Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an oil and gas explorer, or how they think about the world? In a series of articles on Exploring the Explorer I want to put a focus back onto these professionals to give insight about their careers in exploring for oil and gas deep below the land and ocean floor.
Based on initial results of a survey of exploration professionals I will share insights on topics such as inspiration for geoscience, the explorer personality, motivation, resilience, the rush of discovery, and views on moral issues such as corruption and climate change.
Today’s insight is all about How Times Have Changed.
European Ground Squirrel - Romania
3) How Times Have Changed
Today’s insight is about how the Exploration business has changed over the past 30 years as seen through the eyes of experienced people in exploration.
Data and Technology
In my previous insight on the Drive to Explore, I spoke about explorers’ hunger for new information and their strong desire to create new ideas and understand better what is under the surface of the Earth. Resource exploration has always been highly data intensive, and this has not changed in the past 30-40 years. However, almost all respondents spoke about the phenomenal increase in available data volume since those early days and development of highly innovative technology for data access and interpretation. There have been massive advances in technology in both onshore and offshore data acquisition such as in 3D seismic surveys, and this has made the delivery of new data faster, cheaper and with higher fidelity. One respondent spoke about “huge strides in digitalisation” and another said that “computer automation has speeded up the interpretation cycle hugely.” A major part of the change seen over the past 30 years has been due to digitalisation and the incredible rise of innovative software technology. Nowadays we can access gigantic geoscience databases using powerful interpretation and visualisation technology, while working on convenient-to-use PC laptops. This background of constant evolution of technology over the past decades meant that explorers had to embrace constant change in order to be competitive in the ever maturing and more frenetic exploration business. One respondent quoted Will Rogers - “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll still get hit by the train if you don’t keep moving.”
Paperwork
Today seems a far cry from 30 years ago. Before the end of the last century paper was used as the medium for displaying all the complicated geoscience information required to articulate investment proposals to senior management. There were paper seismic sections rolled down corridors, paper well logs pinned to walls and hand-contoured paper maps spread across desks. Explorers made many trips to and from the printer room and coloured pencils would come out to highlight the targets. Ideas and interpretations would be debated heatedly, and it was a lot of fun to be part of this interactive work using paper. Since paper did not sit on a cloud you had to be there in person, and this brought people together for collaboration. However, progress was coming fast in the form of digitalisation and powerful computer workstations. Very few workstation computers were available in the 1990s and these usually had to be booked in advance. Data loading was also cumbersome with reel-to-reel tapes still in use and email communication was also in its infancy. It is hard now to think how we functioned in the ‘old days’ before the revolution of digital data storage and powerful computer chips. Paper was still abundant everywhere in the 2000s and heaped on explorers’ desks in unique stratigraphic sequences, known only to the owners. With a wink they would have said “an empty desk shows an empty mind.”
A Typical explorer's desk in the early 2000s
Different ways of working
Along with the ever-increasing current of technology since the 1990s was also a tidal wave of digital communication. One respondent noted: “a big torrent of communication, much more than 30 years ago - not necessarily a benefit.” The day-to-day use of email had expanded exponentially and at the same time came increasingly complex processes and systems for organising work and making decisions. Investment proposals became more commonly delivered in digital format and one respondent noted: “now very polished PPT presentations - but is it any better? Less time on real geology.” Along with evolution of digital technology in the exploration business came changes in the evaluation and decision-making processes. A respondent noted that “nowadays a lot of meetings are taking over, with a lot of box-ticking exercises” and another stated: “Ever increasing procedures and systems. Was simpler in the past.”
More professional
Explorers expressed frustration with increasing time spent on processes and systems, but at the same time they welcomed improvements in professional behaviour and integrated teamworking. There was less of the ‘seat of the pants’ style of wildcat exploration and much more professional discipline from the 2000s onwards, with a gradual increase in diversity and inclusiveness in the workforce. More consistency was instilled in the way explorers made their assessments of the subsurface geology and the potential for oil and gas resources. Increasingly complex systems and software were developed by multi-national companies to determine subsurface risk, uncertainty and the range in potential oil and gas volumes. Staff worked more closely in multi-disciplinary integrated teams and balanced the geological assessments with more focus on quantifying the economic potential, as demanded by decision-makers.
Risk aversion
As Explorers became more professional in their delivery of investment proposals, this brought increasing scrutiny from decision-makers. As time moved on, the boards of oil and gas companies became less and less populated with exploration professionals and aversion to investment risk increased. One respondent noted that the great financial crisis of 2008 was a tipping point for change in the ‘exploration game’, thereafter reducing corporate appetite for exploration-driven value creation. More recently the oil price crisis of 2015-16 saw a drastic reduction in corporate funding available for exploration and then, as the exploration industry was just emerging again in 2019-20, COVID introduced the next global crisis. A highly turbulent period has ensued with the combined effects of the climate and energy crises, and the dark backdrop of ongoing war in Ukraine. Exploration is being carried out today by fewer and fewer international companies and they realise that time is short to generate revenue from the traditional oil and gas game. The days of long lead-time and high-risk frontier exploration are surely over, making way for a new exploration game in sustainable energy with its own set of uncertainties, risks, and economic outlooks.
Remaining motivated
The conventional exploration business has been turbulent and has seen multiple crises over the past three decades. However, explorers say that they maintain motivation and energy by working in great teams with inspiring people and are constantly motivated by the vast creative aspect of exploration activity. Some explorers say that maintaining a technical career has kept them in touch with what they love most - geology. It seems that at the core of every explorer are the love of geology and the desire to understand of the Earth we live upon. Those things have not changed.
In the next Exploring the Explorer insight article we will look the view of explorers on the Energy Transition and ambitions for Net Zero.
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