leads to increased energy use. Studying these linkages gives us a more accurate assessment of future energy demand.

In 2005, the global population was roughly 6.4 billion people. Birth rates are slowing in most parts of the world and the overall average annual growth rate between 2005 and 2030 is expected to be less than 1 percent, as shown in Chart 1. Although this rate may sound insignificant, the result is a global population increase to 8 billion by 2030 - well over a billion more energy users than exist today. An extra 1 billion people is equivalent to adding a country the size of India to the world’s population.

The middle panel of Chart 1 looks at global economic output, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP at market exchange rates). GDP is expected to

Chart 1.

increase at an average of approximately 3 percent per year to 2030, led by the rapidly expanding economies of developing countries. Though the world's economic growth ebbs and flows through cycles, when viewed over the perspective of decades, economic growth is surprisingly consistent on a global scale.

The right panel shows the forecast for energy demand – projected to grow significantly, driven by population and economic growth. Note that due to projected efficiency gains, this estimate is slightly lower than the ExxonMobil 2007 Outlook figure.

Energy demand Chart 2 shows our projection of energy demand over time by type: oil, gas, coal, nuclear and renewables – a projection similar to the International Energy Agency. Overall growth, shown at the top, is expected to be 1.2% per year.

By 2030, oil, gas and coal will still ­provide nearly 80 percent of the world’s energy: • Oil will remain the largest source of energy supply at approximately 34 percent.

• Natural gas will grow the fastest of the fossil fuels and will surpass coal as the second-largest energy source, accounting for nearly 25 percent.

Vital to Global Development researchers. Through the years, innovation has enabled us to overcome incredible obstacles in finding, producing and delivering a product that so many people consider just another commodity.

Today, we must be even more innovative in our approach. Current research areas for ExxonMobil include: • Four-dimensional seismic surveys and Remote Reservoir Resistivity Mapping are sophisticated technologies that enable us to pinpoint otherwise hard-tofind reserves.

• Directional drilling – drilling horizontally rather than vertically – enables us to develop large resource areas from a single location.

• Multi-Zone Stimulation Technology, to open up so-called unconventional energy resources such as tight gas, heavy oil and oil sands, previously considered inaccessible or too costly to recover.

• Enhanced oil recovery techniques are breathing new life into mature reservoirs, enabling us to produce more from existing developments than ever thought possible.

SPECIAL exxonmobile feature • page 61

The blue bar on the right hand side of Chart-2 represents efficiency gains. Our forecast is that energy-intensity gains to 2030 will average 70 percent faster growth per year compared to historical trends.

Stated another way, these intensity gains translate into energy savings that are almost double the growth in demand.

Improving efficiency is an effective and necessary tool in meeting future energy needs.

Technology Innovation is at the heart of our challenge to meet the growing global demand for energy. Technology has long been the answer to solving our most difficult energy questions, and that won’t change.

Over the past six years, we’ve invested more than $6 billion in technology. And as new technologies are developed, our global functional organization enables rapid deployment and value capture. We currently employ about 14,000 scientists and engineers, and about 1,000 are PhD

Chart 2.

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• Coal will grow slowly, at 0.6 percent per year, and will see its share of the energy mix shrink by 2030.

• Nuclear power will grow significantly, surpassing coal in terms of absolute growth. By 2030, nuclear will be the fourth-largest fuel source, behind oil, natural gas and coal.

• Wind, solar and biofuels will grow at 9.3 percent per year on average, the highest growth rate of all fuels.

• Hydro and geothermal will also grow, but are limited by natural sites.

Chart 3.

• Floating production, storage and offloading vessels that enable us to reach targets in water depths of up to 5,000 feet.

• Separator films that will help hybrid vehicles to run on lithium-ion batteries, similar to those that power mobile phones and laptops.

• On-board hydrogen-powered fuel cell system, which converts traditional hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline or diesel into hydrogen directly on board a vehicle.

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SPECIAL exxonmobile feature • page 62

Investment The International Energy Agency predicts that the total investment needed in the world’s energy sector from 2007 to 2030 is about $26 trillion, as depicted in Chart 3. Spending devoted to oil and gas is estimated to be about 45 percent of the total or close to $500 billion per year – around the same as the GDP of Argentina.

ExxonMobil is leading the way when it comes to investment dollars. As shown in Chart 3, from 2003-2007, we invested 89 billion dollars in projects located all over the world. From 2008-2012, we anticipate investing 125 billion dollars across the globe – an average of 25 billion annually. That’s about $69 million a day, $2.9 million an hour, $48,000 each

and every minute for an entire year.

Much of this investment is in the form of adding new sources of supply to the market, which is an important longterm measure to ensure the world has ­sufficient supply to meet demand.

Climate change Rising greenhouse gas emissions pose significant risks to society and ecosystems. Since most of these emissions are energy-related, we must balance the need for affordable energy around the world with strategies to reduce the risk associated with energy use.

The keys to meeting this tremendous challenge will be the development and deployment of technology on a worldwide scale and the adoption of policies and regulations that have the lowest overall cost to society, taking into account the vital role that energy plays in economic development and overall prosperity.

It is critical that such efforts consider the need for global participation – both to reduce the significant cost of any effort and to achieve some of the more ambitious targets for CO2 mitigation levels. At ExxonMobil, we are taking a proactive approach to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our opera-

tions, helping consumers reduce their emissions and researching and developing breakthrough technologies.

• O perations: Since 2004 we have invested more than $1.5 billion in activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency, and we will be spending at least $0.5 billion on additional initiatives over the next few years.

In addition, we are spending more than $4 billion in gas utilization and commercialization projects to reduce routine natural gas flaring. Through efficiency actions taken in 2006 and 2007, we reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 million metric tons in 2007, equivalent to removing about one million cars from roads.

• Consumers: We’ve developed a variety of technologies that are available today, designed to help consumers reduce their energy use. These include: tire liners that keep tires inflated longer, advanced fuel economy engine oil, and light weight automobile plastics. Utilization of technologies such as these in just one-third of U.S vehicles will translate to a savings of about 5 billion gallons of gasoline a year and greenhouse gas emissions savings equal to taking about 8 million cars off the road per year.

• Technology breakthroughs and research: In the area of strategic research, we are sponsoring nextgeneration breakthrough research into ways to make alternatives like solar and biofuels more available and affordable for use on a wider scale, and into technologies to reduce the emissions from fossil fuel use such as carbon capture and storage.

People & careers None of these challenges could be met, however, without our people – the creativity and skill of our industry’s engineers, geologists and scientists.

No technology ever invented itself; no advancement was achieved without someone envisioning it first. So it’s critical that we continue to invest in the people who make it possible for our companies to be successful. We provide

"It’s critical that we continue to invest in the people who make it possible for our companies to be successful"

Just as new projects need funding to be successful, so do training and development. Investing in our people is as critical as any research and development activity. For instance, the habitat for oil and gas is inside rocks, and so we also periodically send our people to the field to learn from modern and ancient outcrops that teach us about sedimentological processes.

ogy, ingenuity and hard work. In light of what we know about the Earth’s resource base and the historical success of the industry in meeting continually growing demand, we have every reason to be optimistic about the world’s energy future. Our point of view comes from experience, practicality and the realization that there’s never been a time when mankind has needed less energy than before. Growth in demand is as inevitable as the desire of human beings to achieve prosperity.

With a continued focus on innovation and technology – and significant investments in the people who make it all

work – we can be successful in finding and developing the energy the world will need to power growth and prosperity into the future. But ultimately, it all depends on people like you – people with the leadership, dedication, and preparation to do three things: ensure that the world has the energy it needs, use it more efficiently, and address the risks of climate change.

To learn more about careers with ExxonMobil, visit www.exxonmobil.com/ careers or email sue.nicholson@ exxonmobil.com. To apply for a job, go to www.exxonmobil.com/apply and click on “Search Openings”.

If history has taught us anything about the energy industry, it’s that each generation has faced challenges that seemed insurmountable at the time, yet were ultimately overcome by technol-

SPECIAL exxonmobile feature • page 63

In addition to supporting our current workforces, we value and support young people who want to work in our industry. Developing the next generation of engineers and geoscientists is critical, and all of us must help promote the study of math and science. Around the world, wherever we do business, ExxonMobil is investing in educational initiatives designed to enhance opportunities for students interested in science, technology, engineering and math.

ExxonMobil staff attending a field trip to learn about sedimentological processes.

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them with the tools, training and corporate culture that enable innovation to flourish. And we reward those who innovate and encourage the development of new ideas and new ways of working.

Life as a Geert de Bruin, senior geoscientist with dGB Earth Sciences, describes his ­responsibilities and some typical working days. dGB is a seismic interpretation software and services company based in Enschede, The Netherlands.

“How do you pronounce your name again?” My client asks me after I hand him my business card. “Kirt de Brew’in?” I joke that my name was meant to scare-off wild animals and then try to teach him the Dutch gargling G and rolling R sounds. You could almost say that the number of ways “Geert de Bruin” is pronounced is just as varied as my job and the trips I make with dGB.

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SPECIAL job insight • page 64

Being a senior geoscientist includes multiple jobs. I am team leader of the qualitative seismic interpretation group, project leader for sequence stratigraphic software development, a consultant, a sales representative, teacher, and graphic designer.

Today I am a consultant, and after I have been introduced to several of my client’s colleagues, we sit behind a workstation and bring-up his seismic data. I immediately see that this dataset is very different from the dataset I worked on last week at a previous consultancy. This is not surprising, because the dataset is from a different continent. While I scan the data with my eyes, he explains the general geology and the particular problems his company faces. dGB has earned a good reputation for being at the forefront of seismic software solutions, and therefore we usually are called in when conventional methods fail. Today is no exception.

The data was not willing to give up its prize easily, and I am here to prove that there is more to be extracted when you apply cutting-edge technology.

As a consultant I help international oil companies with their interpretation of seismic data using dGB proprietary software. In general, these consultancy jobs are

geoscientist

My work takes me all over the world. dGB has clients on all continents except Antarctica. On average, I make about one trip per month, sometimes two. Most visits are to Europe, North America and Asia, and they include many interesting places that I wouldn’t be able to visit easily myself, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Travelling is one of my hobbies, so I always try to visit interesting places when

“So, today we are doing the sequence stratigraphic analysis?” my client asks the next morning and, since this is one of my specialties, I am eager to show what it can do. When I show the results my client remarks “This reveals a lot of new aspects I haven’t seen” and before I know it the results are printed on a big plotter and several colleagues gather around to see them.

Our “Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation System” (SSIS) is a truly unique tool. It is well known that the era of easy-to find structural traps is almost over and that we need to direct our attention to stratigraphic traps. Seismic sequence stratigraphy has proved to have a great predictive potential, but so far only dGB Earth Sciences has brought a seismic stratigraphic software package to the market. As project leader of the seismic sequence stratigraphic software development, I steer the developers, design algorithms and workflows, keep contact with industry sponsors and train new users in the use of the software. Furthermore, I am a “power-user” of the software since I use it every day for projects and consultancy jobs. I am also involved in research to optimize workflows and add new functionalities. I work together with MSc Students that do research for their thesis at dGB. These students help to get a “proof of concept” of my ideas before these ideas are programmed by our developers. Students also help to test new workflows before they are released. When the research yields interesting results I write articles for magazines such as First Break and give presentations at conferences.

SPECIAL job insight • page 65

We set-off by improving the quality of the seismic data through the use of special filters. “That looks a lot better” My client says enthusiastically. “This will improve all further analysis!” We are using the dGB flagship OpendTect software, unique in the industry because it is Open Source (i.e. not protected by any licensing), so it can be extended at run-time with commercial (closedsource) plugins. At the end of the day we have managed to produce an improved seismic volume and while we start the calculation of a SteeringCube (a seismic dip cube) that will run on the computer overnight, I am invited to go to dinner with several of his colleagues.

I have the opportunity, especially during weekends. I like to explore the local culture and landscapes.

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challenging because, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. It is always a surprise what the data quality will be, where the data comes from (especially when visiting the headquarters of multinational companies), what the quality of the hardware is and the varied geological challenges. These many unknown factors make it almost impossible to prepare in advance for a consultancy project. On top of this, there is always a limited amount of time to get the job done, so I need to be decisive, knowledgeable of dGB and other software, and have a good understanding of geophysics and regional geology from around the world.

