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The mood music of the E&P geoscience job market

When I was doing an internship at NAM (Shell/Exxon joint venture) in the Netherlands in 2003, an experienced geologist took me aside and said, “Henk, be aware, China is coming,…

What are we risking and why is it important?

Risk is about the chance of finding producible hydrocarbons; uncertainty is about the volume of hydrocarbons that may be found in the case of success. The geological Probability of Success…

“It is quite a risk hiring you”

Yes, some people will break out of the shackles of their former role and flourish in a completely different career. But let’s not forget that for others, there is a…

Subsurface noise #7

CORING MUDSTONES A wellsite geologist told me the other day that he was on one of the major oil platforms in the North Sea some years ago, drilling yet another…

Your fault stability analysis might be lying to you

The Mohr space represents stress states and, com­bined with fault strength criteria, is used to assess fault stability. It is simple, elegant, and widely accepted. It is also, when applied…

Mistaking speed for progress

Much of the AI we see today is very domain-specific and, in my mind, one-dimensional. People continue to operate in their own realms, developing algo­rithms that produce results at great…

Europe versus US oil majors

European oil majors face a structural dilemma: How to balance near-term hydrocar­bon revenue with long-term renewable ambitions under relentless shareholder and public scrutiny. While USA peers largely doubled down on…

Why post well analysis matters

Most companies are aware of the value of doing post well anal­ysis (PWA). But it is often done in spreadsheets. In that case, there is a high risk for myths…

When energy stopped being treated as real

The policy responses of that period reflected this understanding. France invested heavily in nuclear power to reduce exposure to imported fuels. The UK committed capital and labour to developing the…