- Helen Cromie
- Employed since 2007
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BSc Geology and Physical Geography
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Can you briefly describe the business areas that you work in and your primary tasks?
I’m an Exploration Geologist which means that I’m looking for new areas, or prospects as we call them, to find new accumulations of hydro-carbons. As geologists, we are responsible for figuring out if there is a rock that could generate hydrocarbons and if so, where did the hydrocarbons migrate to.
Also, we look if there is a rock available that can reservoir those hydrocarbons. So, there is a lot of creative thinking when trying to come up with new ideas which I really like. Also, we analyze a lot of different data types, integrate them together and draw a lot of maps.
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What are the most exciting and challenging tasks in your job?
The most exciting part of my job by far is when we actually get to drill a well. So, we might have had years of work leading up to that around what we think we are going to find and suddenly, you have this opportunity to test your ideas. In terms of challenging things, as geologists we are part of a very small part of the chain. Hence, we have to explain our ideas and why something is important to the project and brings value to lot of other people such as engineers, senior management and economists. Doing so can be challenging but also super fun at the end of the day.
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How are you using your education in your current position?
I did my bachelor’s degree in geology and physical geography and then I did a master’s in petroleum geoscience. So, I use the knowledge gained in my degrees every day. Indeed, I couldn’t do my job without them and quite often when I start a new project, I go back to the fundamentals that I learned in university.
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What are the three most important things to you in your job at Total?
Number one is my team. I love working with my team. They are fantastic. We have a big mix of cultures, lots of different people and a big variety of specialties. We are all high-performing while having fun and I really enjoy it.
Number 2 is technical development. So, even after being done with my university education, I never stop learning. Every day that I come to the office I gain new knowledge and that’s really nice.
Number 3 is that we have a freedom of ideas. It’s very welcomed and encouraged in Total to be innovative and to come with new ideas which is very important to me.
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Why is Total an attractive company for you to work in?
Total is an attractive company to work for because it’s just so big. That means that it comes with a lot of opportunities. So, there are a lot of projects going on and Total brings a great amount of areas to work on which lets you do good geology. Total also provides unique opportunities for international mobility. Hence, if you want to move around the world, Total is perfect for that.
Another thing that is great about Total is that they encourage innovation. Thus, they have very large R&D efforts and a lot of experts in France. So, there is always someone for us to call on, if we have a question that requires a certain expertise. That’s super cool to have that in the company.
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