"I am here to prove that there is more to be extracted when you apply cutting-edge technology" After we have used the sequence stratigraphy software, we continue the next day by applying another unique tool that pinpoints hydrocarbon-related fluid contacts.

My client and I are developing a clear understanding of the data, and he asks me if I will give a presentation at the end of the week.

Since I am a power-user of the dGB software, I regularly visit potential customers to give presentations. Since the background of the potential customers is always different, these presentations can be very different; from overcrowded presentation rooms in developing countries to one-on-one contact with a fellow geoscientist.

Conferences and exhibitions are another opportunity to meet potential customers. Every year I visit the AAPG convention and the EAGE conference and exhibition to keep in contact with customers, meet new customers, and keep up with developments in the industry.

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SPECIAL job insight • page 66

The week after my consultancy I am back in the Enschede office. I start with an informal meeting with my boss, Paul de Groot, president & CEO of the company, to keep him informed about my work and to hear about the developments of the last weeks. Immediately after that, I have a meeting with my team. dGB has two main departments: Software Development and Case Study. The case study department conducts studies on behalf of oil companies. In most cases these companies turn to dGB when they cannot extract the information they want from seismic data using conventional geophysical or geological techniques. This means that we get to work on challenging datasets from around the globe, which requires flexible and adaptive approaches, integrating various disciplines, going off the beaten track, while using the newest tools and techniques. The case study department is subdivided into two groups. The Quantitative seismic interpretation group works on seismic inversion and rock property predictions such as acoustic impedance and porosity. The Qualitative seismic interpretation group, for which I am responsible, conducts projects that cover seismic facies analysis,

object detection, chimney interpretation, fault seal analysis and sequence stratigraphic interpretation. Since these projects are often very challenging, it is essential to work closely with my colleagues, drive them for optimal results, and at the same time leave them the freedom to explore alternative workflows. We often explore workflows that are not in the original proposal. What counts is that we add value to the data and our customers are happy.

My colleagues brief me on their progress during the previous week. The project they are working on is advancing well, but we are still missing some crucial information. As team leader I make sure that the project is on track, divide the workload equally, and decide what has the highest priority. After the meeting I call the client to update him about progress and to ask for the missing well log. The next morning I welcome the attendees of a three day general training course in our office to a varied group of customers from different oil companies.

I give training courses in the use of dGB software both in our own offices and at client’s offices. I also co-author the manuals that are used during training courses. The level of attendees can vary from beginners to world-experts, posing different challenges. With beginners, I need to give a lot of background on science or even teach general geophysics. With experts, I can expect a lot of in-depth questions and to cover more advanced workflows.

At the end of the first day of the training course, the attendees are slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information, so I invite them for some refreshing drinks and dinner later that evening.

At dGB, I am part of a small, international and dedicated team of geoscientists and IT specialists. We hold individual contributions in high regard, which means that I have a lot of freedom in my work. Of course, I get particular assignments for which I am responsible, but how I do it is completely up to me. This freedom is also reflected in how I became the ‘SSIS project leader”. Since I was interested in sequence stratigraphy, I became more and

For more information or booth availability please contact exhibition@eage.org Companies already participating in the Job Centre

SPECIAL job insight • page 67

As project leader of SSIS I have been in the fortunate position to have worked on an exciting new technology.

This has led to several papers and presentations on workflows and applications. My next ambition is to pursue a PhD whilst continuing my job as senior geologist / project leader of SSIS at dGB. This will only be possible if I can find a paid project with a suitable dataset that I am allowed to use in my research. In my opinion this can be a real “win-win-win” situation: dGB wins because it gets a paid project; the client wins because, in addition to the “normal” project results, they get free research under scientific scrutiny and I get my PhD.

Visit the Amsterdam 2009 Job Centre

www.eage.org/jobcentre 71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition Incorporating SPE EUROPEC 2009 8 – 11 June 2009 | Amsterdam RAI

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more involved in the development project. In the end I became the specialist and was appointed project leader.

Other colleagues have similar positions in other fields such as reservoir characterisation, attribute and neural network analysis, and fluid migration. I am in close contact with these specialists in my office as well as in our offices in Houston and Mumbai. Very often the first thing I do in the morning is to ‘Skype’ a colleague in Mumbai and at the end of the day, Skype the Houston office.

When my boss and colleagues at dGB discovered that I was creative and could work with photo-editing software and drawing packages, I also became responsible for the graphics that are used for company posters, brochures, articles and website design.

My fascination with geology started at a very young age.

While digging in my parents’ garden I discovered that the earth was not homogenous and I could not help wondering why there were clearly-defined layers. As an adolescent I started to explore mountains and I wanted to understand how they where formed and why they all looked so different. Halfway through high school I already knew that I wanted to study Earth Sciences. I studied geology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where I specialized in carbonate geology and sedimentology. After university I started working for dGB. Since dGB is a very specialized company I learned a lot ‘on the job’, first as a team member in the case study department, and over the years I became the senior geoscientist that I am today.

Looking for a new career challenge?

17-03-2009 09:35:1

Annemiek Asschert, geo-trainee with Fugro, based in The Netherlands, describes how she joined the company and what she is doing there. Fugro collects and ­interprets data related to the Earth’s surface and the soils and rocks beneath, and provides advice for purposes related to the oil and gas industry, the mining ­industry and the construction industry.

Life as a geoscientist

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SPECIAL job insight • page 68

In August 2007 I started a two-year traineeship with Fugro, which involves spending eight months in each of three different geotechnical departments of the company. At the time of writing, I am part way through the last of these 8-month assignments.

I got to know about Fugro through a friend who already worked for the company. She was very enthusiastic about Fugro, which encouraged me to apply for a job there. I chose to start with a traineeship because I have broad interests, and wanted to get to know more about civil engineering and develop the different skills needed to work in different departments.

I studied Geology from 2001 to 2007 at the faculty of Earth Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. I enjoyed studying Geology, because of my fascination for the Earth and the combination of different disciplines used in the subject. Besides studying I was involved in organizing several student activities, including being the vice secretary of the board of the Geological Students Association Utrecht (U.G.V) and treasurer for the Geological Society Miölnir, which is a part of a student society in Utrecht.

In the first year of my Masters course, I spent half a year in Switzerland to study Earth Sciences at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschüle Zürich (ETHZ). I decided to start working for Fugro after an internship in the mining industry in a nickel mine in Venezuela and finishing my Masters thesis. Before saying goodbye to my student life, I traveled in Mexico and some of the southern states of the USA. Traveling is part of my life and I really enjoy going abroad.

I started my Fugro traineeship with Fugro Engineers B.V., the company’s offshore geotechnical engineering and site investigation division. Its field of expertise includes conducting soil investigations and providing geotechnical and geological consultancy services, mostly for offshore projects. I was involved in several different aspects of offshore geotechnical engineering, involving both office-based work and going offshore on a vessel.

The offshore work included collecting, analyzing and reporting data from in-situ and field laboratory tests, and from sediment samples and cores. For example, the project required ­analyzing drill cores and processing cone penetration tests (CPTs), which are used to determine the geotechnical parameters of soils needed

Going offshore is a great experience. Living on a vessel for more than 4 weeks as part of a mostly male crew can be a

Lab onboard of the Markab, Australia.

After completing the first 8 months of my traineeship, I moved to Fugro Ingenieursbureau B.V., the onshore geotechnical company of Fugro, for the second of my three assignments. I worked in the geotechnical department, for which the main projects are mostly from The Netherlands. The consultancy services of this company are mostly related to investigating sites for foundations for buildings, infrastructure projects, dike safety studies, industrial complexes and hydrological studies. My activities included different engineering projects such as pile foundations, slope stability and shallow foundations. The job also involved coordinating projects, client contact, and organization of the fieldwork in which the geotechnical measurements are performed. Fieldwork includes CPTs and drilling. The CPT results are then interpreted and the drill samples analyzed in order to derive soil parameters which are used in the engineering calculations that are subsequently reported to the client.

Trainees can be involved in an entire project, from making the proposal and writing the offer, to performing the engineering, writing the report and finally preparing the invoice. I found it interesting to see that different types of projects industrial, infrastructural and small scale require different approaches from the start.

The world of onshore geotechnical engineering is quite different from the offshore world. While working as an offshore geotechnical engineer, you may not know where you will be the next week because an offshore job can come along suddenly. This does not happen in the onshore geotechnical world, where most of the work is office-based with occasional client and site visits.

Depending on your interest, you can mainly work

SPECIAL job insight • page 69

Geotechnical engineers with Fugro typically work onboard of one of the company’s drill ships for periods of between two and six weeks. Over a one year period, they typically go offshore for about three months in total. I have been to Western Australia once and to the North Sea twice, and these were quite different experiences. The trip to Australia was in springtime with relatively calm waters, while I went to the North Sea in wintertime and rough seas. You definitely need a strong stomach to be able to work on the North Sea in wintertime! The project offshore Australia involved the collection and reporting of geotechnical data. The North Sea job also involved collection of geotechnical data from CPTs and analyzing soil samples in the onboard laboratory. With these data we were able to perform engineering analysis in order to assess if the site would be a safe location for positioning a jack-up rig.

challenge. Between 30% and 40% of office staff are women, but offshore, I typically find myself with just 2 or 3 other women out of a crew of 40. In one of my North Sea jobs, I was the only woman on board. Living on the vessel for several weeks is like living and working in a small village with little space, and it definitely involves some flexibility.

However, enjoying the sunset or sunrise after a 12 hour shift, and occasionally spotting some local sea life, is a perfect way to relax before going to bed to get some sleep to be fit again for the next shift. A shift can be 12 hours of almost non-stop working, when operations go on continuously. However, the work pace slows down when the weather turns bad and a period of weather standby sets in.

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for geotechnical engineering calculations. The tests are carried out by skilled operators, with whom I worked closely. Other parts of the job onboard a geotechnical vessel include evaluation of laboratory test results, engineering analyses and writing a report for the client that summarizes the data and engineering calculations.

on engineering for projects and do some additional research, but it is also possible to work as a project leader and be involved in project coordination. I like the combination of types of work. This second period of my traineeship lasted 10 months instead of the planned 8 months in order for me to finish both a geotechnical course and a large project I was working on.

The third and last period of my traineeship, which I have just started, is with Fugro Robertson where I work as Geologist - back to my roots! After data collection and engineering of the shallow underground in the first two periods of my traineeship, I have now moved to the deeper underground. Fugro Robertson is part of the company’s Geosciences division and it performs different types of geological and geophysical studies. The core businesses of Fugro Robertson are Reservoir Geology & Sedimentology and Exploration & Production Geophysics. These studies may include basin analyses, geological mapping and seismic interpretation. The studies can involve projects from all over the world and this international character really attracts me. As a Geologist, the fever of wanting to go abroad always stays present, and traveling is one of

my hobbies. During my studies I liked all the geological fieldwork very much and I can still never get enough of geological excursions and seeing different parts of the world.

Being a Geo trainee at Fugro gives me the possibility to get to know a large part of the company. Because you work with several different Fugro companies during the traineeship, you can play a role in the cooperation between different groups when a project needs multi-company involvement. At the end of my traineeship I can decide which of the different Fugro companies I would most like to work in, depending, of course, on what opportunities are available at that time. I have certainly learned a lot during the last 18 months regarding the contents of the many different jobs and the soft skills required. I will explore the possibilities in this last period of my traineeship some more before I will make a decision. From geology to offshore geotechnical engineering, to onshore geotechnical engineering and back to geology and the different aspects of various projects in these three different disciplines has given me a broad insight into the world that is called Fugro.

EAGE’s Searchable bl G Geoscience Database EarthDoc is an important and much anticipated initiative by the EAGE to enable users to quickly reference documents related to conferences, publications and other Association material. It is a very dynamic product and an important contribution to making scientific knowledge available to a wider audience.

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SPECIAL job insight • page 70

EAGE members have free access. For non-members the service is available on a subscription basis.

EarthDoc offers: • Access to the abstracts of papers and proceedings presented at EAGE conferences since 1991 • Access to articles of First Break and Near Surface Geophysics • Access to the abstracts of conferences of other societies • Searchable database using a wide variety of criteria • Full text search For more details, visit the EarthDoc website

www.earthdoc.org

12xxx- EARTH-V1H.indd 1

• Pre-conference presentation material two weeks prior to every EAGE event Future features: • More journals will be added

09-04-2009 12:33:25

Establishing and growing a reservoir monitoring business Martin Bett, CEO of Stingray Geophysical, describes how recruiting and maintaining a world-class team of skilled specialists has enabled the company to achieve its commercialisation goals and be poised to

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SPECIAL stingray geophysical feature • page 72

enter its next phase of growth.

