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Vol 3 • Issue 3 • June 2004
Our Perspective
Career Catalysts
Every day at the Collarini companies we meet highly successful oil and gas professionals. We also meet many individuals who are not fully utilizing their capabilities. From these many observations, we have recognized the skills and traits that differentiate high performing employees. These skills, combined with technical excellence and business acumen, catalyze technical careers. We call them “Collarini Career Catalysts.” Two of these catalysts, clear communication and consistently sound judgment, are illustrated in this month’s newsletter.
Successful technical experts know their subjects and produce good results; they also can explain their work clearly to others. Clear communication, both oral and written, differentiates high performing professionals.
For example, when rationalizing a company’s assets, the difference
between success and failure can be how well a divestment team communicates
the data that really IS the divestment package. Collarini Associates’
technical staff members have analyzed several hundred divestment packages.
Their article, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” discusses
how selling companies lose asset value more because of poor communication
of excellent technical work than because the technical work is poor. That
is why clear communication is essential – good technical work poorly
communicated generally leads to poor results.
Likewise, successful professionals exhibit consistently sound judgment, which is expressed in solid analysis and recommendations.
In
“Staffing Bits,” Dr. Errol Wirasinghe says that mastering
the critical processes of decision-making can develop consistently sound
judgment. A native of Sri Lanka, he was educated in the UK and has a PhD
in Mechanical Engineering. He has over 25 years of experience in optimization,
creative thinking, decision-making, and strategic planning. He is the
author of a book, “The Art of Making Decisions—Expanding Common
Sense & Experience,” and developer of the XpertUS decision-maker
software. More can be learned about Dr. Wirasinghe on his website, http://www.xpertus.com/.
Please enjoy Dr. Wirasinghe’s article, “Make Optimal Decisions
in Career Transitions.”
Your Friends at Collarini
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| Upstream News | |
The
Importance of Being Earnest
In the past two years, a surprising number of attempted divestments of
producing properties have failed to close. Why?
While strong commodity prices have raised sellers’ expectations and made buyers a bit cautious, we often observed that, in the rush to get to market, communication of technical information could have been much clearer and additional potential value could have been highlighted much better.
Potential buyers are always time and resource constrained. So, the less information sellers provide, the less value can be detected. (Besides no one likes to spend long hours in crammed data rooms with dusty boxes.) Most buyers approach an acquisition like any other project: analyze the reserves, operating expense, capital, and abandonment; determine a value; and bid. Win some and lose some.
The transactions most likely to close are those in which the information - that which is provided and that which is received - is clear. That requires collection and thoughtful analysis of relevant data and clear presentation and communication of the analysis.
The oil patch is an inherently risky place to do business, and no buyer can reasonably operate in a data vacuum. A seller who wants to close the sale should present all of the data in a clear and logical way and guide the buyer to those areas where additional value lies. The buyer must be willing to seek additional value that the seller may have overlooked by examining logs for overlooked pay and by seeing other reserve-enhancing ideas. It is work on both sides but worthwhile in the long run. This clear communication approach will help buyers and sellers come to terms.
The
objective is to consummate a deal that is a win for both seller and buyer.
That can only happen when the buyer is earnest and the seller is honest.
| Talent Pool | |
The following biographies are just a small sampling of the kind of talent available in our talent pool of over 10,000 experts. Please call our placement managers if you are interested in learning more about these professionals, or check out our website for more candidates.
Reservoir Engineer with 24 years of experience in exploration and production with large and small oil companies. Experienced in thermal recovery, chemical flooding, risk management, well testing, reservoir modeling, enhanced oil recovery, and waterflood management. Geographic areas worked include California, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, the Permian Basin, the Rocky Mountains, the mid-continent area, and Canada. Computer skills include Crystal Ball, @Risk, Microsoft Office, GEMS, WEM, ARIES, Dwight's PowerTools, IHS P2000, GeoGraphix, JTI Horizontal, Petroleum Experts MBal, and Landmark VIP. Ask for R102.
Petroleum Engineer with more than 25 years of extensive experience in production, operations and drilling engineering functions with major oil and gas firms. Skilled at interactive management style with hands-on engineering expertise in field optimization through implementation of drilling and completions, workovers, artificial lift, surface facility design, field studies, and aggressive cost reduction programs for high pressure, hostile, and low pressure oil and gas work environments. Geographic experience includes the Rocky Mountains, northern Louisiana, and the upper Texas Gulf coast. Ask for P393.
Engineering
Technician
with 25 years of experience supporting reservoir and production engineers.
Skilled at production reporting and economic and data analysis. Experienced
with acquisitions, divestment, end of the year reserve reporting, and
teaching and supporting economic software packages. Computer skills include
Microsoft Office, ARIES (DOS and Windows versions), OGRE, and many proprietary
industry softwares. Ask for TE413.
