Exploration Insights December 2019/ January 2020 | Page 28

28 | Halliburton Landmark
Exploration Insights | 29
Figure 1> Participants of EVOLVE 2019
integration projects using seismic, wireline, core,
production, and other data. It provides project-
based training focused on current industry
problems, which empowers the students to
solve the types of challenges they will encounter
when they start working in the industry. Students
gain experience working with industry leaders to
create and execute exploration and production
workflows relating to reservoir appraisal,
field development planning, and production
enhancement scenarios.
The EVOLVE program gives participants
recognition in the industry and from SEG. The
program aims to develop project management,
organizational skills, teamwork, effective
interpersonal communication and business
values, in addition to technical activities, during
collaboration with other teams and mentors.
Mentorship by industry experts is a key element
of EVOLVE. These personal meetings enable
mentors to gain an understanding of students’
competencies and their skills gaps. Adjustments
are made both by the teams and the project
managers in response to these face-to-face
meetings.
do not always get exposure to the business
settings, where decisions are based on state-
of-the-art approaches and workflows, nor the
opportunity to interact with industry professionals
during their studies.
EVOLVE offers students a unique, modern
model for early asset-based learning, and works
with the latest software, data platforms, and
work practices. The exploration and production
industry faces significant personnel challenges,
which makes it all the more important to prepare
students and new graduates to take the place
of those that are leaving the industry. This
program gives the industry access to a pool of
trained individuals familiar with exploration and
production practices.
HALLIBURTON’S INVOLVEMENT IN
EVOLVE
BENEFITS OF EVOLVE FOR THE OIL
AND GAS INDUSTRY Halliburton is a founder sponsor of EVOLVE. Over
the years the program has been running, we have
been able to reduce the time needed to accomplish
projects from 10 months to 5 months. We have had
over 150 EVOLVE student “graduates” to date, and
expect to add over another 100 in 2020. In 2019,
40 students within 16 teams from 11 countries
participated in the two half-day sessions at the
SEG Annual Meeting in San Antonio.
Commonly, academic educations focus on
theoretical foundations and principles. Students Halliburton employees also provide support and
mentorship for students and sit on the technical
committee. They actively participate in preparing
the students for their public presentations, as
well.
Evolve Experience —
Mark Mlella
Watching the EVOLVE presentations at the 2018
SEG annual meeting in Anaheim, CA, convinced
me that I would benefit by going through the
program myself. So, I persuaded some of my
peers to form a team for the 2019 EVOLVE
program.
Upon successful admission into the EVOLVE
program, my team was tasked to find investment
opportunities in the Northland Basin of New
Zealand. This hands-on program exposed me to a
real-world project, which required the integration
of seismic, wireline, core, production, and other
relevant data. The data analyzed were within
the context of exploration, reservoir appraisal,
field development planning, and production
enhancement scenarios.
My team comprised graduate students from
the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and
the University of Arkansas. We were given
access to iEnergy and the Halliburton Landmark
DecisionSpace ® platform, which allowed us
to collaborate using modern software in the
cloud. The cloud-based DecisionSpace software
made it possible for my teammates and me to
collaborate well, despite the geographic barrier,
as our team members were in two different
locations.
My team presented at the 2019 SEG annual
meeting in San Antonio, TX, where we
received awards for having the best investment
opportunity, best basin modeling, and most
creative presentation. Overall, the EVOLVE
experience was a great exposure to exploration
and production projects in the oil and gas
industry; and the fact that our particular project
was so challenging makes it even more satisfying
when looking at it in retrospect.