Instructors
Burr A. Silver, PhD., field trip leader, developed this course and started offering it to the petroleum industry in 1980 under the auspices of Olympic Exploration & Production Company. More than 475 scientists have attended. In the 28 years he has been leading the seminar, he has made significant revisions in the areas of study, textbook and workshops that accompanies the course as well as visual aids presented.
Dr. Silver is an explorationist with more than 40 years of experience. He received his Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Washington in Seattle. His industrial expertise includes CITIES SERVICE RESEARCH CO., JERSEY PRODUCTION RESEARCH CO. AND EXXON USA. Silver was a member of the faculties of Arizona State University and the University of Oklahoma, and adjunct professor at the University of Houston. He organized and taught several exploration training courses presented to AMOCO, SUN, CONOCO, AND GULF. In 1979 he founded Olympic Exploration and Production Company and has been president since its inception. Olympic's headquarters are in Granbury, TX, a suburb of Ft. Worth.
Nigel Watts, PhD., a petroleum geologist with twenty six years of experience, contributes his time both in workshops and the ocean classroom. He has worked in the exploration, production and reservoir engineering groups of a major multi-national oil company as well as three large Canadian Independents. His area of expertise is the exploration for and the development of carbonate reservoirs in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. For several years he was involved in the geological characterization of Devonian reefs for EOR schemes. His experience of ancient carbonate sequences in the US, Indonesia, Australia, Angola, Great Britain and Europe as well as modern carbonates in Jamaica, Shark Bay – Western Australia and Belize adds greatly to the dynamics of this course. He has taught in-house short courses on carbonate sedimentology as well as field seminars in the Devonian reefs in the Canadian Rockies.
Dr. Bill Martindale, PhD., received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Universities of Reading and Edinburgh in the UK and before emigrating to Canada in 1981, spent 5 years working with the UK Geological Survey, on Permian hydrocarbon reservoirs in the UK North Sea. Bills love affair with carbonate rocks began during his Ph.D. studies of modern and Pleistocene carbonates in Barbados and has continued throughout his career in Western Canada. Bill has worked Silurian, Devonian and Mississippian plays throughout the WCSB & Alaska. He has published papers, reports and multi-client studies and has given numerous talks and core-based workshops to industry and Universities over the years. He is a Calgary-based professional geologist with over 30 years of experience in hydrocarbon reservoirs. For the past 12 years, he has operated a successful consulting company, specializing in the nature, distribution and quality of carbonate reservoir rocks in the Western Canada Sedimentary basin. For 14 years prior to this, he was the carbonate specialist with a Calgary-based oil and gas mid-sized exploration company. In 2006, Bill took on the additional role of adjunct professor at Queens University, Kingston, Ont. where he will be involved in the co-supervision of Western Canadian-based postgraduate geology students.
For the past 9 years Dr. Martindale, along with Noel James and Jeff Packard, has presented a 4-day core-based course on W. Canadian carbonate reservoir rocks to over 350 explorationists. Bill & Noel also offer a 3 day core-based course on W. Canadian Mississippian reservoir rocks, now in its 4th year. He has re-kindled his interest in modern Carbonates over the past 7 years or so by way of dive expeditions to Mexico, Belize, the Cayman Is. and the Dutch Antilles. In the past 20 years or so, he has led geological field trips to the Rockies, Barbados, the Permian Basin of W. Texas/N. Mexico and has now been an instructor on 5 Belize modern carbonate field trips.
John D. Harper, PhD, P. Geol., FGSA, FGAC is featured as guest instructor and presently Senior Geological Advisor, ConocoPhillips, Canada Ltd. where his position as a prospect generator in Western Canada and Canadian Frontier allows him to participates in reservoir evaluation, peer reviews, project advisor and mentor.
Dr. Harper was the first Director of the Centre for Earth Resources Research at Memorial University of Newfoundland until Jan 1, 1998 and retired as a Full Professor, Petroleum Geology and Sedimentology (Carbonate and Clastics) from the university in 2002. However, he retains his association with the university as an Adjunct Professor. Prior to his academic tenure, Dr. Harper was with Shell Development, Shell Oil, Shell Canada, and Trend Exploration. He has operational, management and research credentials over the past 36 years in reservoir characterization and basin analysis for Canadian, US, and International onshore and offshore basins. His most recent activities have been in the Mackenzie Delta - Beaufort, the Scotian Shelf and Deep Water, the West Coast of Newfoundland, and the Grand Banks. His career has not been limited to North America. In the early 1980’s he was a technical advisor and special projects consultant to AGOCO management. Areas of expertise included Libya, Indonesia, Philippines South Pacific North Africa and South American basins.