Forum

Excelling in Your First 10 Years:

Ten Life Lessons
Jakob Roth, Schlumberger and Islin Munisteri, BP

Between training programs and moving

to new locations, a lot can happen in the
first 10 years of your career. The TWA
Forum team informally talked with our
colleagues and found that people whose
backgrounds appeared disparate often
voiced similar themes regarding what
they learned in their first 10 years in the
real world of the workplace. Below are
the nine life lessons that emerged from
these discussionsplus one for you
towrite.
1. What you do, or dont do,
createsthe reputation you have
amongst your peers. Be responsible
for yourselfyour conduct, your actions,
and your behavior.
Your reputation in the oil and
gas industry has been building
since the day you entered the game
and is being continually developed
daily amongst your peers, coworkers, and other professionals.
How you interact and deal with your
coworkers,management,clients,
suppliers, and contractors all play
a direct role in developing and
maintaining your reputation in
theindustry.
Your reputation is related to the
value you bring to your company. And
remember, first impressions definitely
count, so always give a respectable
handshake and smile. Timothy Price,
president at Heath Energy Products
Corp., says, This is an industry where
you will cross paths with thousands
of people who all cross paths with
each other. Therefore, nothing is more
important than your reputation.
When transitioning to a new role,
realize that you should always uphold
your reputation, it will precede you and

10

hold you accountable, says Darren

Vaught, special projects manager
atHydessco.
What underpins reputation is
integrity. Larry Bartram, region account
manager at Halliburtons Multi-Chem,
notes, In any industry, honesty and
integrity are first and foremost. Your
reputation is of paramount importance to
your success.
2. Hold true to your integrity so that
you can produce sound engineering
work that aligns with your values. At
its core, integrity means alignment
between what you do and who you are.
Being who you are can be defined by
your personalvalues.
Professor Steve Begg, head of
the Petroleum Engineering School,
University of Adelaide, Australia, says
to never lose your integrity. The
big wrongs are obvious, though not
necessarily easy to deal with. Its the
small things that can gradually lead you
astrayno one instance itself seems
thatbad.
Know that your decisions are
impactful, and the results have some
probability of spreading publicly
across a wide swath of people. Chris
Buckingham, program director at
the Fluid Dynamics and Multiphase
Flow Program at Southwest Research
Institute, notes that In all that you do,
everywherenot just at workseek
to have a reputation for impeccable
integrity, only making decisions you
wouldnt mind being posted on a
billboard at the side of the highway.
3. Dont let problems fester.
Approach issues immediately, and talk
with people to get your concerns voiced

early on so that action can be taken. If

necessary, changes can occur and if
not, you can work on understanding the
reasons why. Being able to go to sleep at
night without worrying is a key indicator
of how people deal with their problems.
Being able toand actually
speaking up is critical to success,
particularly in the context of safety. The
oil field is one of the most dangerous
places in which to work, but with the
correct mindset and proper measures
in place we can prevent accidents
from occurring. Maintaining safety as
an integral value will go a long way to
having a long and successful career in
the industry.
Imran Qaiser, directional driller
and field engineer at Schlumberger,
notes to always take 5 minutes to
analyze any task before proceeding.
Communications is key. You have the
authority to stop any job if you feel it [is]
not safe.
4. Know and plan to your rhythms
to develop a sustainable routine.
Plan accordingly, especially if you have
weeklong training, vacation, or other
events throughout the year. If you have
the ability to control your schedule, try
not to have a big meeting the day after
a lengthy vacation. Try to arrange your
vacation to occur after a major business
planning cycle.
Though some schedules are
unpredictable, elements of anticipation
can still be engineered throughout the
day. Even making small tweaks in when
you perform detailed technical work and
make decisions can have large gains in
productivity. David Rock, director of the
NeuroLeadership Institute, writes that
your ability to make great decisions

is a limited resourcethis means

not thinking when you dont have to,
becoming disciplined about not paying
to attention to nonurgent tasks unless, or
until, its truly essential that you do.
The cadence of the day can be
arranged accordingly by focusing on
the most important task each day. For
nearly a decade now, Ive begun my
workdays by focusing for 90 minutes,
uninterrupted, on the task I decide the
night before is the important one Ill face
the following day. After 90 minutes, I
take a break, says Tony Schwartz, chief
executive officer of the Energy Project
and author of Be Excellent at Anything.
5. Create a boundary between
work and other facets of life to stay
focused. Expect burnout if you cannot
hold to these boundaries. It means not
checking email when spending time
with friends at a restaurant. It means
not looking at Facebook while trying to
read a technical paper. Freedom can be
found in boundaries.
Human beings are not designed to
do activities simultaneously, but rather
successively. In a world of relentless
demands, it is only possible to main
a high level of intensity if you create
boundaries, says Schwartz.
The key to creating the boundary
is in understanding your own and your
managers expectations, and ensuring
that there is alignment between the two.
According to an article in Fast Company,
Ken and Scott Blanchard recommend
that you and your manager each create
separate lists of things you are held
accountable for in your role. Afterwards,
prioritize the list and ensure that you
and your manager agree on the most
important tasks. Having regular checkins ensures that you and your manager
stay aligned throughout the year.
Know that there will be times when
work is a 24-hour-a-day marathon,
such as during operations when your
well is being drilled. However, there
will also be times the focus will be
planning the well or defining drilling
rig specifications. Understanding the
difference in response time between
the twooperations and planning