One of the challenges faced by companies on the road to success is the availability of the right specialist skills at the right time to meet varying and increasingly diverse demands on their resources. Establishing a business becomes even more complex when it involves a pioneering technology in a cyclical industry such as oil and gas.

Further challenges are presented for a dynamic new company like Stingray by the need to attract individuals from established industry players with the extended skillset required to swiftly meld a team from diverse backgrounds into a cohesive unit far greater than the sum of its parts.

Stingray has met those challenges ­head-on by devising a leveraged business model based on recruiting and maintaining a world-class core team with key skills not just in their specialist domains such as new product development, geo-

physics, optical sensing, manufacturing and operations, but in establishing and managing relationships with key partners in all of these areas. This has given the company the ability to start with a team of more than 30 from day 2 and progress rapidly with the development of reliable and cost-effective permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM) solutions for its customers.

Seismic reservoir monitoring Monitoring using repeat seismic surveys can identify changes in reservoir pressure and fluid content, helping to optimize hydrocarbon recovery schemes, including the placement of injection and production wells. It can also identify flow barriers and untapped reserves. The technique, known as “4D” or “time-lapse” seismic, involves acquiring several 3D seismic surveys at different times, ideally beginning before production has started and at intervals thereafter, typically one

Deployment of Stingray’s Fosar seabed seismic system.

Seabed seismic systems that rely on electrical components are prone to high failure rates, leading to unreliability and high maintenance costs. Passive fibreoptic systems are much more reliable.

Stingray Geophysical was established in 2006 to commercialise a unique, passive fibre-optic sensing technology, originally developed for submarine applications

by UK defence research laboratories, for oil and gas applications. The Stingray Fosar® system delivers full-wave seismic imaging data for detailed reservoir characterisation and monitoring, enabling increased production, greater reserves and lower operating costs and risk through improved reservoir management strategies. The high sensor count per fibre facilitates easy deployment of large seabed sensor arrays in up to 3000m of water, requiring minimal connections to surface recording equipment. Inherently more reliable than conventional electrical alternatives, Stingray’s unique passive fibre-optic solution enables cost-effective and highly repeatable 4D seismic.

Leveraging expertise PRM is Stingray’s sole business focus.

By outsourcing non-core functions, such as finance, IT and marketing support

demonstrated the high quality, reliable geophysical response characteristics, operability and scalability of the Fosar system. To support the commercial sale and manufacture of the Fosar system and to accelerate its existing development programme for a range of value-added customer solutions based on the proven

"big companies are small companies that succeeded" Robert Townsend encountered in a growing business. With a wide range of complementary skills, inter-disciplinary team members work in a fast-paced, open plan environment where ideas and information are shared freely between geophysicists, optical scientists and engineers, sub-sea engineers, sales and marketing. The small team is bound by a focus on achieving common objectives, a willingness to challenge convention in quick pursuit of its goals, as well as a flexibility of approach and to load sharing.

Critical to Stingray’s achievements to date is the agility afforded by the active participation of its key partners.

Intelligent relationship management has enabled Stingray to address various challenges during the milestone-based Fosar programme by leveraging the expert capabilities of partners such as Atlas Elektronik, Bergen Oilfield Services (BOS), QinetiQ, Sagentia, Sensoptics and University of Southampton, as well as individual consultants, to support the system’s technical development, design and manufacture, installation and seismic operations.

A growing business Stingray is now poised to enter the next phase of growth, having in 2008 successfully concluded offshore sea trials and a qualification testing programme which

core technology, Stingray is expanding its sales and marketing, optical sensing systems and integrated solution operations capabilities.

Stingray has achieved a lot since the company was founded 3 years ago. As well as securing additional funding from an energy venture capital consortium and UK and Norwegian government research grants, the company has achieved customer engagement through a Joint Industry Project (JIP) involving 4 major oil companies. Twice finalists in recognised industry innovation awards, Stingray is registered to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. It has also protected its intellectual property through 14 patents granted and 37 further applications have been submitted.

At the heart of its success is the entrepreneurial spirit, technical skills and hands-on approach of the Stingray team which, combined with the commitment of its partners, is key to enabling the reservoir monitoring needs of its customers. The leading US businessman and author, Robert Townsend, once said that “big companies are small companies that succeeded” and, with the Fosar system now commercially available, Stingray’s focus has shifted towards emulating that success and building a substantial business.

SPECIAL stingray geophysical feature • page 73

Focus on fibre optics

services from the beginning, the Stingray team—a blend of new business development experience with industry know-how and world leading fibre-optic expertise— has been able to concentrate on the successful delivery of its core Fosar system development programme without the time consuming distractions normally

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of more years apart. Differences in the seismic response between surveys can indicate changes in the reservoir. These differences can be extremely subtle, and are easily masked by differences between surveys caused by other factors.

Conventional towed streamer surveys are likely to exhibit differences between surveys due to several factors, including different weather conditions, sea swell and receiver positions. Deploying receivers permanently on the seabed avoids many of these differences. In addition, seabed receivers are immune from swell and other near-surface noise. A further major advantage is that seabed receiver systems can record the full multicomponent seismic wavefield, which can reveal considerably more about a reservoir than conventional towed streamer systems, which record only pressure (P) waves.

Geoscientists are at the front line when it comes to satisfying long-term energy needs for the planet. The Total Group says that it offers geoscientists customised career paths designed to arm them with the enthusiasm to meet the geological, ­technological and global challenges of future energy resources.

Geoscience careers at Total

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SPECIAL total feature • page 74

Confronted with the current economic climate, Philip Jordan, Vice President, Recruitment, Careers and Diversity at Total, confirms that the company’s development strategy will continue to be pursued. “The financial crisis has hit hard; we are optimising our costs and our organisation accordingly; but we are not holding back on our industrial projects, as the Total Group always invests in the long-term,” says Jordan. “In 2009, our annual exploration budget will be stable at 1.7 billion dollars. Our recruitment programme will also be stable, to prepare our future projects and to offset retirements”.

Geosciences and Reservoir still hiring The objective of Total for 2009 is to recruit 8,000 new employees worldwide, including 1,500 engineers.

“In Geosciences and Reservoir, we are going to take on between 150 and 200 new geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers,” explains Isabelle Gaildraud, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Internal Communication in the company’s Exploration and Production (E&P) branch. More than

75% of the proposed jobs target recent graduates or those who have already had a first professional experience, but Total is also seeking to hire experienced geoscientists.

The tasks of these new hires will be to explore new horizons and push back the frontiers ever further, by contributing to the development of increasingly complex projects, with fields featuring a very complex technical content, in conditions that are sometimes extreme, including ultra-­deep offshore, deeply buried reservoirs, heavy oils and Arctic areas. Who would have thought a few years ago that it was possible to operate developments at more than 1,000 bars pressure and at temperatures in excess of 200°C? “With reserves dwindling rapidly, and the increasing number of difficult and mature fields, in the space of ten years, the excellence of geoscientists has become a key strategic success factor,” emphasises Gaildraud. “Present in more than 130 countries, Total is preparing the energy of the future by offering geoscientists exciting employment opportunities, at the cutting edge of research, prospect-

ing, seismic acquisition, modelling and interpreting”.

International competencies The Total Group is conducting E&P activities in more than 40 countries, grounded in a solid, diversified spectrum of reserves. This portfolio offers a wide range of opportunities for reservoir engineers, geologists and geophysicists.

From enhancing the recovery rates in mature fields in Gabon, to the Joslyn extra heavy oils in Canada, through projects for the capture and geological storage of C02, the exploration of new blocks, enhancing the production of deeply-buried reserves and the development of new energies, Total’s projects mobilise the best in geosciences expertise to guarantee sustainable resources in the four corners of the world.

The Group tackles its international challenges by calling on international competencies. “We hire across the continents,” says Gaildraud. “We hunt out talent everywhere, in more than 300 different sites. Our recruiters also visit schools and universities in India and in Latin

The examples above, taken from a host of possible cases, illustrate Total’s commitment to employing candidates from all countries and encouraging equal opportunities. “We are building a multicultural group, strengthened by teams

Geosciences job opportunities at www.careers.total.com reflect this ­diversity. Recruitment drives are particularly strong in Total’s overseas subsidiaries, especially those that are growing rapidly, such as Nigeria, Canada and Angola. These subsidiaries already recruit graduates in their own country, not just to cover their local needs, but also for the benefit of the Group as a whole.

The geographical mobility of Total’s approximately 2,000 geoscientists is

inherent to the very nature of the Group’s activities. Employees have to be ready to go and work in one of the subsidiaries, or on one of the sites throughout the world. “We need engineers who are ready to take part in our projects, on new sites, on any one of the five continents.

Expatriation is an inevitable rung on the professional ladder. It is both a guarantee of performance for these professional disciplines and a source of motivation for employees,” says Gaildraud.

Prioritising creativity and flexibility An observant eye, a sense of pace and the ability to see things as a whole are among the essential qualities for an employee to succeed in geosciences activities at Total, alongside technical competency, mobility, an open mind and a sense of teamwork. Total believes that its geosciences performance relies on the convergence of perspectives from geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers. The different approaches are constantly juxtaposed, and there is a continuous dialogue with the other disciplines. Federating expertise in this way, and interacting with the entire range

“In Geosciences and Reservoir, we are going to take on between 150 and 200 new geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers”

SPECIAL total feature • page 75

Diversity and mobility, catalysts for innovation and action

who know how to work with different cultures,” explains Jordan. “This diversity guarantees that the company runs like a well-oiled machine, and reflects the diversity of our clients.” Diversity also means bringing more women into the teams.

Oil and gas professions are traditionally considered to be a man’s world. “We are changing that,” says Jordan. “Today more than 20 % of the engineers we hire are women, on a level footing with the average percentage of women that graduate from engineering schools. And we have women in almost all the Group’s management committees”.

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America as well as in the United States and Great Britain. This goes hand in hand with numerous partnerships in teaching and training, to pass on our know-how, help train the best geoscience specialists locally, and to show by example the captivating daily lot of our professional disciplines”. In the United Arab Emirates, Total is a partner in the Petroleum Institute of Abu Dhabi, alongside the national company ADNOC. In Port Harcourt, the Total E&P Nigeria subsidiary finances a Masters in Oil and Gas at the Institute of Petroleum Studies. In Paris, for one week every year, the Total Summer School welcomes about 140 students from schools and universities all over the world to discuss and debate the geopolitical, economic and environmental challenges involved in the production of energy.

“We want to welcome geoscience engineers who have the potential and the desire to evolve within our structure”

of cross-functional professions in E&P, provides the Group with decision-making factors as robust as they can be.

In the future, however, the increasing complexity of reservoirs will also demand a streak of boldness in the analysis and management of uncertainties. “We need people to be creative and flexible. Adaptability is becoming key, as the Group must be able to adapt to new exploration contexts or to new technologies and be able to propose innovative approaches,” says Jordan.

These demanding criteria are just the tip of the iceberg concerning Total’s philosophy underlying recruitment in geosciences activities. In these professions where learning never stops, the company favours long-term collaboration. “We want to welcome geoscience engineers who have the potential and the desire to evolve within our structure,” insists Gaildraud. “We offer them a customised, versatile, diverse career path, focused on training and developing competencies.”

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SPECIAL total feature • page 76

Integration and sharing Total keenly watches over the integration of its new hires. Since 2003, new E&P recruits have attended an intensive two-week training course entitled “Total Together”. More than four hundred employees of twenty different nationalities meet at one of the four sessions of this annual meeting. During these ten days with Total managers, they share the values and strategies that underpin and steer the course of the Group.

Geoscientists also benefit from a specific four-day course: an opportunity to get to know the teams on-site, and familiarise themselves with the way the geosciences

departments operate at head office and in the subsidiaries. “This period of total immersion allows them to discover the spirit of cooperation, and the notion of exchange that are foremost in our activities,” explains Gaildraud.

