For
28 days at AAPG headquarters, "Previet!" was being heard
a lot.
So was
"prinvtsipy otsenki, otsenka plasta" and "Charakteristika kollektora."
That's
Russian, by the way, for "evaluation principles," "formation evaluation"
and "reservoir characterization."
And, Previet!
means "hello."
The reason
Russian was being spoken is because 15 up-and-coming geologists,
geophysicists and engineers from Lukoil came to AAPG headquarters
for 28 days of intensive scientific training as a part of AAPG's
newly launched Training Partners Program. Lukoil, with headquarters
in Moscow, is the second largest private oil company worldwide by
proven reserves and sixth largest by production.
Six of
the guests, plus a translator, were from Lukoil's Moscow office
and eight were from Perm, about 1,100 kilometers east of Moscow.
The Lukoil
presentations marked the first time an in-house training program
of this scope has been conducted by AAPG — and, at AAPG headquarters.
The classroom
facility was created as a part of the physical office move by AAPG's
geosciences department from the Weeks Tower into the Pratt Tower,
where for the first time in memory the entire department — including
education, publication and Datapages areas — has all been located
in one office space.
Seventeen
instructors were involved in providing training on a grad school/postdoctoral
level on 19 topics, according to Geoscience Director Jack Thomas,
who spearheaded the effort.
"Our mission
was to develop a series of concentrated courses focused on strengthening
cross-discipline understanding of engineering, geophysics and evaluation
of complex reservoirs," Thomas said. "Because of a heavy emphasis
on application, each course was reinforced with field trips, case
studies and lengthy discussions."
Topics
covered ranged from an overview of the energy industry and depositional
systems to seismic detection of reservoirs and interpretation and
environmental remediation.
While eight-hour
days were spent in the classroom, there were also field trips to
areas that included a test well site, a 3-D seismic shoot on the
historic Burbank Field and a visit to the Halliburton research facility
in Duncan, Okla.
To make
sure it was not all work and no play, outside excursions included
a concert featuring the music of Beethoven, museum tours, country
and swing dance lessons, a Tulsa Ice Oilers hockey game and what
some most wanted to see — an American football game, which in this
case featured the University of Tulsa.
"Tulsa
proved to be an excellent location for this concentrated Training
Partners mission," said Ron Denton, Geosciences career services
manager. "Experts in all phases of the energy business, from drilling
to remediation, practiced their profession — and equally important
was that each was a skilled facilitator who 'connected well' with
participants."
Preparation
for the on-site professional students included cultural awareness
training for the AAPG staff. Since the Lukoil group was in Tulsa
over the Thanksgiving holiday, they had the opportunity to be the
guest in the homes of some AAPG staff volunteers for some traditional
turkey and dressing.
"Lukoil
is obviously insightful in their dedication to developing the future
leaders of their company," Thomas said. "They clearly took the time
to develop their list of training needs, and Training Partners allowed
them the option of 'tailor-made' quality learning in a cost-effective
manner."
Following
the month-long training, the young geoscientists left with their
heads full of knowledge and their suitcases filled with AAPG memorabilia,
cowboy hats and plenty of course material for study after they return
to Russia.
After the
field trip to the Burbank Field, one participant said through the
interpreter, "We have fields being developed with ESPs like this
one, but we can extract more oil if we follow some of their best
practices."
To that,
we say "Do
svidaniya. Udachi! Uspekhov!"
Good bye.
Good luck. (We wish you) Success!