ABSTRACT: Making a Career Change from Petroleum Exploration to Environmental Characterization: Similarities and Differences in Techniques and Philosophy

WYATT, DOUGLAS E., Westinghouse Savannah River Company, U.S. Department of Energy Savannah River Site, Aiken, SC

A concern in geology is the loss of experienced geologists, principally from the oil industry. This loss is magnified twofold by: (1) the continued decline of exploration activities, and (2) by the perception that an oil geologist cannot make the transition to the environmental field. This paper discusses the similarities in exploration techniques and philosophy between the oil and environmental industries.

The exploration techniques are similar for oil, whether in frontier areas or established plays, and in exploring an area for a waste site. You find the reservoir (waste site), evaluate the geology, and define the impact of that site (reserves) to the environment. The techniques for doing this are similar: regional seismic versus high-resolution seismic versus ground penetrating radar, gravity versus microgravity, aeromagnetics versus surface magnetics, deep versus shallow borehole logging, and shallow versus deeper mapping. The principal differences are those of scale.

Philosophically, the approach to finding a waste site is identical to finding a new field, but once a waste site is found, the continued exploration (characterization) of that site requires a different approach than development of an oil field. The waste site approach is different in that you try to limit the extent of "pay" and any "hit" suggests that contamination exists. The oil exploration approach seeks to expand the "pay" but any show is not sufficient to prove reserves.

An experienced explorationist can enter the environmental world using similar techniques and needs only to modify his or her sense of scale and philosophical approach to subsurface information.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)