is important in determining where

boundaries can be defined.
6. Create and maintain your
community. It is 2 a.m. A major
problem is happening. You take the
call and give a quick answer, but there
are more engineering details involved.
Know who you can turn to when you
need help. Other people have faced
many problems and have a lot of
experience you can draw upon. You
can find a solution simply by asking and
listening to people in your network. Take
notes when talking to these mentors
not just technical details, but also their
personal lives so you can reconnect the
relationship at a moments noticeeven
if you generally stay in touch in the
firstplace.
In a Harvard Business Review article
by Priscilla Claman, she recommends
setting up a personal career board of
directors you can consult and receive
feedback from so you can grow. The
people on your board of directors should
know more than you about something,
be better than you at something, or
be capable of offering different points
of view, writes Claman, president of
Career Strategies Inc.
Often, one person alone cannot
advise on both reservoir modeling
and emulsion properties. Look inside
and outside your company to develop
those relationshipsso that when you
need it most, the experts are there for
you. Often, these folks are found in
previous roles, college, and online
on SPE Connect, LinkedIn, and other
forums. The occasional email sent to the
professors who helped you graduate
goes a long way in maintaining those
relationships. After moving on from
one role to another, dont neglect the
previous relationships you made.
7. Never stop learning, and mature
from your mistakes. There exists
of a plethora of resources that can be
very beneficial both technically and
professionally in your career. Learning
occurs in formal settings, such as
training and in college, as well as on the
job through executing yourprojects.

Regardless of the ways

youve devised for retaining new
knowledge,keep on learning
somethingnew, even from colleagues
who sit next door. Thalbert Thal
McGinness, a consulting petrophysicist,
notes that you should always be willing
to listen first and learn something
everyday.
Failure, though at times
embarrassing and painful, is often
where the best learning occurs. Always
remember, learning is a never-ending
process. Listen to everyone, but apply
your own mind. Take responsibility for
your failures and more importantly
learn from failures. It is the failure which
is our real teacher, says Dr. Milap
Goud, technical managerAsia Pacific at
Q-Max Solutions Inc.
The approach to learning is just as
important as what is being committed
to memory. Having an open mind
enables the lesson to be learnt well
the first time. Always be anxious to
learn because everyone around you
knows more aboutsomething than
you do, saysHeath Energy Products
TimothyPrice.
8. Field experience is critical. In
the multidisciplinary oil field, gaining
even a general understanding of
field operations can save you and
your company time and money. The
knowledge gained by going to observe
operationsor better yet, performing
those operationswill help in asking the
right questions aboutwhycost and time
were under-or over-projected.
According to David Dixon, a
graduate production technologist
(production engineer) at Shell, [There
is] no substitute for field experience.
Theoretical understanding is great but
you need to see it happen to understand
the risks involved in any operation.
Glenn Vawter, executive director
at National Oil Shale Association and
president of ATP Services, cuts to the
core regarding the value gained from
firsthand field experience: If you dont
know what it takes to get it done in the
field, you cannot design programs that
can be carried out by those talented

Vol. 10 // No. 3 // 2014

11

Forum

SPE Bookstore

U.S. Crude Oil Production

versus Hubbert Curve

11
10

L
IT

EW

Millions of barrels per day

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940

Print and Digital Versions Available

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

US Production

2010

Hubbert Curve

Chemistry for Enhancing the

Production of Oil and Gas

Fig. 1US crude oil production versus Hubbert Curve. Data Source: United States
Energy Information Administration.

Chemistry for Enhancing the Production of Oil

and Gas provides an overview of the science
and technology of the use of production
chemicals to enhance and maintain oil and
gas production. Geared towards a technically
trained audience, this new book emphasizes the
technical aspects of production management
from the perspective of the upstream oil and
gas industry.

people who really get the work done,

and done right, and done professionally.

Wayne Frenier & Murtaza Ziauddin

Contents
Introduction
Chemistry of Production Impairment
Formation Stimulation With Reactive
Chemicals
Propped Fracturing Chemistry and
Applications
Improved Oil Recovery Chemical Applications
Health, Ecology, and Safe Handling of Treating
Chemicals and Produced Fluids

9. Be open to and accept change.

In a publication titled Nuclear Energy
and the Fossil Fuels, M. King Hubbert
predicted in 1956 that peak oil in the
United States would occur between 1965
and 1971, However, he did not predict
the rise in oil production from tight
oil. Using a combination of hydraulic
fracturing and horizontal drilling, the
ability to produce from low-permeability
source rock would not become
economic until more than 40 years
later. However, now those technologies
have unlocked tight source rock and

Preview sample pages from this new

book and order your own copy by
visiting our online bookstore at
www.spe.org/go/books.

are driving current US oil and gas

production. Dixon notes, Always expect
the unexpected. The oil and gas industry
is terrible at predicting anything. Always
have a back-up plan.
10. Write your own life lesson
learned in the oil field. Think about
and reflect on the critical lessons you
have learned. Pick the most important
lesson, and write it down. Discuss this
topic with your colleagues and personal
board of directors.
This is not a hard-and-fast list
remember you will keep learningso
keep adding life lessons with each
valuable insight you gain. TWA

Celebrating 10 Years
of Fresh Energy &
Creative Ideas!
TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE