This song was used as the music for Psalm 136. Song 085a-Continuum was rewritten by Peter Duncan when we were working together at Continuum Resources, and it is hard for me to play and to get these chords right. Hopefully the recording captures the essence of what we sang back in those days. We did take the song and our guitars to an SEG Convention in Calgary and sang in our booth. Later, when Peter was President of SEG, he started the Presidential Jam Session, and he and other past presidents of SEG get together and perform for those who want to come and to listen. I’ve never been interested in the responsibility associated with the office, and yet I admit I have been a bit jealous of those who had the self-confidence to stand up and sing for other professionals, like Peter and some of the other presidents of SEG do each year. This series of songs is based on the music “planted in my mind” (see Song 001 – Open My Eyes Please, Song 047 – Spirit World, and Song 079 – Why I Try) for Song 076 – Job. I think this is an interesting summary of the oil and gas industry, as extracted from Daniel Yergin’s book “The Prize.” Song 085a, and the choruses for each of the other versions, are based on the visualization theaters we were building at Continuum Resources International Corporation, and our product CORE ExplorerSM. Because of starting Landmark Graphic’s University Program, I had connected Continuum with Imperial College in London and CURTIN University in Perth, and in 2000 we were doing real-time collaboration on a multi-gigabyte 3-D seismic survey with scientists in Perth, London, and Houston, where we could see the other person and the craft they were driving and what they were pointing to across standard ISDN Internet connections. We replicated the volumes at each site, and only sent state changes over the Internet. Still nothing like this commercially, 18 years later. Song 085b is a brief history of Exxon and how Weeks Petroleum became a partner to BHP in Australia. Song 085c is a brief history of the key geophysical contractors. Song 085d is about the early days of oil and gas exploration. Song 085e is a brief history of oil exploration in Texas. Song 085f summarizes exploration in The Middle East. Song 085g is a brief history of oil exploration in Canada. Song 085h is a brief history of oil exploration in Africa. Song O85i summarizes the major oil discoveries in Alaska. Song 085j is about deep-water oil and gas exploration. And Song 085k makes some predictions about the future of oil and gas exploration. Since it is the same music as Song 076 – Job, the song has the same “cannot get that tune out of my mind” appeal, once you have heard it. I think when a good musical choir takes these songs and records them, they will be a good introduction to oil and gas exploration for universities across the world.
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