On 27th January 2016, AAPG YP Chapter Kuala Lumpur organized a technical talk titled “How Workstations Cause Dry Holes”. We were grateful to have Mr. Robert Shoup from Subsurface Consultant & Associates who voluteered to give a technical talk for AAPG YP KL chapter.
The talk was met with a good response, with 15 young professionals from 5 oil companies attending the talk. Event was held at Level 16 PETRONAS office, KLCC Tower 2. Before the talk, main mission of AAPG KL YP chapter was highlighted and the AAPG KL YP chapter committed to host events regularly every month in which members of the audience were strongly encouraged to participate.
Mr. Shoup began his talk by going through the timeline history of how geophysical workstations have added efficiency to the exploration and development workflow. He introduced this by showing case study on how geophysical workstations and the subsequent evolving technologies, as well as companies can achieve more with less. However, he also emphasized that most of the times, workstations cause dry holes, as most of today’s interpreters have grown up using computers and have a tendency to accept what comes out of the workstation without question. Therefore, throughout his talk, Mr. Shoup, elucidated with examples, how avoiding the “technology trap” can reduce the number of dry holes being drilled.
Mr. Shoup further explained how one avoids the “technology trap” by the need of understanding the basin’s geologic principles, and the best industry practices for interpreting and mapping the subsurface. He also mentioned the importance of going back to basic geology, involving hand drawn contour maps for more accurate subsurface mapping, rather than over relying on workstation algorithms that could sometimes lead to error if not used correctly. It was very interesting as Mr. Shoup showed many past examples of dry holes caused by human or workstation errors, which could have been avoided if the basic geological subsurface mapping had been done, and auditing had been done using the right methods.
The talk ended with a Q&A session. Members of the audience interacted enthusiastically during the Q&A session which went on for 20 minutes; all sorts of questions were asked pertaining to the talk. Mr. Shoup answered each question diligently before leaving. Overall, this was a successful first talk of 2016 in Kuala Lumpur with a good turnout of young professionals.