Pamela Risan

Colin Taylor and Ben Coughlan, both of whom successfully completed their Bachelors in earth  science this year,  accepted a summer internship  position with the Petroleum Board of Canada. They joined the Ramform Tethys  in St. Johns in May 2017 for their first four-week rotation offshore.

The first trip was a general introduction  to the seismic  vessel, including deck operations and exposure to each seismic  department onboard. For the second four-week rotation the two interns spent most of their time in the Operations Geophysics department, learning  about Viper and SPArk, online/offline processing, project management and data  visualization.

Ulrike Ott, Personnel Manager of the Petroleum Board of Canada asked them what they thought of the program and their time offshore.

What  was the  most enjoyable part of those two trips?

Ben: "The experience that has  been passed on to me from my colleagues has  given me much more perspective in terms  of how the industry works and the opportunities that are out there.  That, along with the hands on work experience has  given me exactly what I had hoped for in an internship, an introduction  to the industry that I emerge from more prepared and equipped to further my education and join the workforce of the geoscience community."

Colin: "Working on the back deck during streamer deployment when everyone groups together, works as a team.  I was able to have  fun and help deploy the streamers."

What  were you  most surprised by?

Ben: "The sheer scale and complexity of the seismic  acquisition  operation. ….it's hard to grasp the true size of the T-class  vessels towing a 16 streamer spread until observing it in person. The number of moving parts and factors that must seamlessly come  together to produce a successful result is mind-boggling. My first time seeing the instrument room, with what seems like a hundred monitors  displaying  countless amounts of data,  information being relayed  from department to department, was a big surprise. I was very impressed by the ability of all the departments to work in harmony  to achieve the end of goal of collecting high quality data  as efficiently as possible." 

Colin: I was most surprised by the diversity. I enjoyed  working with different nationalities.

Would you  recommend the  internship to others?

Ben: "Absolutely, 100%.  I have  thoroughly  enjoyed  my time here.  In terms  of the quality of work, comfort and amenities, PGS  really sets the bar high. This internship  has  provided  me with invaluable  experience that was passed onto me in a manner in which I could learn and grow my skills as a geophysicist very naturally.....  I'm now able independently to contribute  to the project as a whole."

"To put it plainly, if you have  the opportunity to partake in an internship  with PGS,  take it. Besides all that, I can't think of a cooler summer job to tell your friends and family about!"

Colin: "I would recommend the internship  to others  because I am very impressed with safety and how PGS  treated me as an intern.