Yusak Setiawan is a young professional and a very, very busy man with a lot of responsibilities.
Setiawan recently took a new position as exploration manager for Murphy Indonesia in Jakarta to manage exploration programs in the deepwater South Barito and Semai II blocks.
Murphy signed its first Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in May 2008 for the South Barito Block in South Kalimantan. This was followed, in November 2008, by acquiring the PSC for the 3,379-square-kilometer-Semai II Block offshore south of West Papua.
Thus, Setiawan has his hands full with his job.
But he still takes time to make a difference for his profession – behind the scenes and as a leader and role model.
He first stepped into the AAPG spotlight in 2003 when he recruited 48 new members for the Association and earned a trip to the AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain.
He was then senior geophysicist with Unocal in Jakarta, working on the development of the West Seno Field, Indonesia’s first deepwater field.
As his career progressed, his interest in promoting the profession has not waned.
He joined AAPG as a student member while earning his master’s degree at Colorado School of Mines on a scholarship provided by the education monies collected as part of the licensing/production agreements in his native Indonesia. He joined Unocal after graduation.
He became lead geophysicist for the Ranggas Field in the Makassar PSC, Indonesia, for Unocal/Chevron (Chevron acquired Unocal in 2005).
In 2006 he joined Hess and moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working on a number of projects as senior geophysicist, geophysical adviser and exploration project leader.
He also took time to serve as AAPG Distinguished Visiting Geoscientist to Hanoi University of Mining and Geology, Nanking University and China University of Petroleum.
Additionally, Setiawan has spoken at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (his undergraduate alma mater), Universitas Gajah Mada, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional and the Institut Teknologi Medan - all in Indonesia.
Through his journeys Setiawan has been recruiting new members and sponsoring them to join the Association.
In 2007 Setiawan received a Special Recognition Award for significant contribution in educating non-technical employees on oil and gas industry.
When visiting universities, along with the technical topics such as 3-D modeling, Setiawan advises students “to basically strengthen their technical skills, learn from your mentor as much as possible and be active in the professional organizations such as AAPG.”
Additional advice is for the non-native English speaker; Setiawan, who speaks Indonesian, Sundanese (his local language), English “and a little bit of Thai,” says, “I would like to encourage them to master English as early as possible in their career because, believe me, it is very essential in this global world.”
Does he still recruit for AAPG?
“Of course,” he said.
“AAPG is like a gate that has introduced me to the oil and industry world. Through AAPG I have learned so much on different involvement of people in the petroleum industry such as oil companies, service companies, recruitment companies and many others.”
He also cites networking as a major membership benefit that is a career asset, learning such things as “technical stuff – best practices – such as what other people have done in other companies.”
Also, he appreciates “the opportunity to see the other side of the world, which really also influences in shaping my personality behavior (and understanding of the global community).”
Setiawan also practices what he preaches. He continues to strengthen his technical skills and learn from others – he’s planning to attend the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in New Orleans.