This path of “initiation” has only just begun. Junior geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers are directly entrusted with a position of responsibility in an operational entity. Overseen by a senior geoscientist, they start their professional activity with a period of on-thejob training. Experienced engineers train the new hires to work on increasingly complex projects. “They learn the ropes hands-on in an operational situation, tackling real problems,” explains Jordan.

“On-the-job training assures a smooth transition from academic knowledge to operational know-how: field work, objectivity and a diagnostic flair. The experience of senior geoscientists is essential, and we are also stepping up recruitment among this population”.

Unparalleled training to develop know-how To help juniors or seniors who have just joined the ranks build a lasting career, Total simultaneously deploys training and career management tools to accompany them throughout their professional life. “It’s our trade mark: one that is well-known among oil professionals,” says Jordan. “They join our Group for its different, constructive outlook and environment”.

For their first six years in Total, junior geoscientists are successively assigned to three different technical entities for two year periods, including R&D, services

for Total subsidiaries, and exploration or appraisal in an integrated team. After a technical consolidation job in their initial profession, a period spent discovering a different speciality precedes expatriation.

In this way, the Group gives geoscientists the time and means to hone the tools that will make them field experts, able to work at modelling as part of a team, in unstable environments, at the crossroads of science and experience. “This approach helps build a cross-functional work culture, without specialising too quickly. It gives exposure to the different facets of the metiers to build the technical and operational experience required for an open career development,” explains Gaildraud.

An intensive, customised training course - the “Training Passport” - goes hand in hand with this career path. It is a modular 120-day program of personalised training, staggered over the first five years. Adapted to suit the individual profile and needs of each geoscientist, the “Training Passport” standardises their technical level and ensures that they rapidly become autonomous and operational. “This sandwich course gives young graduates the means to selectively close the gaps they discover as they work ‘hands-on’,” says Gaildraud.

“The programme blends distance-learning with desktop learning, guided by experienced tutors and training instructors”. An ambitious blended learning system brings together new hires across the world into a single, virtual learning community. This versatile system offers the same training opportunities to all geoscientists wherever they may be, and maintains the technical and cultural coherency of the Group’s teams, despite the geographical distance that separates them.

“Our reputation for training and accompaniment is unequalled,” states Jordan.

“We follow our employees throughout their professional lives and help them build sustainable careers in sync with their grass-roots vocations.” Career management is effectively a keystone in the Total human resources system.

Geoscientists are offered the opportunity to change jobs and geographic location on a regular basis - on average every four years - which gives them a wide variety of career choices, and makes Total a highly coveted partner. In particular, junior geoscientists in subsidiaries can now take advantage of the same career planning methods as new hires at head offices.

Their opportunities for geographic mobility and functional promotion group-wide have evolved rapidly over the last few years.

“We reward performance by offering responsibilities very early on in an employee’s professional life, in jobs that correspond to the desires expressed by our geosciences employees,” explains Gaildraud. “As they work on different

projects, they gain confidence as experts able to work on complex issues. By clocking up experience and assurance along the way, they may, in the long term, be entrusted with the management of an asset or the evaluation of a field, and perhaps become managers of a project, a geographical area or a Geosciences department in a subsidiary”.

The possibility of changing profession that Total offers to new hires also gives them in-roads to a wide range of new opportunities. For example, petroleum architecture is the profession most

coveted by reservoir engineers. Finally, many of the Group’s geoscientists evolve to occupy important managerial jobs at head office, or directing a subsidiary.

“Engineers who join the Group today in geosciences can make their entire career with Total - and without getting bored!” concludes Jordan. “Producing tomorrow’s hydrocarbons will demand the very best of their competencies.

Beyond that, it is their talent and flair that will enable our Group to satisfy the planet’s growing energy needs.”

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SPECIAL total feature • page 77

More specific training courses are run in parallel, in partnership with prestigious schools. Technical seminars also take place every eighteen months in the company’s three Geosciences professions.

Technical and managerial training actions remain constant, customised and flexible throughout the employee’s professional life. This keeps geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers at the cutting edge of R&D, while directly in touch with the real-time challenges of E&P optimisation. Many will in their turn, find themselves training junior geoscientists.

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Varied, sustainable careers

Professors and students

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SPECIAL interview • page 79

answer questions about education and the oil and gas job market

The professors views: Do you feel that job opportunities for graduating students have been compromised due to the current economic crisis?

Fahes: Definitely. We have some undergraduate students who failed to get a job offer due to a hiring freeze in the oil and gas industry. Although the crisis has not affected Qatar, many of the international companies in Qatar have stopped hiring.

Lillo: Yes, especially for those jobs related to geotechnical and civil engineering.

Slobodník: Job opportunities are not equal in all fields of geology. I feel that there may even be more opportunities in the oil industry for graduates in some positions, for example Exploration Geologists. This is related to the present higher demand for raw materials.

Zolotaya: I think that university graduates this year will experience difficulties because companies in the oil and gas industry are cutting down their staff.

That’s why the amount of workplaces for young people without experience has sharply diminished.

What salary potential do you estimate a student graduating in 2009 has the ability to earn from his/her first employer, considering the current market crisis?

Fahes: In the order of $40,000 - $50,000 (€30,000 - €38,000) per year.

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SPECIAL interview • page 80

Lillo: €17,000 - €20,000 per year, before taxes.

Slobodník: There is a difference between the companies which provide services and the companies producing important industrial minerals. I do not have a precise idea of the typical salaries.

Zolotaya: The salary of the graduate depends first on where he or she will work in the industry. If the employer depends on the government (universities and other government institutes) then the salary will be about 120,000 - 180,000 roubles (€2,700 - €4,000) per year. If he or she starts to work for a commercial company, the salary will be somewhere between 180,000 and 540,000 roubles (€4,000 - €12,000) per year.

How important is it for students to begin building their professional network during their studies, and how do you think this affects their future job potential?

Fahes: It’s very important that students start to network during their studies, and that certainly affects their future job potential. Many of our students get their job offers during their junior year when participating in student paper contests and career fairs. It also depends on their nationality. With the current crisis, some of the best students who had 3 internships with the industry during their 4 undergraduate years failed to get job offers because they are expatriates.

Lillo: It’s very important. In fact, we are starting new degrees where students must spend around 500 hours working in a company before they get the degree.

In addition, we have a milk round fair each year.

Slobodník: It is important for students to keep their eyes open for a variety of opportunities in geology and for them to be interested in acquiring the needed personal skills. Various meetings with professionals, such as cooperation with a student’s thesis, could be advantage for their future job potential.

Zolotaya: I think a student can broaden his horizons and professional possibilities by becoming a member of industry organizations such as the EAGE.

Does the university offer internship opportunities for students, and if yes, what percentage of students are hired through an intern placement?

Fahes: It is a requirement in our university that each student spends at least one summer working as an intern in the oil and gas industry. Most of our students are sponsored for their undergraduate studies and after they graduate they work for the sponsoring company. For the unsponsored students, almost 70% get job offers after their internship with a company.

Lillo: No, there are no real internship opportunities. Just very few postgraduate posts.

Slobodník: Yes, there are the broad activities of the Centre for International Studies, excursions and participation at student conferences and other events abroad. I thing this is a growing trend and 20-25% of students could be recently involved in these opportunities.

Mashhad Fahes is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University at Qatar.

She has a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College, London, and a BS degree in physics from the Lebanese University. Dr. Fahes is in charge of the wettability research lab at TAMU-Qatar. Her research team is working on various problems, including condensate blocking in carbonate reservoirs and spent-acid recovery after carbonate matrix acidizing.

Francisco Javier Lillo Ramos is professor of geodynamics in the Department of Biology and Geology of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Spain. Hi is also director of the Master of Hydrology and Management of Water Resources (UAH-URJC). He has a BSc in Geology and a Diplomate in Geological Engineering from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Leeds, UK. Lillo has ten years experience, working in the industry, mainly as field geologist for exploration and nuclear waste repositories projects and the Geological Map of Spain.

tional hydrocarbon resources and the new methods that should be used to produce from these resources.

Lillo: Environmental issues, and exploration and management of natural resources (minerals and water).

Slobodník: I thing it is an interdisciplinary approach, centred on environmental studies (monitoring,

Do you feel there is a shift in long-term employment security versus taking on new hires in the current industry?

Lillo: Nowadays, there is a significant change from long term employment towards short term hires. In fact, employers are claiming more flexible employment rules to face the crisis.

Zolotaya: This phenomenon can be seen - without a doubt - particularly in commercial organizations, because modern computer technology guarantees a good education in this field.

What do you think are the current leading trends in petroleum engineering education?

Fahes: I believe that the leading trend currently is the emphasis on unconven-

protection), mineral industry and other applied fields, material science and economic geology. There are links between geology and subjects such as geography, archaeology, biochemistry and economics.

Zolotaya: I have the impression that these are the geological-geophysical problems, connected to the search for new oil and gas reserves.

The industry is integrating more and more within universities. How do you feel this integration affects students’ perception of the industry?

judging student presentations. Students are very excited about these activities.

It gives them an insight into what the industry is about and what to expect in their jobs. It also increases their confidence in the choice they made to become engineers because the industry is highly interested in them.

Lillo: In Spain, there is still a divorce between industry and university, so the students consider each as worlds apart from each other, despite there being some points of contact such as students’ work practice in companies and some joint research.

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Lyudmila Alekseevna Zolotaya is a teacher and vice head of the Geophysics department of the Geology faculty of Moscow State University (MSU). She has a PhD in geological mining science. Zolotaya is head of the laboratory of magnetic survey and an honorary professor of MSU, where she has built 34 years work experience.

Fahes: I see that a lot of companies are looking to hire fresh graduates but I don’t think that compromises long-term employment security.

Slobodník: I think not. It relates to general company strategy and the character of its projects.

Fahes: The active role the industry is playing in universities has been very beneficial to students. Various companies are competing to answer student questions on the practical application of what they learn in class and about career opportunities. Students see that the industry professionals care for them and want to guide them. Many companies approach our university offering “Lunch and Learn” seminars, field trips, and volunteers for

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Zolotaya: Our university has the possibility to offer our students an internship but this is not more than 1% of the 200 graduates per year. However; as a rule of thumb, the majority of students end their studies as specialists, and start to work for prestigious firms well-known all over the world, such as Shell, Shlumberger, Fugro and Paradigm. At these companies they get a traineeship as a young professional, using the theoretical knowledge they received during their study at MSU

Slobodník: Absolutely positively – they can see what the practice is about.

Zolotaya: While studying at the University, students try to get practical production knowledge in the industry. This helps them to grow fast in a professional way, learn how to start and carry out geophysical work, and learn the methods of information interpretation.

Do university programmes focus enough on the basic geological and geophysical skills required for the industry or have studies become too computer oriented?

Fahes: "It’s very important that students start to network during their studies, and that certainly affects their future job potential."

Fahes: I think this varies from one university to the next and from one faculty member to the next. At Texas A&M University at Qatar we have a lot of emphasis on the understanding of the basic science behind the engineering practices. In addition, we give our students the opportunity to use software for some of the engineering applications. In some universities the basic science has been compromised in order to produce engineers that are more application oriented. The graduates, in these cases, tend to lack the ability to truly understand the various processes or know the limitations of some of the applications.

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SPECIAL interview • page 82

Lillo: The programmes still focus on the basic geological and geophysical skills required for the industry. However; in the last years, there has been a shift towards more computer and lab skills and less field work skills, such as mapping.

Marek Slobodník is associate professor at the Institute of Geological Sciences, Masaryk University (MU), Brno, Czech Republic. He has a PhD from the department of geology and paleontology at MU and did post-doctorate work at the K.U.Leuven, Belgium. His research topics include fluid flow in the upper part of the Earth’s crust, the history of migration of fluids in sedimentary basins, structural and geochemical research of hydrothermal mineralizations, genetic aspects of hydrothermal fluid under diagenetic and low grade metamorphic conditions, aqueous and hydrocarbon fluid systems in fluid inclusions. He is institutional coordinator of the Erasmus programme and supervisor of bachelor's, master's and PhD projects.

Slobodník: It depends. When a university has a lot of students in a particular programme, there is not much space for all the needed educational activities that require a personal approach. But it is necessary to enforce a balance between important practical skills and computer “modelling”.

Zolotaya: A university education assumes a high basic level of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology and geophysics. Computers are actively used while carrying out seminars in these subjects.

