The Bureau of Economic Geology broke new ground in early 2017 by hosting a group of 12 researchers and managers from Statoil for the Bureau’s inaugural professional-development training course. The week-long series of highly interactive presentations and activities was designed to expose these rising stars from Statoil to a broad range of Bureau research and industry-engagement efforts. The course was conceived as an experiment to determine if company participants might derive significant benefit from such comprehensive training provided by the Bureau. Based on course evaluations and other very positive feedback, the Statoil training course was a resounding success.
On the first evening, Statoil guests were treated to a showing of the award-winning energy documentary Switch. During the week’s sessions, the Bureau’s best and brightest researchers shared their expertise in wide-ranging areas including the global energy outlook, the water–energy nexus, integrated resource studies, mudrock systems, clastic reservoirs, fracture research, petrophysics, reservoir geophysics, carbonate reservoirs, and salt tectonics. Also included in the week’s activities were a core workshop, a viewing of rock material in the Core Research Center, and a field trip to examine interesting Texas rock outcrops.
“We were very gratified that our friends from Statoil invested in this first-ever Bureau training course, and, by all accounts, they were pleased with the experience,” said Mark Shuster, the Bureau’s associate director for energy research and the organizer of the course. “We learned a great deal and will certainly be able to do even better in the future if we’re called upon to host another, similar industry course.”
