TWIX a Gathering of Creative Thinkers
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Author: Stephen L. Brundage (Saudi Aramco News)
Released 18 April 2008
DHAHRAN, April 16, 2008 -- If you’re looking for someone at the EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) on a Wednesday morning, you might have a hard time finding him or her - unless you know where TWIX is taking place.
In this case, TWIX is not a cookie but rather a gathering of some very smart cookies, pushing the envelopes of knowledge and technology to take leaps forward in upstream research.
Jim Tucker, at center right of table, has the floor during the Technical Weekly Interdisciplinary Exchange, or TWIX, at EXPEC ARC.
(Photo by Stephen L. Brundage)
The Technical Weekly Interdisciplinary Exchange, or TWIX, may be one of the most unusual regularly scheduled meetings in Saudi Aramco. The goal is to challenge researchers from a variety of upstream disciplines to share their thoughts, which sometimes lead to some very unusual ideas.
“We do have a lot of creative people around here,” said Jim Tucker, a geologist on EXPEC ARC’s Geology Team. “During the summer two years ago, it was recognized that we were not talking to one another well enough. In fact, people working right down the hall from each other - all doing creative things in their own fields - might as well have been talking Martian to each other because we didn’t always talk about the same things with the same words.”
So they developed a weekly seminar, which came to be called TWIX. Each technology specialist group rotates into offering a short Wednesday morning seminar on current research or another topic. “Over time,” Tucker said, “I think we have seen that we are learning to talk each other’s language and understanding one another.”
About twice a year, a related event, called MAD TWIX, is held. Officially, MAD stands for Mentally Advanced Discussion, though some would settle for one of the common definitions of the word “mad.”
The talks are aimed at the upstream research community at Saudi Aramco. From the discussions, new approaches arise, Tucker said. “It was recognized that some of these ideas are, if not outside the box, somehow unconventional enough that we ought to exchange them in as formal a manner as we do around here.”
The excitement generated at TWIX meetings extends beyond the halls of EXPEC ARC. People come from many organizations, and sometimes it’s standing room only. (Photo by Stephen L. Brundage)
During the latest MAD TWIX, some of the ideas presented capitalized on the magnetic properties of sand, laser interferometry used to detect seismic waves and new ways to look at underground tar deposits as assets as opposed to liabilities.
“In fact, some new research areas have developed out of this,” Tucker said. “We’re beginning to look at nanotechnology and so-called reservoir robots, and that grew out of a presentation a little over a year ago. Several of us have looked at using existing technology in different ways. One of the benefits of that is if it already exists, we can quickly determine if it will benefit us in our upstream operations.”
Not all the concepts are concrete - at least not concrete in the world of the present day.
“Some ideas, of course, are blue sky - the technology to do them doesn’t exist yet, but these are the sort of things we can keep an eye on, and when there is technology, we can jump right on it,” Tucker said. “So there are essentially two end points - existing technology used in a new way and novel ways to use techniques that haven’t been developed yet. There’s a whole rainbow of opportunities in between that these sessions help generate.”
“It promotes better communication,” said Michael A. Jervis, a geophysical specialist with EXPEC ARC’s Geophysics Technology Team. “We want to avoid working in silos, so this is the way of breaking down walls between disciplines. You get more of an understanding of what the engineers are doing in geophysics and what the geologists are actually doing, what issues they are focusing on and what’s important to them, so there’s a lot of exchange going on.”
The excitement generated at the meetings has a long-lasting effect. “During the TWIX, you can’t really ask too many questions, so it stimulates discussions throughout the week,” Jervis said. “Even after the fact, things keep boiling.”
The excitement generated also extends beyond the halls of EXPEC ARC. “We even get people from other organizations down the road,” Jervis said. “A whole bunch of those guys come every week just to listen to the TWIX.”
So whether it’s a microscopic robot, a geoseismic satellite or a virtual dipstick for Ghawar Field, you may find the idea has it roots in a MAD TWIX. “We find the oil and gas in our minds before we find it the hard way,” Tucker said. “Imagination is cheaper than drilling wells randomly, and that’s what it comes down to. Researchers know that if they show up here Wednesday at 8 a.m., they’re probably going to learn something they didn’t know and think about something that they hadn’t thought about, and that’s really the value.”
Even so, the organizers aren’t above giving participants a subtle reminder. “Remember, MAD stands for Mentally Advanced Discussion,” said Muhammad M. Saggaf, EXPEC ARC manager. “It’s not a state of mind, even though it can border on one sometimes,” he adds, smiling.
(Article by Stephen L. Brundage)