Business Acumen and Soft Skills in an Everchanging Exploration World
Michel T. Halbouty Lecture
Tuesday, 29 September 2020, 8:35 a.m.–9:15 a.m. | Houston, Texas
The Michel T. Halbouty lecture series – funded by the AAPG
Foundation – is an ongoing special event at the AAPG Annual
Convention and Exhibition. Lecture topics are designed to focus
either on wildcat exploration in any part of the world where major
discoveries might contribute significantly to petroleum reserves,
or space exploration where astrogeological knowledge would
further mankind’s ability to develop resources on Earth and in the
Solar System.
The talk will present real-life examples that give a front view of the
action concerning the sometimes-difficult phase of negotiation
coming once an exploration project evaluation has been carried
out and validated. Lessons from the cases will be discussed,
concerning particularly the business insight needed to find “outof-
the-box” ways to implement a winning strategy.
Specific “soft skills” are now considered all the more important
since the “engineering” preparation of a prospective deal and the
related technologies are and will be more and more dependent
on data analytics, advanced approaches involving AI, machine
learning, etc. There is and will be no shortcut to this new way
of going forward with such applications provided individuals
and teams maintain a strong culture of trust, perseverance, and
just common sense to respect the fundamentals of petroleum
geology. Although strongly enhanced by such developments,
creativity, and decision-making will remain a human prerogative.
Bernard C. Duval graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, the
University of Grenoble, the IFP School, and the Stanford Executive
Program. He spent most of his career with Total, with overseas
assignments in Libya, Venezuela, and Canada where he was
Exploration and Production Vice President for North America.
His last position with Total was Senior Vice President Exploration
in charge of worldwide exploration strategies, programs,
and business development. After retirement he became an
international consultant and Associate Professor at the IFP
School, teaching petroleum systems, upstream economics,
decision-making, and portfolio management. He is an AAPG
Honorary Member and the 2019 recipient of the Michel T.
Halbouty Outstanding Leadership award.
- Fee:
- Included with registration
- Speaker:
- Bernard C. Duval, Associate Professor, IFP School
Venue
George R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avenida De Las Americas
Houston,
Texas
77010
United States
(713) 853-8000