Scientific Perspectives

Weeks before the coronavirus outbreak, the oil and gas business world had already changed dramatically due to extremely low oil, gas, and commodity prices. This got much worse with the COVID-19 pandemic. In short, everything has changed. 

Headlines from news and articles depict lots of implications directly related to the coronavirus outbreak and our daily lives. For the sake of illustration, let me quote topics that have drawn my attention during the past few days: “The revolution is under way already”, “Three signs that a global recession is imminent”, “What will the 'next normal' look like?, The challenges and opportunities ahead”, “The coronavirus outbreak is curbing China's CO2 emissions”, “International travel off the table for six months”, “A ‘black hole’ swallowing jobs and food supplies”, “Daunting challenges at the local level”, “Coronavirus lockdowns have changed the way Earth moves”, “Zoom is the pandemic’s social network”, “Coronavirus and income inequality”, “Coronavirus pandemic could have been prevented”, “Silver market faces supply crunch as Mexico curtails production”, “9 future predictions for a post-coronavirus world”, “What do futurists imagine for the post-coronavirus-pandemic world?”, “Queen tells UK 'we will succeed' in fight”, “Asia’s state heavyweights hold firm on upstream spending”, “How is the virus affecting crime and law enforcement?”, “Virus tears up US economy”, “Global oil deal at risk after Mexico ditches Saudi-Russia plan”, etc. 

The business relationship, and climate for future research and technological development, between oil and gas operators (NOCs and IOCs) and the service sector has been undergoing substantial transformation. Concerning oil and gas exploration research, we all are very concerned about providing, maintaining, and communicating with the best possible supply of applied research geophysicists, but we do not yet know how oil and gas exploration research could look like after these extreme circumstances and highly uncertain times. 

Nowadays, Mexico and the USA have something in common: inhabitants and visitors should stay home until April 30th. However, all the measures we have in place — hand-washing, physical distance, etc — might need to continue for quite a while, as coronavirus is likely going to be around for several months. Of course, Mexican reality is too different from that in the USA. In addition, we are in the last train wagons of the pandemic (with delayed arrival / effects of about 3 or 4 weeks), but we all are hoping for the best possible scenarios. 

I am a research geophysicist working in Mexico City for the Mexican government. My field of specialty is exploration seismology. Working from home is not new for me nor for most of my foreign and local peers. It does work fine when it comes to supervising, training, and providing professional service (through peer review, webinars, and virtual discussions and lectures). These are the easy parts, but for some (or perhaps most) of us, teaching and doing (computational) research would be much more limited and complicated, mostly due to network restrictions, data access, and lack of face-to-face student and peer interaction. In addition, short-term lack of funding will most likely make it even more complicated. 

Finally, exactly by the deadline (10 April) to submit these comments, G20 energy ministers will have met remotely to discuss broad measures to steady the oil and gas market. In the meantime, unemployment in the market is already rampant and getting worse and worse. In addition, G20 leaders must answer to COVID-19 (Atkinson, 2020). 

Reference

Atkinson, C., 2020, G20 leaders must answer to COVID-19, Science 368 (6487), 111.