schlumberger life

FIELD ENGINEERING

You will operate in one of the world’s most extreme, pressurized environments. You will use thevery latest technologies and be faced with making multimillion-dollar decisions

RESEARCH, ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING AND SUSTAINING

Your creativity, ingenuity and innovation will help develop in-house technologies capable ofperforming reliably and flawlessly in the most testing of conditions

PETROTECHNICAL

You can help us shape the future of energy. You will work hand in hand with our clients to providethe technical expertise that can really make a difference

MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING

You will play a crucial role by maintaining our cutting-edge technology, enabling us to deliverimpeccable reliability and service quality every time

PLUS MANY MORE UNPARALLELED OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE

www.slb.com/careers

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SCHLUMBERGER LIFE

Published by:Schlumberger Ltd42, rue Saint Dominique75007 ParisFrance

Executive editor: Jamie PollardEditor: Annika JoelssonDesign & editorial: Phil Bushell Design & Publishing,London; [email protected] editor: Ruth MacKenzie

Contributors: Eric Ayache, Richard Boak,Martin Draeger, Johana Dunlop, Henry Edmundson,Lina El Hares, Lori Gauvreau, Fathi Ghorbel,David Handwerger, Catherine MacGregor,Jennifer MacLeod, Jane Marshall, Dominique Pajot,Mark Smith, Mary Louise Stott

Special thanks to Richard Bancel, Ariane Labadens,Xun Li, Yilmaz Luy, Mark Sorheim, Steve Whittakerand everyone else who contributed to the magazine

Images: courtesy of Schlumberger. Other images:NASA/The Visible Earth (p4); www.stockyard.com(p22) www.niallcotton.com (p23); Comstock/Fotosearch (p44); cepolina.com (obc); Additionalillustrations: David Richeson & Mike Taylor

Comments and suggestions: [email protected]

An asterisk (*) in the publication denotes a mark ofSchlumberger

© 2008 Services Techniques Schlumberger

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher

MEASURING THE WORLDJust what is it that Schlumberger does and what kind of people is the company looking to recruitinto a rapidly changing and developing industry.

SCHLUMBERGER PEOPLEWith the Schlumberger workforce being drawn from more than 160 countries, the company istruly global. Schlumberger Life profiles just afew of its 85,000 employees to give a flavor ofthe company’s multinational workforce.

IT’S A CARBON THINGAs both a business venture and an internal company initiative, Schlumberger is seekinginnovative ways to limit atmospheric CO2 levels.

SCHLUMBERGER PEOPLEMiriam Archer

THE FUTURE OF OIL & GASLa Recherche, a leading French popular science and technology magazine, published a specialoil and gas supplement illustrating the pivotalrole Schlumberger plays in the industry.

RIG LIFEThe vast majority of Schlumberger people will spend at least some of their time living andworking at a wellsite. ‘Rig Life’ gives a pictorialflavor of what to expect!

SCHLUMBERGER PEOPLEXun Li

DIARY OF MY ADVENTURESSchlumberger people get to visit parts of the world that are well off the beaten tourist routes.Eric Ayache takes us on his own personaljourney.

SCHLUMBERGER PEOPLEIvan Khlestov

KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIERIn 1929, Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger avoided potential bankruptcy when they receivedcontracts from an unexpected market –the Soviet Union.

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIPSchlumberger is taking action on six key globalchallenges: climate change, the environment,driving safety, malaria, HIV/AIDS and scienceeducation.

UNDER PRESSUREWith vast experience of subsurface technologies, Schlumberger is bringing its expertise to bear onthe management of arguably the most preciousof all natural resources – water.

EXPLORING THE THICK ICEDr David Handwerger, a senior geophysicist with Schlumberger, was part of a research team whichspent six weeks studying the Antarctic cryosphere.

CROSSING CONTINENTSAn experiment in cross-continental collaboration sees French and US engineering students workingclosely but communicating only by telephone,e-mail, video conference and the Internet.

SCHLUMBERGER PEOPLEPaul Wyman

THE LAST WORDCatherine MacGregor, vice-president of personnel,gives her personal perspective of whatSchlumberger has to offer and what new recruitscan expect.

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Since the early years of the 20th centurywe have been measuring the world – providing precise analysis and detailed interpretation ofthe subsurface of our planet. We supply ourclients with the advanced technologies andexpertise required to identify, develop andmanage hydrocarbons effectively.

In recent years we have started to extend our oilfield techniques into other areas: we areone of the companies pioneering the deepunderground storage of carbon dioxide tohelp reduce global warming and climate change;and we are aiding countries, communitiesand companies worldwide in the evaluation ofunderground water supplies, as well as helpingthem develop sustainable policies for themanagement of what will become increasinglyprecious water resources.

We are constantly looking for people withvision to join us and help carry our businessforward. The work is academically rigorous,intellectually demanding and can be physicallytough, but the rewards we offer reflect fully thecommitment we require.

If this kind of global challenge is what youare seeking in your career, why not come and talkto us about living the Schlumberger LIFE!

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“What makes working with Schlumberger so interestingis that no project is ever the same. We’re always pushingthe envelope and have to become experts in many skillsin many different areas. Schlumberger hires its engineersfrom the best universities in the world, so project designteams typically consist of people from many differentcountries, with completely different backgrounds anda variety of perspectives. This is what makes it so muchfun to work here . . . and it definitely never gets boring!”

CECILIA PRIETO

Nationality: BolivianAge: 32Degree: Mechanical EngineeringUniversity: Massachusetts Instituteof TechnologyLanguages: Spanish, English,French and SwedishRecruited: 1999, but also spentthree internships at Schlumbergerduring 1996 and 1998Current post: Project Manager inSugar Land, TexasUnwinding route: Biking, running,swimming, hiking, camping …anything outdoorsFavourite iPod track: Believe or notI don’t have an iPod!

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There’s not really anysuch thing as a typicalSchlumberger person.Certainly they all havethat certain something,but irrespective of gender,race, religion or culture,ALL are given an equalopportunity to help shapethe company’s future . . .only performancedetermines progress.

Jean Cahuzac CEO Acergy

Chad Deaton CEO Baker Hughes

Peter Goode CEO Vetco International

Thierry Morin Chairman and CEO Valeo

David Mullen CEO Ocean Rig

Robert Peebler CEO Input/Output

Thierry Pilenko CEO Technip

Olivier Piou CEO Axalto

Julio M Quintana CEO TESCO Corporation

Mario Ruscev President FormFactor Inc

. . . and many more!

Schlumberger is a great place to start your career. Business leaders from some of the world’smost dynamic companies have at some stage of their careers been Schlumberger people:

“I’m a firm believer in the saying, ‘If there’s a will, there’s a way’.This ethos, along with my enthusiasm, time management skills, abilityto focus and work hard allow me to manage my Schlumberger careerwith being an adjunct professor at KFUPM and Chairman of the WorldPetroleum Council Youth Committee. The classes I teach are directlyrelated to my research interests. This keeps me up to date withadvances in the subject and helps me identify talented studentswho could be my future colleagues in Schlumberger.”

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LUMBERGERPEOPLE.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.SCHLUMBERGERPEOPLE.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.SCHLUMBERGERPEOPLE.SCHLUMBERGERPEOPLE

WAIL MOUSA

Nationality: SaudiAge: 31Degree: PhD Electrical Engineering;MSc Electrical Engineering &Mathematical SciencesUniversity: King Fahd Universityof Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM)and Leeds UniversityLanguages: English and ArabicRecruited: 2003Current post: Research Scientist,Schlumberger Dhahran CarbonateResearch Center, Saudi ArabiaUnwinding route: Cooking andbarbecuing with family and friendsFavourite iPod track: Classicaland traditional Arabic songs

“I joined as a field engineer right after I graduated.I got married to Babar, who also works forSchlumberger. After completing my training wewere transferred to Norway when my son, Hamza,was two only months old. Soon after the birth of mydaughter, Zoya, we transferred to Indonesia andwe’re now in Dubai. Far from limiting my careerperspectives, I feel that being a woman from anemerging country has actually been an advantage.“

UZMA BABAR

Nationality: PakistaniAge: 31Degree: Mechanical EngineeringUniversity: Ghulam Ishaq KhanInstitute of Engineering Sciences &Technology (GIKI)Languages: Urdu and EnglishRecruited: 1999Current post: Training, Development& Staffing Manager, Middle East &Asia for Data & Consulting ServicesUnwinding route: Raising awarenessabout the opportunities for womenin engineering.Favourite iPod track: Can’t Take MyEyes Off You by Andy Williams

promising solution forthe overall reduction of

global CO2 emissions is the emergingtechnology of carbon captureand storage (CCS). This involvescapturing CO2 in bulk from sourcessuch as power stations, and storingit deep underground in geologicalformations.

It is estimated that CCS couldreduce CO2 emissions by over 50%by 2050. And it owes much to themethodologies and technologiesused in oil and gas explorationand production. As a result,Schlumberger is able to makea major contribution to locating,selecting, monitoring, and managing

large scale, long term CO2 storagesolutions.

In 2005, Schlumberger CarbonServices was established to focuson this vital area. The company isinvolved in every major pilot projectaround the world in the geologicalstorage part of the full CO2 capture,transport and storage chain: from

CO2 emissions are recognized as one of the main cause of globalwarming. Finding effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases is seen

as increasingly urgent if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.Schlumberger is playing its part.

TECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.EMERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.EMERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.E

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As a company pioneering CO2 emission reductiontechniques such as carbon capture and storage, it isimportant that Schlumberger minimizes its own carbonfootprint. Thanks to a rigorous new environmental auditprocess, this is happening. It includes a complianceaudit tool (CAT) that covers environmental management,waste and resource management, legal compliance,site history, and spill prevention and control.

“We have been auditing sites for the past ten years,”says Ian Sealy, manager of environment programs.“But it took a tremendous amount of groundworkto get to the point where we had a formal set of keyperformance indicators and systems in place acrossalmost all our locations.” The new audit process waslaunched in 2007 and applied in 525 sites by 55 auditors.The result was an impressive 96% compliance rating.“This is a big step forward,” says Sealy.

The annual audit process is designed to make surethat all sites demonstrate continuous improvement inhow they manage their environmental protectionsystems to meet local regulations and the rigorousSchlumberger internal standards. In cases where localregulations and company standards diverge, sites mustopt for the more stringent of the two – which is oftenthe Schlumberger standard.

Other steps towards minimizing the company’senvironmental impact even further focus on CO2

reduction strategies for specific Schlumbergerbusiness segments. Data collected since 2005 nowallow the company to report its CO2 emissions peremployee.

Schlumberger is continuously improving the qualityand breadth of the environmental data it collects.“Initially we needed to focus on understanding whereour emissions come from. Only then could we start toidentify opportunities to reduce CO2,” says Sealy.

