Personal Record Interview

What happened when airline career didn’t cut it

Paul Binns is proof positive that a career change to geoscience can be rewarding. He spent 27 years with Shell, including stints as exploration manager in Nigeria and Egypt, preceded by the British Geological Society (BGS) researching the unmapped Sea of Hebrides. Still busy consulting and teaching, he also has a book in progress.

Career didn’t start with geoscience? No, I first worked with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the forerunner of British Airways (BA).

What made you change course? It just wasn’t for me. I came across geology in a library and it connected with climbing. So I left BOAC to study ‘A’ Levels, working intermittently as a road sweeper. The KPIs were set for age 50!, so I could do my stint quickly then study. I had some good advice when starting at Aberdeen University – ‘do two years of Maths’.

BGS and Sea of Hebrides research? Brilliant job – an unmapped marine area around the well-known geology of the islands. Robert Eden and Gordon Craig, my bosses at BGS and Edinburgh University, arranged for me to submit the work for a PhD supervised by Bryan Lovell. Apart from shipborne surveys, we dived in the Hebrides and around Rockall – the only time I’ve used a hammer professionally is under water; the rest was seismic. We also dived in a submersible, including a traverse up the Hebridean slope from 381 m.

How did you come to join Shell? The nature of the survey work changed. We were visited by Ken Glennie and Miles Bowen, and Shell Research advertised for a seismic stratigrapher. I found myself as the ‘geological conscience’ in the Geophysics Department. The Aberdeen maths enabled me to survive five years. This was at the beginnings of quantitative interpretation and a great learning experience.

What was special about Oman? In the early 1980s there was a demand for exploration and the Oman Government was hugely encouraging. I was asked to test QI on the Oman carbonates. Working with Paul de Groot, David Mithen, Nic van Ooyen and others we made a series of successful predictions and seven discoveries. It was a stimulating environment. Life outside the office was good too, with walks in the Oman mountains. I have always been a regular runner and was able to continue this with ‘The Hash’ and Muscat Road Runners, though it took some acclimatisation.

Ups and downs in The Hague? The ‘down’ was the first three years. The ‘up’ was the next four on the Middle East Africa Desk. Initially as the regional geologist then the area engineer jobs for Nigeria and Oman were added – a really interesting mix of business and science in several countries. It included acquisition of the Nigeria deepwater acreage, which was to generate the Bonga development and several other overseas commercial agreements. I also acquired a Dutch pilot’s licence.

What did you do in Nigeria? I was exploration manager in SPDC’s Eastern Division. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything, but there were some very difficult times and situations. It was not easy for my wife Ceri, who was not able to continue teaching. At first funding was restricted; under the government of the time exploration was to be axed. However, we survived. Fidel Onichabor’s prospect Santa Barbara South found 100 million barrels and, together with the seismic industry, we increased field reserves.

How was Egyptian experience? We had a very good department but again a budget-constrained situation – the oil price was $10/bbl. We had the deepwater block in which Eni made the 2015 Zohr discovery. We recognised the play but there were less risky first prospects than a 4 kilometre deepwater well.

Tell us about retirement? We returned to the village we left 27 years earlier. A typical day is work, gardening and a run. Shortly after arriving back Arie Speksnijder asked me to help in the Shell Learning Centre. Together we set up an online course and I did this until recently – so 47 years doing something with Shell. Pat Corbett suggested teaching at Heriot Watt. I much enjoyed this and it lasted until now. After meeting Qing Sun, I wrote reports for C&C Reservoirs. So, a portfolio of interesting projects. I continued to fly and did a geology associateship with the Royal Photographic Society. I’ve been on the Board of the Scottish Energy Forum and its predecessor for some years and have just stepped down as an associate editor for First Break. Now I’m contracted to write a book and am finding out just how many hours this takes. I told someone it was ‘popular geoscience’ to which the response was ‘That’s a really good oxymoron’.