Senior Development Geologist

Business And Functional Purpose

Through its merger with Oil Search, Santos acquired and assumed operatorship over a world-class portfolio of oil leases on the Alaskan North Slope, USA.

Santos' focus in Alaska is the advancement of our Pikka Phase 1 project, which includes a single drill site, an oil processing facility, and other infrastructure to support production of 80,000 barrels of oil per day.

Pikka has been identified as being among the top quartile of oil and gas development projects for greenhouse gas emissions performance. Pikka is poised to play an important role in the energy transition and is aligned with our company goal of managing climate change risk. The project is on track to be ready for first oil in 2026.

The Pikka Unit is one of the largest conventional oil discoveries made in the United States in the last 30 years, and the Pikka Phase 1 Project is the most significant development on Alaska's North Slope in more than 20 years.

The permitted Pikka development project includes two additional drill sites. The Alaska assets also include discoveries made from both the Mitquq and Stirrup exploration wells drilled in 2020. These opportunities combine to offer a clear path to long-term growth in Alaska.

Position Purpose

The Senior Development Geologist is a member of the Alaska Well Delivery Team and is part of the Subsurface and Engineering organization. This role will be responsible for the delivery of development wells within the operated Pikka Unit on the North Slope of Alaska, as well as day-to-day technical support to all disciplines on the team by:

- Planning and execution of Pikka Phase I development wells

- Engagement with drilling and completion groups to optimize well placement and future deliverability

- Working with petrophysicists and reservoir engineers to perform post-well analysis

- Assisting reservoir modelers to integrate new data and interpretation into the full-field reservoir model

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities

- Promote and lead in the implementation of Santos Ltd policies and procedures, including Safety, health, environment, process, people and planning

- Well delivery: Integrate geologic, geophysical, petrophysical and engineering data to ensure that specific well objectives are achieved for development wells and future appraisal opportunities. Safely execute and deliver development wells that contribute to Pikka Unit production goals.

- Post well analysis: Interrogate post-well results, compare with pre-drill expectations, identify lessons learned. Integrate learnings to offset pad development planning.

- Interrogate data and apply stratigraphic concepts to further understanding of the subsurface description for well, pad and regional-level understandings.

Qualifications, Skills & Experience Required

Formal Qualifications

- Master's Degree or higher in Geoscience

Skills and Technical Capabilities

Mandatory:

- Proven experience planning and executing horizontal wells

- High competency in Petrel / Studio software

- Project management capabilities

- A team player with a positive attitude and a 'customer service' approach to assisting others

- Self-motivated with excellent time-keeping and organizational skills

- High personal standards for technical analysis and impeccable attention to detail

Desired:

- Geologic specialist in shallow marine processes and systems

- Stratigrapher able to work across scales (core to basin)

- Seismic interpretation, particularly seismic stratigraphy

Experience

- 10+ years prior experience as a Development Geologist or particularly in the Exploration & Reservoir Development Disciplines