Environmental plans at Schlumberger also includeprojects to improve its waste disposal processes – bothreducing the amount of waste that is generated and itsenvironmental impact – and installing better watertreatment systems to improve the quality of the wastewater that is discharged back into the environment.

In addition, the Global Citizenship Library of CaseStudies is a new initiative through which environmentalbest practices are shared. “Each step is important onits own,” says Sealy, “but taken together, theseinitiatives will lead to a larger, more visible impacton our environmental footprint.”

MERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.EMERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.EMERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.SCHLUMBER

Canada and Europe, to North Africa,Australia and Japan. It also offersits expertise to power companies,manufacturers, and other majorproducers of CO2 emissions, aswell as governments and otherstakeholders.

“When it comes to tacklingglobal warming, carbon storage isnot a magic bullet,” admits DavidWhite, president of SchlumbergerCarbon Services, “but it couldprovide a significant part of theanswer. That’s why Schlumbergeris taking a proactive stance.We’re playing a leading role ininternational forums, collaborativeresearch, and organizationsdedicated to addressing CO2 issues.”

Schlumberger Carbon Services’approach is different as it can tapinto over 80 years of subsurfaceevaluation experience. Schlumbergerengineers have spent decades inthe field, characterizing subsurfacegeological structures to assess theirsuitability for oil and gas production.Similar techniques and technologiesare being applied to CCS.

“We’re offering a truly multi-disciplinary approach to anextremely complex issue, and it’shighly practical,” explains White.

The first stage involves screeningpotential sites. Schlumberger usesexisting data – as well as a widerange of information collected inthe field and laboratory – to supportthis process.

It’s not just a question ofgeological suitability. The teamalso takes social, environmental,and economic criteria into account:after all, CO2 may be held inthese underground reservoirs forhundreds of years, and will needconstant monitoring for leakage orcontamination of the surroundingrocks.

Once a site is chosen, moredetailed subsurface characterizationis carried out. Schlumberger buildshigh resolution geologic models toassess reservoir capacity, how easyit is to inject the CO2 and how wellit will be contained. And it doesn’tstop there; Schlumberger cancontribute to the design andconstruction of the facility, tolong-term monitoring and evendecommissioning.

With the effects of globalwarming increasingly apparent,making a practical contributionto a long-term solution is extremelysatisfying for everyone involved. ■

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What job were you recruited to and what you have been doingsince you joined?

“I was hired as a research scientist to work in the Fluids Department at SchlumbergerCambridge Research. For the first 10 months I helped to develop and test a semi-analytical modelof the flow into a wellbore. After that I went to work in Indonesia as a Drilling & Measurementsfield engineer as part of Schlumberger’s Tech&Field program. In this program, engineers andscientists from the technology centers work in the field for 15-18 months to gain real lifeexperience. I found this extremely useful and learnt many new skills, including being able tospeak enough Indonesian to be understood both on the rig and on holiday in Bali! I returned fromthe field nearly a year ago and have been working in yet another segment of Schlumberger –Well Testing this time. I am enjoying the current assignment and again I am learning all the time,which I love to do.”

What made you choose Schlumberger?

“I was interested by the idea of working in such a large multi-national company. I have metmany people from all over the world . . . a fascinating experience!”

How would you describe ‘Schlumberger people’ and are they reallydifferent from people working in other companies?

“The majority of people I’ve met are very enthusiastic about their job and enjoy life outsideof work too. I would say the difference between ‘Schlumberger people’ and those from othercompanies is that we get very used to working with people from different countries anddifferent cultural backgrounds, which makes for a very interesting working environment.”

Nationality: British

Age: 25

Degree: Fluid Mechanics

University: Cambridge University

Languages: English and basic Indonesian

Recruited: 2005

Current post: Research Scientist

Unwinding route: Running, running, running!

Favourite iPod track: But I Feel Good by Groove Armada

MIRIAM ARCHER

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ublished monthly by Sophia Publications, La Recherche reportson a wide range of popular science topics and is a principal source

of scientific information in the French language.In April 2007 La Recherche featured a special supplement that

examined the technologies used in the exploration and production ofoil and gas. The supplement was prefaced by the following introduction:

‘Science and technology: a duo where, increasingly, all elementsmutually enrich one another. To explore these interactions,La Recherche offers its readers this new ‘Technological Handbook’.Backed by a large number of diagrams, it is intended to be a clearillustration of fields where technology, industry and trade are in astate of continuous change, stimulated by fundamental developments.Current events remind us of the importance of the issues. With therocketing cost of a barrel of oil, geopolitical uncertainties andenvironmental constraints, can the development of leading-edgetechnologies in an industry now over a century old change thesituation?’

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HOW WILL WORLDWIDE ENERGY NEEDSCHANGE OVER THE NEXT 25 YEARS?According to the International Energy Agency(IEA) reference scenario, if energy policy remainsunchanged, world demand for primary energy –currently 11 billion tonnes of oil equivalent – will increase at a sustained rate of 1.6% per year,particularly in countries such as China whichare undergoing rapid development. Oil willremain the source of energy most in demandbecause its uses are concentrated in the transportsector, where there is little that can take itsplace, and where there is limited scope forincreased fuel efficiency. However, among fossilfuel sources, the most rapid growth in demand

is for gas. This is because it easy to use, relativelyclean and environmental friendly, and an efficientsource of fuel for electricity production.

By 2030, overall world energy consumptionwill have risen by 55% over the current level.The proportion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas)will increase markedly, making up to 85%of the total, compared with 80% today. This isa baseline scenario that does not take supplysecurity issues into consideration, dependsheavily on oil from the Middle East and gas fromthe Middle East and Russia, and is clearly quiteappalling in terms of CO2 emissions. But evenif the international community makes politicaldecisions to significantly reduce demand and

emissions, the IEA nevertheless forecasts a 20%to 25% increase in world energy consumptionby 2030, and the continued dominance of fossilfuel energies.

SO, DO WE RUN THE RISK OF NOT HAVINGENOUGH OIL?This question refers to the peak oil concept,which states that from 2030, the world will nothave sufficient oil to meet demand. Peak oilmeans that when half the world's undergroundoil reserves have been consumed, production willautomatically decline along a symmetrical curve.For proponents of this theory, that turning pointhas already arrived as far as underground oilproduction in the United States is concerned; andis almost upon us across the rest of the world.

The IEA does not agree. It advances twoarguments. First, policy could change everything:adoption of ambitious energy saving policies couldreduce demand for energy and, consequently, the

Six questions concerningour energy futureWhat will the world’s energy landscape look like by 2030?This article provides a few of the answers, with the assistanceof Claude Mandil, former Chair of the International EnergyAgency (IEA).

TAKING STOCK

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■ Fig 1: By 2030, the world demand for primary energy will be around 17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent. ■ Fig 2: To satisfy this thirst for energy, massive investments will need to be made. ■ Fig 3: At the same time and if nothing is done, CO2 emissions will continue to increase by at least 1.7% a year. Graphics: Bruno Bourgeois. Source: IEA Reference Scenario.

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symmetrical curve would no longer exist. Second,how can we determine the extent of ultimatereserves? The fact that no large deposits are nowbeing found across the world cannot be used tobolster the peak oil concept. What is valid in theUnited States is not applicable to major monopolyproducer countries which, because they are notin competition, do not feel it is worthwhileexploiting any significantly large deposits.

Concerning ultimate reserves, if onlyconventional oil outside monopolistic countriesis taken into consideration, then the concept ofpeak production is relevant. But adding MiddleEastern resources, non-conventional oil (heavyoil and bitumen, oil shale), oil located at greatdepths below the sea (more than 2,000 meters)and in the Arctic, and products that can beextracted from gas, coal and biomass, rendersthis Malthusian vision inapplicable.

Nor should we forget the expected beneficialeffects of technology. Currently, the averagerecovery of liquid hydrocarbons is just 35%.With enhanced recovery, this could increaseto 50%, and even 70% in the decades to come.Finally, it is necessary to take into considerationthe gas resources that could satisfy the increased

demand for hydrocarbons. However, because60% of gas reserves are not near main transportnetworks, technologies enabling local operationsneed to be developed.

IS THE US $200 BARREL A POSSIBILITY?It is always dangerous to speculate. With therecent start up of new petroleum capacities andslight drop in demand, the IEA is counting on areduction in the average import cost of crude oil toits member countries in the short term, althoughthis will be followed by regular increases up to2030. It is assumed that the price of natural gaswill follow the same trend, due to the long termindexation between gas supply contracts and oilprices, and the competition between these twofuels. But it should be underlined here that newgeopolitical tensions, or worse, disruption insupply, could reinforce price increases.

GIVEN CLIMATE CHANGE, CAN WEREASONABLY CONTINUE TO BURN COAL,OIL AND GAS?Let us not forget the recent, irrefutableconclusions of the intergovernmental groupof experts on climate change that CO2 emissions,

essentially from combustion of fossil fuels, willcause average world temperature to increase byseveral degrees and that consequently, there isan increased risk of serious atmosphericdisturbances.

Therefore, carbon dioxide emissions must bereduced, by adopting a wide range of possiblemeasures. First, it is essential to manage existingstock, particularly through development of acarbon emissions trading scheme. At the sametime, emissions must be reduced by improvingenergy efficiency, developing renewable energies,and making use of nuclear energy.

But even in the most optimistic of scenarios,with a maximum level of efficiency for renewableenergies, the IEA remains convinced that oil willcontinue to be a major source of energy, becauseeven with biofuels, oil will still be needed fortransport systems. In the very long term, towards2050, energy could be provided by hydrogen andfuel cells, but only if current technological andeconomic challenges are overcome.

Current energy consumption trends raisethe question of coal based emissions. In 2030,coal will probably still be a major energy sourcebecause it is abundant, cheap and widely ➥

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■ The technicians in this control room manage an entire production process, including drilling, pumping and transportation, for Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian national oil company.

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available worldwide. Some countries, such asChina and South Africa, are so dependent on coalthat it is difficult to imagine how they could stopusing it. This points to a need to develop costeffective technologies to capture and store CO2.

WHAT AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES COULDEASE THE ENERGY PROBLEM?The technological challenges to be met areenormous. It is necessary to provide the planetwith cost-effective energy, while diversifyingsupplies and massively reducing CO2 emissions.We cannot limit ourselves to a single technology.A wide range of technologies must be developedsimultaneously: technologies to improveenergy efficiency for buildings and transport,technologies for renewable energy and nuclearenergy, and technologies to promote moreenvironmentally friendly use of fossil fuels.

