Media Release

Thursday, 2 September 2004

Decision-making in the petroleum industry is the subject of a free public lecture given today (Thursday) by one of the University of Adelaide's leading researchers.

Professor Stephen Begg, Professor of Petroleum Engineering and Management, will talk about his research into how certainty - and uncertainty - affects decision-making for oil and gas exploration and recovery as part of a special series of free lectures hosted by the University.

The series features free public lectures by new professors at the University, who are widely recognised as national and international leaders in their fields. Today's lecture is the third in the series of eight lectures, which will be held each Thursday at 1.10pm until October 7.

This is a unique opportunity for the people of Adelaide to hear from some of the nation's best minds, all based at the University of Adelaide.

Other topics to be covered during this latest round of lectures include:

• the genesis of of Australian vegetation
  
• the link between cancer and hormones
  
• the use of torture against people linked with terrorism
  
• the building blocks of life itself
  
• developments in telecommunications
  
• how we process visual information
  
• "cellular policemen" that exist in our bodies
  

WHAT: "I would rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong: a new approach to assessing the impacts of uncertainty in the oil and gas industry" by Professor Stephen Begg (Petroleum Engineering)
WHERE: Council Room, Level 7, Wills Building, University of Adelaide - North Terrace Campus
WHEN: 1.10pm Thursday, September 2
COST: FREE

ABSTRACT: Over the past two decades many oil companies have consistently under-performed in returning the economic metrics that were the basis of investment decisions. Further, today's business climate many companies are finding it imperative to do more with less. This requires making faster, smarter decisions that use an appropriate level of technical analysis with the acquisition of appropriate data. But what is 'appropriate' and how is it impacted by the presence of uncertainty?