Writing the April President’s Column from a hotel room in Beijing, China, AAPG President Peter R. Rose was in the middle of a nine-city, six-country tour that took him from Adelaide (Australia) to Aberdeen (Scotland), speaking to geologists there and in stops in between.
In making his second international tour in four months, the overall theme for the visits to the AAPG Pacific Region was “sponsorship for AAPG memberships and possible joint ventures -- from meetings to publishing.”
In November, Rose had returned from a four-week, eight-nation AAPG presidential tour in central and eastern Europe and the Middle East. The late winter trip to the Pacific Rim was book-ended by stops in London, which began with a lecture at International Petroleum Week, sponsored by the Energy Institute, and ended at AAPG’s APPEX London prospect and property exhibition.
Talks to students at Aberdeen University in Scotland provided a capstone for the tour that saw Rose making numerous presentations -- sometimes back-to-back lectures -- over the course of 26 days.
Other venues included Perth, Australia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Beijing, China; and Delhi and Mumbai, India.
Among the groups with whom Rose met were the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, the Indian Association of Petroleum Geology Chinese senior technical managers (PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC) and the Kuala Lumpur Exploration Society. The Australia visit also included meetings with the organizers for the upcoming AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, to be held in Perth Nov. 5-8.
Additionally, Rose gave back-to-back lectures at two Chinese universities, the University of Malaya and Imperial College, London. At the University of Malaya, Professor Dennis Tan said a large group of students signed up for AAPG membership and a student chapter will petition for charter.
Rose also met with and made presentations to high-level industry executives at every stop, including meeting Mr. Subir Raha, chairman, and Mr. D.K. Pendes, director (exploration) of ONGC, the state oil company of India.
“In talking to the companies, there was full awareness that globalization is in full gallop,” Rose said, “and there are abundant opportunities for international participation by companies and consultants.”
After the Pacific Region tour, Rose wasn’t finished for the month, however. Next on the agenda was a trip to Manama, Bahrain, site of GEO 2006 for the seventh annual Middle East Geoscience Conference and Exhibition, organized by AAPG and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) and hosted by the Dhahran Geological Society, which drew about 3,000 registrants.
“It’s clear the Middle East is hungry for the kind of venues we can provide -- and we have good partners, EAGE and AEM (Arabian Exhibition Management),” Rose said.
“We (AAPG) must follow through on these opportunities if we are to create a permanent and substantial overseas presence.”