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THIS
ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY GUARDIAN OF JULY
28th 2002 IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 100th
ANNIVERSARY OF THE OIL INDUSTRY
IT
WAS WRITTEN BY VICTOR YOUNG ON (Anyone who knows for
sure please inform us in order to credit the correct
person), A PAST PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY AND IS
REPRODUCED HERE AS IT PROVIDES A UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO
THE EARLY YEARS OF OUR SOCIETY….up until the time
of its writing in mid-2002
Explanatory
note written by Krishna Persad in August 2012
A HISTORY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
(OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO) 1976-2002
The Geological Society of Trinidad and
Tobago was founded in 1976 almost exactly 110 years
ago after the first successful oil well was drilled
by Captain Walter Darwent in Aripero, March 1866. In
these interim years before the formation of the
Society many a foreign geologist had ventured into
Trinidad for the express purpose of finding oil.
However oil companies and their geologists turned
over rapidly and Trinidad became known as the
graveyard of geologists. Companies fortunes were
rather short lived. Some one hundred and twenty or
so oil companies came and ten in this period.
Geologists as a group never settled
down long enough to form a local society although a
low individuals stayed on for long periods. Most
notable among these was the Swiss geologist Hans
Kugler who arrived in 1919 to undertake field
geology for oil exploration and would eventually
compile and publish the most definitive and
comprehensive geological map of Saunders and George
Huggins, two gentlemen that contributed immensely to
local geology. John was honoured for his work at the
3rd GSTT Conference held at Hilton Hotel,
Port Spain in 1995. The other gentleman would
publish a most detailed 500 page “History of
Trinidad Oil” which was nothing short of a labour
of love.
During the colonial era and up until
1973 foreign geologists residing in Trinidad would
join the Institute of Petroleum, headquartered in
London. Local geologists were allowed membership in
the Trinidad Branch of the Institute but were not
considered as members of the International body
according to John Scott, then Chief Geologist in the
Ministry of Petroleum and Mines.
Dr. Eric Williams led Trinidad to
independence in 1962 and this propelled the country
towards greater national consciousness. In the early
seventies saw a new breed of Geologists – the
local nationalistic geologists from out of UWI Mona
Jamaica – many of whom pursued studies on a Texaco
geology scholarship. This period also saw the
beginning of nationalization of the local oil
industry. Against this background the Founding
Fathers of the GSTT began to conceive the idea of
forming a geological society. These included among
others K. Persad, K. Birchwood, JP Scott, T.
Rajpaulsingh, M. Nath and W. Lau.
Primarily due to the efforts of one
individual the Society got off the ground in 1976,
when Dr. K. Persad returned to Trinidad from at
Tesoro Corp. San Antonio. He mobilised all local
geologists and drafted a constitution. At the
inaugural meeting in 1976 at Royal Hotel, San
Fernando, it was proposed to call the Society the
Trinidad Association of Petroleum Geologists TTAPG.
After much discussion and objection name was
abandoned to adopt a preferred concept that included
all aspects of Geology and the local ?. Thus the
Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago GSTT was
named.
The first official Executive was
elected on August 18, 1976 and the officers listed
below were elected:
Ken Birchwood – President
Barry Carr Brown – 1st
Vice President
Wilson Lalla 2nd Vice President
Mrs. Lilias Milne – Secretary
Derek Smith – Asst Secretary
Tim Gabriel – Treasurer
Oxley Paul – Corporate Rep
John Tombln – Non Petroleum rep
Krishna Persad – Immediate Past
President
The current (2002) executive includes
two gentlemen from the first Executive, Krishna
Persad and Derek Smith. As Mahendra Nath puts it, it
would seem that we have come full circle as Messrs.
Persad and Smith have reappeared 25 years later on
the GSTT’s Executive.
The Society recognized the importance
of Petroleum and natural gas to the economy of the
country and felt a need to provide career guidance
for young students and continuing education to its
members with the emphasis on the needs of the
petroleum industry. Thus the major aims of the
Society were:
1.
To
increase the general level of the geological
knowledge among its members by presenting technical
papers; holding technical for a, arranging short
courses and lectures by distinguished geologists
local and international, leading geological field
trips and publishing newsletters and technical
publications at regular intervals.
