A philanthropic legacy that was born nearly 50 years ago in the ocean waters of Australia has added yet another chapter to its amazing story – and once again, to the benefit of geoscience education around the world.
Martha Weeks-Wulf Marta S. Weeks-Wulf, an AAPG Foundation Trustee Associate, who, like others bearing the Weeks name, has generously and repeatedly supported the Foundation over the past four-plus decades, recently bequeathed yet another gift that will provide benefits for decades of geoscientists: A $5 million annuity gift that will be distributed through 2029.
Details of the gift were finalized in late December, and the Foundation Trustees will now determine specific uses for the funds. Geoscience education – a passion for Marta to this very day – is expected to be the priority.
AAPG Foundation Chair Jim McGhay, speaking for the Trustees, expressed heartfelt appreciation for the gift, and said that it not only will help ensure ongoing efforts in support of geoscience education, but could serve as a generous example to others.
“I would like to thank Marta and her family on behalf of the Foundation Trustees,” McGhay said, “although the true heritage of her family’s generosity will be the thankfulness of the hundreds of students and countless others that have and will continue to feel the impact.
“This has been a crucial time in our profession and industry, and Marta’s continued support to the Foundation has been a major underpinning to the success of our programs,” he added, “and has been an inspiration to many others to join them in their support.”
The surprise announcement is only the latest of many donations she and her family have made to the AAPG Foundation, including a $10 million bequest in 2006, the largest gift ever received by AAPG.
“The hope is that this gift is an impetus for the Foundation to set its goals high,” Marta said at the time, “and that this be a prelude to new horizons and even greater achievements.”
That donation did indeed position the Foundation to provide ongoing support in furthering the science of petroleum geology, expanding AAPG’s reach and sustaining geoscience education around the world.
While the AAPG Foundation supports a plethora of geoscience programs for geoscientists throughout their careers, its focus on education is among the higher profile activities.
For example:
- In 2021, the L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant program (there’s that name again!), which annually awards undergraduate geoscience students and student-led geoscience associations with $500 grants, awarded $88,500 to 44 student organizations and 133 students.
- Also last year, the Grants-in-Aid Program, which provides financial assistance to graduate students whose studies have application to the search for and development of petroleum and energy-mineral resources and/or to related environmental geology issues, awarded 125 grants totaling $299,000.
A Legacy of Giving
Marta Weeks-Wulf, a retired Episcopal priest and “multifaceted philanthropist” now residing in Miami Springs, Fla., was the daughter of a geologist, raised on both the North and South America continents. In 1951 she married L. Austin Weeks, an internationally active petroleum geologist who, after his death in 2005, became the namesake of the Foundation’s highest honor, the L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal.
Weeks himself was the son of famed geologist Lewis G. Weeks, who is credited with the 1964 discovery of oil in the Bass Strait, Australia’s first offshore success, which by its peak in the mid-1980s was producing over half a million barrels a day – at one point, suppling 70 percent of Australia’s petroleum needs. (See accompanying sidebar.)
In other words, geosciences and, specifically, petroleum geology, have been constants in her life – and “giving back” is an ongoing pleasure.
“I give to AAPG to honor my father, my husband and my father-in-law,” she said, “all of whom were involved in petroleum geology.”
Indeed, the Weeks’ impact on AAPG – and the entire city of Tulsa – is more than simply significant. Lewis provided a gift to the Foundation that allowed the building of the Weeks Tower in 1975 at AAPG headquarters in Tulsa.
Nearly 10 years later, 500,000 shares of Weeks Petroleum stock that had been given to the Foundation were sold, leading to construction of the Pratt Tower.
Today, Marta remains an active member of the Foundation Trustee Associates (she’s been a member since 1976), as well as a variety of other charities, plus her passionate support of the arts.
Lewis Weeks and Australia’s Oil Fortune
(Excerpt from the February 2006 EXPLORER)
The history of Australia’s Bass Strait oil and gas activity is a fascinating chapter in the global petroleum industry evolution – and, ultimately, a rewarding chapter for AAPG.
Oil had been recorded along Australia’s southern coastline since 1869, but it wasn’t until 1960 that the offshore region was even considered for exploration and production.
Around that time, former BHP executive (and AAPG member) Eric Rudd contracted Lewis Weeks, a leading American oil field geologist who, before retiring as president of Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), had found oil seemingly everywhere – it was said he studied data for all of the world’s known basins – and was about to enjoy retirement in his Westport, Conn., home.
Rudd wanted Weeks to help him convince BHP officials that an oil search in oil-dry Australia should be launched.
Weeks agreed, did some studying, then met with the BHP officials and told them he knew where oil could be found that was accessible to 90 percent of Australia’s market.
Weeks was then offered – and accepted – a 2.5-percent royalty deal. And then he was asked, where’s the oil?
“Come to your window,” he replied. “It lies out there in the Bass Strait, and most particularly off the Gippsland Coast.”
Incidentally, the Bass Strait was one of the world’s roughest water areas – the region had been passed over since, after 40 years of trying, the adjacent coastline was dotted with nothing but 140 dry holes.
BHP decided to take a risk, however, and following encouraging results from an initial aerial survey, commissioned Australia’s first offshore seismic survey that indicated several possible oil traps in the Gippsland Basin. Prior to drilling, however, BHP went looking for a partner and in 1964 convinced Esso Standard Oil (Australia) Ltd. to join the venture as a 50-50 partner.
A drillship brought in from the Gulf of Mexico spudded the first well in 1964 in water 42 meters deep, and after months of battling notorious bad weather, the drill bit reached 1,318 meters and hit gas.
Striking pay dirt on the first ever try was almost unheard of, and it prompted additional exploration – a year later the joint venture partners made a second major gas discovery at the Marlin Field and tapped the real prize: oil.
At its peak in the mid-1980s the Bass Strait was producing over half a million barrels of oil a day. At one point the Bass Strait discoveries supplied 70 percent of Australia’s petroleum needs. Prior to these finds Australia was almost totally reliant on imports of petroleum products.
(Editor’s note: Weeks’ generous donations soon followed – including gifts to the AAPG Foundation that eventually led to construction of both the Weeks Tower and Pratt Tower at the AAPG headquarters complex in Tulsa.)