Géologue chez Perenco

Main tasks of a Geologist at Perenco

My name is Paul and I’m a development geologist for Perenco. I’ve worked for Perenco for two and a half years now. Two years in London and more recently in Pointe Noire in Congo. The aim is to maximise our production from currently producing oil fields, which we buy over from major oil companies perhaps, that are not economical for them. So we try to recover more oil from areas that they perhaps never thought were economical or they missed opportunities.

So in Development we’re putting a new plan of development together. It incorporates a geo-science study by geophysicists, geologists like myself and engineers. And we put some wells together and propose new wells to be drilled to Management. In London my work was mainly study-focused, so we have a permit of, say, four oil fields and we do a foundation study.

Now in Pointe Noire in Congo, it’s more operations- and productions-focused. For example we do perforations on wells and we also support sort of production engineers if oil production has gone down or up: the reasons why, the reasons for high water cuts etc.

Everyday work as a Geologist at Perenco

This is a quick summary of a typical role of a development geologist in London. So at the beginning of any big project we have to review all the available data from the field. This is a time section through the seismic volume. As a geologist, we evaluate the structure; identify any faults in the fields, if these faults are sealing or non-sealing, which can stop or be a barrier to the flow of hydrocarbons when we produce wells.

From that, we then have our planned development, which incorporates future well proposals, reservoir production forecasts for new wells etc. And the end result is hopefully the successful drilling of new wells. In Pointe Noire we have our operations meeting in the morning, so that involves the daily oil production and water production for the fields that we produce from, any operational issues that have occurred on oil rigs and in the morning we do also petrophysics for example. We do petrophysical studies for some of our fields. So this is part of the work I’m doing in Pointe Noire.

We took over a mature field from a major operator. And we are trying to identify areas on the well logs that are displaying hydrocarbons and that we would like to perforate to recover more oil from the well. Well, this is what we’re doing at the moment: we have a current well that exists, and this is a proposed well by me, and we are trying to target a formation that displays high resistivity and what we think displays good reservoir property.

And then we also discuss trajectories with drillers to see if the trajectory is possible. When we drill a well we have a range of service companies we have to choose and try to take all the activities we want to do. We have some different companies that supply the mud for drilling the hole. We have different companies to supply us with the well log data such as LWD, MWD. And one of the responsibilities of the geologist in the subsidiary is putting that all together and trying to work with different people from different companies and getting them all to work as one.

Advantages of being a Geologist

One good thing is that the work that you do in geosciences you can follow through from the foundation blocks, interpreting seismic, petrophysics, all the way through to the drilling of wells and seeing the actual wells produce oil at the end of the day, which is quite exciting and rewarding.

In contrast to working at the subsidiary, compared to London, is that you’re the focal point in the subsidiary for geological and geoscience operations, so if we have a drilling campaign and there’s a lot of work to be done, you might have to work long hours during the weekends for example.

So at times it can be quite hectic, quite stressful but at the same time you can learn a lot within a short amount of time, getting yourself exposed to new operations that you wouldn’t otherwise see in London.

Why choose Perenco

I chose Perenco because unlike other major oil companies, I think I would have more responsibility at an earlier stage in my career and work on challenging and exciting projects.

And Perenco also gives you the opportunity to work abroad and get involved in important decision making straight away.

Now is an exciting time to join Perenco because we’re taking over more fields all the time. We have a strong exploration portfolio that’s growing the company. And we’re looking to work in new frontier regions as well.

Qualities required to be a Geologist

I think the qualities you need to have as a geologist are to be technically capable first in petrophysics and geological modelling and working with others in different disciplines such as geophysics and engineering.

To work as an expatriate with Perenco with that comes with a lot of responsibility and you need to be well organised, keep on top of data management and sometimes work by yourself and also sometimes work as part of a diverse group of people. You have to be adaptable sometimes to go offshore to see operations at subsidiaries as well.

Career prospects for a Geologist at Perenco

My prospects with Perenco I think first is to be technically good in the subject area that I work in so as a geologist that means being technically good in petrophysics, geological modelling, operations, geology for example.

Beyond that I think there may be two possibilities where you become a senior geologist or you can perhaps take a route into management. In 10 years, 15 years time, it’s possible you could be the geoscience manager for one of our subsidiaries. You’re the manager of all the geoscience activity that goes on in the subsidiary and you report to management in London.