The Earth’s Oldest Fossils
On a splendid white beach in Shark Bay, Western Australia, I finally found the worlds oldest fossils. They are commonly referred to as living rock, and they have ruled the…
In the News
Gateway to the 49th State
Having evolved from a tent city to Alaska’s commercial and tourist hub within less than 100 years, Anchorage offers both economic opportunity and endless adventure. I took my first oil…
A Truly Magical Place
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania is a World Heritage site renowned for its beauty and unique wildlife and one of the few places where active continental break-up and…
A Window to a Brilliant Future
How can we connect with the next generation of geoscientists and engineers to bring them into the hydrocarbon industry? “We have been actively working with universities to help place graduates…
New Digital Africa Maps
New digital maps, based on ones originally produced by Africa specialist Ed Purdy, should shed new light on the exploration of the continent. Ed Purdy was an explorationist, academician and…
From Palm Oil to Petroleum
Lagos: the Liverpool of West Africa Lagos is famous for its teeming crowds and chaotic traffic jams, full to the brim with noise, pollution and crime. As the commercial centre…
The First Commercial North Sea Oil Discovery
The discovery of the Ekofisk Field in 1969 marked the beginning of a new era in the oil industry. Max Melli, the Italian well site geologist, was the first to…
The Standard Oil Story III: The Rise, Fall and Rise of The Standard Oil Company
In the past two issues of GEO ExPro (No. 2 and 3, Vol. 8), we looked at the profiles of John D. Rockefeller and Ida Tarbell; in this final part of the…
The Abu Dhabi Oil Discoveries
In the 1930s Abu Dhabi was a poor fishing village on the edge of the desert, but the discovery of oil has revolutionised the Emirate. It is thought to possess…
Standard Oil I – Ida Tarbell: Pioneering Oil Industry Journalist
Exactly a hundred years ago Standard Oil, which controlled the oil industry in the US, was forced to split into several companies, due largely to the pioneering work done by…
Making a Humanitarian Difference
The mission of ‘Geoscientists Without Borders’ is to connect young geoscientists, academia and the industry with projects that will benefit people and the environment around the world. “The vision of…
Start of Something Big
An oil discovery in the Moose Range wilderness on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula would bring a momentous change to the territory and have oil exploration implications far to the north. The…