Delivering Service Excellence through Collaboration

Qingbing Tang is center manager at Viridien’s dedicated seismic processing center for Brunei Shell Petroleum. In this interview, he discusses what this close business relationship has taught him about meeting industry needs. 

What attracted you to Viridien? 

I’d spent several years teaching seismic exploration and doing research at a university in China when I realized I’d learn more about what the industry needed if I had a more solid practical experience of seismic. That’s why I joined Viridien, and it has been a wonderful journey so far. I started out as a processing geophysicist at our Singapore office before transferring five years later to our Perth center as a team leader. I was then promoted to technical advisor. In 2017, I took on the role of center manager here at Viridien’s dedicated processing center (DPC) for Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) in Seria, Brunei. 

What makes a DPC unique? 

DPCs operate under a very different business model compared to open imaging centers, as they are totally dedicated to a single client’s imaging work scope and not driven by open market projects from multiple clients. 

We have a very flexible and open working relationship with our client, as we work in the same building as their geophysics department here at BSP headquarters. It’s very stimulating, as we work together like one big team (see banner photo at top of story), meeting regularly to discuss projects. We welcome their onsite feedback to help us improve our services. I often use it to work on some background technology testing that may be used for ongoing projects or to test pioneering technologies for new projects. It’s very satisfying to see our products have a direct and rapid business impact because they are so strongly business driven. 

How does this arrangement benefit the client? 

With an onsite DPC, clients can integrate all their own expertise and Viridien’s expertise into their projects in a timely manner. They have full control over their projects while trusting us to go the extra mile to come up with the best imaging workflows and technologies for their specific challenges, such as high-resolution shallow imaging, imaging obscured zones below gas clouds and faults and shallow water demultiple in BSP’s case. A DPC client gets more involved and gives real-time feedback, giving our team a much clearer idea of what they need. 

Although this is a small center, technology innovation is a very high priority for both Viridien and BSP. Brunei has unique technical challenges that we do not see in other regions. Recently, BSP were very pleased with the step-change our latest technologies brought, ahead of schedule, to the imaging and resolution of the dataset from a very challenging shallow water ocean bottom node (OBN) survey, one of the densest in Shell’s inventory, across four very complicated geological areas, compared to legacy data. 

The OBN project was processed by our DPC team with technical support from our R&D team in Singapore. This is another advantage of DPCs, as they are very connected to our wider Viridien geoscience community in our open centers in Singapore, Beijing, London, Houston and Paris, who can support us on challenging projects. Having access to Viridien’s global expertise in addition to the expertise from the DPC staff is very much appreciated by BSP. 

What are the advantages for Viridien? 

The deep trust and strong partnership at the heart of a DPC center is what leads to continuous business. Also, an inhouse relationship brings lots of opportunities to collaborate with BSP and then share our technical successes, like on the OBN survey I just mentioned, with Shell globally and the wider industry, increasing our international reputation and strengthening our global technical leadership in the industry with the faster and wider adoption of our high-end technologies. 

Are you glad you left teaching for the business world? 

Definitely. My career so far has been very rewarding, and I have grown steadily from being a technical advisor to a mature DPC manager. My current role is quite challenging, requiring strong leadership and excellent technical skills. Also, when I first started, I had to adapt quickly to the Brunei Malay culture, which was very different to what I was used to. 

Despite the steep learning curve, these last six years have been an amazing opportunity. I’ve expanded my seismic knowledge considerably, with my team applying many high-end technologies, such as time-lag full waveform inversion (TLFWI), QFWI, least squares imaging (LSM), and multiple imaging, to get the best results from all types of very challenging Brunei data: marine, land, transition zone, ocean bottom cable (OBC) and OBN. 

I also really enjoy using my communication skills to understand the client’s needs, manage expectations and address their concerns. I’ve also learnt how important it is to listen to my own staff and motivate them while challenging them to do a better job. I draw on my teaching experience to provide daily coaching and training to our geoscientists and like to delegate the right level of responsibility to our team/project leaders. Teamwork is very important here, and we support and trust each other. It makes for a very enjoyable work environment. 

What I like best about my job is the daily face-to-face interaction with our clients. The casual chat about technology or business needs over coffee or lunch may turn into a very good idea that leads to a new project and later on produce a great product creating direct business impact on well drilling. How nice is that! 

For more information on Viridien’s industry-leading seismic imaging expertise, visit cgg.com/geoscience/subsurface-imaging