Posted on December 9, 2020 by Lisa Ward
by Marc Bond
Following a groundswell of interest generated by a presentation at the 2008 AAPG Annual Convention by Glenn McMaster et al entitled “Risk Police: Evil Naysayers or Exploration Best Practice?” several (including myself, then at BG Group) thought it would be an excellent idea to organize a workshop to discuss best practices and challenges of exploration assurance. Glenn (then at bp) was great at speaking truth to power and embraced the idea. Hence, he and Gary Citron (at Rose & Associates) convened the first Risk Coordinators Workshop (RCW) on November 18-19, 2008, graciously hosted by bp in Houston. Twenty-eight industry leaders from 18 companies attended. Twelve presentations were given by the attendees, mostly focused on the state of assurance within the company of the presenter which was a rare insight at the time. That openness fostered a sharing and collaborative environment, defusing our concern that this would be a “one-off “event. Rather, the enthusiasm and interest of the successful workshop encouraged us to continue.
I particularly enjoyed attending and contributing to the Workshop through the years. We now continue with a yearly workshop, with the goal of sharing common experiences, issues, challenges, and suggested best practices. There is a nominal fee for attendees to cover expenses. The only obligation is to be open and share. We held our 19th annual workshop in November 2020. Given the current situation of the pandemic, the RCW was held virtually for the first time; and measured by the commentary and feedback, was a great success.
When I joined Rose & Associates in 2014, I brought in the idea of increasing workshop frequency, and we now meet two to three times a year (in North America and England, and every other year in Asia). We also now include Breakout Sessions to explore relevant assurance themes and provide a Summary Report to capture the outcomes of each workshop.
In 2015, we established the Risk Coordinators network as a natural follow-up to the RCW, which consists of a group of subsurface assurance experts who are responsible for assuring their companies’ opportunities. The network is an informal group that includes over 70 companies (ranging from super-majors to small companies) and over 160 people who are very open and passionate about assurance, risk analysis, and prospect assessment. Along with the workshops, we have now been active for over 12 years.
We work with the network on other assurance-related items, such as delivering a periodic Assurance Survey (2015 and 2019). The Survey results are shared with the network to monitor the current state of assurance and provide them with learnings to help improve their own assurance process.
Doug Weaver (Partner Rose & Associates) and I now manage the network. I would like to personally thank Gary for his support and coaching over the years. If you have any questions about the network or ideas for the next RCW, please contact us
Stay safe and healthy.