To optimize petroleum production, enhancedrecovery technologies need to be developed,which requires the combined expertise ofdisciplines including earth sciences (geologyand geophysics), applied mathematics, physicalchemistry and biotechnology. Another aspectis the treatment of data generated by theexploitation of hydrocarbon deposits. The quantityof data on a field acquired during the surveyingthrough production phases can be counted inpetabytes (1015 bytes). This information needs tobe integrated and acted on in real time tooptimize the exploitation of these deposits.

Regarding renewable energies, technologydevelopments to reduce costs are vital. This

concerns two main sectors in particular:photovoltaics and biofuels. The ecobalance of the latter must be improved and the move tosecond and even third generation productscarried out as rapidly as possible.

According to the IEA, the future also lies inthe greater use of nuclear generated energy, butthis demands that public concerns regardingwaste management be alleviated. Once again,considerable progress needs to be made infundamental and technological research.

The development of all these technologiesmeans that in sciences as diverse as chemistry,information technology, biology and earth sciencessuch as geology and geophysics, intensive effortsneed to be made to discover new hydrocarbonsources.

WHAT INVESTMENTS ARE NEEDED FOROUR ENERGY FUTURE?To satisfy the world’s growing and voraciousdemand for energy, massive investments inenergy supply infrastructure will need to bemade. According to the IEA reference forecast,the accumulated investment required from2005 to 2030 is just over US $20,000 billion in2005 terms! The electricity sector absorbs 56%of the total investment, rising to approximatelytwo thirds of the total if investments in thesupply chain to meet the fuel needs of powerplants are included.

Investment in the oil sector, three quartersof which needs to be committed to the upstreamexploration production sector, amounts to morethan US $4,000 billion from 2005 to 2030.Upstream investment needs are far moresensitive to declining production rates thanthey are to the growing demand for oil.Approximately half of the total worldwideenergy investment needs to be made indeveloping countries, because these are theplaces where demand and production aregrowing fastest. China alone needs to investaround US $3,700 billion, which represents18% of the world total.

The question is whether or not this willhappen. There is no guarantee that all thenecessary investments will be made. Publicpolicies, geopolitical factors, unexpectedvariations in unit costs and prices, as well asthe development of new technologies, are allfactors that may influence the opportunities andincentives to public and private companies toinvest in the various links of the diverse energysupply chains. Here, the investment decisionstaken by major oil and gas production countrieswill be decisive, because the volume and cost ofimports by consumer countries will increasinglydepend on these factors. One can, for example,ask whether the investment made by the gasindustry in Russia will be sufficient, even if onlyto maintain the current export levels to Europeancountries and to begin exporting to Asia. ■Cécile Chamois

A group of 27 consumer countries

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a government bodygrouping together 27 countries. It is historically positionedin the western camp of energy consumers. It now acts asa consultant to its member states, helping them define theirenergy policies. Working from the principle that withoutstatistics there cannot be a significant energy policy,IEA publishes the yearly World Energy Outlook.

■ A Chinese soldier in China’s largest oil handling terminalin Dallan. China needs to invest around US $3,700 billion inenergy, which represents 18% of the world total.


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n a desert-like landscape, a derrick sits over anoilfield in which the parent rock lies just a few

meters below the sand. It is an image drawn fromthe history of the oil industry. But in today’sworld, the search for hydrocarbons is a complexactivity that resembles an obstacle course. Thework calls for finding oil in increasingly difficultenvironments: at great depths of more than2,000 meters below the sea; buried at depths ofover 6,000 meters underground; and in geological

structures where temperatures typically exceed150 degC and pressures can reach 2,500 bars.

And, when a reservoir is located in theseparticularly difficult conditions, ultra-sensitiveinstruments are needed to take measurementsat the bottom of the reservoir. This is followedby exploration drilling, sometimes horizontal,to reach the oil, with a high degree of precision.There are no standard conditions: no two wellsare identical.

If the oilfield is at sea, a floating platform can beused for production, storage and unloading.In the future (and already planned for theNorwegian Barents Sea), production will takeplace without any surface structure whatsoever.All the necessary equipment will be locatedon the seabed and the produced hydrocarbonstransported to land through underwaterpipelines. ■Stéphane Magalhaes


Leading-edge technologies inthe petroleum engineer’s toolkit Modern petroleum exploration and production have been able to make use of innovativeprocesses developed in other fields and industries: signal processing, modeling of materials,metrology, chemical kinetics, and so on. Here is a review of some of these technologies, fromexploration to production.

TECHNOLOGIES

■ RESERVOIR ROCK:Without 'traps' there wouldbe no oil reservoirs. Theseclosed structures, createdby deformation of the rockstrata, allow hydrocarbonsto accumulate. Traps canbe structural – formed byflexible (folds), or brittle(faults) deformations of therock, or stratigraphical –formed as a result of thenature of the rock.

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■ SEISMIC SURVEYING: Seismic surveys are carried out to detect the presence of a reservoir. Waves sent from the surface into the ground are partially reflectedwhen they encounter a change in the nature of the rock or an interface between fluids. On its return to the surface, the signal is captured by highly sensitive geophonereceivers. These are used to record a complex series of waves. The first are those closest to the surface, followed by those reflected on the first geological layer, andso on. Measurements are taken of the time taken for a wave reflected on a geological layer to travel from transmitter to receiver.

■ 3D: By moving the transmitter and receiver manytimes, a two dimensional image of the subsurface andthe geological layers can be built up. Hypotheses arethen made concerning the propagation speeds of thewaves through the various layers, permitting theconstruction of an image incorporating depth. Theseare then used to produce a geological section. Forgreater reliability, 3D seismic surveying is used (seefacing image). The acquisition of three dimensionalmeasurements of the rock parameters increases thereliability of the analysis. This 3D technology simplifiesthe understanding of complex situations atconsiderable depths.

1: RESERVOIR PARAMETERS

TECHNOLOGIES

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2: EXPLORATION DRILLING

3: CONSTRUCTION OF A WELL

■ METROLOGY: Unfortunately, seismic surveys do not provide anything like complete information. To find out whether there is any oil in a well, exploration drilling mustbe carried out. Measurement tools are lowered into the well as it is drilled. The drilling rig takes the form of a mast used to lower the drilling string, at the bottom ofwhich is a bit. The tools attached directly to the string guide the drilling and enable analysis of the rock layers being drilled through. When it reaches the bottom of thewell, the bit rotates on the surface-controlled drilling string. The energy needed for the measurement instruments and drilling controls is provided by lithium batteries.Thus measurements known as well logs can be recorded using electric, acoustic, seismic, radioactive or nuclear magnetic resonance instruments.

■ HORIZONTAL DRILLING: Development drillingbegins. The bit cuts through the rock at thebottom of the well. A mixture of water and clay(drilling mud) is injected into the well to controlpressure and remove rock cuttings. The well isthen cased with steel pipe, which is cemented(see image, right) to provide hydraulic isolationand mechanical integrity. Modern drillingtechniques make it possible to drill at anangle from a single point and extend this intoa horizontal or U-shaped drilling profile. It iseven possible to drill to a depth of 2,000 metersand continue horizontally for 10 kilometers fromthe drilling point – all with a precision of withinone meter from the target location!


TECHNOLOGIES

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4: BRINGING A SITE INTO PRODUCTION

■ OFFSHORE: The Girassol field, exploited by Total 150 kilometers off the coast of Angola, provides an example of the technologies developed for deep offshorework: 39 underwater wells, of which 23 were drilled to a depth of 1,400 meters. Positioned by robots, a network of 45 kilometers of flow lines connected to thewellheads covers the seabed over the 24 square kilometers of the field. When commissioned in 2001, this vessel, with its 200,000 barrel a day productioncapacity and two million barrel storage volume, was the largest floating production unit in the world.


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5: OPTIMIZATION

■ ENHANCED RECOVERY: Enhanced recoverytechniques are used to improve well productivity.One of these involves using special wells to injectfluids such as CO2 , highly compressed gas extractedfrom the oil well, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and water. The fluid compresses the hydrocarbonextracted by production wells. Another solution is tochange the physical characteristics of the oil usingthermal methods, such as miscible fluid injection,or chemical methods. The former involve using heatto reduce the viscosity of the oil, to ease its migrationthrough porous rock. Chemical methods are usedto reduce the capillary forces that contribute toretaining the hydrocarbons in the rock.

■ 4D: 4D seismic surveying incorporates the fourth dimension: time. On a production reservoir, 3D seismic surveys are carried out at regular intervals. Comparison ofrecordings identifies changes taking place in the deposit during its production period. By linking those data with data acquired during the research phase, the life of the deposit throughout the exploration cycle can be traced. This provides a better understanding of preferential flow routes, levels of the various fluids, and so forth,and allows production to be adjusted accordingly. Data processing of recorded seismic waves is extremely complex. Geophysicists use sophisticated software tocombine these data to help them reconstruct the forms and physical properties of the geological layers.

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LA RECHERCHE: Generally speaking, thepetroleum industry and leading-edgetechnologies are rarely associated.What is more, the sector is seen to be oldfashioned and out of date. What do youput this down to?Andrew Gould: Let me make it clear from theoutset that this negative image is far fromuniversally shared. It is true that in Europeour industry suffers from an image deficitbecause, at the end of the day, it is consideredto be a polluting activity. But we havea far better reputation in the UnitedStates. And in emerging countries,such as India and China, as well inthe Middle East, the petroleumindustry is seen as prestigious andattracts the best graduates. One ofits strengths is that it is open toideas from the outside world: theoil industry has been able to adapttechnologies from other sectors tomeet its specific needs.

To meet the challenges of crudeoil exploration and extraction, theindustry has learned to use the mostinnovative technologies. For example,did you know that Schlumbergerhas one of the three most powerfulcomputers in the world? Our goal isto equip ourselves with the highest

performance systems available to handle seismicsurveying data and carry out modeling andsimulation for what represents the core of ourprofession – a complete understanding ofhydrocarbon reservoirs.In 2007, you invested US $728 million inresearch and development. Why?Andrew Gould: The budget comprisedUS $633 million for development activities andUS $95 million for applied research. Our needsare vast because they cover traditional physical

sciences and chemistry, as wellas specific nuclear measurementtechnologies, digital modeling,and so on. Your company hired more than10,000 employees in 2007.Do you find it difficult to findthe right profiles, especiallyfor your research anddevelopment activities?Andrew Gould: Last year werecruited mainly engineers andscientists. They represent 120nationalities and we recruitedin over 40 countries. Our historicties with the most prestigiousuniversities in the world andtheir research centers mean thatwe have no particular difficultiesin acquiring the skills we need.

