Thanks Ken. A sobering note to be sure. It is good to remember that the SEG has provided one of the better (in my opinion) venues for presenting and discussing exploration geophysics in North America. They certainly need the support of the mining community and we've certainly benefitted from the organization.
Glenn Chubak From: SEGMIN <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ken Witherly via SEGMIN Sent: Friday, November 13, 2020 8:57 AM To: [email protected] Cc: Ken Witherly <[email protected]> Subject: [SEGMIN] The compass swings... CAUTION: Sender is not from diasgeo.com Dear Colleagues The president of the SEG authored the President's Page for the November issue of Leading Edge. While he tries to be upbeat and 'rally the troops' as it were, the core message is quite somber; in the oil industry alone, the expectation is that close to 50% of the geoscientists employed will loose their employment by next year. This is a combination of two severe hits to the industry; the first in 2014-15 and the second the result of effects of C-19 and a production war last year and early this year between Saudi Arabia and Russia. As the President states, this time around, the industry took immediate and drastic action to reduce costs over the next 3-5 years, the sort of minimum time period companies feel is required to see some serious demand/price stabilization. This will make it very hard for the SEG to go forward without major changes and the President states this. He has indicated he plans to communicate to this issue over the next several months. Clearly this will depress the support oil companies provide to universities and students and new hires will become increasingly rare, with companies most likely be allocating their previous HR dollars to those with specially skills most likely to be found with mid-career people. Contracting these positions to a service group like Haliburton or Schlumberger might well be considered to best approach. So what does this matter to minerals? If the professional societies we make use of and the universities we draw students from feel these cold economic winds, so too will the minerals industry be affected. Applied geoscience schools around the world can very seldom survive with a minerals focus alone. My own adopted home town Denver has the Colorado School of Mines next door in Golden. This school has for years supported a vibrant geophysics department with a dual focus on energy and minerals. Remove or severely dimmish one component would make the sustainability of the other very difficult. I look forward to what the SEG President has to suggest in the coming months. In the meantime, I like many of you will have gotten your request to renew membership notices. While we might look around and think we are all members, a quick survey I did of the 44 people listed as members of the SEG Mining Committee before the last AGM showed about 30% of the people listed as being a member of the Committee were not registered as SEG members. The SEG now more than ever needs our support, both for the funds we provide but maybe more importantly, to be part of a show of hands and say 'I think this activity is important and I want to help'. Best/Ken The Greatest Obstacle to Discovery Is Not Ignorance-It Is the Illusion of Knowledge Condor Consulting, Inc St. 150-2201 Kipling St. Lakewood CO 80215 USA T: 303-423-8475 Condor North Consulting ULC 170 - 422 Richards St. Vancouver BC Canada V6B 2Z4 T: 604-630-8334
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