Always on the lookout for new frontiers
“My mother was very patient with me,” says Cany Jobe. “When I needed to make a big decision about which direction to take in high school, I gave her a hard time. I didn’t want to choose between arts, science…
Portraits
“Reservoir engineering was too boring for me”
“Our industry is back in business,” says Lone Margrethe Olstad enthusiastically when we meet on Teams. And so is AGR, the company she joined four months ago, as it has the ambition to grow the subsurface consultancy, evaluations and reserves…
“Running a company is like having a long-term relationship – you have to give and take, but always carry on”
“Moscow was a dark place near the end of the 1980s. Literally, dark. It was hard to find a bar to have a drink,” remembers Vasilii Shelkov when we start our conversation about his early years as a physics student…
The story behind Mexico’s biggest discovery in decades
What does it take to make the biggest discovery a country has seen in decades? How do you do that as a newcomer? You do that because you see things coming. Because you are prepared. Because you did the groundwork…
What words mean
Do we both have the same concept in mind when we talk about a 3D model? “No,” says Katya Casey, “surely not.” That notion shaped her career and the style in which she works. “It is important to be sure…
When geology just happens, and you happen to be quite good at it
Geology? Going to university? It was not on his mind at all when he finished high school. Yet, he has become a world-renowned expert in petroleum systems and basin modelling, Zhiyong He. For this interview, I spoke for more than…
Escaping the relentless cycle of re-orgs
“The reactions were overwhelming,” Samuel says at the start of our conversation in October. He alludes to the LinkedIn post he made when he left his role at Shell in Houston before embarking on another position in data analytics. In…
The value of seismic attributes and the value of having your own business
“We need this,” said a geoscientist from a major operator in Houston once Laurie Weston had finished one of her presentations as part of the Canadian SEG distinguished lecturer tour. It was in 2017, ten years after she had launched…
The master of near-field exploration
When thinking about exploration geology in the oil and gas sector, most people will envisage going to places unknown, map the big bumps, and get them drilled. That’s not how Tom Dreyer’s career in exploration went. “I have never been…
From Moscow to Mohkínstsis
“I was the first generation of students that graduated in the Soviet Union without having a job lined up for me,” says Svetlana Bidikhova. “When I started university, few people were familiar with CVs, job interviews, or the need to…
“Playtime is over”
“A lovely little department dedicated to geothermal energy. That’s what I found when I started at the International Geothermal Association (IGA) in 2017,” says Marit Brommer, who had left a demanding role working on challenging subsurface projects at Shell. But…
On drift
When we meet on Teams on a morning in March, F. Javier Hernández- Molina is calling in from his office in Granada, Spain, where he works at the Andalusian Earth Science Institute (IACT-CSIC). In the background is a picture that…