A few years ago, you argued fortechnological cooperation betweenservice companies and petroleum groupsto meet the challenges facing the sector.Has this cooperation been set up?Andrew Gould: Only partly. I feel that we haveyet to achieve an optimum level of cooperation.Regardless, it is essential that we solve a problemthat is specific to the petroleum industry: therecovery factor. At present, and as a worldwideaverage, we extract only between 30% and 35%of the total resources present in reservoirs; theremaining two thirds are lost. Improving therecovery factor is therefore a crucial issue forour industry, especially given the current debateconcerning peak oil – the turning point whenworld production of crude begins its downwardslope. But a 1% increase in the recovery factorwould be equivalent to two and a half yearsof world consumption! Our goal is to increaserecovery to 50%. In some reservoirs in Norway,a recovery rate of 60% to 65% has already beenattained. This success is of considerable interestto the entire industry, and the reason why weadvocate cooperation between companies.How can you improve the recovery factor?Andrew Gould: We need to define the spacebetween wells, in the rocks where the oil istrapped, as precisely as possible. To do that,an image of the area needs to be created, andthat requires very powerful measuring andmodeling tools. The image obtained fromelectromagnetic and seismic surveyingmeasurements gives a precise picture of wherenew drilling should take place. These technologiesare used both for existing and new deposits.In the former, the task is to detect unnoticedlayers of hydrocarbons; in the latter, it is tooptimize exploitation of the deposit.


INTERVIEW

Andrew Gould: “The key question inthe oil industry is the recovery factor.”Schlumberger is the world’s largest petroleum servicescompany, with a 2007 revenue of US $23.3 billion and aworkforce of 84,000 in around 80 countries. As a result of itshistory and size, the group is deeply involved in developmentof petroleum technologies. La Recherche talked to its CEO.

Andrew GouldHaving worked for Ernst& Young, Andrew Gouldjoined Schlumberger in1975 in the internal auditdepartment. He waspresident of severalsegments beforebecoming the group’sCEO in February 2003.Gould holds a degree ineconomic history fromCardiff University.

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Very deep offshore operations are part ofthe challenge facing the petroleum industry.What are the particular constraintsassociated with these new explorationareas?Andrew Gould: The main difficulty with thistype of exploitation is not so much the depthof the water – where the limit is essentiallygoverned by economics – as the reliability ofthe machinery. During the exploitation phase,operations on the seabed need to be reduced toa minimum. For example, pumps must havevery long service lives. It is also necessary tohave very sensitive surveillance and fluidanalysis systems. It is vital to be able to detect

the presence of water in a well as its presenceaffects the exploitation of the reserves. Finally,companies are being confronted with hightemperature and high pressure deposits that arevery difficult to exploit. In some cases, gas canreach a temperature of 300 degC at a pressureof 2,500 bars. So, we need to have tools andinstruments that can withstand these conditions.Exploitation of non-conventional crude oils(shales and bituminous sands) is also ofvital importance to the future of oil. Howwill they be used?Andrew Gould: Most deposits of these non-conventional crude oils are found in Venezuelaand Canada. Schlumberger is involved in

operations to extract crude oils that have aviscosity that allows natural flow, and solid oils.The former can be produced using a specialextraction and collection system. For solid oils,steam is injected to reduce the viscosity of theoil and, consequently, increase its flow. Again,major research is vital for development ofreliable tools – including pumps able towithstand temperatures of 250 degC – andmeasurement instruments. We are alsoresearching the behavior of these crude oilswhen their state changes.Underground storage of CO2 is raising greathopes in the environmental sector. Is this apotential future sector for Schlumberger?Andrew Gould: Absolutely, but only when thistechnology is fully developed! This technologydemands a complete understanding of thesubsurface. The major challenge is to ensurethat the reservoirs in which the CO2 is storeddo not leak over time; which, in this case,means a thousand years. Our understandingof reservoirs has allowed us to makeconsiderable progress in this area.

Another direction is the study of reactionsbetween the CO2 and the storage reservoir rock.The CO2 in a reservoir is not inert; its reactionswith the molecules in the rock cause changes inthe physical-chemical characteristics of thereservoir, which, over time, could cause micro-faults and potentially reduce the integrity ofthe reservoir.A great deal is expected fromnanotechnologies. How will they applyto the oil sector?Andrew Gould: The use of nanotechnologies fordetection and analysis of fluids will probably beintroduced into the sector over the next coupleof years. However, biochemistry is where thereal revolution will take place. Using biochemicalagents to modify the behavior of a fluid, or tracecirculation of fluids through a reservoir . . .now that is a fascinating subject. But we willhave to wait some time before we reachthat point. ■Interview by Stéphane Magalhaes


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Schlumberger operates atwellsites in some of the toughestenvironments on the planet: fromthe searing heat of Middle Easterndeserts to the numbing cold ofSiberian taiga; from the steamyjungles of Brazil to the typhoonswept shores of the South ChinaSea. These extreme conditions anddiverse locations require a widerange of drilling platforms to makeoil and gas production possible. Rigscan be mobile or more permanentstructures and are located eitheron land, in transition zones such asswamps, or offshore – in shallowwaters or far out at sea in deepwater. The wellsite location youare assigned to will impact greatlyon your lifestyle: in remote andoffshore locations, people normallywork in on/off rotation, spendinga few weeks on, a few weeks off.In more accessible locations, crewsare usually able to go home afterwork (although they may still beon call!).

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Many wellsites are in remotelocations, so getting to work mayinvolve long, cross-country journeys,often in some pretty serious formsof transport. For offshore operations,trips are usually made by helicopter.It is important to remember thatthese are NOT holiday flights andthat the emphasis is very muchon saftey. Before you can traveloffshore you will need to havesuccessfully completed a number oftraining courses and passed certainsafety qualifications including:HUET (Helicopter UnderwaterEvacuation Training) and a BOSS(Basic Offshore Sea Survival)certificate. Once offshore, localjourneys are made by small boat orusing the platform crane. On land,helicopters are also used extensivelyas are rugged 4x4 vehicles and thefamous, blue Schlumberger trucks.However, some field engineers arelucky enough to be able to drive towork in their own cars!

Drilling thousands of meters downinto the Earth is inherently a dirty,intense and costly business. This,plus the fact that wells are oftenin some of the most remote andinhospitable places in the world,means that our engineers have tobe able to adapt to local conditions.There are no shops at wellsites, soyou have to take everything you aregoing to need with you. This shouldinclude essentials such as all yourclothing and toiletries and alsosome extras such as your iPodand supplies of your favoritechocolate! Rigs are not hotelsand accommodation is usuallypretty cramped, and you willnormally have to share amenitieswith your co-workers. Womenengineers are still in a minorityin the oil and gas industry, whichis why Schlumberger pays specialattention to making sure livingconditions are appropriate.However, you must be ready toadapt and take the initiative…and have a good sense of humor!

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Regardless of the job you do withSchlumberger, all our people arefocused on delivering serviceexcellence, no matter what theconditions. We have to be on topof our game 24/7 as the results ofour work have multi-million dollarconsequences for our clients. Tohelp you do your job, Schlumbergerutilizes the very latest and greatesttechnology. But technology aloneis not enough: the ability to workas part of a team is essential toour success. Living and workingat a wellsite means the conditionsare often extreme and the jobis high pressured. But thisenvironment helps to bring peopletogether, and the respect and trustthat develops between workcolleagues often means thatfriendships created in the field lasta lifetime. Schlumberger peoplework hard, make no mistake, butthey know how to play hard too . . .which all adds up to creating theSchlumberger way of life!

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“I had never thought about working in the petroleum industry until a friend told me aboutSchlumberger and I applied. Excited and ready to embark on a new life, I started as a fieldengineer at the end of 2001.

Working as a field engineer overseas, I was so busy doing my job that I had little time to thinkabout how difficult it was. After completing my training in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia,I worked for three months as a junior field engineer with Indonesian land crews in south Sumatra.There I was promoted to Wireline field engineer. In 2002, I was transferred to the Middle East.Working in Abu Dhabi, I had plenty of opportunity to get familiar with Schlumberger’s hi-techservices and was promoted to senior field engineer. I moved to work offshore in Qatar in November2003 as lead engineer for several major offshore clients, and after a great deal of hard work,became a general field engineer. At the end of 2006, I returned to my native China to embark on yetanother new and challenging start in my career, as field services manager for Wireline in WestChina. Then in 2007, in a move that has developed my career in a different direction, I took up theposition of recruiting manager.

The first three years, I had very little spare time! It’s hard for a logging engineer to plan anyactivities after work; but we do get to take many short breaks, traveling with friends and exploringdifferent cultures in many countries. I really enjoy the diversity of this way of life.

If I had the chance to turn back the clock and choose my employer again, Schlumberger wouldbe my first and only choice.”

Nationality: Chinese

Degree: Mechanical Engineering

University: Tsinghua University, Beijing

Languages: Chinese, English plus a bit of Thai

Recruited: 2001

Current post: Recruiting Manager for China, Japan,Thailand, Vietnam & Myanmar

Unwinding route: Moviemaking with colleagues and singing

Favourite iPod track: Secret by Jay Zhou

XUN LI

AFRICA: MY FAVORITE CONTINENT ON EARTH

I started my Schlumberger lifeabout thirteen years ago, whenI joined Wireline. My first four yearswere spent in West and SouthernAfrica, working in remote areas ofCongo, Angola, Gabon and SouthAfrica. Having the opportunity todiscover these countries, and manymore while on days off, was anincredible experience. Often it wasdifficult to distinguish work fromdays off, watching from the deckof a supply boat humpback whalesjump out of the water in pairsduring the mating season, a packof killer whales hunting downdolphins, or a huge, lonehammerhead shark circling the rig.

I will never forget when I wassent to Gabon as second engineeron a remote well deep in the jungle.Discovering that I loved animals,

the pilot of the four seater planethat took me from Congo to Gabonplunged down to fly just 100 metersabove ground level, over surprisedelephants and buffaloes in thesavanna! This was to be one ofmany highlights of my time inAfrica. After an additional six-hourride in a dugout canoe on a riverwinding its way through the jungle,I finally reached the wellsite. Seeingthe local hunters bursting out of thejungle carrying spears and freshlykilled antelopes or boars to sell tothe rig camp, while I was strugglingon a hellish three-day logging job inpouring rain and ankle deep mud,was a great experience! And it wason that job I met a young Wirelinepre-school trainee, CatherineBeneton, who has since become mywife. Thank you Schlumberger!

After two years of remoteprojects and exploration jobs in

Angola, I started to move fromcountry to country in the region,wherever exploration jobs or otherneeds arose. I could not believe myluck. While based in Cape Town,I had the opportunity to spend aweekend hunting with the pygmiesin Cameroon, climb Pico Biokoin Malabo, go horse riding in thevineyards of Stellenbosch, and gocage diving with the great whitesharks.