What are the most important current integrated developments from the industry to the petroleum engineering education system?

Fahes: Some of the new software packages and simulators developed by the industry are very helpful in exposing students to the type of decisions they have to make in the industry.

Lillo: Creation and participation in Masters courses and specialization studies.

Slobodník: Asking questions to derive a solution.

Zolotaya: The integration of universities with leading companies of the oil and gas industry is very important, as this guarantees an output of specialists having a high level of knowledge in their field

Do you have any personal advice for students developing their career potential for the petroleum engineering industry?

Fahes: Students should work on developing their ability to work independently and develop their research skills. When you are faced with a problem, don’t run to your teacher asking for help. Take the time to research the problem and find the answer then try to discuss the outcome with your teacher. Getting used to research on various topics will prepare you for the life-long learning that is needed in the industry and in any career path you take. It’s a skill you have to develop and it’s hard to achieve it if you get into the habit of depending on others to provide you with answers.

Lillo: Get a complete formation as a geoscientist in your graduate studies. It is the only way to develop the basic skills you need to understand and face the problems. Afterwards, get a specialization if you want, but not before.

Slobodník: It is an advantage to be flexible and to keep a broad scope of knowledge in several disciplines of science, because there are broad jobs which require this – from exploration geologists to important state administration positions.

Zolotaya: Without a doubt, students at MSU must actively read periodical magazines in Russian and English. They also should take part in conferences for geologists and geophysicists, such as those organized by the EAGE.

Tom Guest: Studying at several universities has exposed me to numerous companies from different sectors of the Geosciences domain. Having my PhD funded by an oilfield services company is a great advantage since I can find out from them informally what they are looking for in new recruits and assess if certain sectors of the industry are right for me.

Boris Platov: Yes. Our current education prepares us both for work in the oil and gas industry and for work in geosciences.

We have practice in field research and data interpretation in national oil and gas companies. We therefore have some experience when we graduate.

Loubna Terhzaz: I had a polyvalent education during my studies, which is giving me the opportunity to be flexible. I think this is very important for the job market in the current economic crisis. Having studied different modules of geosciences, environment, computer skills, software, and various scientific tools, has provided a real opportunity for me and my colleagues to find a job.

Tobała Tymoteusz: Yes, I’m quite sure about that. Our overall education is based on several factors: a professional theoretical background in geophysics, field training with various equipment, and membership in our student society which offers us participation in science projects

What expectations do you have from your first job in the geoscience industry, taking into consideration the economic crisis?

Tom Guest: It’s hard to have expectations in the current climate. Fellow colleagues looking for jobs either secured positions before the current economic crisis and still have jobs waiting for them, whilst others are experiencing a complete recruitment freeze by most companies in the oil and gas sector. I still have an open mind to which sector I finally enter when I finish my PhD. I think that being openminded in the current climate is essential.

Boris Platov: Well, I expect that my first job will be interesting. I’m not depending on a great salary, but I think it will be enough for beginning.

Tom Guest: At heart I think I’m an outdoors person. Throughout my education, hands-on practical work has always been one of the most enjoyable aspects of my work. I’m also a keen computer programmer, with computer algorithm design making up a large section of my PhD. Ideally I would like a job that can combine the two areas of the geosciences I enjoy the most. Pros I would accept would be: some outdoor work, technical job, good pay, overseas work. Cons I would accept: long hours, overseas work.

Boris Platov: My ideal job should be interesting; it should give the opportunity to increase my knowledge and give different work experience. I don’t want to stop my education after I graduate, and my job should be interested in this. I can also work in difficult weather conditions for months!

Tobała Tymoteusz: My first ambition is to actually find a perfect job despite the economic crisis. I hope that my first job will allow constant development of my skills, working in a multinational environment, and being rewarded to a satisfying degree.

Loubna Terhzaz: The ideal job for me is where I can develop all my tools and my knowledge in order to discover new areas, new people and learn every day.

I want to feel that I am important in my environment and the company has confidence in me and will give me the opportunity to grow, be at the level of the desires of my family, and also give me satisfaction at a personal level.

To achieve that, I have to work hard and invest the maximum of my effort.

Unfortunately I will probably spend less time with my family - which is a con of my ideal job.

Please describe an overview of your ideal job, including what pros and cons you would accept?

Tobała Tymoteusz: I would like to travel a lot and work in a challenging environment. I realize that I will probably have to

Loubna Terhzaz: I expect to have professional experience, get the possibility to prove my potential, to be in difficult situations, to learn, discover, work hard and grow.

Tom Guest completed his Geophysics undergraduate degree at Leeds University, UK, which incorporated a year abroad at the Pennsylvania State University (USA), in 2004. He continued his studies at Cambridge University (UK) where, in 2005, he obtained an MPhil in “Fluid flow in industry and the environment”. He worked for a small atmospheric dispersion modelling company as an environmental consultant and software developer until 2006, when he started his PhD course at the University of Edinburgh. The PhD is partially industry funded and focuses on how statistical experimental design methods can be developed and applied to designing optimal geophysical surveys. In 2008, he helped set-up, and was president of, the Edinburgh Geophysical Student Society, an EAGE student chapter.

SPECIAL interview • page 83

Do you feel your current education has prepared you to maximize your potential in the future job market?

and helps to explore the oil industry through things like company presentations and internships.

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Students answers:

leave Poland for a while, but I can accept that. To be more accurate, I would like to work in offshore seismic acquisition – a few weeks working then a few weeks of free time - although it might be a bit hard to adapt to night shifts.

Do you feel confident that there will be jobs available for new graduates in the future geoscience industry or do you feel there will be fewer jobs?

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SPECIAL interview • page 84

Tom Guest: I think that is a difficult question to answer given the current climate. If the economic crisis continues for an extended period then I’m not

Loubna Terhzaz graduated in 2008 with a Masters degree in “Geodynamics and Valorisation of Oceanic Margins, Littoral and EEZ” at the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco.

She has participated in several European research projects, including sedimentological and ecological studies of the Nador Lagoon (Eastern Mediterranean Coast) and analysis of the distribution of cold water corals and associated biota in The Netherlands, which contributed to a pre-drilling environmental impact assessment. She has sailed on oceanographic research cruises in the Gulf of Cadiz and Alboran Sea. She has participated in several geosciences meetings and conferences, including the AAPG and EAGE.

too hopeful for short term employment opportunities within some sectors of the industry. However, there will always be jobs available for graduates in the geosciences - it might just be that the sectors that employ the most graduates change as different area of the geosciences grow and shrink.

for me at this time is to get professional experience - whatever the salary.

Boris Platov: Geology is very old profession. I think there will be enough work for new graduates, for example in geoinformation systems.

Can the EAGE assist you with your future career potential?

Loubna Terhzaz: In my opinion, the whole world needs energy and natural resources, and geoscience research and activities are the way to find these natural resources and the precious sources of energy. I don’t think we will stop needing non-renewable energy. However; the numbers of geoscience graduates are getting fewer compared to commerce and computer sciences graduates, so they should be in demand. I guess that the current crisis is just provisional and I am sure that the geosciences industry will soon stand up again and there will be enough opportunities for new graduates.

Tobała Tymoteusz: Actually, I already feel that there are fewer jobs for graduates, but I’m quite self-confident and I believe that eventually I will find “the one”. I am a positive thinker.

What do you estimate your first salary will be in the current job market?

Tom Guest: Depending on the industry sector I would hope for a starting annual salary in the range €30,000 to €40,000.

However, if I find a job that is ideal for me I would be prepared to start on a lower salary if I knew there was a career path that suits me. I will always believe that job satisfaction is paramount.

Boris Platov: I don’t depend on a great salary. First I should get some work experience.

Loubna Terhzaz: In this economic crisis, I estimate that my salary will be less then what I could have expected or wanted previously, but the most important thing

Tobała Tymoteusz: I don’t think that the crisis will affect the salary – at least I hope so! I hope for about €2,000-€3,000 net per month, depending on the environment and type of job.

Tom Guest: I hope so. I am attending the Amsterdam ‘09 conference and I think the exhibition hall will be a great way of seeing the diversity of companies out there and what they have to offer.

Attending as many of the student activities as possible will also, hopefully, allow me to find which job sector my skills and education are best suited for and conversely which skills and knowledge areas are lacking for other jobs.

Boris Platov: The EAGE is a scientific organisation. It could help with education and communication. I could get some special information about the geosciences and, of course, about job opportunities. Maybe I’ll be able to work in the EAGE itself?

Loubna Terhzaz: The EAGE assists new students and gives them the opportunity to show their potential. It also connects students with industry. The EAGE is giving me the opportunity to acquire knowledge to discover new horizons, to be in touch with industrial people and geosciences students, and update me about industry, research and different activities.

Tobała Tymoteusz: It already did!

Last year we established a local EAGE Student Chapter and organized a large geophysical conference for Polish physics and geophysics students. Thanks to this conference, a few months later I was on an offshore internship. First Break provides me with technological and theoretical updates, and helps me to explore the industry. After finding my first geophysical job I hope to start attending EAGE conferences and ­continue to develop my skills.

Boris Platov is studying at the geological faculty of the Kazan State University (KSU), Russian Federation. He is president of the EAGE Kazan Student Chapter.

Founded in 1804, KSU is one of the oldest Russian universities. It is associated with many world-renowned figures, like the father of non-Euclidian geometry, Nikolai Lobachevsky; the writer, Leo Tolstoy; the discoverer of the Antarctic, Ivan Simonov; the founder of organic chemistry, Alexander Butlerov; a father of modern linguistics, Ivan Baudouin de Courtenay; the discoverer of electron spin resonance, Evgeniy Zavoisky; and the Soviet leader Vladimir Ulianov, otherwise known as Lenin. KSU has more than 14,000 full-time students.

Tom Guest: Throughout my undergraduate degree I tried to select modules that spanned the whole of the geosciences.

As my educational career has developed I have specialised in Geophysics and, more specifically, computer based geophysics.

I think that my education has allowed me to have a strong base of the geosciences

Did you receive adequate information on future employment opportunities and possibilities during your studies?

Tom Guest: Yes on the industrial side. Oil companies would often come to the universities to recruit for the general graduate schemes. I realise that the small

"Never stop your education and never give up!" in general, with specialisation towards environmental and industrial scale geophysics.

Boris Platov: Yes. Our education program gives a strong geological base. It includes such disciplines as information technologies, digital data interpretation and geoinformation systems.

Loubna Terhzaz: I have had the chance to gain a high level of geology education and good computer skills, although less knowledge about geophysics. I feel that my education provides me with enough skills to be adaptable and work on any geosciences project.

companies do not have the resources to do so, but I would have liked to see what smaller service companies offer and what environmental options are available to geophysics students. I use the Internet to gauge the types of jobs out there so that I have a realistic view of what will be available to me when I start applying.

Boris Platov: Yes, but I think it could be better.

Loubna Terhzaz: Every year the ministry of education organizes a forum in Casablanca for future employment opportunities and possibilities available

for students, assembling different industries, institutes and future graduates.

Participating in different meetings and conferences is also important to build professional networks during study and build adequate information about employment possibilities.

Tobała Tymoteusz: Yes, mostly thanks to our student society “Geofon”. By organizing presentations and meetings, this society provided us with the necessary information about geophysical companies and organizations - that’s how I found the EAGE.

How important do you feel building a professional network during your studies will affect your future job possibilities?

Tom Guest: I don’t think you can ever underestimate the importance of networking, especially in the current climate. A job application to someone who you already have a professional relationship with, however tenuous, is always going to be better than having no connection at all. You have to be proactive and develop a network whenever possible.

Boris Platov: I think it’s very important.

We should communicate to know about job opportunities and the latest geoscience news.

Loubna Terhzaz: In my opinion, it is not just important but absolutely necessary to build a professional network during studies because it is the first step for looking for a job and for career. It helps also to exchange ideas and news.

SPECIAL interview • page 85

Tobała Tymoteusz: Yes, I do. I trust that the education provided by my university will match the demands of the industry.

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Do you feel your education provides a strong base of basic geological and geophysical skills as well as highly computerized skills?

Tobała Tymoteusz is a student at the AGH University of Science and Technology (UST), Krakow, Poland. He expects to graduate in June 2009 with a degree in geology, geophysics and environmental protection. He has specialized in prospecting geophysics, including seismics, well logging, magnetometry, gravimetry, petrophysics, geoelectrical methods, sedimentology and structural geology. In 2008 he participated in a tour of Ramform Sovereign as one of the winners of the PGS “Get on Board” competition, and has had work experience with PGS in the UK. He has also had an internship onboard a Polish research vessel as a seismic/acoustic equipment operator.

