Advancements in petroleum technology during the past 40 years have been so extensive that the science of finding oil has rendered obsolete dependence on one man or one method. Exploration success must now rely on the close cooperation of many people and utilization of all applicable methods.

Since the surface and seismic refraction programs of the 1920s and 1930s, new and highly specialized tools have contributed substantially to the complexity of the oil explorer's task in the 1960s.

It is no longer sufficient for the geologist, as the

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anchor man on the exploration team, to be knowledgeable only in his own specialty. Conversely, he should recognize that he can not be all things to all people. It is his personal challenge, as well as that of the increasing number of specialists with whom he comes in contact, to make skillful use of team effort.

Modern oil exploration has become a process in which no two situations are alike. The diversity of plays demands the close cooperation of the geologist, geophysicist, and researcher with landmen, economists, and producing specialists in establishing optimum programs.

Overlaid on these responsibilities is the need for greater awareness of the political, educational, public, and community relations, considerations which have come to have an increasing importance in the conduct of exploration team activities. Such influences frequently affect strategy, tools, timing, and logistics, as well as land and legal procedures.

Still another area of responsibility for the team member lies in the development of improved communications. The obligation to share geological or geophysical data collected at all points within an organization's sphere of operations is an immediate necessity. Geological experience gained in one corner of the world may result in unsuspected benefit to operations in an entirely separate area.

Building and maintaining a team with the necessary skills and imagination capable of meeting and moving beyond contemporary requirements have thrust some new and specific responsibilities on the industry itself.

Intense competition and a soft price structure in foreign oil markets have sharpened the need for unprecedented efficiency in Free World oil circles. The oil explorer is no longer the glamor-boy of the industry, aloof from the economics of marketing and manufacturing. He must accept the role of a team member for his own survival in an era of vastly increased world-wide competition.

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