Believe it or not, during thesefirst three or four years, I honestlythought I should pay to do this job!Not only was the work excitingand challenging, I was constantlytravelling around living a life ofadventure; and on top of that,I was being paid.

After almost four years on whathas since become my favoritecontinent on earth, I had the desireto discover and work in other ➥

FE.AWAYOFLIFE.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.AWAYOFLIFE.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.AWAYOFLIFE.SCHLUMBERGERLIFE.AWAYOFLIFE.SCHLUMBERGE

“Hi, I'm Eric Ayache. I've worked for Schlumberger for the past 13 years. The job has taken meto some pretty amazing places – many that are really extreme and tough to work in but that haveallowed me to do things that I would never have been able to do in an ordinary job. My life withSchlumberger has been one continual experience . . . with the job and and my personal life justbeing different aspects of the same unfolding story. Here’s a snapshot of some of my adventures.”

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Well . . . where do I start? ■ Top left: Trekking in theDenali Mountain Range, Alaska – a very awe-inspiringexperience! ■ Top right: Sunrise over the sand dunesin the desert at the border between Oman and SaudiArabia. ■ Inset above: When I was working in theCongolese jungle, during my vacations, I volunteeredfor an NGO project to protect and study chimpanzees.I helped teach this baby chimp, whose mother waskilled by poachers, how to fend for herself before wecould release her back into the wild. ■ Far left: Sunriseor sunset (I can’t remember – it had been a long andtiring shift!) in the grasslands of Sudan. Despite thejaw dropping location, I just had to get some rest fora few hours. ■ Below: Just before landing at the bushairstrip of Wekweeti in the North West Territories inCanada, I had flown over herds of caribou migratingover frozen lakes to their calving grounds in the tundra.I learnt to fly while working for Schlumberger.

: ■ Main picture: On a realhigh! . . above the vivid blue waters ofLake O'Hara in the Canadian Rockiesduring a vacation; ■ Small inset: Dog-sledding in Svalbard (an archipelago inthe Arctic Ocean midway betweenNorway and the North Pole) during myone year leave of absence; ■ Big inset:With some Yemeni friends, in theHadramaut, close to the Masila base.Page 29: ■ 1st inset: In 2005 I gotmarried – to Catherine Beneton (whoI met at Schlumberger!). Here we areon our honeymoon standing in front ofK2 in northern Pakistan; ■ 2nd inset:The pleasures of horseback-riding,‘Cowboy Eric’ in the Canadian Rockies■ Far right: My other ‘family’: part ofmy Schlumberger team when I wasfield service manager at the Masilabase, Yemen.

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parts of the world, particularly theremote areas of the Middle Easterndeserts. Hence my transfer to AbuDhabi, where I spent two monthsas a land engineer. There, whileon week-long exploration loggingsin the beautiful Bu Hasa field,I learned everything there is tolearn about desert driving. But theinfamous Abu Dhabi traffic jamsfinally took their toll, so I wasdelighted to be assigned to Masilain Yemen.

AH, YEMEN!The land of the Queen of Sheba,the ‘Arabia Felix’ of the Romans.The breathtaking and uniquescenery in the Hadhramout; thehospitality of the bedus; thearchitecture of Shibam, Tarim; theOld Sana’a . . . driving to wellsitesacross the moon-like landscapescharacteristic of the high plateausof the Hadhramaut, I felt privilegedand happy. During my two years inYemen, I was fortunate to be ableto get to know my surroundingsand my neighbors quite well. I evenspent five amazing weeks traversing

the country from Sana’a to Mukalla,via Marib and the old sabean ruinsof Shabwa – a fantastic journeythrough time, following the 4,000year old incense trade route.From the sea port of Mukalla,I crossed over to Socotra, a fabulous‘lost world’ of unique landscapes,endemic bird and plant species(like the amazing dragon bloodtree), and a very special peopleborn from a mixture of Arab, Indianand African traders who speak aunique language (Socotri). This is aplace definitely worth a visit while itremains unspoiled.

From Yemen, it was an easyjump to cross the Bab El Mendabto visit other extraordinarycountries like Uganda and Ethiopia.Approaching on foot the mountaingorillas in the Virunga range;kayaking and rafting the Nile whitewater rapids below Victoria Lake;paddling around Lake Albert insearch of the elusive dinosaur-likeshoebill stork, and finding it;trekking in the Bale and SiemenMountains of Ethiopia looking forthe Abyssinian wolf, mountain nyalaand gelada baboon – all endemic,

rare species; bird watching alongthe little known Rift Valley Lakesof remote southern Ethiopia . . .

SVALBARD CALLING

Despite all these adventures, anda very challenging job as field ➥

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Field Engineers work globally, in some of the most extremeenvironments, to provide oil companies with expert adviceon which to base multi-billion dollar production decisions.The job is challenging but it is one of the most rewardingand respected jobs in the industry. As on-site team leaderyou must use a combination of technical and leadershipskills to both manage your crew and deliver high qualityservice to Schlumberger’s customers.

Required: Bachelor's or Master's degree in engineeringor applied science.

Field Engineers

service manager at the Masila base,my thoughts turned more and moreto Svalbard. I had been there threeyears earlier to participate in adog sledging expedition through theglaciers and sea ice. And now theArctic was calling me, demandingthat I spend a year there, as a dogsledging guide! It was an MBA ofsorts – a Master’s in the Blizzardsof the Arctic! The time spent therewas another highlight of my life.But after ten months, I was readyto move on again.

THE SULTANATE OF OMAN –ANOTHER FANTASTIC COUNTRY

This assignment, once again, was acombination of very hard work and

great opportunities to discover acountry from the inside. Trekkingalong the ‘Omani Grand Canyon’ inthe Jebel Al Akhdar; diving amongschools of thousands of swirlingfishes; sea kayaking through deepfjords at sunrise, surrounded bydolphins; wandering through longabandoned Omani villages; trackingthe fabled white Arabian oryx inthe Jiddat Al Harasis with an oldBedu Harasi.

On days off, I was able to visitsurrounding countries I had not yetbeen to: beautiful and varied Iran,Tanzania, and the UAE. Flying asmall Cessna low over the red sanddunes of the Sharjah desert and overflocks of pink flamingoes in flight,beautifully highlighted against the

vivid blue of the Umm Al Quwainlagoons, was a dream come true!

DUAL CAREER MOVESAfter a year in the Sultanate ofOman, a new kind of adventureawaited me: embarking on a dualcareer move with the woman I metin the Gabonese jungle – remember?

This adventure took me to joinCatherine in Dubai for a few months,where she was working as training,development and staffing managerfor recently hired engineers,before we were both transferredback to Africa, this time to Angola.Highlights of our time there werespending vacations on safari inneighboring Namibia, in a rooftented 4x4 Toyota! I also volunteeredfor one month deep in the Congolesejungle helping anti-poaching unitsprotecting chimpanzees.

The time we were able to spendtogether, first in Dubai, then inAngola, and later in the Netherlands,confirmed that we were made foreach other. In summer 2005, wegot married in a small mountainvillage in France, and had a greathoneymoon, at 6,000 meters,trekking the glaciers around thefamous K2, in the Karakorummountain range of NorthernPakistan.

More recently, our Schlumbergerdual career adventure took us toNorth America and the city ofCalgary in Canada. Catherineworked for the Wireline salesorganization there, while I hadthe immense privilege of managingthe Schlumberger training centerin Airdrie.

For us, this was a completelydifferent part of the world – onewhere we had never worked orlived before – and we have enjoyedevery minute of it. Especially ourweekends skiing or camping in theCanadian Rocky Mountains, andour vacations sea kayaking thefjords of southern Alaska alongcalving tide water glaciers, amid

scores of sea birds, sea otters andseals, and with an occasionalexciting encounter with a humpback whale or killer whale! Our lastvacation saw us return to Alaska fora few days of camping and trekkingin the pristine wildernesses ofDenali National Park and KatmaiNational Park, where we had closeand heart stopping experiences withwolves and grizzly bears!

Other highlights of our time inNorth America included a week dogsledging and camping in the Yukon,in temperatures of 42 degC below;a week of canoeing in the pristinewilderness of northern BritishColumbia, accompanied by moose,black bears and eagles; and flyingin a small private plane above thehuge ice fields of the CanadianRockies and over migrating caribouin the Northwest Territories.

THE BIGGEST ADVENTUREOF ALL

Our latest and most recentadventure may very well be themost challenging and enjoyableof all: the arrival of our first baby,little Inès Ayache!

And, for the first time in ourSchlumberger career, we are beingtransferred to our home country.To Paris, where the world of aproduct center awaits me, whileCatherine completes her maternityleave before coming back toSchlumberger in a new position.

This will give me time todiscover my daughter, Paris andits surroundings, as well as thenew Schlumberger Engineering,Manufacturing and Sustainingorganization that I am now part of.Until we are ready to go backoverseas to share new adventures –this time the three of us – and takeup challenging new professionalpositions . . .

. . . Looking forward to that! ■

ERIC AYACHE

1995 – 1999: AfricaAs a Field Engineer for exploration wells, Eric workedin nine countries.

1999 – 2003: The Middle EastGeneral Field Engineer, Field Service Manager andService Quality Coach for Wireline. He took 2001 off tobe a dog-sledging guide for expeditions below theNorth Pole.

2004: AngolaQuality, Health, Safety & Environment Manager

2005: The NetherlandsWireline Location Manager

2006 – 2008: North AmericaTraining Center Manager in Canada

2008 – the present: FranceWireline Rapid Response Manager at theSchlumberger Riboud Product Center in Paris. Eric isin charge of developing technology to meet needs inthe field for technical solutions where no other viableoption exists, and where developed solutions arelimited in application or constrained in time and wherea full development project is impractical. Sounds likea challenge indeed!

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A graduate ‘rock sniffer’, Ivan joined Schlumberger as a Well Services cementer in Siberia. “For the first few years I knew everyone who worked for Schlumberger in the CIS (the

Commonwealth of Independent States – the alliance of eleven former Soviet republics),”Ivan says, recalling earlier times in his home region. “Now I’m back in the same kind ofstart-up situation here in Ukraine. The difference is that, this time, the responsibility restslargely on my shoulders . . . and I love it!”

“Getting the operating licenses in place was the toughest hurdle. The governmentadministrators had very little experience with such things as importing oilfield equipment, and the regulations were constantly changing. It made things difficult.“

This particular hurdle was cleared in mid 2007, making Schlumberger the only oilfieldservices company with an established presence in Ukraine, and with the necessary paperworkto do business. This was a real head start in the race to gain a hold in a market that is openingup to foreign investment, and one which is critically aware of the need to modernise.

