“We want to assist those concerned with the subsurface to take part in the overwhelming flow of information on development in both geoscience and technology in the oil and gas industry. And we want to do so through simple explanations that will be easily understood by the broad range of geoscientists and engineers who study the subsurface by means of geological and geophysical methods.”
Halfdan Carstens, Founding Editor in Chief
GEO ExPro Magazine, Vol.1, No. 1
Ten years ago in June 2004, at the 66th annual EAGE Conference and Exhibition in Paris, a brand-new magazine was launched, with a concept totally unknown to the oil industry. The brainchild of Halfdan Carstens, the publication was designed to help geoscientists from different disciplines learn about and understand each other’s specialities, in an easy-to-read, informative, relaxed and entertaining manner. Crucially, each magazine and article was copiously illustrated with high-quality photos and images, making it very attractive to read and enhancing the learning experience.
GEO ExPro’s target audience was geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers – but it soon became apparent that the appeal is much wider. There was an absence of information about developments in exploration geosciences written for people concerned with the hydrocarbon industry, but not necessarily working in a geological or technical sphere. With this new magazine, engineers, managers and production specialists in oil companies could read and understand what was happening at the cutting edge of the petroleum geoscience world; so too could marketing executives, sales specialists and financial analysts, not just in E&P or service companies, but also those working on the periphery, such as analysts, bankers and recruitment specialists. The academic world also took to the magazine, with lecturers using it to educate their geoscience students about the many different facets of the oil industry.
As we are involved in an industry at the forefront of technological invention, it behoves us to similarly spearhead innovation. Since the first hard copy magazine the publishing industry has moved apace, and we have moved with it, through our ground-breaking interactive iPad app and our multimedia website, which blend our usual brand of must-read geoscience articles with interactive maps, superb photographs and illustrations, and other digital media features.
Worldwide Coverage
As well as providing important technical information, GEO ExPro has always believed that geology should be fun – and what better way of appreciating our wonderful planet than exploring it as a geotourist? Since we started, geotourism has been one of our most popular features, with photos, maps and geological explanations describing wonderful locations from every corner of the world. And to prove that readers of GEO ExPro should expect some fun right from the start, at that first conference we raffled bottles of champagne from the vineyard in the Paris Basin described in an article in the initial issue.
More than 1,000 copies were handed out at that EAGE conference in Paris. Since then, the GEO ExPro stand has become a firm feature at all major industry conferences worldwide, with Kirsti Karlsson, Marketing Director since the beginning, now a well-known and popular figure at the exhibitions.
GEO ExPro is truly a global magazine, distributed to over 60 countries in paper format, with thousands of online readers coming from 183 countries. Since 2004 there has barely been a corner of the world we have not covered with a story, and the number of contributors runs into several hundred, from every continent, with regular authors based in Europe, Australia, North America and the Middle East.
So, as the Editor in Chief, I would like to take this opportunity to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in this magazine. To the founders, who had the vision and the tenacity to carry it through; the design, proofreading and printing experts who consistently produce such a hugely attractive magazine; the many, many writers who endlessly delight me with their erudite and entertaining articles; all the photographers whose wonderful photos really make GEO ExPro what it is; our fantastic and endlessly patient digital team, continually pushing the boundaries; our stand representatives tirelessly handing out magazines; and especially our many, varied and loyal advertisers, without whom this could not happen.
But most of all, I would like to thank you, our readers, from across the globe and throughout and beyond the oil and gas industry. Because this really is for, and about, you!
Jane Whaley
Editor-in-Chief
Gloucestershire
