Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
I didn't do any work in Venezuela but did some exploration work and drilled a few wells in the Llanos and Middle Magdalena in Colombia as well as offshore Guyana. Did some high level regional studies on the petroleum systems from Colombia through Venezuela and into the offshore and for the most part I don't remember it being too complicated. The biggest issues were regulatory and engineering. The technology, skill and expertise is greatly lacking and if you dealing with local patterns they are very unwilling to listen to North American expertise. In the Llanos, the one issue we commonly ran into was water control and high water cuts along with wells watering out rapidl
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Everyone thinks you just walk in and start pumping oil. The cultural barrier alone would be massive. Geologists have to be the least respected but most important people in the industry. My dad turned down an NHL career to become one.
At Apache (where i met Mr. Coffee) they had a big asset in egypt and people would go there and get paid insane amounts. We had this compressor/facility guru. He was unbelievable. A little redneck but he was like a savant. He lasted a few months because the locals would be deeply insulted when he tried to optimize things. If we just change these pockets, we can shut in this other compressor and bring down pressures. What an insult.
So he said fata this and came back.