The 2005 convention is over and summer is fast approaching. After completing my term as the 2005 Exhibit Chair, I will be stepping down. I was Co-Chair of the Exhibits Committee for the 2003 Joint CSEG/CSPG convention, as well as the Chair for the 2004 CSEG convention. I am burnt out and it is also time for some new blood on the Exhibit committee. Matt Earle of Arcis Corporation will be taking over from me for the 2006 CSEG/CSPG/CWLS Joint Convention. I will stay on as an advisor. The majority of my committee is also stepping down after this year. If you do talk to any of the following committee members, please thank them for the hours they have put in. We have literally put in hundreds of hours over the last few years. My committee members are

Doug Colvin, Talisman Energy
David Swagar, Western Explosives
Leslie Carlyle-Ebert, Penn West Petroleum
Jim Fleming, Western Diazo
Jeff Gautreau
Tracy Schuhart, Encana Corporation
Wallace Wells, United Datawyse

And of course, none of this would be possible without Terry Symington (Convention Floor Manager, EMP Ltd), who goes above and beyond the call of duty time and time again. Terry is the one paid employee working on the convention that gets to keep all of the volunteers in line.

There are always challenges putting together an exhibit floor. Mistakes will be made. People like Kerry Befus of Seisware and François Aubin of Kelman Technologies make the job a little easier. Thanks to you both for being so gracious.

I would also like to thank Diane Dawson (Intercontinental Seismic Surveys) and Jan LaBossiere (Polaris Explorer) who served on the committee for the 2004 Convention. A special thank you goes to Jeff Crowhurst (Allied Seismic) who served as my advisor for the 2004 Convention. Jeff was a long time member of the Exhibits Committee and the brains behind the “Booth Allocation Forum”. Jeff conceived of this innovative way of designing the Exhibit Floor and guided the committee while we put his idea into practice. We have left a legacy behind.

Last but not least, take the time to thank Laurie Ross (Geo-X Systems). She has been the Chair for two years and has spent hundreds of hours working to make the convention a success. The other chairs have put in hundreds of hours as well and deserve your thanks. We are all volunteers and with the exception of Susan Thomson and Corey Hooge are competitors in our “real” jobs. Susan and Corey are the brave geophysicists that worked with all us processing types.

Kevin Marsh, Vice Chair (Statcom Ltd)
Mark Noble, Sponsorship (GX Technology)
Satinder Chopra, Technical (Arcis Corporation)
Graeme Gibson, Arrangements (Geo-X Systems)
Susan Thomson, Finance (Devon Canada)
Marzena Feuchtwanger, Registration (Geo-X Systems)
Patrick Tutty, Registration (Geo-X Systems)
Corey Hooge, Printing and Publicity (Canadian Natural Resources)
Rob Vestrum, Social (Thrust Belt Imaging)

I hope everyone enjoyed the convention. Have a great summer.

—Carmen Swalwell

On the Move...

Boyd PetroSearch is pleased to announce that Heath Pelletier has joined us as Senior Geoscientist. Heath is managing the Enhanced Attribute Analysis part of our business and brings along years of experience in AVO / LMR, multi-attribute / waveform classification and inversion expertise. Heath can be reached on his direct line at (403) 543- 5381, at heathp@boydpetro.com or by following the links on our website at www.boydpetro.com. Welcome aboard!

Murray VanAlstine would like his friends and colleagues to know that he has joined Burlington Resources as Geophysical Coordinator. You can reach Murray at 260-6015 or mvanalstine@br-inc.ca.

Jennifer Yeremiy has joined Apache Canada in the North- East BC team as a Geophysicist. With five years previous experience with CGG Canada, she brings: land processing, reservoir geophysics, and business development experience.

Mike West has joined Paradigm as Land Processing Supervisor in Calgary bringing with him 21 years of experience in the industry. Mike has vast experience in the design and QC of 3D surveys, as well as having managed processing centers in such exotic places such as Angola and Cairo. Mike is also involved in the near surface modeling corrections for statics and depth migration. To contact Mike, phone 571-1574 or email mwest@paradigmgeo.com.

Barbara Wingate joined Paradigm’s marine department as Marine Processing Supervisor in May. She has over 9 years processing experience mostly in Calgary but with a few flurries in Mexico and Houston. Her experience in depth migration and marine processing are a definite asset to Paradigm’s Marine team. Contact Barbara at 571-1627 or email bwingate@paradigmgeo.com.

