As a child, do you remember dreaming what you wanted to be when you grow up? Things were simple: doctor, architect, pilot: pretty straightforward choices. In the professional world, things get a little more complicated. Do you want to treat sick children or run a pediatric hospital? Design buildings or supervise their construction? Fly airplanes or train future pilots? Professions that require similar educations often demand different skill sets and temperaments for specific positions. We thought about this a little further and wanted to share our thoughts on how to find out who you are.

We can learn a lot from philosophers of the past. The world may be modern, but not all ideas are. Take the concept of "Optimism," which has a deeper meaning than just describing how full the glass is. Thinking about Optimism in a certain way could lead to solutions to current problems that face the oil and gas industry! Hard to believe, but read this to see how problems could be solved with the right mind set.

Please keep in touch.

Your friends at Collarini

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The concept of "Optimism" has been subject to philosophical review over the centuries, from Antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment. During the 18th century, when modern science first began to develop answers to perceived miracles, optimism was defined as an understanding that all failures and tragedies in the world are really the result of insufficient knowledge. To early modern scientists, all problems were looked at as eventually solvable with new scientific findings

This definition of optimism that asserts that undiscovered solutions exist for all challenges can be tested in three areas where the oil and gas industry currently faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles:

1. Is the offshore industry, especially the deep-water segment, doomed to disappear because of its massive capital requirements? The 2017 Offshore Technology Conference just closed its doors, with attendance down for the third straight year. Elsewhere, companies formerly focused strictly offshore are shifting their attention onshore. Lower oil prices, high development costs, increased technical challenges in deeper and more difficult waters, and increasing stockpiles of oil and gas have threatened the economics of many future offshore projects. Projects in extreme climatic conditions or with the most drastic human and technology resource demands may indeed never get developed. However, many projects, while challenging, could be feasible by utilizing technologies that are cheaper and less complex to deploy. Methodologies that reduce personnel requirements, shorten time to production, and employ more reusable and interchangeable equipment will create a new round of successful offshore exploitation.
2. High-speed computing and big data management are game-changers in the oil and gas industry. By all accounts, IT professionals and their ingenuity are solving specific issues, such as easy accessibility to the data of remote operation sites. So far so good. But how secure is this information? Data security is a vital concern in other industries, but some of the unique aspects of the E&P industry's work with information generated from many different directions and operational sites, and brought together in completely different locations, creates specific questions. What if a data breach resulted in potentially dangerous consequences? What if a system hack that turned a valve or disabled a safety measure was not recognized in time to abate its effects? Malicious interference in the operations of oil gas production could result in catastrophic outcomes. The industry needs to tackle data security issues with the same vigilance and expertise as organizations involved in national security and safety. With the rapid evolution and expansion of sophisticated virtual supervisory equipment, the significance of data security cannot be stressed enough.
3. According to the SPE's page on PetroWiki, 40% to 60% of the entire world's proven gas reserves are stranded. For decades, the industry has known about these remote fields, which are not commercially viable by today's standards. This is a problem awaiting new solutions, such as a much cheaper SWAT team approach to development and production, and a new, perhaps still undiscovered mode of cheaper transportation to markets. Consider UPS's evolved logistics strategies, including their less than truckload (LTL) system, which departed from conventional thinking that half-full trucks were an undesirable waste of space, and only a fully loaded truck could adequately cover a shipping company's expenses. UPS advanced and perfected the LTL by utilizing other truck companies' hubs and trucks and developing smarter digital systems that allowed the tracking of millions of packages every day. A similar concept may be transferred to the oil and gas industry. The solution to retrieving stranded gas could effectively utilize newer and cheaper CNG technology and may include the development of smaller local customer markets to avoid longer transportation routes and costs. As many of these smaller markets for gas would likely be in rural and poorer areas, and reduction of poverty along the way would be a much-desired side effect, a comprehensive solution to deliver stranded gas might include collaboration with charitable organizations that have made the elimination of world-wide poverty their mission.

Advances are being made every day. But these three daunting tasks require focus and concentrated efforts to tackle as well as the will to employ a new way of thinking.

We are optimistic it can be done!

The following biographies are just a small sampling of the kind of talent available in our talent pool of over 24,000 experts. Please call our placement managers if you are interested in learning more about these professionals, or check out our website for more candidates.

