Tracing the Industry

Michal Urednicek and Cindy Lang...

It was with profound sadness we learned of the death of Cindy Lang’s husband Michal Urednicek from injuries he suffered in a cycling accident late this summer. Cindy and Michal, a loving couple, were just shy of celebrating their 9th year anniversary. Just two years earlier they were overjoyed at the birth of their only child Thomas. Michal, at the time, was working for Terrapoint Canada, a member of the Pulse Group of Companies. In honor of Michal, Pulse graciously set up The Thomas Urednicek Trust Fund.

Cindy would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all those who have supported her and her son over this most difficult time, the beautiful flowers and the delicious food that came her way to fill her home & freezer and the generous contributions.

Cindy has returned to work at IEXCO, an expert in acquiring heli-portable foothills data and is looking forward to a busy winter and summer. She is marketing IEXCO’s existing proprietary data along with new multiclient surveys in 2006. She can be reached at 233-7922, cell 615-1894 or email at clang@iexco.ca. Cindy is looking forward to reconnecting with many of her friends and colleagues.

ON THE MOVE...

Allison Ewing (Niemi) would like her friends, clients and colleagues to know that she is taking some time off from Divestco effective November 30, 2005 to do some traveling and pursue some other personal interests. She will continue to be involved in a few committees such as Doodlebug, Doodlespiel and the CAPL conference in the meantime and will be able to be reached on her cell at 660-9996 or by email at aewing@telusplanet.net.

Mike Perkins has moved to BG Canada as Manager of the Northern Assets Group. He can be reached at 538 7463 or on his cell at 614 0019.

Jeff Gautreau would like everyone to know that he has found a great place to hang is hat. He joined GEDCO on December 1th as part of their Acquisition Services Group. Jeff has been involve with the RECORDER and the YGF and is looking forward to the new challenges he will be facing. He can be reached at (403) 303-8698 or by email at jgautreau@gedco.com.

Sunil Wadhera has recently joined GSI (Geophysical Service Inc.) in mid November as a GIS Analyst. Sunil graduated from the University of Calgary with a B.Sc. in Geography specializing in GIS and a minor in Earth Science (2002). Having worked for Complete Land Services Ltd. as a Project Coordinator for the past 2 years, Sunil hopes to learn more about the industry at GSI while upgrading and improving the company’s GIS systems. “ I am grateful for the opportunity that GSI has provided me. Being relatively new to the industry I hope to gain valuable knowledge and experience of marine seismic operations.” Sunil can be reached at (403) 514-6255 or by email at sunil@geophysicalservice.com.

Arcis is please to announce the following new members of the Arcis team:

• Florence Janzen, Sales and Marketing Associate, 781-1437, fjanzen@arcis.com
• Mina Jonk, Sales Associate, Participation Surveys, 781-5853, mjonk@arcis.com
• Gustavo Londono, Seismic Data Processor, 781-5862, glondono@arcis.com
• Jose Mejia, Geophysical Technologist, 781-1438, jmejia@arcis.com
• Alvaro Nieto, Geophysical Technologist, 781-1736, anieto@arcis.com
• Verdon Toews, Seismic Data Processor, 781-1429, vtoews@arcis.com
• Yong Xu, Reservoir Services, 781-6241, yxu@arcis.com

Calgary’s quietly successful Anisotropic Depth Imaging team, WesternGeco, is very pleased to announce that Ayman Suleiman, formerly of Signal Estimation Technology, has joined the team as a Senior Processing Geophysicist. Ayman can be reached at 509 4087. WesternGeco is also very pleased to announce that Rob Holt has been promoted to Supervisor of the Depth Imaging team. Rob has 15 years of industry experience including more than 3 years of Canadian land and marine anisotropic depth imaging experience. To find out more about WesternGeco’s innovative Depth Imaging services, please contact Rob at 660 2567.”

Olympic Seismic Ltd. is pleased to announce that Michael West has accepted the position of Vice- President of Operations.

Mr. West began his career in 1983 designing, acquiring and processing 3D land surveys for Western Geophysical Co. of Canada. After a short stint as a Marine Seismic Coordinator, Mike relocated overseas to Africa and London where he worked in various chief acquisition geophysicist roles and managed data processing operations.

After 16 years with Western, Mike joined PGS in Cairo as Manager of Geophysics where he insured the integrity of various 2D and 3D, land and transition zone programs. Mr. West transferred back to Calgary in 2003 and most recently headed up depth imaging projects for Paradigm Geophysical.

With over 20 years of extensive experience in both acquisition and processing, Mike will be a valuable addition to the Olympic staff.

Mr. West graduated with a B Sc. Geophysics in 1983 and is currently working on an MBA offered through the Athabasca University.

How I Got Involved In Geophysics...