Tobała Tymoteusz: It’s hard to ­determine now, but I’m pretty sure that “growing up” within such a network gives you a head start in the industry. I expect that such a background may come in handy when a bigger problem arises. It’s also a great way to get some help from professional colleagues.

Based on your experience, what specific advice do you have for your peers looking to be successful within this challenging industry?

Tom Guest: I think you need to find out as much as possible about the different career paths available to you and not just the ones that most graduates take. An internship is one of the best ways to see how a company operates, how and where you would fit in, and if that company would be right for you without committing to a job contract. I also know people who have gone into certain jobs purely for the money. I think that is not the way to go. Unless you are happy in your job you will never be successful.

Boris Platov: Never stop your education and never give up!

Loubna Terhzaz: Be patient, believe in your potential, work hard to prove it and improve your English!

Tobała Tymoteusz: Do not hesitate.

Act when there is an opportunity.

Don’t be scared of picking up ­ challenges - they may become your ­biggest­adventure.

‘We’re serious about students!’

Invest in the future.

Invest in the EAGE Student Fund.

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SPECIAL interview • page 86

The EAGE Student Fund dedicates itself to supporting a number of student activities in order to interest students in geosciences, further their career, and encourage them to participate in EAGE events.

Activities

www.eage.org

12xxx-EAGE Student fund (ESF-V1H).indd 1

• Student Lecture Tours • Student Memberships • Student Conference Programmes • Support for Student Conferences • Student Travel Grants • Scholarships 08-04-2009 17:25:17

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From Pore to Basin Scale

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2nd International Conference on Fault and Top Seals Montpellier, France, 21-24 September 2009

Preparing for the future Dylan Thomas, a Schlumberger recruiter, discusses an all-girls energy programme that Schlumberger has been running with Banff and Buchan College of Further Education near Aberdeen, Scotland, to equip young women with the skills they need for the world of work.

For most college students the next step after completing education will almost certainly involve pursuing a career. And although some individuals already have their career path set in stone at a young age, the vast majority of people only roughly know what they want to do, let alone how to achieve it.

Traditional stereotypes still play a role whereby even today a lot of people, either consciously on unconsciously,

Meanwhile, the transition from education to employment can be additionally challenging as young people adapt to the working environment and begin a new life outside of their school or university. For example, what is the expected office etiquette? What happens in a meeting? How do I participate in a teleconference? And most importantly, what exactly does this job I’ve decided to pursue involve?

SPECIAL schlumberger feature • page 88

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associate engineering and scienceorientated jobs with men, and more service- and communication-based roles with women. This can sometimes result from the ‘parent’s legacy’ whereby children form their career ideas based on their parent’s lifestyle. Often, female students may not even consider a role in a traditionally male-dominated industry and vice versa, hence limiting their career options and possibilities.

Skills for Work

Practical lessons and on-site visits form a large proportion of the Energy course.

Banff and Buchan College offers Skills for Work courses in engineering and construction to teach employability skills with a specific focus on social skills, teamwork, and good citizenship ethics.

In addition to academic and technical classes, the course seeks to prepare students for their first steps into the working world. Banff and Buchan is one of ten schools in the north east of Scotland that currently offer these courses. However, although 400 students are involved

in various Skills for Work courses, the number of girls enrolling in the courses was consistently low. Consequently, new measures were needed to attract more female students to the course and hence level the playing field. In 2008, Schlumberger began sponsoring an all-female Skills for Work Energy course run at Turiff Academy, part of Banff and Buchan College. The course sought to kindle local girl’s interest in science and technology at a time when they are making important decisions about their future. The Skills for Work Energy encourages girls to learn what it means to be an engineer and also about the exciting jobs available in the oil and gas industry.

Education to employment Banff and Buchan College offers a two-year Energy course over two double periods a week. The course is integrated into the heart of the school’s curricular provision and there are currently 12 girls participating in the class. Two young female Schlumberger employees deliver the curricular material and mentor the girls. This year the two Schlumberger employees are petrophysicist Sarita McVicar-Wright, 28, and borehole geophysicist Claire Jones, 24. Together they prepared and taught the first oil and gas module in the course, Drilling and Seismic, which covered basic geology, seismic acquisition, and drilling.

“As an exercise, we gave the students a seismic section to interpret. We offered a few pointers and after a while they managed to pick out the fault,” Claire explains. “They were really enthusiastic and enjoyed it, and now when they hear the title, ‘geophysicist’, they have more of an idea about what that is”.

Mentoring Sarita, a former teacher and now a petrophysicist, and Claire, who joined

The practical element All aspects of the Energy course are linked to practical applications through site visits and field experiments in the

One of the girls currently enrolled on the course is Bethan. She is now interested in engineering and believes the course will give her a good start for the future. “I like the way we learn—we do practical things, and make company visits,” she says.

The future of energy David Cook, sector manager for technology at Banff and Buchan college, is encouraged by the results from the first all-girl Energy course. “We see that the girls’ results are improving—not just in the special energy subjects—but in all their classes as they have become more

motivated for school”. The idea is catching on, and other academies in the local area are keen to get started.

As well as preparing students for the imminent world of work, providing future career ideas in engineering and science, and increasing confidence, it is hoped that the Energy course will contribute to improving gender diversity by attracting new female recruits to the industry.

The next generation of engineers and geophysicists will have to assimilate more technology, more rapidly, than any previous population, and they will have to do so in an era of greater reservoir challenges. One thing remains constant—the “people” element will always remain at the core of success. In the end, technology without the right people is just equipment. Therefore to meet future energy demands, we need to ensure that the best talent, regardless of gender, race, or religion, is attracted to the oil and gas industry.

Be Bold. Discover the Opportunities.

for more information: cggveritas.com/careers

SPECIAL schlumberger feature • page 89

Mentoring provides the girls with a chance to think about career options and explore new ideas in confidence. Consequently, the girls are able to look more closely at themselves, potential issues, opportunities and what they want in life both now and in the future. The Skills for Work Energy course also seeks to make the girls more self-aware by taking responsibility for their lives and directing their futures in the direction they decide, rather than leaving things to chance.

college. The current class has been on an excursion to the Peterhead Power Station, toured the new BP center, and been to the Schlumberger offices twice.

The students were given the opportunity to visit the Schlumberger Wireline base in Aberdeen and they were special guests at the opening of the company’s Testing Services division’s new Well Control Center of Excellence.

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Schlumberger in 2006, are also mentors for the students. The women act as role models for the younger girls, and provide guidance and support throughout the course. The mentors rely upon having had similar experiences when they themselves were at school and an understanding of the potential challenges that the girls may encounter.

What a difference Debra Page, human resources manager, for Numerical Rocks AS Ltd, sizes up today’s employment market and the competition

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SPECIAL numerical rocks feature • page 90

for recruiting talented staff.

Warning sirens have been sounding for some considerable time regarding the impending wave of E&P staff retirements. These include warnings to companies not to sit idly by while their post-war “baby boomers” leave the industry, taking with them 1,000’s of years of knowledge and experience. There have also been warnings about the urgent need to dramatically increase the number of newcomers into the oil and gas (O&G) industry. Now we are faced with a dramatically different fiscal reality: will the current financial crisis lead to reduced recruitment budgets, a closer focus on new headcount, less funding for graduate hires and a general reduction in new jobs?

Of course, long-term planning should never lose out to short-term financial considerations: however sometimes these things happen…..

The 2008 edition of this Recruitment Special contained an article by Numerical Rocks entitled “Minnow vs. whale: how to compete with the big boys”, describing how small companies (minnows) could create a niche recruitment approach to offset the marketing power and global reach of large cash-rich companies (whales). How could tiny companies possibly compete with the colossal recruitment efforts and budgets of large companies? The current world financial

crisis is going to play a very important role in shaping graduate job opportunities and will thus affect both short- and long-term career decisions.

Numerical Rocks eCore workflow.

During the last 12 months, Numerical Rocks has grown by another 22% in terms of employee numbers. The latest five hires, all with MSC or PhD qualifica-

a year makes

In February this year, British graduates were told by The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which represents hundreds of UK employers, that it expected graduate vacancies to decline by 5.4% in 2009, with recruitment in banking expected to fall by 28%. Given the subsequent banking problems since February, it is not unreasonable to assume that this number will increase further. The AGR also

suggested that if graduates don’t get their dream job first time around, they would be better-off stacking supermarket shelves rather than taking time off to travel. They also had advice for people tempted into further study until the job market picks up: “They should do so only if it would make them more employable. If further study is not going to give you more skills, then why do it?” While investigating what recent economic changes might mean for our industry’s recruitment and retention efforts, I spoke to some of the latest Numerical Rocks hires about how they and their peers and class-mates decided the ‘who, how, why, what, where’ in their search for employment. I include the responses from two of these new hires:

Reservoir engineer Joined January 2009 PhD from Imperial College, London, UK

Numerical Rocks, based in Trondheim, Norway, provides products and services related to the use of its proprietary e-Core technology to obtain cost effective, flexible and fast reservoir characterisation solutions. This specialist technology can be described as a digital core laboratory for modelling petrophysical properties and simulating fluid flow, at pore scale, in reservoir rocks based on high-resolution thin sections or micro CT images of reservoir core plugs or drill cuttings.

The company was founded with two engineers via a StatoilHydro spin-off five years ago. Today it has 27 employees covering 10 nationalities. Technical employees include petrophysicists, physicists, geologists, mathematicians and computer scientists.

Numerical Rocks will be on Stand #1040 at the the 71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition. www.numericalrocks.com

SPECIAL numerical rocks feature • page 91

Norway is preparing for its current 2% unemployment level to rise to 5% by the end of 2009. Despite having already rolled-out a bank support package, the country is seeing layoffs—primarily in building, light-industry and retail. There is, however, some flexibility, because several Norwegian industries use short-term foreign workers, many of whom will return to their home country if there is no work here. How the tighter credit markets, lower barrel prices and reduced oil company stock prices will affect O&G projects and suppliers will take a little more time to be felt in Norway, but we can all expect to feel the pinch. Changes

to travel policy, project sign-offs and an ever closer focus on the bottom line are likely at client companies. This may present new opportunities for companies like Numerical Rocks, which offers cost savings via faster and more accurate reservoir rock data.

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tions, are from Norway, Europe, Asia and Africa, bringing an even greater diversity into our workplace. We are particularly pleased that our strategy of direct recruitment has continued to pay off. Two of the new hires applied directly from their university, one applied from a neighbouring company and another was personally recommended by a sub-contractor. The fifth, our new Sales & Marketing Director, was found through the EAGE Job Centre at the Rome conference and exhibition.

Sales & HR staff.

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SPECIAL numerical rocks feature • page 92

How did you get your current job?

I heard of Numerical Rocks via my professor, Martin Blunt, who has known Pål-Eric Øren, one of the company’s founders, for many years. I also knew that an Imperial PhD student had joined the company the previous year after completing a summer internship in 2006.

I met both Pål-Eric and the ex-Imperial student face-to-face during the annual Pore Scale Modelling workshop held at Imperial each January. I had a formal interview in Trondheim in April 2008, received an offer in May, finished my studies in January this year and moved to Trondheim a few days later. The interview and offer process with Numerical Rocks was relatively quick, but I needed a visa just to attend the interview. Some other companies I interviewed with at the same time took considerably longer.

In fact, one multi-national I met has still not closed their recruitment process after running interviews this time last year.

How and when did you start thinking about your job search?

I started applying for jobs about a year before my studies were due to be completed. I interviewed with a number of companies, some large and some small. I had thought long and hard about whether to stay in my ‘niche’ or go into consultancy. I received an offer for consultancy but in the end chose to stay closer to my specialism. In that particular company I would have been the only pore-scale specialist, with no one to share knowledge or bounce ideas off.

IT Scrum meeting.

I’ve spent many years developing my knowledge and didn’t want to lose contact with the field so quickly. Additionally, as a father of 3 children under the age of 7, I needed to consider where, geographically, I wanted to bring up my family. This is an important issue in the O&G industry, which can offer careers in some particularly family-unfriendly locations.