Nikic Nick has joined Paradigm in Calgary as Land Processing Supervisor. He has over 15 years of processing and management experience in Calgary with 2D/3D land and OBC seismic data. Nick’s addition will greatly compliment Paradigm’s expanding land processing department. Contact Nick at 571-1576 or nnikolai@paradigmgeo.com.

Candace Bruins has joined Veritas as a Geophysical Processor in the Depth imaging group. She has several years experience in the industry, gaining a number of years in Marine and Land Depth Imaging at CGG.

Radim Vesely has rejoined Veritas as Seismic Processing Account Manager, developing business in northern Canada, east coast Canada and Alaska.

Eric Hards has returned to Veritas as Account Manager, Client Services Group. Eric has 19 years experience managing geoscience teams, and over nine years in business development.

Kirk Vensel started at Veritas in late March this year as a Senior Geophysicist; just recently, he was promoted to Project Manager, Production Processing Group.

And the Winner is...

Sigma Explorations Inc. would like to announce the winners of their “Name the Section” contest from the Convention. There were 4 correct entries and the winners were:

Bill Bradley of Husky Oil who was the winner of the Lorna Dockstader painting. Gavin Elsley of Devon Canada who was the winner of the Apple IPOD Shuffle. Fotis Kalantzis of Innova and Gerhard Tjaden of Encana Corp. also had correct entries and will receive a Sigma shirt/sweater. Morgan Bint of Talisman, Ron Webster of Husky, and Dave Campbell of Luke Energy were winners of our daily draws.

Geophysical Service Incorporated/Precision Seismic Processing would like to announce the winner of their stocked wine fridge, Nick Kaprowski of GEDCO. Thanks go to Larry Romanchuk of Geo-X Systems for making the draw. Thank you very much to all that entered. We would also like to apologize for running out of our shooter glasses!

Thank YOU...

I received the following email from Peter Bediz. An interview with Peter was published in the February 2005 RECORDER. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read the interview with Peter, please do so. It is one of the best interviews the RECORDER has ever published. CS

Dear Carmen:

I was deeply touched reading Kevin Marsh's comments on your column on the April '05 issue of “The RECORDER”. It is certainly most gratifying to me to note that I am still remembered, even after about thirty years. I just phoned Kevin and thanked him for his thoughtful kind words. On the other hand since you made possible this pleasant event to happen I wish also to express my gratitude to you with my thanks.

I sincerely congratulate you for the excellence of your esteemed column, I never fail to read it. Your able efforts to link the past with the present in the field of our endeavors plays an important role and a highly useful purpose. Thank you for being instrumental in giving this 91 year old early geophysicist a nostalgic, deep sense of satisfaction and pride.

Peter I. Bediz.

If you would like to thank someone that has been instrumental in your career, please feel free to use this column. CS

New Degrees

The University of Calgary, Department of Geology and Geophysics is pleased to announce that they have awarded the following graduate degrees. Abstracts of the theses are available at www.crewes.org.

Name of Author: Sandy Chen
M.Sc. Thesis: Time-Lapse Seismology Detecting Foamy Oil and Wormhole Footprints in a Heavy Oil Cold Production Reservoir

Name of Author: Ying Zou
M.Sc Thesis: Integration of seismic methods with reservoir simulation, Pikes Peak heavy oil field, Saskatchewan

How I got into Geophysics…

Robert Kendall, Veritas Geoservices

I used to be a jughound, but I’m alright noooowwwwwww! My brother, Mike Kendall, worked on a Chevron crew for one of his summer jobs. That was the year before I graduated from Western Canada High School in Calgary. It sounded like he had a lot of fun. Unlike the more standard scenario, he was one of the only Westerners working on a crew in the Maritimes. So when I graduated fro m high school in 1983, I applied at one of the only companies that had an advertisement in the Calgary Herald. The company was called EcoSeis and I ended up working on one of the first (and only?) land airgun crews. It turned out to be a crash course in how to get along with bikers, guys just out of jail and a whole bunch of Newfies. There are two stories from that summer that I will never forget. The first was known as the geophone test. That’s where the new guy (me) had to jump off the back of the doghouse repeatedly to see if all the instruments were working properly. “Oh it looks like we missed that one, you’ll have to do it again.” The other was listening to the story that flies and mosquitoes could actually dodge raindrops. This one still troubles me to this day.

