Dear Members,

My three-year term has now ended as President of the Asia Pacific Region for AAPG and I am very pleased to hand over the role to the youthful and energetic Mr Mark Tingay from Australia who is currently working for PETRONAS, the Malaysian National Petroleum Company in Kuala Lumpur.

With some 1,500 plus emails lingering in my Gmail folder labelled: AAPG AP President, I have now opened a new folder called: AAPG 2020+, but I know this will not stay empty as AAPG has a habit of deploying one again, subtly. As has become our habit in the Asia Pacific region, the outgoing President is invited to hang around the Council ex officio as Past President to do the odd chore or two that he did not finish during his tenure. One of those items is the revision of our Asia Pacific Region By-Laws which currently does fit our demography reach, awkwardly references a few affiliate societies, fails to get representation from some quarters, and fails to recognise the needs of our younger members. After a total of 15 years of Council service, I shall also stand-by to assist the new President and his Council members on whatsoever matters I can help them with.

I remain working in Papua New Guinea, where I have spent much of my career, a major feature of which was some twenty-seven years with the Government of Papua New Guinea, albeit only in a minor advisory capacity for the last seven of those years. My great delight here has been my involvement in the discovery of the gas fields, the assessment of their reserves, and the promotion of their development, right through to definition of gas policy, negotiation of development terms and conditions, and finally construction and operations, in which PNG is producing about 9 million tonnes of LNG per annum. Since 2004, I have also had many adventures, discovering and working in the Government Departments, Agencies, and Ministries of many petroleum provinces beyond Papua New Guinea in all manner of exotic places, in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia for the likes of the World Bank, USAID and the Asian Development Bank. However, about three years ago, I finally put my feet under a desk at Oil Search Ltd, Papua New Guinea’s leading oil and gas company, in our Port Moresby office, forsaking the host Government management and regulatory side of our business. I remain here as Special Adviser to the Country Manager.

As I said, AAPG loves to subtly grab one’s attention, but of course, we know AAPG critically relies on our volunteer work, so I am pleased to have been elected as the Asia Pacific representative on the AAPG Advisory Council, and to supplement that I shall continue my work on the AAPG Sustainable Development Committee and the AAPG Division of Professional Affairs Council. As I continue to enjoy AAPG, let me encourage members to put their hands up to the Council to volunteer and help run our Association. I can guarantee that you will be professionally well-rewarded for anything you do; meeting with and hearing great scientists, learning about the petroleum geology of new places, and new plays, as well as new techniques. AAPG will be for you, what your give to AAPG. Do find time to join in the fun and contact our new President, whom I have heard is a keen advocate of diversity and inclusion!

Michael McWalter, OL, CS
Past President
Asia Pacific Region
AAPG