b'Education matters Education mattersfind a job in Mexico, but he got a job offerprovided training to the reserves with Weatherford in France and thendepartment of PEMEX, introducing the Aberdeen. I put my career on hold for twoconcept of probabilistic modelling. At years to follow him and look after my son. that time most of the reserves were calculated using deterministic methods MP: My story is very similar. When wemainly based in well data and 2D maps.moved to Japan, my kids were four and two years old, and I stopped workingIn 2006 I got transferred to Adelaide to for two years. I was taking care of kids,do geo-modelling consulting, support, learning Japanese, and screening jobbusiness development and training for advertisements in Japanese newspapers. east Australia and New Zealand. I got to work and travel a lot to Melbourne, With the energy transition andSydney, Brisbane, Cairns and Wellington. Marina PervukhinaIt was an exciting but also challenging Associate Editor for EducationCCS, were moving to moretime because my kids were four and one Marina.Pervukhina@csiro.au integrated projects and weyears old when we moved to Australia, need people that are able tomy husband was working FIFO in understand the whole valueAngola, and we didnt have any family in Understanding the whole valueAustralia. We liked Australia so much that chain. we decided to settle down here.chainIn this issue, we are continuing a series ofIB: When I remember back to that time,In 2008 I joined Chevron as geologist interviews with industry leaders in orderI was feeling that my career was overfor the Gorgon Carbon Capture and to understand what they expect frombecause I had to stop for two years. Storage (CCS) project and I worked tertiary education in the field of earthon this project until 2018. After that sciences. I am honoured to introduceIn 2003 my husband got a fly in fly outI worked across Chevron Australias our second guest, Ishtar Barranco, Earthposition in Nigeria. I decided to go backoperated and non-operated projects, Science Digital Advisor with Chevron. to Mexico because I wanted to go back. Iincluding Jansz-Io Compression (JIC), was lucky that the industry was booming,North West Shelf, and WA Oil. Over the so after a couple of months I got a jobpast two years my role has been CCS and with Schlumberger as geo-modeller inEarth Science Digital Advisor working to Ciudad del Carmen, an island in the Gulfidentify and prioritise digital solutions of Mexico. It was a great experience. Ibased on business value. This has was in charge of building the geologicalincluded: leading agile teams to design, model of the Cantarell field, which wasdevelop and deploy digital tools; owning the largest producing oil field in Mexico.the product vision and roadmap from This was the first model I ever built.ideation to deployment; and leading I was very fortunate to work with anchange management, adoption, and experienced reservoir engineer fromdigital fluency among practitioners.Venezuela. She was a great mentor forWorking in the Gorgon CCS project me. My son was two years old, and myhas been the one of the most exciting Ishtar Barranco husband was still working FIFO in Nigeria.parts of my career. Its one of the most MP: Thank you very much again for beingShe was divorced with two kids, so sheinteresting and challenging projects here today for this interview. Can you tellunderstood very well the challenge ofin the world, not only because of the readers a little bit about yourself andbeing a working mum. We helped eachthe technical, legal and operational your current position in Chevron? other a lot with the kids whenever one ofcomplexity, but also because its the us had to work late. We became friendsbiggest system of its kind.IB: I was born in Mexico. When I was 19for life, and we also managed to build the years old, I got a scholarship to study infirst fully history-matched model of theThe project is operated on Barrow France. I did an engineering degree inCantarell field. It was a quite challengingIsland, a Class A nature reserve environmental and earth science at thebut exciting time. subject to some of the most stringent University of Toulouse and a mastersquarantine regulations in the world. degree in petroleum geoscience at theIn 2005 I got pregnant with my secondIts not easy to operate in a place with French Petroleum Institute. I graduated inchild and I moved to Mexico City, whereso many environmental restrictions. 2000 and I got a job with SchlumbergerI oversaw the relationship betweenIts amazing to see all the effort that in Indonesia. I worked as field wirelineSchlumberger and the two mainthe operations and health, safety and engineer in the Duri steam flood field inuniversities in Mexico. I loved that job,environment teams of Chevron do to Sumatra. Thats where I met my husband.working with students and mentoringprotect the unique flora and fauna in He was an Indonesian petroleumthem in their bachelor and mastersBarrow Island.engineer working for Chevron. thesis projects. I also worked with the Mexican Petroleum Institute, buildingIn the Gorgon CCS system, Chevron When I got pregnant, we decided to movemodels and training researchers onis demonstrating carbon capture back to Mexico. My husband couldntgeological modelling in Petrel. I alsotechnology at a scale not seen before. 29 PREVIEW DECEMBER 2021'