Nonetheless, going to university after that experience was a bit of a let down. I double majored in physics and geology at Queen’s University until I realized that physics was too much work and geology was pretty boring. I’ve since learnt otherwise on both accounts. So after a short “break” between second and third year, I found myself in geophysics at the University of Calgary. These were pretty fun days with the Black Lung, Concerts at Mac Hall Ballroom and the infamous AA’s. I worked one summer at Veritas (1984) in processing (note foreshadowing) and one summer at Texaco (1985), both in Calgary. Then things got a little tighter in the patch and I had to tree plant for two summers (note sudden respect for oil industry). The highlight of the Veritas job was getting flashed by one of the workers on 3rd Avenue and at Texaco it was winning the Texaco mile.

I finally graduated from the University of Calgary in 1988. That was the year we had to take three weeks off for skiing while the Olympics happened. My first job out of university was with Solid State Geophysical. While at Solid State, I did pretty much every job that is possible on a field crew. Jughound, Line-Driver, JO, Observer, Front End, Supervisor. After my first year we ended up doing some work for the Colorado School of Mines and Tom Davis’ Reservoir Characterization Project. Multicomponent seismic was a real eye opener for me (and still is), and so I applied to CSM and ultimately finished a masters degree that dealt with noise and MC data (more foreshadowing). Another memorable summer job was for Unocal in Bakersfield, California in 1991.

The next five years were spent in Houston with Amoco working with some great people (Mike Mueller, Sam Gray and Leon Thomsen), then a stint at the Tulsa Research Center in the Petrophysics program and finally another two years in New Orleans with Paul Gutowski and Walter Rietveld. But BP changed all that with the “merger”. That was when you pronounced BP-Amoco with the Amoco silent.

I moved back to Calgary to work with Geoscope and in 2000 joined Veritas as Manager of Multicomponent Processing. The job at Veritas has been one of the most rewarding and at the same time frustrating (not everyone is as passionate about multicomponent seismic as I am) jobs I have had.

So it’s been a good 22 years and I can’t imagine what the next 22 are going to be like.

Dragana Todorovic-Marinic, Veritas Geoservices

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, physics as a subject was introduced to us in Grade 6. I immediately fell in love with it. Everything about it was fun. My teacher, things we were studying and the fact that I was “getting” it and I didn’t even have to work hard at all. Being “smart” and good at it made me quite popular among other kids and for a 12-year-old girl that meant a lot. Right then, in Grade 6, I made my choice: when I grow up, I will be a physicist! Although my parents had some other ideas and different plans for me I wasn’t going to change my mind. When I finished high school, I moved as far away as I could from my hometown and enrolled to study physics at the University of Sarajevo. I still found it easy and fun even when I started earning a living at it. I joined the Center for Material Research working on high temperature superconductors. Having the opportunity to work with some of the leading names in this area of research and traveling around the world didn’t hurt either. I was convinced that life couldn’t get any better and that I was going to stay in that field for the rest of my career. Life, however had different plans for me. Civil war in the former Yugoslavia forced me and my family out of the country, and, one day in September of 1993, we arrived in Canada as new immigrants. Our choice to come to Calgary had absolutely nothing to do with Calgary being a geophysics centre, but everything to do with moving from one Olympic city to another and the promise of good skiing. I did what I thought was the most logical thing at the time: I enrolled in graduate studies at U of C, Physics and Astronomy department and picked Liquid Crystals as my new area of research, the closest thing to what I had done up to that point in my professional life. So for another two years, I kept ignoring the fact that I was living in Calgary and that everybody around me was indirectly or directly in the oil industry and making a good living doing it. Well, one day I graduated and faced the obvious reality that if I was going to find a good paying job and build my career again, I had somehow to move from physics to geophysics. So, soon enough, one evening my husband came home from soccer practice and informed me that his soccer buddy was willing to help me find such a job and suggested Veritas as a starting point. Well it’s been eight years now and still continuing …

At this moment it’s hard to imagine that I could do anything else. Throughout my life, being up to the challenge was the ultimate rush for me. I always wanted to be part of the excitement that comes with exploration and new discoveries. Being at the forefront of innovative technical advancement and stepping into unknown and uncharted territories was and remains my definition of a good time.

I don’t know if I found geophysics or geophysics found me, but so far it appears to be good marriage.

End

References

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