Exploration
Geocientist
with
more than 20 years of experience including drilling operations and planning,
abnormal pressure detection, geophysical and geologic interpretation,
prospect risk analysis, field work, and 2D/3D seismic analysis on all
scales. Experienced in generating low risk prospects and in the evaluation
of opportunities from the unique perspective of petroleum systems analysis
and reservoir characterization. Areas of expertise are the Gulf of Mexico,
from the Gulf of Campeche to Cuba, Alaska, and numerous basins in the
Rocky Mountains. Proficient in seismic interpretation on both the GeoQuest
and Landmark computing platforms and numerous basin modeling softwares.
Ask for G1130.
Financial
Analyst
has a BBA in Finance and 23 years of experience with a strong background
in E&P accounting including extensive experience with reserve classification,
depreciation, capital versus expense allocation, and variance analysis.
Experienced using Excel to develop valuation/economic models. Extensive
knowledge with and currently helping a large oil company in the implementation
of SAP 6.2. Ask for A0273.
Operations Geologist with a MS in Geology and 12 years of industry experience primarily has a combination petrophysicist/geologist. Petrophysical training was through a major’s petrophysical training program. Certified by Landmark in StratWorks and SeisWorks. Extensive experience working with multi-disciplinary teams on projects on the shelf and in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico.
Ask for GS0314.
| Staffing Bits | |
Make Optimal Decisions Career transitions – whether caused by a project ending, layoff, or other career event – offer many opportunities for decisions. Transitions are a perfect time to evaluate options – and there are many options! (See box for just a few examples.) View a career transition as an opportunity to evaluate values, goals, and desires. You might not get another opportunity. Transitions also provide an opportunity to learn and refine good decision-making skills.
How do you decide what suits you best and what to do next in a career transition? How do you make really good decisions? Discipline is required. Just as engineering has a body of knowledge, there is a decision-making methodology that can be learned and applied. Likewise, without formal training in decision-making, we are likely to make suboptimal decisions. Our decisions can be victims of factors such as incomplete information, preconceived notions, subjectivity, mediocrity, etc. I have developed a seven-step methodology (see box*) to guide decision-making. This technique is based on more than 20 years of research and experience, much of it in Houston’s oil and gas industry. This process applies to any problem, not just career transition decisions. These steps apply no matter how simple or complex a problem is. For simple decisions, you do them quickly in your head. While the steps are the same, more complex decisions require extra skills and resources. For example, deciding about where to eat lunch is a different level of complexity than deciding whether to change fields, go back to school, start a new business, or invest 401K distributions in cryogenics. In all but the simplest decisions, I recommend using a decision-making tool such as XpertUS to rank your options. This tool helps quantify qualitative elements including common sense and experience. In a complex decision, it is impossible for a person to consider sufficient variables to make a consistent and reliable decision without such a system. The seven-step technique we propose, along with a decision-making tool such as XpertUS, will ensure you reach a consistent and reliable decision every time. Editor’s Note: At Collarini, we believe sound judgment is one of the characteristics that differentiate great performers from good performers. And good decisions are the foundation of sound judgment. How do you make good decisions? Discipline and practice are the cornerstones. Sound judgment is a Collarini Career Catalyst. * For an in depth discussion, grab a copy of Dr. Errol Wirasinghe’s book: “The Art of Making Decisions—Expanding Common Sense & Experience." |
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| About Us | |
Connecting the Industry's Experts...
Collarini Energy Staffing Inc. is a full-service agency specializing in the placement of exploration and production personnel including the disciplines listed below (other supporting personnel are managed upon request):
| Accountants and supporting personnel Administrative assistants Business analysts Civil engineers Clerks Database administrators Drilling engineers Drilling operations supervisors Electrical/Instrument engineers Geologists Geophysicists Health, safety and environmental personnel Landmen and supporting personnel Management personnel Material/Corrosion engineers |
Naval architects Operations supervisors Petrophysicists Process engineers Procurement personnel Production/Completion engineers Production operations supervisors Project managers Reservoir engineers Subsea engineers Surface/Topsides engineers Technical writers Technicians, drafting and graphic Technicians, engineering Technicians, geoscience |
Reservoir Solutions the Industry Trusts...
The Collarini Associates petroleum engineers and geoscientists specialize in evaluating oil and gas reservoirs. Specific projects include integrated field studies, acquisition evaluations, independent reserve appraisals, and exploration and exploitation prospect generation and assessment. Our full divestment services include creation and hosting of electronic and physical data rooms in addition to the technical evaluation. Our teams in Houston and New Orleans are very experienced and stand ready to help you on projects of any size. Try us!
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