Suggesting IGY 2 – The International Geomechanical Year!
In 1957 and 1958 more than 65 countries participated in the International Geophysical Year to advance many branches of earth science after years of scientific isolation imposed by the Cold War. (Many people don’t know this, but the great Donald Fagen’s futuristic, tongue-in-cheek hit I.G.Y. is named in reference to the event.) The I.G.Y. was promoted with a series of really neat illustrated posters available for free. How wonderfully geeky it might be to have these in your dining room, but nobody would do that, right?? Ummmm.....
We’re already starting the second month of 2018 (where did January go?!), and I find myself scrambling to meet clients' needs, plan events around GeoConvention in May, prepare upcoming talks, courses and webinars, and still find time to walk Flavia the office dog (just give me 10 more minutes, Flav, just 10 minutes). I’m having to turn down opportunities just to keep life manageable. 2016 this clearly is not.
Whispers of things improving in Canadian oil and gas geoscience, and the industry in general, are becoming louder. The downturn is by no means over, and although some layoffs by operators and service companies alike continue, it’s almost as if people are no longer afraid to be a little bit optimistic. It seems Canada is a somewhat behind other parts of the world in starting a sort of recovery (for a variety of reasons), so maybe overall things are even better than they seem here at home.
I’ve decided to embrace the optimism and allow myself to believe that this just might be the year the Canadian oil and gas industry embraces geomechanics...again. I say again because we actually have a rich but largely forgotten history of excellent geomechanical research and application going back to the 1980’s. I’ve even got efforts going on the side to revive some of this historical, but still valuable, material. More on that later. For now, the future looks bright.