PESGB April 2019
Plus much more inside
Training Places
Well, the long awaited and much anticipated move from East Croydon back to central London took place in early February. The PESGB’s new offices are located in Victoria, an area that has had a long association with E&P companies in the past including several of the North Sea’s early pioneers. Although no longer around, companies such as BHP, Hess, Phillips, Occidental, OMV Ranger, and RTZ with their UK HQ in Victoria, SW1 have left an impressive legacy of successful exploration and production. The PESGB will now be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Azinor Catalyst, DownUnder Geosolutions, ENI, Ophir and Premier; so it is in good company!
The February meeting of the PESGB Council took place a day after the office move. Despite the presence of many packing crates, it was very reassuring – and no real surprise – to witness that it was very much business as usual. Whilst going through the process of unpacking and setting up the new IT network, Maria and her colleagues were taking calls from members wanting details of future events. All of which conveniently brings me to training. When the decision was taken a year ago to move the PESGB offices away from its East Croydon HQ, questions were asked of me as to whether the Society was responding to the downturn in our industry by ‘downsizing’ the number of services available to its members; in particular, whether or not training would feature in the calendar of events. The PESGB offices provided an excellent training facility that was used by some seven hundred members over the five years it was located in East Croydon.
The PESGB is as committed as ever to providing value for money to its membership, including the continuation of relevant training courses. The new offices located on Wilton Road have excellent training facilities, which are fully equipped to accommodate training classes of up to thirty five delegates.
The PESGB’s Director of Education and Training, Dr Andy Racey, has developed a series of Technical Excellence Courses for 2019. These courses, presented by subject experts will provide attendees with a valuable opportunity to learn, or indeed reacquaint with the fundamental skills that at times overlooked in our day to day work. In April, there will be a one day work shop to cover the use and benefits of trace fossil analysis, given by Dr Andy Taylor. This will be followed in May by an applied biostratigraphy course delivered by Dr Matt Wakefield. Later in June, Mike King and others will deliver a course on remote sensing with special emphasis on its application to oil and gas. Later in the year, courses are planned which include Core Analysis techniques and its applications and a revamp of Professor Stoneley and Andy Grindrod’s ‘Introduction to Petroleum Exploration and Production for non-Geoscientists’. The latter, has over the years benefited many of our industry colleagues. Further details on these and other courses are available through a visit to the PESGB website.
The PESGB’s training facility is also available to those companies that may wish to convene offsite meetings in an environment that is less susceptible to the ‘distractions’ that can occur when taking place in the office. The PESGB looks forward to welcoming members to its offices in Victoria, SW1.