Were your class-mates similarly minded?

I was among a very small group of doctorate students in my particular study area who were similarly minded and received job offers from different companies around the same time. However, many others in the department were being sponsored, either by an employer to whom they needed to return, or by their government, in which case returning to work in their home country was part of the sponsorship deal.

What careers support was available from your university?

Imperial offered a lot of support: everything from CV writing to drop-in sessions with potential employers. The student union also invited a good number of companies to present themselves to students, which is an easy way for a student to quickly learn a lot about the job and career market.

Do you know of anyone who took radical actions in looking for a job?

Not radical, but I know it was quite common for people to accept their first job offer(s) then break the contract if they

received another offer they preferred.

I know a foreign student studying in London who accepted a job outside of the UK, but in fact wanted to stay there.

He held onto the first offer for 6 months before finally telling the company he’d not be joining them after all. On the other hand, I heard of an electrical engineering student who didn’t get any offers at all. His supervisor created a 6 month post-doctorate position for him, but even after this experience, sadly he still hasn’t found a job.

What do you think the market will be like for this year’s graduates?

I would expect somewhat less opportunity, although don’t forget that the industry is facing the loss of a generation of experienced workers.

A lot depends on whether companies have followed through on their original recruitment plans or have recently implemented cut-backs. I think there are still jobs out there, but maybe not as many as people hope.

Can you see any positives to the current financial market upheaval?

I can imagine that many companies are looking closely at their existing and planned projects. Re-evaluation of existing procedures can often bring benefits.

I suspect that the dramatic changes in external credit and financing will result in some costly practices being phased-out and others brought in to help streamline routines or costs. This could mean a higher degree of expectation for project deliverables.

"I think that internships, practical work experience and exposure to the industry will be more important than ever."

What do you think the credit crunch and fall in stock and barrel prices will mean for the O&G industry?

Start as early as possible! Even 18 months before graduating isn’t too soon to learn more about future sectors and employers and to build a picture of your priorities when entering the job market. For example, if you can make some decisions about where, geographically, you would be able and prepared to move, this will help define your job search later on. Accept that you may have less choice than you earlier imagined. If you think you’ll get more offers later, ask for more thinking time so that you can weigh up all options without letting the early offer(s) go. For anyone with the time, experience is going to stand out on an applicants' CV even more now.

Perhaps be wider in thinking about where relevant experience can be gained, which may not necessarily be in O&G.

Any other comments?

I have a ‘déjà vu’ feeling about the current market, because when I finished my MSc at the Imperial college in 1999, the oil price was very low (about $20) and the job market was very poor. I decided then that any oil company work experience was better than none. Consequently, even though I wanted to work upstream, I accepted a job in my home country working downstream in a purely ­commercial sector of the business, unrelated to my studies. I had the chance to learn at first-hand the ­realities of commercial life, which is always an eye opener after years of study. I also got a major oil company’s name onto my CV and worked hard to get good references for when I came out into the job market again.

Numerical Rocks geologists at work.

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SPECIAL feature • page 93

People still need to buy fuel and transport themselves around. The market for oil will not disappear for a long time yet. People might cut-back and maybe stick with their existing car rather than trading-up every few years. Nevertheless, most car owners will still want to drive, and if you look at parts of the developing world, there are millions of emerging middle classes who consider car ownership to be part of their personal economic development. Oil prices will rise again, investments currently put on hold will come back online, and the dramatic peaks and troughs perhaps avoided in future.

I’m not sure that we will see anything like the rapid drop from 145 to 45 dollars a barrel happen so quickly again.

What advice do you have for anyone about to start their job search?

How did you get your current job?

I was given Numerical Rocks’ name by my professor at NTNU. It was a bit ‘off the cuff’, but she knew of the company and their fit to my studies on parallel computing. I’m not from Trondheim and had previously been a summer intern at a small IT company closer to home in Oslo, but for personal reasons I wanted to stay in Trondheim for at least another few years.

I’d already taken a gap year to travel around South America and so was ready to take a permanent job after graduating.

How and when did you start thinking about your job search?

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SPECIAL numerical rocks feature • page 94

I’d already been attending some careers open evenings at NTNU. Several are held each autumn, and I was fairly selective about which to attend. I already knew that I didn’t want to go into consultancy as I wanted to stay closer to my subject and didn’t feel ready to broaden out at that point. Many of my classmates, perhaps half, accepted consultancy positions. I think this suited most, but not all, as I know a few who are already thinking of leaving less than a year later. I sent an ‘on spec’ application to Numerical Rocks in late February 2008, which resulted in interviews. I received an offer almost exactly one month after my initial enquiry. I remember that the process was quick although the interviews themselves were longer and more in-depth than I had expected. One thing I really appreciated was that the company agreed to my taking an extended summer holiday after my exams and before starting work in September.

Were your classmates similarly minded?

Because I’d taken a year off to travel mid-way through my course, many of my NTNU classmates were quite new to me, but I realized that many people were attending all the presentations, sometimes because of the company but sometimes more because of the food and drinks on offer! Some presentations were open to everyone and others limited to a specific year or course. Only 5% of the people on my course were women, and they received invitations, and later-on job offers, from certain companies up to a year earlier than their male classmates.

Software developer Joined September 2008 M.Sc from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

What careers support was available from your university?

Except for the all important referral from my professor, I only really accessed the NTNU career services through the corporate open evenings, although I know there were seminars on offer for CV preparation and interview technique plus a careers advice service for students.

Do you know of anyone who took radical actions in looking for a job?

No - almost the opposite! I knew someone who saw his classmates getting offers and being quickly snapped-up 6 months before graduation. Confident that he’d do the same, he decided not to apply for jobs until his return from a long summer break. By then, the job market had become much tighter, and he had a much harder time than he had expected. He eventually got a job, but it is temporary and not in his first choice of field.

What do you think the market will be like for this year’s graduates?

I suspect there will much less choice.

For my type of study, I hear that some consultancies are still recruiting, but fewer private and smaller companies.

In general, many 2009 recruitment programmes were approved and budgeted in 2008, before the crunch really hit, so the real picture may not be clear until spring 2010.

Can you see any positives to the current financial market upheaval?

Only that some existing “flabby”, and thus often expensive, company policies may be tightened-up. For example, travel budgets will be looked at more carefully, there will be fewer “nice-tohave” conferences and there will be more focus on effectiveness before

a purchase is made. I can also see potential benefits for companies like Numerical Rocks that offer cost- and time-savings over more traditional reservoir estimation techniques. We can deliver reservoir rock data in less than 2 weeks, which could equate to millions saved whilst waiting for laboratory data to come back.

What do you think the credit crunch and fall in stock and barrel prices will mean for the O&G industry?

I think the industry is already seeing a marked slow-down in new projects being approved, budgets being more carefully scrutinized, longer approvals for project extensions and, hopefully, a continued interest in faster technology to help in data acquisition and decision making.

What advice do you have for anyone about to start their job search?

Don’t wait and don’t make positive assumptions about other later offers.

This is definitely a time to seriously consider any firm offer of employment, even if it is not exactly what you had hoped for or imagined your first role might be. There’s a train of thought that when the job market is tight, a gap year might be a good idea, in the hope that the market will be better on your return.

I’m not sure anyone today thinks that the current crisis is short-term. Recruitment budgets and headcount approvals for 2010 are being made now.

Any other comments?

I think that internships, practical work experience and exposure to the industry will be more important than ever. If you get the chance of working through your Christmas, Easter or summer holidays, take it!

About EAGE • • • • •

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Forr a comp Fo complete mple le ette overview of all EA EAGE activities, please visit our website.

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The view from the recruiters: Working Smart Deirdre O’Donnell, managing director Working Smart is a specialist recruitment company supplying personnel solely to oil, gas and related service companies. It also operates Graduate Smart, the world’s first dedicated graduate e-recruitment solution for connecting young ­geoscientists and engineers with the upstream oil and gas industry. www.working-smart.co.uk and www.graduate-smart.com

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SPECIAL headhunters • page 96

Why should young people consider a career in the energy business?

It is well recognised that about 50% of the workers in our industry will be due to retire within the next 5-10 years.

With the looming departure of these “baby boomers”, there are immense opportunities in the energy business for the next generation of geoscientists and engineers to rapidly progress their careers. Opportunities exist across the entire value-chain, with the greatest requirement within the engineering sector. The global demand for energy is projected to grow in the medium and long term, and young people will be required to support all types of energy supplies; from hydrocarbons to renewables. The energy industry has a great deal to offer the young, including innovative technology, structured training and development programs, professional qualifications, mentoring and support, and excellent career longevity. The industry also offers highly competitive entry-level salaries and benefits. Working in the energy business has the added bonus of a global job market,

creating plenty of opportunity for travel in a career with major international companies.

What are you looking for in applicants?

When hiring graduates our clients are looking, in the first instance, at the subject and grade of their degree. Most oil companies require a second degree, such as an MSc. Companies are increasingly focusing on the potential of the graduate, and the value they can add to the company’s objectives over the long term. They are looking for good communication skills, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and travel, a flexible and proactive approach to work, and of course they must be a team player (see graph page).

Companies invest heavily in training and development and it is imperative that their hires will be a good cultural fit and are able to progress successfully.

When hiring professionals, the focus is on relevant experience as well as technical ability. We hold detailed discussions with our clients to determine the precise

technical expertise and personal attributes they require.

Some candidates may look excellent on paper but in practice are not quite as impressive or might not fit into the corporate culture. It is essential to get the balance right. Devising an appropriate selection process is key, and this is one of Working Smart’s particular strengths.

What degrees are you looking for?

For some engineering roles, such as mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, a first degree is acceptable in most cases. Some service companies will also accept a first degree; however the majority of oil companies will require a second degree, such as an MSc, for engineering or geoscience technical roles. This applies for both graduates and professionals. For management roles, an MBA is becoming increasingly desirable and for senior level project management roles, relevant certification is expected, such as Prince2 and PMP. For specialised fields such as geomechanics, rock physics and controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) development, a PhD is always a major advantage.

What advice would you give candidates preparing for interview?

What career paths are available?

The energy industry has numerous career paths across its value chain and requires an extensive workforce from new graduates to seasoned professionals. The oil exploration and production (E&P) lifecycle involves a great many technical and managerial roles in the field, platform and office. For example, we need geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers to explore for new reserves. We need petroleum and drilling engineers to produce those reserves and a range of people in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of oil and gas platforms, pipelines, refineries and terminals, including electrical, chemical, mechanical, process, facility, design and pipeline engineers. We also need a

Reasons why companies hire graduates.

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SPECIAL headhunters • page 97

Our top tips for interview preparation are to: 1. Company research: Undertake detailed research of the company and, if relevant, its products and services. Ensure you have a good understanding of the company’s business, where it operates its objectives and culture. Shortly before your interview date, search and read recent press releases involving the company.

2. Do job research: Find out what the job entails and how the job fits within the overall structure

of the company. A good recruitment agency will always provide a detailed job specification and some background information.

3. Prepare: You should be ready for questions about your academic and work background, aspirations, ­personality and interests, and of course your knowledge of the industry, company, and the position you are applying for. It’s always good to have a few questions to ask the interviewer. Our websites provide advice, including questions that you may be asked.

4. Identify: Understand who you are meeting, their job title and their responsibilities.

5. Plan ahead: Have a location map, company contact details, and plan to arrive approximately 15 minutes before the interview time.

6. Do industry research: Check out general industry news, trends and the latest oil prices.

range of support roles such as IT, data management, HR, finance, sales, marketing, traders, analysts and procurement.

With continued growing demand for oil and gas, governments around the world are actively promoting their licensing of hydrocarbon acreage to international companies. Many countries are running their first oil licensing rounds, and we have seen an increase in many related activities such as seismic acquisition and processing, data-room preparation, asset evaluation and prospect reporting. This increased activity will continue to create many new career opportunities for national and internationally mobile staff.

What other advice would you give young people considering a career in the energy industry?

I believe that the current economic downturn will result in a decrease in the number of graduate hires in our industry over the next 12-24 months. Many of us recognise the importance of maintaining the pipeline of geoscience and engineering graduates and I am hoping that the mistakes made in the 1999 downturn, when many companies stopped hiring altogether, will not be repeated. My main advice to university students is to continue with their education and become knowledgeable in some of the emerging practices and technologies, especially relating to drilling technology and alternative energy supplies. When they emerge in the upturn, which we know will come, graduates with additional skills will be well placed to progress their career rapidly.

