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Task People

Task Geoscience operates from three locations. Our offices offer 24 hour coverage; wherever you are in the world, we have the capability to support you. We work as a tightly knit team on projects all over the world. Here are just a few members of that team...

Lawrence Bourke, Managing Director

Lawrence has a B.Sc. in Geology/Physical Geography from Strathclyde University and an M.Sc. in Sedimentology from the University of Reading. Lawrence started as a sedimentologist at Paleoservices, Watford in 1980, including a two-year secondment to North Sea Sun Oil as a Field Development Geologist. He worked in geological applications development at Schlumberger in Aberdeen from 1985-1992 working on the field introduction of the Geochemical Logging Tool, and then moved onto the applications development of various borehole imaging tools as they were introduced in the late 80s.

At Z&S he gradually moved from a technical to management role until the group was sold in 1998. At Baker Atlas he held the position of Europe Africa Geoscience Manager from mid 1998 to mid 2001 and latterly at Baker was Technical Director of Advanced Interpretation.

In August 2001 he co founded Task Geoscience Limited with Stuart Buck and Rod McGarva. Lawrence tries to spend time rowing or sailing.

Dr. Stuart Buck, Director/Sedimentologist

Stuart is a geologist with over twenty years of applied experience in the petroleum and mining industries. He holds a B.Sc in geology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees in sedimentology from the University of Reading. Stuart’s doctoral research was of Cretaceous shallow marine sediments in which he investigated tidal sedimentary structures and associated ichnofabrics.

His initial career was in the mining industry of southern Africa where he applied sedimentology to gold, diamond and uranium deposits. He returned to the UK in the 1980’s, and has since worked in the petroleum industry. Initially he was invoved in sedimentologic and diagenetic studies of cores, but later applied these core-based skills to the interpretation of borehole images and dipmeter data. This work has steadily grown in scale and has lead to major field studies from most parts of the world. In addition to borehole imaging, Stuart is a specialist in the application of ichnofabric analysis in core studies.

Stuart was a founder member of Z&S Geology Ltd in 1992, and after merger with Western Atlas/Baker Hughes in 1998 continued as the Aberdeen Geoscience Manager. Stuart is a Director of Task Geoscience Limited.

Stuart’s free time revolves around his equestrian farm where he tries to spend as much time on his horse as his tractor.

Roddy McGarva, Sedimentologist

Following a B.Sc. in geological science from the University of Aston, Roddy worked in Saudi Arabia on exploration and deep pool tests as a well-site geologist, prior to obtaining a M.Sc. in sedimentology from Reading. Roddy was employed as a sedimentologist with Paleoservices and worked in the UK, Egypt and Jakarta. He joined Lawrence, John and Stuart at Schlumberger specialising in the interpretation of borehole images.

He was a founder member of Z&S Geology Ltd, where he continued to specialise in dipmeter, core, petrographic and borehole image interpretation for structural and sedimentological problems, with a particular emphasis on deep-water depositional environments. His interest in numerical applications has led him to recently complete a Diploma in Maths from the OU; he hopes to continue this avenue of study.

He rows as a veteran with Aberdeen Boat Club and dabbles in poetry...

Task is the place for me,
Where life is easy and nearly free,
With poles to great circles I quickly draw,
And use Markov chains to find out more,
Vector walkout plots chart the trend,
With a stratigraphical break on its bend,
Ignoring the painted artefacts of drillers chance,
Allowing the story to advance,
Painted glyphs mark my data set,
Like a pointillist frenzy drilled on my net,
Break the well along the seams,
Whilst in-situ stress lies in my dreams…

Task O'Saurus, Mascot

Taskosaurus is a seasoned AGA quiz veteran and company mascot. He spent much of the late Maastrictian eating his contemporaries and has many years of experience in the industry.

Taskosaurus is a close friend of Roddy McGarva, who answers his emails due to Taskosaurus' poor ability with computers.

Dr. Adam Styles, Senior Structural Geologist

Adam has a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Wales and a Ph.D. degree from Durham University. His doctoral research concerned extension of orogens during the latter stages of mountain-building, and included extensive field study of reactivated structure in the UK and Italy.

After university, Adam joined Z&S Geology Ltd as a structural geologist, gaining experience in borehole image interpretation, structural core logging and goniometry. He has worked on data from the UK North Sea, South America, the Gulf of Mexico, North Africa and the Middle East.

In 2001 he moved to Conoco in a role supporting geoscientists. During this time, Adam learnt UNIX scripting and worked with well data, seismic volumes and reservoir engineer datasets. He also designed and implemented the intranet site for the Geodata Management group in Conoco UK.

In his spare time, Adam tinkers with Linux on his PC and is an active member of several Linux usergroups.

Dr. Jeremy Prosser , Business Development Manager

Jeremy graduated from the University of Aston in Birmingham, England with a BSc in 1983, and obtained an MSc in Geological Sciences from the University of South Carolina in 1984. His Ph.D. (1988) was awarded by the University of Aston in Birmingham for work upon sedimentology and diagenesis of the UK Rotliegend. Following work as a sedimentologist for GAPS Consultants in London, Jeremy spent 5 years as a research fellow in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology at Aberdeen University, Scotland, before joining Z&S Geoscience in 1994. Jeremy transferred to Perth Australia in 1996 to manage Z&S Asia Limited, and has worked in the Asia Pacific region ever since. Whilst at Baker Atlas, Jeremy spent several years as Asia Pacific Region Geoscience Manager and subsequently as South Asia Pacific Area Sales Manager for wireline services. His interests include sedimentology, formation evaluation and borehole image analysis.

Jeremy’s spare time revolves around his family, and his favorite pastimes are fly fishing, reading and Australian wines.

David Dushman , Vice President the Americas

David started in the oil industry in 1972 as a Junior Processing Geophysicist with Digicon in East Grinstead. He has held many roles since including running the dipmeter department in Schlumberger’s London office. He has worked in various regions of the world, including several locations in the Far East. For the last 20 years of his career he has specialized in Vertical Seismic Profiling, working for Seismograph Service, Baker Atlas, VSFusion (Region Manager for the Americas), and finally Paulson Geophysical Services Inc. where he was the Vice President of Processing.

David has given over 200 technical VSP seminars covering acquisition techniques, processing and interpretation. He is a Professional Geophysicist (License Number 6293) in the State of Texas, and is an active member of the SEG, EAGE, and GSH.

David likes to spend his time with his family and his dogs, walking and exploring.

John Ebbern, Sales and Marketing Manager

John has joined Task as Sales and marketing Manager with more than 30 years experience in the oil industry and 15 in exploration for international oil companies. He holds a BSc in geology from the University of Wales, Cardiff. With Baker Atlas John was geology coordinator for the international group based in London, specialising in imagelog and diplog interpretation and integration, and manager of interpretation services in Nigeria. Latterly he has worked in the seismic industry in interpretation and marketing for WesternGeco and Geotrace Technologies in Aberdeen. John’s varied background in the oil industry together with his specific knowledge in Imagelog interpretation gives him a wide understanding of the market for Task’s specialist services and the needs of their clients.

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