Night School – Business Skills (Virtual course)

Part 1 l Petroleum Prospect Economics
Facilitator: Steve Pickering
Date: Monday 27th July
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Part 2 l Oil Field Accounting & Finance
Facilitator: Gavin Ward
Date: Thursday 30th July
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Part 3 l Sales and Marketing – Part 1
Facilitator: Tim Gibbons
Date: Monday 10th August
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Part 4 l l Sales and Marketing – Part 2
Facilitator: Tim Gibbons
Date: Monday 17th August
6:00pm – 8:00pm

What will you learn?

Part 1 will cover:
Cashflows:
In this session we will seek to understand how we can estimate the value of oil and gas projects and how to compare and rank projects with difference commodities, development schedules, cashflows.  During the course we will discuss the impact of oil quality (or gas), taxation and time on value by calculating discounted cashflows (DCF), Net Present Value (NPV), Rate of Return (ROR), Expected Net Present Value (ENPV) and Expected Monetary Value (EMV).   Various economic indicators will be discussed including Profit to Investment Ratio (aka Bang for the Buck), Discounted P/I ratio and Economic Limit.  Lastly we will investigate hurdle rates and how to evaluate whether or not a project should be given a green light.

Part 2 will cover:
The differences between Economics and Accounting:
This course covers the fundamentals of oil and gas field Accounting and Finance in a down to earth manner, using plain English. In this session, the facilitator will introduce you to some of the simpler tools used to analyse an oil company, or service company annual report. You will be able to use the annual reports of two companies and examine the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statement to compare performance. The session draws on some principles in the PESGB Petroleum Prospect Economics session, like the source of the discount factor used in NPV and introduces the audience to several other methods of valuation used in acquisitions and management reporting. Attendees will find it useful to have a calculator on hand for a few short exercises but care has been taken to keep number crunching and mathematics to a minimum.

Parts 3 and 4 will cover:
The basics of sales and marketing:
Product marketing, the basic sales process and the activities involved.  It is designed more for people working in a technical role than for people who are currently working in a sales or marketing role.  It will attempt to demystify the dark arts of sales and marketing such that attendees get an appreciation of the role that sales and marketing play in the oil and gas industry.

How to sell anything:
Even if they do not have a formal sales role, geoscientists are frequently required to “sell”.  This may be a farm-in opportunity to another company or an infill well to management or partners etc.  In order to sell, we need to construct a narrative that persuades our audience to accept our proposal.  This session will explain the most effective way of doing this and provide a structure for participants to use whatever they are required to sell.

Who should attend?
Aspiring, future leaders in the oil and gas industry who want to acquire skills beyond the academic and technical and obtain insights into the commercially orientated analysis. Acquire the global perspectives essential to professional success.

To access member-only events or to benefit from the reduced member fees please visit https://www.ges-gb.org.uk/membership/ to find out how to become a PESGB member.

This course will go ahead regardless of the number of attendees.

Stephen Pickering is a geophysicist, instructor, lecturer, and Geophysical Advisor for Schlumberger. 

His strong expertise in exploration, with a specialization in Geophysics, has been developed over nearly 50 years, in a career that began at Western Geophysical with his role as a Seismic data processing analyst. More recently, he was Exploration Manager UK & Europe for Hamilton Brothers Oil and Gas Ltd and Manager of Exploration Technology at BHP Petroleum UK Limited.

He joined Schlumberger in 2000 where he has held roles as 4D Seismic Business Development Manager and Geophysics Domain Career Leader, among others.  In 2007, he was President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain.

Gavin has an economic, accounting and technical skill set from over 30 years in the oil and gas industry at major operators and independents. He has peer reviewed and valued assets and companies in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia and North America. He is author of many papers on valuations, risk and volume estimation and is able to translate technical evaluations into meaningful economic and financial assessments as a Chartered Accountant and professional Geoscientist. He has used these skills as the Europe & Mediterranean Portfolio Manager for Noble Energy during their gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean; as Reserves and Economics Manager for Centrica Energy during their acquisition of over $2 billion of assets; as Regional Subsurface Manager for a major gas field complex and development of satellite fields and as Non-Operated Production Manager for 23 producing North Sea fields for Centrica Energy. He is now a partner in RISC Advisory which provides expert technical opinion on acquisitions from RISC’s offices in London and Australia for operators, private equity and banks.

Tim has 31 years of experience in the oil industry, initially in oil and gas companies and then with service companies.  He has a BA in Physics from University of Oxford and a MSc in Exploration Geophysics from Imperial College, London.  He has worked for two major operators as a geophysicist and worked in new ventures, exploration and production.  The majority of this time was spent working in the North Sea.

Tim has over 20 years of sales and commercial experience gained with three major technology companies.  He held a variety of managerial, sales and business development roles in each organisation demonstrating an ability to grow the business he was responsible for in all cases.  He has experience of selling computing technology, data and services in Europe, Africa and Australia.

In 2015, Tim founded Hoolock Consulting to provide sales consulting and training to technology and engineering companies based on The Equation of Sales.  Building trust with customers, understanding their needs and articulating the value of the products he is supplying are the cornerstones of his approach.  This was summed up by Merv Swan, a former Halliburton Executive, who said “Tim is a sales rock star especially when it comes to building trust and coaching clients.  His technical expertise combined with business experience is second to none.”