“My career development plans?” In all honesty I have a very interesting time and job rightnow. As for the future, there are so many parameters to consider – my wife, the kids’ school, andmy professional future. So right now, I am in thinking mode!”

Nationality: Russian

Age: 27

Degree: Geological Engineering

University: Novosibirsk State University

Languages: English, Russian and Ukrainian

Recruited: 1993

Current post: Ukraine Country Manager

Unwinding route: Kayaking in the Altay Mountains with a bunch of Schlumberger mates

Favourite iPod track: Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses

IVAN KHLESTOV

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n the 1920s, a chance encounter took placebetween Conrad Schlumberger and Vahe

Melikian, a Soviet student at the Ecole des Minesin Paris. The meeting eventually led to Sovietinterest in the Schlumberger technique and tocontracts for its services in the oilfields ofChechnya and Azerbaijan. The resulting work,which lasted from 1929 to the mid 1930s,became a lifeline for Schlumberger when thestock market crash of 1929 brought most of thecompany’s other business to a halt.

I was lucky enough to know one of the originalteams of five engineers dispatched to the SovietUnion in 1929. They left from Marseille, sailedacross the Mediterranean in appalling weather,through the Bosphorus and across the Black Seato the Georgian port of Batumi. From there theytraveled by road across the Caucasus to Groznyy.My friend, Raymond Sauvage, was the onlylogging engineer in the group. The others werethere to perform surface measurements. Theirequipment was primitive in the extreme, and theliving conditions dire. During the first yearSauvage logged 100 wells, station by station,35,000 stations in all.

With Melikian as the local coordinator, theSchlumberger team persevered. In time, loggingbecame preferred by the Soviet prospectors tosurface measurements, and just two years laterSchlumberger had 19 teams of logging engineersworking in the area. There were occasional visitsby Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger and byHenri Doll to confer with Soviet geophysicists,bring the crews much needed improvements intheir equipment and test out new measurements.But life continued to be hard. It took one meal

with Sauvage to convince Conrad to order regularfood parcels from Paris.

Activity spread to other Soviet oil provinces,in particular to the Baku area of Azerbaijan. Thisprovince was the first major Russian oil producerfrom Tsarist times. Oil seepages had been knownfrom antiquity, and the oil industry developedrapidly during the latter part of the 19th century,rivalling the Rockefeller monopoly in the US interms of size and ambition. The driving force wasa branch of the Nobel family, a Swedish clanwhich had earlier emigrated to Russia and whichis now more commonly associated with theinvention of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes.

Work continued apace with 1,200 wells loggedin 1931 alone. Baku could also boast one of theworld’s pre-eminent petroleum institutes, whereexperiments by Vladimir I Kogan on partiallysaturated sand packs provided key data laterused by Gus Archie to derive the renownedArchie equation that allows oil saturation to bederived from resistivity. In 1935, the combinationof Schlumberger measurements and this newunderstanding of saturation led to someremarkably sophisticated reservoir monitoringof the Surakhany field, one of Baku’s mostprolific.

In spite of these remarkable advances,soon thereafter the Soviet contracts beganto peter out, for reasons too mysteriousto fathom at the time. Beset by this newsduring a final visit to Moscow in 1936,Conrad collapsed during his return toParis and died in Stockholm. He was 58.Vahe Melikian, the key to the Soviet contractsand ultimately to the survival of Schlumberger

at the time, disappeared from view despitefrantic correspondence from Marcel and Henri.Some 70 years later, after the collapse of theSoviet Union, it would be revealed that Melikianhad been assassinated during a Stalinist purge in1938, aged 35. Raymond Sauvage retired in 1968in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he had workedwith Henri Doll on log interpretation. An avidgardener until he was rendered blind byParkinson’s disease, he died in 1990, aged 85.

Today, I count all these men to be heroes,and it is because of people like them thatSchlumberger lives on. ■

SCHLUMBERGER HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF SUBSURFACE PROSPECTING SINCEITS DEVELOPMENT OVER 80 YEARS AGO. TODAY RUSSIA IS ONE OF THE COMPANY’SMOST IMPORTANT MARKETS, BUT BACK IN THE 20s AND 30s, IN THE PIONEERING DAYS OF THE SCHLUMBERGER BROTHERS, CONRAD AND MARCEL , THE SOVIET UNION, AS IT WAS THEN, WAS ARGUABLY EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT AS IT HELPED SAVE THE COMPANY FROM POTENTIAL BANKRUPTCY.

■ Above: Schlumberger engineers and the ubiquitouswireline logging truck . . . 1930s style! ■ Below (top):Sauvage and Poirault on their way to the rig site inGrozny; (bottom): Roger Jost on an exploration touraround Federovska.

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At Schlumberger, global citizenship reflects the rich diversity and quality of our workforce. Drawnfrom 160 nationalities and working in more than 80 countries, our employees share a willingnessto contribute to the progress and well-being of the people impacted by our activities, includingemployees themselves, contractors, clients, shareholders, suppliers, and the members ofthe communities in which we live and work. As a business and a community of individuals,Schlumberger is connected to a number of global challenges. We’ve developed a globalcitizenship framework that is focused on six of the key global issues to which we are connected.We believe that, through thought leadership and our own best practices, we can make adifference in the areas of: climate change, the environment, driving safety, malaria, HIV/AIDSand science education.

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n 2002, an African-based Schlumberger employeedied of malaria while on vacation at home in Mexico.

Investigation into this and previous cases showed thatover the last three years the company had lost at leastone person a year to the disease.

In an attempt to eradicate malaria fatalities amongthe workforce, a Schlumberger task force was set up.The innovative prevention program they designedfocuses on awareness raising, mosquito bite prevention,early diagnosis/treatment and 24/7 access to expert help.

Implemented within Schlumberger in 2003, theprogram has been recognized industry-wide as aneffective way of reducing fatalities. The program hassubsequently been adopted by over 20 other majorinternational companies and was honored by the WorldPetroleum Congress with a Social Responsibility Awardin 2005.

“A key program element is a self-help malaria curativekit,” says Dr. Alex Barbey, global health coordinator atSchlumberger. The kit includes a thermometer,disinfectant wipes, lancets, three diagnostic strips forrapid blood testing, three-day treatment, and 24-hourhotline numbers. There are many documented instancesof the kits being used in cases that previously wouldhave potentially resulted in fatalities.

Since the program’s inception in 2003, Schlumbergerreports a remarkable reduction in occupational malariafatalities from four in the preceding two-year period, tojust one in the past five years. ■

FOCUS ON NIGERIA

According to the World HealthOrganization, approximately 20% of the world’s malaria cases occurin Nigeria, and that the disease isresponsible for 29% of child deathsand 11% of mortality amongpregnant women.

As the intermediary betweenSchlumberger employees, familiesand contractors and Nigerianhealthcare providers, Dr. UcheOkorocha holds an important rolein combating malaria. “Malaria isthe number one health concernin Nigeria,” says Dr. Okorocha.“We take it very seriously and formour healthcare service aroundcontrolling this level of risk.”

It is through the targetedMalaria Prevention Program thatDr. Okorocha supports Schlumbergerin working to safeguard thecompany’s employees. “Educationis fundamental in combating thedisease. Before the distributionof the Schlumberger curativemalaria kits, fatalities were amongemployees who had returned to theirhome countries where detectionand treatment of the disease wasoften belated.

Dr. Okorocha and theSchlumberger Health, Safety &Environment (HSE) team organizehealth days to raise awarenessof the threats posed by malaria.“It is through events like these thatwe can pass on the message andfacilitate a concentrated forum ofexchange, particularly to youngchildren and the elderly,” saysDr. Okorocha.

In his role as practitioner andeducator both to local Nigeriansand newcomers to the country,Dr. Okorocha is steadfast. “Malariais a global challenge whoseprevention is based on availabilityof resources and the spread ofeducation. We have achieved agreat deal in Nigeria, but there ismore to do, and by remainingfocused and attentive to cutting-edge scientific knowledge, I amconfident we can do more.”

Malaria prevention checklist

Indoors■ windows and doors are kept closed■ doors and windows are fitted with screens and

regularly checked for holes■ air conditioning, where available, is working and

on cold■ electric diffusers are plugged in and working,

particularly in bedrooms, at night ■ coils are burned on verandas ■ accommodation is sprayed regularly with

insecticide■ chemically treated bed nets are provided, checked

regularly for holes, and used correctly

Outdoors■ long sleeve shirts/tops are worn ■ long trousers/skirts are worn■ feet and ankles are covered when outside at night■ insect repellent is applied to any uncovered parts

of the body

40% of the world’spopulation is exposedto malaria. The diseasekills over one millionpeople a year and isendemic in about 100countries . . . many inwhich Schlumbergeroperates.

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Schlumberger has a number of initiatives underway across thecompany to enhance environmentally sustainable work practices.

A recent example is an initiative introduced at Schlumberger’sStonehouse Technology Center (SHTC) in the UK that has led toa significant reduction in the amount of packaging used to packdrilling tools, which the center assembles and dispatches to thefield. Major components for the tools arrive at SHTC in woodencrates from a supplier in northern England. When the tools arefully assembled, however, they are too long to fit back into theoriginal crates. This forced SHTC to discard the crates andpurchase new, longer ones. A project team was established tosolve this problem. "The solution was simple,” explains saysKevin Hancock, one of SHTC’s stores clerks. “We asked thesupplier to replace the existing packaging with a longer crate,capable of housing the assembled tool." The center has not onlyreduced wastage considerably but has, in addition, saved thecompany some US $74,000 a year!

SHTC’s initiative falls under the umbrella of the SchlumbergerEnvironmental Management Program. The program's first taskwas to establish monitoring systems in most of Schlumberger’sfield locations. Results showed that the company’s environmentalimpact affects six main areas: fuel, natural gas and electricityconsumption, CO2 emissions, water consumption, and wastemanagement. "We identified the most significant risks and, sincethen, we have been working towards managing and mitigatingthem," says Ian Sealy, environmental programs manager atSchlumberger.

In 2007, over 95% of Schlumberger’s sites (of which around550 are considered to be environmentally significant) achievedcompliance with the company’s environmental managementstandards. "There is still a long road ahead, but we are makingprogress," notes Sealy.

he 2004 Asian tsunami wasone of the world’s worst natural

disasters. It hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka,Thailand and India, and resulted inthe loss of hundreds of thousandsof lives.

The people in the Indian stateof Tamil Nadu suffered more thanmost. Akkaraipettai, a traditionalfishing village in the region, was theworst affected village in India.No one was spared the loss of animmediate family member or aclose relative; many of the village’schildren were left without one orboth parents.

The disaster moved peopleworldwide and prompted pledges ofmore than US $7 billion in aid overthe following weeks. One of thechallenges has been to deal with thelonger term impacts and ensure thatongoing aid is used in a way that issustainable and self-supporting.

Raju Eason, a Schlumbergeremployee from the Sugar LandProduct Center (SPC) in Texas, whowas born and raised in the Indianstate of Kerala, was determined to

help in the aftermath of the disaster.He looked for ways to help thoseaffected and gathered supportamong his colleagues.

Through their research, theylearned of the work being done bythe Suyam Charitable Trust, whoseprojects include providing educationto street children in Tamil Nadu’smain city, Chennai.

In collaboration with Suyam,the team decided to support theconstruction of an educationcenter in Akkaraipettai. Opened intemporary accommodation in 2005,the center needed a permanenthome. A plot of land was acquired,and the contract for constructionof the new building was given toHabitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit housing organization.

Schlumberger supportedthe initiative with a donation ofUS $82,000 from its DisasterReconstruction Fund, and a clientcharity golf tournament alsocontributed to the project. Thecenter was officially inauguratedin September 2007.

What started as a smallfundraising effort by a group ofemployees with a desire to helppeople affected by the catastrophehas developed into a long-term,sustainable project. The center hasgradually expanded and had 200pupils at the end of 2007. A secondcenter opened in 2008.

In a region where children asyoung as 12 have traditionally leftschool, boys to become fishermenand girls to help at home, the centerhas provided a new focus on thevalue of education. Volunteersreport that the program has helpedto eliminate school drop outs andthat the children have improvedgrades. Other local schools arenow in negotiations for accessto the center. ■

Raju Eason, aSchlumbergeremployee from theSugar Land ProductCenter (SPC) in Texas,who was born andraised in the Indianstate of Kerala, wasdetermined to helpin the aftermath of thedisaster. He lookedfor ways to helpthose affected andgathered supportfor fundraisingefforts among hiscolleagues.

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f the total volume ofwater on Earth only

around 1% is accessible to us asuseable, freshwater (around 97% ofthe remainder is saltwater containedin the oceans and 2% is freshwaterthat is locked up as ice in glaciersand the polar ice caps). Most of thefreshwater we use is taken fromlakes and rivers (so-called surfacewater), but in fact 100 times morewater actually lies beneath our feet!This ‘groundwater’ is the result ofprecipitation that has permeateddown below the surface andcollected in spaces between particles

in materials such as gravel, sand,silt, or clay; or in the bedding planes,cracks, and fissures of permeablerocks such as sandstone, limestoneand chalk. In both cases, the resultis an underground zone that istotally saturated. Groundwateroccurs almost everywhere on Earth– in swampy areas it is very close tothe surface, while in arid areas suchas deserts, it can be hundreds ofmeters down. Subsurface areas inwhich groundwater can be usefullyextracted are called aquifers. Someaquifers contain fossil water reserveswhich, like oil and gas reservoirs,

cannot be replenished, while othersare constantly being recharged byprecipitation and infiltration.

Globally, we already utilizegroundwater but it is likely tobecome necessary to exploit moreand more of this 'hidden' resourceto satisfy the increasing demand.Schlumberger’s extensive experiencegained during its oilfield operationsmeans it already possesses muchof the know-how needed to assess,characterize and optimize notonly groundwater but also existingsurface water resources. In thelast decade, Schlumberger WaterServices (SWS) has broughttogether technologies and expertisethat are specifically relevant toaddressing the overall issue of'water stress': advanced logging,and sampling and modelingtechniques are proving vital toevaluating and managing suppliesof freshwater. SWS is also developingspecific water engineering solutionssuch as managed aquifer recharge,and aquifer storage and retrievaltechnologies (see opposite).

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DIVER-NETZ: WIRELESSGROUNDWATER MONITORING NETWORKS

Continuous field observationsprovide water supply managers

with the baseline informationneeded to plan for future demands.Schlumberger’s experience in thesubsurface environment has yieldedadvanced groundwater monitoringtechnologies that have beeninstrumental in deliveringsuccessful water managementstrategies around the world.

Traditionally, field techniciansmeasured and recorded groundwaterinformation manually at the wellsite.This process proved costly andphysically challenging, and oftenproduced inaccurate data. As aresult, water quality may have beencompromised and supply shortagescould have occurred. In response,SWS engineered Diver-NETZ* – awireless field technology designedexclusively to supply continuouscollection of groundwaterparameters (water elevation,temperature and conductivity)in the field.

Diver-NETZ is being adoptedglobally to help manage waterresources efficiently and offer longterm, sustainable use. The city ofGuelph, for example, in Canadaadopted Diver-NETZ to ensureaccurate, reliable groundwatermonitoring for its 110,000 citizens.The solution enables the city's field

technicians to connect wirelesslyand download time-varying datafrom Diver* dataloggers in 23 wells.Precise measurements ofgroundwater levels, temperature,and conductivity are downloaded toDiver-Pocket* and later transferredto Diver-Office*. The result is aten-fold increase in the collectionof monthly data points and a 70%reduction in the cost of collection.

WASTE MANAGEMENTIn 2000, the Governmentof Mauritius in West Africainitiated a major scheme toimprove the sewerage and

sanitation system in the southernpart of Port Louise, the capital city.A new wastewater treatment plantwas constructed on the coast, withthe treated effluent disposed of viaa sea outfall.

As an alternative approach,Water Management Consultants Ltd,now an integral part of SWS, wascommissioned to undertake anenvironmental impact assessmentfor disposing treated wastewaterusing borehole injection. The projectincluded the detailed design of amarine environmental monitoringprogram; a full qualitative riskassessment of potentially significantenvironmental impacts; and designof realistic mitigation measures.A team of experts, led by ProjectManager and hydrogeologist Richard

Boak, also carried out a detailedsurvey of the marine environmentto establish a baseline against whichthe impacts of the constructionand long-term operation of the seaoutfall can be evaluated.

The marine aspects of the projectwere undertaken in associationwith the School of Ocean Sciencesat the University of Wales, Bangor,and the Department of Marine& Environmental Sciences atthe University of Mauritius. ■

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CASE

STUD

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CASE

STUD

Y

■ Home for the duration of the project was the ANDRILL rig site, whichwas on about 8 m of multi-year sea ice, covering about 400 m of waterin the Ross Sea. The drilling rig was wrapped in a nylon encasementto protect both it and the drillers from the elements . . . the averagetemperature ‘outside’ was -10 degC! ■ Above right: And here I am,inside the nylon encasement, sitting at the logging controls of the rig.The ANDRILL rig site was approximately 30 miles from McMurdo Station,the biggest US base in Antarctica and close to the site of the base camphut used by Captain Scott on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole in 1911.■ Inset: Some of our close ‘neighbors’ . . . three Adelie penguins at theice edge, around 11 miles north of the rig.

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e’re exploring a wholenew universe right here

on Earth. A world in white and black.A place with no defined civilization.No trees. No grass. No warmth. But,despite all that, a world that is fullof life,” says Dr David Handwerger,senior geophysicist for TerraTek,a Schlumberger company.

In late 2007, Handwerger tooksix weeks of personal developmentleave to work as one of twologging scientists for ANDRILL(ANtarctic geological DRILLing),an international research projecton the world’s most mysteriouscontinent.

Handwerger likes to say that,at TerraTek, he studies very low-

porosity rocks for their reservoirpotential while, at ANDRILL, hestudies very high porosity ‘rocks’as proxies for geologic and climaticchanges.

“ANDRILL is the latestincarnation of a large, multidecadescientific effort to core and log in

and around the Antarctic tounderstand the evolution ofthe continent’s cryosphere,”Handwerger says. “Each effortbuilds on the last.”

One of the motivations forthe project, beyond understandingthe climatic, tectonic andpaleoceanographic factors that ledto the development of the Antarcticice sheets, is to predict how the icesheets will respond to anticipatedclimate changes, such as globalwarming. “Antarctica is anenormous storehouse of frozenwater,” says Handwerger. “If thoseice sheets melted, sea levels wouldrise dramatically: about 70 meters,compared with about seven ➥

SENIOR SCHLUMBERGER GEOPHYSICIST

DR DAVID HANDWERGER FEELS AT HOME AT

THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. HE SHOULD DO . . .

HE SPENT SIX WEEKS THERE AS ONE OF

TWO LOGGING SCIENTISTS WORKING ON

AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT

“Antarctica is an enormousstorehouse of frozen water.If those ice sheets melted, sealevels would rise dramatically.”

41

meters if Greenland melted. Also,the presence and extent of the icesheets is a major driver of oceanand atmospheric circulation, whichin turn drives climate.”

ANDRILL’s recent explorationphase funded two drilling seasonsin the frozen south. In late 2006,scientists collected about 1,250meters of core underneath the iceshelf to look at a high-resolutionsediment record for the past fivemillion years. In late 2007, whenHandwerger participated, theproject cored and logged 1,134meters of the seafloor sedimentsunderneath the multiyear ice sheet(eight meters of ice, on top of 400meters of water).

This produced a high-resolutionrecord covering mostly the middle

Miocene (about 13 million to20 million years ago), a time whenmany distal records suggest that theAntarctic ice sheets reached theirpresent size and achieved stability.“We suggest otherwise,” saysHandwerger.

The data suggest a temperateclimate in Antarctica’s past, withforests and animals, includingdinosaurs. “We think the massiveice sheet that is Antarctica todaygot its start 15 million to 20 millionyears ago, and we’re trying toanswer questions about how stableit’s been since then.”

Handwerger developed an interestin all things Antarctic when he wasa graduate student at the Universityof Utah in Salt Lake City. “When Iwas working on my PhD, I usedcore-log integration to look atchanges in ocean circulation andits effects on Antarctic ice sheetdevelopment during the NeogenePeriod.

“I sailed on a couple of drillingexpeditions in the Southern Oceanthrough the Ocean Drilling Program(ODP). I had even been to

Antarctica once before– on the ODP drillship JOIDESResolution which Schlumbergeroperates – for two months while Iwas working on my PhD. But I wasnever on, or within sight of, land.This time, I got to go to McMurdoStation, which is the largest USbase in Antarctica, and the drillingrig was on the ice about 30 milesoffshore.”

Handwerger applied for aposition with ANDRILL in 2004.

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Once he was accepted, he hadto wait about three years for theAntarctic field season to arrive.“McMurdo Station is in darknessfour months of the year, so only askeleton crew remains during thattime. When the summer fieldseason arrives, the population ofMcMurdo Station increases by afactor of about six to support all thescience that takes place.”

In addition to ANDRILLscientists and staff, McMurdoStation plays host to hundreds ofother scientists and support staff.“People are conducting seismicstudies, studying penguins andbirds, studying sea ice,” saidHandwerger. “It’s interesting to bethere with so many scientists – alltrying to understand the extreme

climates of the planet.The logistics and infrastructure

are also fascinating, he says. “It’svery different to live in an entirelyself-supporting environment. Thecommunication and transportationinfrastructure operates unsupportedby the rest of the world.” McMurdoStation is similar to a militaryinstallation, but for four monthsof the year, it’s completely isolatedfrom the rest of the world. It’sresupplied by cargo ships andplanes, but nobody can sail orfly in for a large part of the yearbecause the sea is frozen.

“It certainly makes you thinkabout what it must have been likefor the early explorers, who hadnothing but the ship they sailed inon and a hut they built themselves,”

says Handwerger. “I’ve stood in thehut that Robert Falcon Scott builtin 1911 and looked, half a mileaway, at a cargo plane landing atMcMurdo Station. Scott and hiscolleagues didn’t have thecommunication technology wehave, didn’t have the infrastructure,didn’t have much of anything.Yet they paved the way for what’sthere now.”

After his time on the ice,Handwerger says he would go back

for any reason at any time. He hopesto be selected to return for the nextdrilling program, currently scheduledfor 2011, pending the receipt ofnew funding.

“I took advantage ofSchlumberger’s developmentleave policy to do this in 2007, andI hope, in three or four years, thatSchlumberger will be generous andlet me do it again. That’s whatpersonal development leave is for:the work I did for ANDRILL isrelated to the modeling we do atSchlumberger and helped medevelop my skills . . .

. . . And, frankly, if you have thechance to go to Antarctica, you justdon’t say no!” ■

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■ Main picture: The photo I took insideCaptain Scott's Hut at Cape Evans. It isfrom this hut in 1911 that Scott’s team(inset) left for their push to the South Poleonly to be beaten by the Norwegian RaouldAmudsen. Scott and his men all perishedon their return journey only 11 miles froma food cache. ■ Left: More than a centurylater, the Andrill base camp seems veryluxurious by comparison with a fullyequipped office, dining room & kitchen,showers, laundry, rec-room, and a bunchof snowmobiles. ■ Below left: Me relaxingat the rig with Mt Erebus in the distanceat 3 am. (remember, 24 hr daylight duringthe Austral summer). It was a sunny andcalm ‘night’ and only -2 degC!

t looked just the same as always,the Schlumberger Riboud Product

Center (SRPC) in Clamart, France,when I was up there the otherday. The vast glass and granitereception area was empty but forthe occasional scientific lookingpasserby. Little did I know, however,that a change was in the works.

I'd been invited to a presentationof the first ever InternationalEngineering Design Project Course,on which students from France'sbest engineering schools arespending the 2007/08 school yearworking with students from RiceUniversity in Houston – bytelephone, e-mail and Internet-based messaging services such asSkype, but not in person. Throughoutthe school year, the students neveractually meet. Their challenge?To overcome this considerablecommunications obstacle andsuccessfully design, prototype,document and demonstrate asophisticated electromechanicalproduct based on a given set ofspecifications. No small feat,considering that the teams areseparated by two languages andseven time zones.

Working under the guidance ofRice Professor Fathi Ghorbel, whoholds the Schlumberger Chair inMechatronics and Robotics, and

who moved to Paris for the yearto oversee the course from officesat SRPC, the student teams hadobviously been busy. In the ensuingtwo hours, they used a real-timeteleconference system to unveiltheir progress on some frighteninglycomplex looking projects. Forexample, there was the PermanentMagnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM)Control System for use in downholetools, and a project entitled RoboticDeployment of a Bi-Stable ReeledComposite, which looked like asimple roll of tape but seemed topromise near miracles. Otherprojects were more transparent,like the Scrubster Window WashingRobot, whose makers claim willclean tall glass buildings whileavoiding expensive insurancepremiums on human windowwashers.

The one thing that was clearabout all six projects, even to anon-engineer, was that it wouldbe easier for one half of any teamto complete its project, ratherthan have to work with foreignteammates on the other side ofthe Atlantic. By mixing the teamsand forcing them to work in lessthan ideal conditions, the courseorganizers had seriouslyhandicapped these students'potential for success. Or had they?

A few days later I returned toSRPC to visit Physics MetierTechnology Manager Fadhel Rezgui,who is acting as chief advisor to oneof the student teams, which hasundertaken to make a money savingDisposable Logging Sensor.

"The technical problems aren'tthe hard part of this design project,"said Fadhel. "Pretty quickly itbecame clear that the tricky bit isgetting everybody to understandthe project in the same way.Communicating effectively, in spiteof the fact that you can't see yourteammates or understandeverything they say – that's the key.Only then can you move a projectforward constructively."

Rezgui admits that his teamhas had some problems gettingeverybody on the same page; but progress has come, and he'sencouraged by the experience."This is the way our world is going,"he says, holding up a toy model ofthe US space shuttle, which isroughly the size of the prototypetool they are planning. Rezgui andteam have jammed some electronicgoodies into the toy to show whattheir device might look like whenit's done. "We have to learn thesenew work methods. We can't keepworking alone in our holes,cloistering our ideas among

ourselves. We have to open up andlook outside. In the coming years,more and more engineers will workvia the Internet, with people they'venever seen, on projects of whichthey'll own only tiny parts. This isthe future."

Of course, this would mean somepretty big changes for a companylike Schlumberger, wouldn’t it?

For the definitive answer, I leftFadhel and walked across campus,through the glass and granitereception and into the office ofYves Morel, longtime Europeaninnovation manager at SRPC.

"We're not just talking about bigchanges. This represents a massivetransformation!" said Yves. "But it'sa transformation Schlumbergermust embrace."

Morel now works as recruitingnetwork manager for mid-careerhires, but he remains anenthusiastic believer in openinnovation and the need tosponsor classroom experimentslike the International EngineeringDesign Project Course. "Workingvia networks is not a choice,it's an imperative," he says."Today's younger generations areborn networkers. They can learnfrom us, obviously. What is lessobvious is how much we can learnfrom them." ■

One quiet classroom experiment is providingvaluable clues to the future of innovativeproduct development . . .

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In a technology driven business, research & developmentis crucial to maintaining our position as the world’s leadingoilfield services company. We employ the very best peopleto create, design and build the most advanced technologyavailable anywhere in the industry. If you have vision andimagination, and the necessary expertise, come and talkto us about how you could help us shape our world.

Required: Master's degree or PhD in engineeringor applied science.

Research & Development Engineers

■ Page 44: Professor Fathi Ghorbel. ■ This page:The student teams are based in both Paris andHouston, with an equal number, plus their advisor,in each location. In May 2008, students in teamsof six demonstrated their six prototypes andfinal projects to Schlumberger managementand faculty at participating universities at theSchlumberger Riboud Product Center outsideParis.


46

Can you describe what ‘early responsibility’ means at Schlumbergerand give some examples from your own career?

“Early responsibility for me was working with new technologies, new procedures, million dollarcontracts – and all that while living and working in a country far from my own.

The company challenges every engineer to excel in environments very much outside of theircomfort zone . . . and they expect results. Within eight months of joining Schlumberger Drilling &Measurements, I was the lead engineer on job with a trainee as a 2nd engineer. That was my firsttaste of being responsible for a project worth several hundred thousands of dollars in revenue, on arig with limited support, managing a fellow co-worker with less experience than myself and havingto finish the job . . . what a rush!

Even though responsibility found me early, I have been tested in many ways by taking on moreand more responsibility as my career progressed. In my current position as a recruiter, I took on theinternship coordinator role in 2006 in addition to duties as a recruiter. This challenged me as I hadto work towards my recruiting objectives while at the same time, managing an ever changingprogram with as many as 125 interns.”

How does this compare to the experiences of friends from university?

“Apples and oranges. Most of the engineers I graduated with were placed in training programs thatslowly gave them more and more responsibility whereas with Schlumberger, it was like beingthrown right into the deep end.”

What three words or phrases would you say best defines Schlumbergerand Schlumberger people?

“Schlumberger People are exceptional; Schlumberger Engineers are resourceful . . . . . . Schlumberger is Technology.”

Nationality: American

Age: 29

Degree: Chemical Engineering

University: Pennsylvania State University

Languages: English and a bit of Spanish

Recruited: 2001

Current post: North America Recruiter andInternships Coordinator

Unwinding route: Mountain biking, snowboarding,scuba diving, skydiving

Favourite iPod track: Me and My Guitar by Ian Moore

PAUL WYMAN

U

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hope that you have enjoyed thisedition of Schlumberger Life

and that it has given you a feel forwhat a career in Schlumberger islike. When I joined the company in1995, I was attracted by the samepromise of challenge, variety andopportunity that you have readabout in these pages, and 13 yearson, I have not been disappointed!Today, I am as excited about mycareer as I was on the day I firstwalked through the door. I am alsovery proud to work for a companywhere our culture and principlesare so vibrant and strong.

As I am sure you have seen inthis magazine, the heart of ourculture is our diversity. We work inover 80 countries and employ peoplefrom more than 160 nationalities.Our principles on recruiting,training and development wereestablished more than 40 years ago,so our diversity spans the entireorganization, at every level. Everytime I attend a meeting or join ateam, I know I will meet new people,from different places and withdifferent experiences and ideasfrom me. I cannot overstate howrewarding it is to be in this kind ofwork environment.

Our diversity is reinforced bythe way we develop people duringtheir careers. We use the term‘borderless careers’ because weimpose no boundaries on geography,department, function, or rate ofprogression. My first assignmentwas as an engineer working onoffshore oil platforms. Since thenI have experienced positions inManagement, Product Development,Marketing and Personnel, andduring this time I have lived onfour different continents. When youask anyone from Schlumberger todescribe their career, they will tellyou a different and unique story.

I remember that the one concernI had when I chose this career path,was related to the overall imageof the oil and gas industry, inparticular, towards the environment.I would be lying if I said I am notstill worried about these thingstoday; however I now appreciatethat there is a genuine desire in theindustry to raise energy efficiencyand reduce the impact on ourenvironment.

As a Schlumberger employeeI have learned that safety, ethicsand the environment are all integralto the way we do business. This is

another major component of ourculture and again I think this isinfluenced by our diversity, givingus a real sense of global respectand responsibility.

These are the kind of qualitiesand opportunities that first attractedme to Schlumberger and the greatthing is that they are not just‘company visions’ or words in abrochure; they are tangible inevery location where we work andthey touch all of the 84,000 peoplewho make Schlumberger.

If you are preparing to embarkon your own career, I wish youthe best of success. If you areconsidering a career with us,contact our recruiters, and askthem more about life and workwith Schlumberger. I look forwardto your future contribution towardsmaking us who we are.

Best regards

Catherine MacGregorVice-President PersonnelSchlumberger Limited

schlumberger life

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