SCA's CEO Dan Tearpock is fond of saying that it is highly trained people, not workstations, who find oil and gas. But what specific knowledge and habits do those successful oil finders possess? Bob Shoup, who recently joined SCA's Consulting Division, has put together a list of the Ten Habits of Highly Successful Oil Finders. We'll be going into more in-depth discussions of the "Habits" over the next few months, but in the meantime, here is the full list to start your wheels turning. After you have a look, please return to the following questions:
If you had to choose one as being more important, which would it be and why?
Can you recall a real life situation where any of these habits informed a business-critical decision?
The Ten Habits of Highly Successful Oil Finders
Successful Oil Finders:
1. Ensure that their interpretations are geologically and geometrically valid in three dimensions.
2. Have a strong background in geology, and a thorough knowledge of the tectonic setting and depositional environments for the area in which they are working.
3. Plan their time and work in order to ensure accurate interpretations and maps.
4. Use all of the data to ensure that they have a reasonable and accurate subsurface interpretation.
5. Ensure that their seismic and well correlations are accurate and loop-tied.
6. Know which methods, tools, and techniques are needed to define and understand the subsurface.
7. Map all relevant geological surfaces.
8. Map multiple horizons to develop reasonably correct, three-dimensional interpretations.
9. Document their work.
10. Seek out mentors and experienced individuals with knowledge and expertise; and serve as mentors to those seeking experience.
Update 3/8/13 - for more thoughts on the Ten Habits, see our recent follow-up blog post.
Well, those are the mechanical aspects of oil finding.
ReplyDeleteI'd add a couple more.
1: Understand the hydrocarbon system they are working in. A technically valid map is no good if the reservoir is not charged, has no source or migration path.
2: Have a trap hypothesis in mind, remember," Oil is first found in the mind" -Pratt.
3: READ. almost all of our work is done by analogy. Previous work, both in the area you are working and in similar hydrocarbon systems can give you insights as to how your own area and hydrocarbon system could be working.
Re: If you had to choose one as being more important, which would it be and why?
ReplyDeleteI am going with Anonymous' #3 - READ. It goes back to another quote (Wallace Pratt, again?) about finding oil in new areas with old ideas and old areas with new ideas, but not old areas with old ideas. I am fairly sure I have software that can accomplish habits 1-9 without me. What it never asks is, “How is this any different from mine?”
The quote you mention if from another legendary oil man, Parke Dickey. I use this in my own class on Petroleum Geology for Non-geologists:
Delete"We usually find oil in new places with old ideas. Sometimes, we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom find much oil in an old place with an old idea.
Several times in the past we have thought we were running out of oil, whereas actually we were only running out of ideas."
- Parke A. Dickey, University of Tulsa
Tulsa Geological Society Digest, 1958
Paul
geoman@lx.net
Perhaps rewording Habit 2 to include Anonymous' points 1 & 2 so it could look like: "Have a strong background in the geology, the tectonic setting, the petroleum system, depositional environments, and play fairway in which they are working."
ReplyDeleteAlso consider rewording Habit 10. to include Anonymous' point 3 so it could look like: "Seek out mentors, experienced individuals, and literature to gain the knowledge and expertise necessary to achieve success; additionally, they serve as mentors to those seeking experience and authors to document what they have learned."
Just a thought.
Bill