What's New in Exploration

Normally, such art balances risk in rocks, remote sensing and engineering methods. But add in people, and the risk can become overwhelming. If you have not experienced failures, setbacks and personal challenges while persisting toward commercial production, then you have not been doing much exploration.

Revisiting a popular topic. The most feedback received about this column was from a February 2015 story on how the female gender was doing well, or better, in the oil and gas industry. The best comment was from an appreciative father in Denver, Colo., whose daughter was a new engineer because of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Some high-profile women in the industry include Janeen Judah, general manager for Chevron’s Southern Africa Business Unit, who was SPE’s 2017 elected president, and Nancy House of Integrated Geophysical Interpretation, Inc., who is SEG’s 2018 elected president, both in male-dominated societies. More women pros are following non-research careers. For example, Ginni Rometty has done well, becoming CEO at IBM. She holds a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. She is one of tens of thousands of STEM-women at IBM. Naturally, not everyone gets to the top.

Distinct elements of cultures, outside the workplace, have always defined and limited the resulting work environment. This was true for my experiences in Abu Dhabi, Alexander Bay, Anchorage, Cheyenne, Belem, Belize City, Belle Fourche, Billings, Biloxi Marsh, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calgary, Caracas, Chaco, Challapata, Dallas, Damascus, Denver, Dickenson, Doha, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Hannover, Houma, Houston, Iquitos, Jakarta, KL, London, Macapa, Malacca, Mexico City, Muscat, New Castle, Wyo., Neuquén, Newfoundland, Oslo, Perth, Ponca City, Rabat, Ras Ghareb, Rio, San Francisco, Sharjah, Seoul, Singapore, Terrebonne, Tierra Del Fuego, Tunis, and onboard seismic vessels. While everyone should be sensitive to others, and individuals are responsible for their own conduct, current trends caution that HR apologetics and Social Media sensationalism can create a backlash, hindering women advancing. Priorities along political correctness have no place in objective exploration decisions.

Women are participating in oil and gas: “Female employment in the oil & gas and petrochemical industries is projected to account for 185,000 of the total job opportunities through 2030,” http://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Policy/Jobs/Women-and-Minorities-in-oil-natural-gas-industry.pdf. What does that mean for E&P? It means that as exploration solutions move toward AI machines, away from the muddy, grunt tasks common to doodle-buggers and tool pushers, women will have a more level playing field, with emerging gender-blind tool kits. 

Women persevering. Women have been required to compete for earth’s resources from day one. My maternal grandmother was born in Dodge City, Kan., in the 1880s. She birthed 12 children, raised 13, was widowed twice, and married three times. With no formal education, she raised the younger half of her children during the Great Depression of the U.S. My grandfather, #2, a native American, was killed in an Illinois coal mine in the 1930s. The grandfather I knew, #3, was a hotel elevator operator in Terre Haute, Ind. Money was scarce; they survived often with only potatoes and burlap clothes. 

My mother, child #12, a high school athlete, enlisted in the U.S. Navy (USN) in the first company of 200 women to be mustered as USN reserve sailors, called WAVES, among other, often harassing phrases. She trained with the men at Naval Station (NAVSTA) Great Lakes, Ill. After the Battle of Midway, it became apparent that women were needed to support hospitals, not fighting ships. So, she spent World War II at the burn facility on Treasure Island. She and her unit received commendations from two Presidents for saving lives during the war. Mother moved on in 1954, widowed with a coffin flag, to raise her children, starting a career as a clerk typist GS 1, at $900/yr, advancing to a senior administrative position within the U.S. Air Force, two grades under rank from men in the same task. She was buried in 2007 with a full honor guard of NAVSTA young women-sailor-pall bearers, career Naval officers officiating, a commendation from the Air Force Chief of Command, and a VFW 21-gun salute. 

My bride, while teaching full time, earned her PhD in physics education from Texas A&M University during 2014, commuting 90 miles, three times a week, to College Station. At graduation, an unusual shout went up from fellow Aggies. Loudest were her female, former high school STEM students. 

Her father, a WWII vet who never finished elementary school, left draft-horse plowing and enlisted in June 1941. Only two of his Patton desert battalion of 1,000 made it to 1945. Her mother, the daughter of a Norwegian whaler and her widowed grandmother, endured the Depression’s North Dakota winters by day-renting rooms in the family house and making undergarments from feed sacks. Her mom graduated typing school in 1947 to raise two Ph.D.’s, an M.D. and a Master Chef. 

Not once did any of these women complain about their circumstances. All their cussing went into the sweat of achievement. Admittedly, we are a product of a world of women earning respect despite culture and difficulties. Jane’s quote is “everybody in life has it tuff.” Truly. 

Professor Sara Seager is a planetary scientist/astrophysicist, pioneering discovery of exoplanets—planets that orbit stars other than our sun. She’s on a mission to discover a planetary twin to our hydrocarbon Earth. Dr. Seager is professor of Planetary Science and Physics at MIT. Think you have a hard sell on your ideas? Wonder if a landman has contacted her yet?  

About the Authors

William (Bill) Head

Contributing Editor

William (Bill) Head is a technologist with over 40 years of experience in U.S. and international exploration.