Accountant with an associate's degree in accounting and 25 years of experience working for small, independent operators and a major oil company. Experienced in revenue and joint interest billing processing, tax review and filing, recording revenue, royalty payments, severance tax calculations and returns, regulatory reporting, general ledger recording, monthly oil and gas allocations, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, and account and contract analysis. Computer skills include OGsys, SAP R/3, Excel, Word, outlook, HIS Field Direct Production Explorer, Roughneck Derek Software, Petrocomp, QuickBooks Pro, and ADP Payroll. Ask for A232

Accountant and Financial Analyst with a bachelor's degree in accounting and management and over 16 years of experience working for large and medium size oil and gas companies. Experienced in general accounting, financial reporting, consolidations, developing and implementing systems, process, and controls, and coordinating and creating forecasts and operational analyses for management. Additionally experienced in royalty account reconciliations, revenue recognition, accruals, project implementation, and SOX compliance and reporting. Software proficiencies include Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Hyperion, Excel, and Access. Ask for A604

Senior Landman with an MBA and 13 years of experience as the co-founder of a brokerage firm and working in-house and in the field for a small, independent operator and as an independent landman. Executive experience includes management and acquisition of assets, sale and lease negotiation, title resolution, revenue payments, working interest billings, ad valorem taxes, account reports, due diligence, and marketing. Managerial experience in land operations, including data management, contract preparation, title research and curation, compliance, due diligence, and runsheets. Additional experience in permitting and lease analysis. Geographic areas worked include Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Colorado, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Computer skills include Excel, Word, Citrix, Deed Plotter, Sandy Knoll, LandPro, TOBIN, TOBIN Land Suite, Drilling Info, GIS Land, SQL/Oracle. Ask for L761

Land Manager with a bachelor's degree and more than 30 years of experience working for small to large oil and gas companies. Experienced in managing and executing land functions within E&P teams, acquiring leases, preparing surface use agreements, negotiating and preparing contracts, interfacing with accounting regarding royalty matters and division order interests, performing due diligence, monitoring A&D activity, and managing relationships with regulatory bodies. Geographic areas worked include Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi, California, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico. Certified Professional Landman. Ask for L1160

Petroleum Engineer with a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering and 15 years of experience with independents and in the service sector. Expert in managing operations and engineering in completions and production including conventional plug and perf, and slick-water and gel-fluid completions with toe activation subs. Also engineered, designed, and implemented completion procedures, managed company men and consultants, and created completion AFEs and tracked costs from rig release to post-flowback including TCP, frac, flowback, and tubing installs. Geographic experience includes conventional, unconventional, and coalbed assets in Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia. Special expertise in Spotfire. Ask For P945

Energy Executive with a master's degree in geology, an MBA, and extensive leadership, management, technical, and operations experience with a major oil company, independents, and a service company. Specialist in strategic planning and analysis, field optimization, acquisition and divestment, and organizational development. Has a demonstrated successful track record in asset management, business development, and economic evaluations to plan and execute budgets, work with capital markets, and guide service companies. Experienced with a large network of operators, bankers, and brokers and in exploration and development of unconventional and conventional reservoirs, including the use of 3-D seismic, and waterflood management throughout the lower 48. Ask For M643

Reservoir Engineer with a master's degree in petroleum engineering and 23 years of experience working for major operators and a small independent. Experience includes waterflood design, field development plans, flood management and monitoring, reserves estimation, workovers and completions, waterflood optimization, acquisition reviews, field studies, integrated reservoir studies, economic analysis, production forecasting, AFE generation, production decline curve analysis, and well log analysis. Geographic areas worked include Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, south Texas, and Venezuela. Software proficiencies include ARIES, DSS, Material Balance, Carte, Wellview, PETRA, STREAMSIM, Access, Geographix, Enertia, IHS, HPDI, Drilling Info, OGRE, PEEP, and Eclipse. Languages include Spanish. Ask For R1110

Reservoir Engineer with a master's degree in petroleum engineering and 19 years of experience working for a major operator and a service company. Global Subject Matter Expert in Special Core Analysis for Reservoir Engineering. Experience includes team leadership, extreme temperature experiments, reservoir modeling, reservoir simulation studies, laboratory maturation studies, EOR studies, coring and core analysis, heavy oil characterization, technology development, laboratory analysis and research training, wellsite core retrieval, and lab apparatus design. Geographic areas worked include California, Canada, China, Colorado, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Oman, Texas, Trinidad, and Venezuela. Ask For R1430

Reservoir Engineer with a master's degree in petroleum engineering and 11 years of experience working for a small independent operator. Experience includes development planning, booking SEC reserves, economic studies and analysis, property evaluation, acquisition evaluation, waterflood analysis, fractional flow curving, material balance confirming volumetrics, divestiture studies, authoring annual field reviews, and type curve analysis. Geographic areas worked include the Permian Basin, the Gulf Coast, the Hugoton basin, DJ basin, and Big Horn basin. Software proficiencies include ARIES, PETRA, DSS/OFM, and Spotfire. Ask For R1428