They must remain positive; as the demand for energy grows, then so will the demand for their talent. With the impending departure of the baby-boomers, the next generation is key.

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SPECIAL headhunters • page 98

What is your main way to recruit?

We provide a comprehensive range of recruiting services. We are also actively involved in numerous initiatives relating to E&P talent management. Our Graduate Smart website focuses on the needs of young geoscientists and engineers. The Working Smart site is tailored to match employer’s needs with the skills, competencies and career preferences of industry professionals.

• E xecutive headhunting: A market-driven service used to identify and recruit for board level, senior management and specialized technical positions. This is a customised, discrete service, including detailed interviews, reporting and ranking of candidates. All of our recruitment consultants and management team are from the upstream oil industry, and have excellent relationships with professionals throughout the industry.

• Market/search/select: This is a database-driven service. We have more than 25,000 registered E&P professionals from 163 countries on our books, all actively seeking new opportunities. We have a unique skill-based competency databank and have developed

sophisticated technologies for searching, selecting and targeting candidates. Our response time from job approval to delivery of CVs of qualified applicants can be as little as 2 days.

• Advertising and marketing: Over the years we have built up a portfolio of effective advertising websites and marketing strategies, so that we know exactly where to target each individual job in order to reduce the time to hire.

How is the recruitment market responding to the current economic climate?

Since December 2008, a few of our clients have made some redundancies. We have been working with these clients to provide outplacement services to support their employees. In recent weeks we have experienced a major increase in the number of new candidate registrations and updates by existing candidates. This highlights the level of nervousness in the market as people are concerned about their job security. On the flipside, staff mobility is diminishing as people are less likely to move to a new employer for fear of redundancy via a “last-in, first-out” scenario. In addition, candidates who have long tenure with companies are hoping to reap lucrative redundancy packages as offered in the last downturn.

Whether such attractive packages materialise in the current climate is yet to be seen. Clearly this is going to be a difficult period for the industry as many projects are frozen and it is in inevitable that some non-core staff will be made redundant. The key for the recruitment market is to support their clients during this turbulent time.

How does the market respond to recruiters in the current economic climate?

Many companies in the market have experienced major cuts to their operating budgets, so are demanding better deals from recruiters. Recruitment companies need to be able to adapt their pricing model to meet current demands, whilst still maintaining the high level of service expected. With redundancies of non-core staff looming, there will be growing demand from the market to source and supply consultants on an as-needed basis.

The high oil prices of 2008 resulted in numerous recruiting organisations with no upstream oil and gas expertise entering the market and adopting aggressive sales techniques. In many cases, these companies offered very low entry prices but were unable to deliver a satisfactory service due to their lack of industry knowledge. Industry experience, a flexible pricing model, and excellent service delivery, are key to surviving in the current market.

Working Smart was established in 1996 as a specialised international upstream oil and gas recruitment company.

We work closely with our customers and have developed a strong loyal global client base. We experienced the 1999 crash and are confident that our service quality and expertise will support us through this downturn.

The view from the recruiters: Worldwideworker.com Mark van Mil, executive search consultant Worldwideworker.com is an HR Services, Recruitment and Manpower company, specializing in jobs for engineers, middle and higher management professionals in the international Oil & Gas industry; Upstream, Geoscience, Reservoir and Drilling. www.worldwideworker.com

recruitment

Our lives depend on energy. A hundred years ago, we travelled an average of just 8 km per person per year.

Today it is 20,000 km, excluding travel by airplane.

Without oil and gas this would be impossible. Besides this, oil is the base of numerous products that we use and consume on a daily basis. In addition to oil and gas, we have a growing market in renewable energy, a topic that is very hot these days. Unconventional methods can supply large amounts of energy in a more environmentally friendly way. Working in energy means working in an industry that influences every person on Earth. It is an industry that will exist for ever and that everyone needs. This creates great opportunities on a professional level. The energy ­business is hot!

SPECIAL headhunters • page 99

Why should young people consider a career in the energy business?

Our main ways to match employers and candidates are:

What are you looking for in applicants?

recruitment

SPECIAL headhunters • page 100

Character is probably the most important factor. Meeting the job requirements and having the right skills is, of course, important, but having a unique character is possibly of greater importance. Unique people are necessary for achieving goals and growing business.

Therefore it’s important to meet candidates face to face and to have an in-depth conversation with them. We want to know their plans for the future; what they see themselves growing into; how they should take on the position and what they expect from an employer. These are all important things for an employer. Also, I have learned from experience that employers in the energy industry are extremely proud of their products and services. They are looking for people that share this pride and passion.

People that cannot convince the employer that they share this passion are unlikely to be selected for interview or eventually hired.

What degrees are you looking for?

Well, that’s hard to say. It depends on several factors, including the industry segment and the level of the position. In general, I would say that having a technical degree is a strong benefit in the global energy industry. The lion’s share of the current skills shortage is in the manufacturing and engineering part of the industry, and a technical background is almost a must for positions in these segments.

What advice would you give candidates preparing for interview?

Stay yourself! The biggest mistake is to act like someone else or take on what candidates might consider socially expected behaviour. As I just said before, unique people

have the biggest chance, and if you take on a role, or even lie during your interview, the employer will find out during the first months and early departure will probably follow.

It is also important to show that you know as much as possible about the company and its products, services and/or activities. This shows that you have made some effort finding it out, reading about the company and that you are serious about the meeting. Arriving unprepared at an interview is one of the biggest mistakes.

What other advice would you give young people considering a career in the energy industry?

As I mentioned before, choose the energy industry and your particular speciality because of pride and passion, not just for the money. You will work for a great portion of your life, so you have to like your job. Attend conferences, exhibitions and career days, and speak with industry professionals. Ask them about their way of life, their travelling and their likes and dislikes about the job, so you can form an idea on whether you see yourself in that position.

What is your main way to recruit?

Worldwideworker.com has offices in all major energy regions, so combines strong local connections with a global reach. It is a challenge for employers to find the right candidates and an even bigger challenge to choose the right approach. All candidates are different, so there are different channels to use in finding them. Worldwideworker.com delivers targeted solutions to any human resources (HR) requirement thanks to our expertise in each recruitment channel, our candidate database and our extensive industry knowledge.

Online job board We own and operate the largest database of energy professionals in the world, containing 343,000 CV’s.

More than 1,000 new candidates register with us each week (as of March 2009). Each job vacancy is posted on our website. Our technical teams review each job description then filter our database to target the right candidates, who we then email. Interested candidates apply via our website. Their CV is sent directly to the potential employer’s email address. Candidates can also be linked to the client’s own career website to apply. The employer evaluates the candidates and contacts them directly.

Recruitment services Recruitment also starts with a job posting on Worldwideworker.com. Qualified candidates will be interviewed by one of our consultants. The client receives only screened and shortlisted candidates. Worldwideworker.com can

also deliver services such as organising interview days and making the necessary travel arrangements for the employer and candidate to meet. Depending on the need of the employer, we provide several other HR services, such as organising recruitment events, recruitment campaigns, manpower services, international payroll and outsourcing.

Executive Search This is the most dedicated approach of our company’s HR services. An in-depth study is performed to understand the client’s industry and market. Suitable candidates within selected companies are then approached directly.

Candidates that show initial interest are exposed to an in-depth screening and/or assessment program before introduction to the client. Our global network and knowledge of the energy industry enable us to find ideal candidates in all parts of the world, within every niche of the energy industry.

Subsalt Imaging Workshop: Focus on Azimuth 15-18 November 2009 – Cairo, Egypt

The EAGE Subsalt Imaging workshop will bring together key experts from oil companies, service companies and academia to discuss existing technologies based on traditional methods of data acquisition, processing and interpretation-visualization, and to present and debate new emerging technologies and methodologies.

Keynote Speaker Mr. Ibraheem Assa’adan, Executive Director, Exploration (Saudi Aramco)

www.eage.org

12577-EAGE–SIW-V*H.indd 1

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Leading Session Speakers Dr. Arthur B. Weglein (University of Houston) Mr. Michael Zinger, Red Sea Exploration Team Leader (Saudi Aramco)

SPECIAL headhunters • page 101

Subsalt Imaging plays a crucial role in the exploration and development of large hydrocarbon deposits around the world. In the last couple of years significant emphasis has been devoted to the contribution & integration of geology, geomechanics, borehole information, potential field and other non-seismic data in constraining the depositional/salt model so that a consistent subsurface image can be obtained.

Call for Paper deadline 5 July 2009

02-04-2009 13:09:26

200

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SPECIAL calendar • page 102

4-6 May

2009

EAGE | Shiraz 2009 - 1st International Petroleum Conference

www.eage.org/event

10-16 May

BGS | Balkan Geophysical Society Congress

2009

www.AGSerbia.com

7-10 Jun

AAPG | AAPG Annual Convention & Exhibition

2009

www.aapg.org

8-11 Jun

EAGE | Amsterdam 2009 - 71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition incorporating SPE EUROPEC

2009

www.eage.org/event

26-29 Jul

ACGGP | X Simposio Bolivariano

2009

www.acggp.org

24-28 Aug

SBGf | 11th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society

2009

www.congresso.sbgf.org.br/indexENG.asp

7-9 Sep

EAGE | Near Surface 2009

2009

www.eage.org/event

7-10 Sep

EAGE | Geomodel 2009

2009

www.eage.ru

13-18 Sep

SAGA | 2009 SAGA Biennial Conference & Exhibition

2009

www.sagaonline.co.za/2009Conference/index.htm

14-17 Sep

EAGE/SEG | EAGE/SEG Research Workshop

2009

www.eage.org/event

21-24 Sep

EAGE | Fault and Top Seals - From Pore to Basin Scale

2009

www.eage.org/event

27-30 Sep

EAGE | First Tight Gas Reservoirs Workshop

2009

www.eage.org/event

4-7 Oct

SPE | SPE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition

2009

www.spe.org

12-14 Oct

SEGJ | 9th International Symposium

2009

www.segj.org/is/9th/

Shiraz, Iran Belgrade, Serbia Denver, USA Amsterdam, The Netherlands Cartagena, Colombia Salvador, Brazil Dublin, Ireland Gelendzik, Russia Mbabane, Swaziland Boltaña, Spain Montpellier, France Manama, Bahrain New Orleans, USA Sapporo, Japan

09/2010 Calendar 2009/2010

SPE/EAGE | Reservoir Characterization and Simulation Conference

www.spe.org

20-22 Oct

LTHE | 4th International Workshop on Magnetic Resonance Sounding

2009

ltheln21.hmg.inpg.fr/LTHE/spip.php?rubrique145

25-30 Oct

SEG | SEG International Exposition and 79th Annual Conference

2009

www.seg.org

15-18 Nov

EAGE | Subsalt Imaging Workshop

2009

www.eage.org/event

15-18 Nov

AAPG | AAPG International Conference and Exhibition

2009

www.aapg.org

7-9 Dec

EAGE/AAPG/SEG/SPE | IPTC 2009

2009

www.iptcnet.org/2009

24-27 Jan

EAGE | Second Arabian Plate Geology Workshop

2010

www.eage.org/event

7-10 Mar

EAGE/AAPG | Geo 2010

2010

www.geobahrain.org

22-26 Mar

EAGE/EAGO/SEG | Saint Petersburg 2010

2010

www.eage.org/event

18-21 Apr

AAPG | AAPG Annual Convention & Exhibition

2010

Abu Dhabi, UAE Grenoble, France Houston, USA Cairo, Egypt Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Doha, Qatar Abu Dhabi, UAE Manama, Bahrain Saint Petersburg, Russia New Orleans, USA

www.aapg.org

14-17 Jun

EAGE | Barcelona 2010 - 72nd EAGE Conference & Exhibition incorporating SPE EUROPEC Barcelona, Spain

2010

www.eage.org/event

19-22 Sep

SPE | SPE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition

2010

www.spe.org

17-21 Oct

SEG | SEG International Exposition and 80th Annual Meeting

2010

www.seg.org

Florence, Italy Denver, USA

SPECIAL calendar • page 103

2009

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19-21 Oct

Register Now!

15

th

European Meeting of

Environmental and

Engineering Geophysics

www.eage.org

7 – 9 September 2009, Dublin, Ireland