Seismic Demo Shakes Up Interest in Shale Jobs
NORTH JACKSON, Ohio -- A geophysicist with Halcon Resources sought to shake up interest in geoscience Wednesday with a demonstration of seismic testing at Jackson Milton High School.
Some 60 students took a break from their studies for a demonstration of seismic testing, a process used by the oil and gas industry to discern what's below ground before they begin digging. "There is a limited number of geophysicists. By the way, we need more," John Tinnin, the Halcon geophysicist, told the students.
Halcon Resources is exploring the northern tier of the Utica alongside producers such as BP and Hilcorp. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the company has four horizontal wells permitted in Trumbull County and one in Mahoning County. Information handed out at the event stated Halcon is conducting seismic testing in about 110 square miles around the city of Warren.
The testing requires the efforts of more than 135 workers, 35 vibroseis trucks, which are used to collect seismic data, and 7,800 geophones, which are used to detect seismic vibrations. It takes about 18 months to collect all the data from a targeted area that Halcon needs to design and build more productive wells.
As part of his demonstration, Tinnin brought along four vibroseis trucks and a helicopter that dropped a bag of geophones on the school lawn just as it would in the field. With the students viewing from a safe distance, the four vibroseis trucks pulled onto Mahoning Avenue, lowered their pads and began to literally shake the earth.
About 50 feet off the road, Marshall Nerren closely monitored the events with a seismograph, making sure the trucks' vibrations weren't strong enough to damage nearby buildings or parking lots.
"We take that reading and look at it. As long as it's not over what our minimum safety cutoff, we give them the go ahead to keep shaking," Nerren said.
A collective "whoa" went up among the students as the earth began to vibrate under their feet, the exact reaction their teacher Stephen Mohr was hoping for when he invited Halcon to present the demonstration.
Mohr, who teaches chemistry and physics at Jackson-Milton, is concerned that many jobs in the oil and gas industry are going to out-of-state workers because people are not being trained locally to do the work. He wanted Wednesday's demonstration to show students real-world applications of the science they learn in class and make them aware of the career opportunities in oil and gas, "so hopefully some of our kids go to school and come back here and work for us," he said.
The effort appeared to have the desired result among some of the students attending the demonstration.
"I thought it was cool," said Devin Seka, who began the day with hopes of becoming a mechanical engineer, only to find his curiosity piqued by the demonstration. "I'd like to look into the geophysicist field," he remarked.
Tibius Kegluy, a senior, also found himself reassessing his future. "I plan on going into an engineering field of some sort so this is definitely an option," he said.
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Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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