David Nordin – Nordin Resource Consultants

I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, about 60 miles northeast of Prince Albert, near a town called Snowden. I’m not saying it was small, but both town limit signs were on the same post. After attending high school in the “big town” of Choiceland, I graduated with a class of 19 others, ready to enter university in Computer Sciences. The year was 1974 and Wm Mason High had a, shall we say, limited computer lab. In other words, the only exposure I’d had to computers was through my favorite Aunt Lois, who taught computers at Ross Sheppard High in Edmonton. None the less, I had done well in the sciences and math in high school and felt I was ready to attend university in Saskatoon that fall. While I might have been ready at some level, I soon found that I didn’t quite have the dedication that was necessary. I was living in a house with my brother and 7 other guys, a few blocks from campus. Suffice it to say there were lots of distractions for a naïve 17 year old, with a bit of a social nature. In the era of punch cards and mainframes, beer and misbehavior was way too appealing. I quit after 3 weeks and after a short stint as a surveyor’s helper in Saskatoon, moved to Edmonton where a number of friends and relatives lived.

I spent 2 years there in a variety of dead end jobs, including “Assistant Sausage Mixer Helper” at the 101st St Meat Market($3.00/hr), carrying second grade fiberglass from 1 pile to another at Fibreglass Canada (Big money - $5.00/hr!!), running a shovel for Terrain Construction. My friend Glen at Terrain and I would have competitions to see who could throw the spade full of sand down to just the right spot to backfill the water pipes being installed. I would consistently win these competitions, causing Glen to say one day “You’re a good man with a shovel, Dave, You’ll go a long way….” Eventually I found my way into construction, building basements for Sid Nelson Construction. By the time I left Edmonton in the fall of 1976 I had had 8 different jobs, never drew pogey and was never fired, just quit them all.

My next stop was Lac La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan. I had a couple of friends from Snowden who said I could get a job building houses up there. So I spent the next couple of years there, saving money to travel. In Edmonton, I had made friends with a couple from Quebec and I decided that I would go out there the following summer. So I saved as much as I could and spent the summer hitchhiking to Quebec and on through the Maritimes on a budget of $10/day. I returned to La Ronge, got back on with the same company and saved again. The next year I traveled all the way to Newfoundland, going as far north as St Anthony and as far south as St Pierre and Miquelon. I did a short stint in Tillsonburg on my way back, picking tobacco to have enough money to get home on, 5 days that culminated in getting run over by a tractor. I know, I know, how does somebody get run over by a tractor? Big, loud, not that fast. It’s a story in itself …. Anyway, on the way back to Saskatchewan, I got a ride from Sudbury to Winnipeg with a woman who was a small town recreation director. She had taken a course at Saskatoon’s Kelsey Institute (SAIT equivalent) in Recreation Technology. When I returned to La Ronge, I decided I’d try to save my money to take the same course next fall. Somehow, since my net worth was = the clothes on my back, I had to put enough money together for tuition and living expenses.

At that time, the uranium boom was on in northern Saskatchewan and I decided the best way to save was to get a camp job. I applied to Uranerz Exploration and Mining and interviewed with Phil Robertshaw, Chief Geophysicist, for a role as the camp guy – keeping the generators running, the tents fueled, packing the runway, etc. Anyway, I got the job, working at the Kapesin exploration camp, not far from Key Lake. Over the passage of the winter, I gradually moved into chaining line and splitting core and eventually to running ground geophysics, MaxMin, VLF, Mag, etc. A funny thing happened during those long winter nights over the chess board. I realized that the geologists and geophysicists I was working with were no smarter than me. One of the guys I met was Gord Ostapovitch, a left handed, bowlegged Ukrainian from Montreal, and my future roommate. We spent a lot of time together, including a 10 day fly camp at Holger Lake. Being a fly camp, we only had an airtight heater which would burn out during the night. I noticed Gord would sleep with his toque on and finally questioned him on this. He said “Gotta keep my head warm, otherwise it won’t start in the morning.” He wasn’t what you’d call a morning person. Gord had taken two years of Engineering at McGill previously and was considering a career in geophysics.

During that winter a geologist named John Patterson came into camp. He was taking a field crew into the Arctic that summer and I asked if he could use someone like me. So I ended up flying out of Yellowknife, landing on the ice at September Lake on June 12th. It was a terrific summer, where I met a bunch more geologists and geologist wanna-bes. I also met Don Carriere, another geophysicist. Like Phil, he had traveled the world with his work and was a marginal chess player, thus allowing me to think geophysics must be pretty easy. Gord had decided to return to university in Saskatoon in geophysics and I decided to do the same. I entered the U of S in 1979 after 5 years out. Now keep in mind, as a very social person, I hadn’t been particularly adept at saving brain cells. That first year back was very difficult but Gord was my tutor and got me through it. If you’re reading this, Gord, thanks again.

This story is supposed to be about how I got into geophysics and that about does it. I got to Calgary initially through campus recruiting. My summer job in 1983 was with Amoco Canada, interpreting East Coast data and trying to build models for migrating structural data. I took my degree over 4 ? years though and when I finished at Christmas, the oil and gas business was slow so I went back to mining. After 10 months, I took an extended holiday through the Caribbean and South America. Amoco contacted my mom and she got hold of me through my friend in Bolivia. When I returned Amoco offered me a job and I started on May 5, 1985. Amazingly, after my earlier job history, I held a job for 15 years, through Amoco’s spin off of Crestar until Gulf bought us in Nov 2000. Ken West hired me into Amoco and was instrumental in getting me my freedom and package 5 years ago. Thanks again, Ken!! I now am a headhunter… but that story will wait for another issue of the RECORDER!