2.
To
increase the awareness of the public about the
importance of geologists and geology to the country
by holding public lectures and seminars, by using
the communications media to disseminate information
and by participating in public meetings and
discussions.
3.
To
provide career guidance for students throughout the
country.
The Society started with twenty
members in 1976 and five categories of memberships
Ordinary, Students, Associates, Corporate and
Honorary. Over the years the Society membership has
grown to now number over three hundred active paid
members and the Corporate member category is now
obsolete being discarded in 2001.
Over the past twenty six years the
Society has offered; hundreds of technical
presentations, usually trying to host one each
month. The Society became an affiliate of the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
in 1981. It has benefited from this affiliation
through many local presentations by Distinguished
AAPG Lectures. Quite a number of AAPG Continuing
Education courses have also been held locally since
1981.
The GSTT has also been active in the
hosting of local and regional conferences. In 1979
they hosted the 4th Latin American
Geological Conference at the Hilton, Port of Spain.
The First Geological Conference of the Society was
hosted in 1985 and was comprised of two days of
technical sessions and a one day symposium on the
Tectonics of the Southeast Corner of the Caribbean
Plate.
The GSTT has hosted its own geological
conference every five years since then. In 1995 they
outdid themselves by simultaneously hosting both the
3rd GST Conference and the 14th
Caribbean Conference. The resulting two volumes 817
page transactions contain fifty papers and ninety
three abstracts. In 200 saw the first joint
conference hosted by the GSTT and the Society of
Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the first transactions
to be made on a CD.
The GSTT began publishing its official
black and white newsletter in 1981. These are now
collectors’ items for their technical content and
geological field notes. In 1994 the newsletter went
electronic and was distributed via email and could
be printed in colour. The newsletter was renamed
“The Hammer” in 2001.
The Annual Petroleum Conference is now
a regular feature of the GSTT and co-host the South
Chamber of Commerce. This Conference features papers
on Petroleum Geology and business updates on the
Petroleum and Petrochemical sectors of Trinidad. It
is well attended by an international cross section
of energy investors as it has become a forum for
announcing the new farmout, joint venture and
downstream opportunities for Trinidad.
Field trips are an integral and
enjoyable part of the Society’s activities as it
provides hands on familiarity with the rocks of
Trinidad and Tobago. This is especially important in
today’s high technology environment where the
geoscientist only sees rocks as wiggles on a seismic
section curves on a log plot. Field trips have taken
GSTT members to every part of the Trinidad and
Tobago. The Society has hosted trips in other
countries such as Eastern Venezuela, Barbados,
Jamaica and Montserrat in order to broaden the
geologists’ perspectives and sharpen their
geological skills. Geologists believe that the
present is the key to the past – the Geophysicists
also derive great benefit and view these field trips
as extremely useful
The GSTT is a non-profit organization
that is run by an elected executive on a voluntary
basis. Its aims and objectives are primarily for the
benefits of its members but its domain of influence
includes the fabric of the entire population,
because geo-science impacts heavily on the fortunes
of our country. Geologists
also play prominent roles in their community and in
the country. Some examples of geologists who have
held key positions (in Government) are:
Patrick Manning, Keith Rowley,
Franklin Khan, Eric Williams, the late Harry
Kuarsingh. The leadership of the Geological Society
also plays leadership roles in the larger community
and the Petroleum Industry over the years. The list
below will attest to this (see table of Presidents)
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1976/77 Ken M. Birchwood
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1989/90 Winston M. Ali
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1977/78 Dr. Krishna Persad
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1990/91
H. Rambarran
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1978/79 Mahendra Nath
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1991/92
Azad Khan
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1979/80 John Scott
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1992/93
Eric Williams
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1980/81 Harry B. Kuarsingh
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1993/94
Eric Williams
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1981/82 Winston M. Ali
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1994/95
Derek Hudson
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1982/83 Franklin Khan
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1995/96
Anthony Paul
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1983/84 Carol Telemaque
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1996/97
Franklin Khan
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1984/85 Lennox Algoo
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1997/98
Shafiudeen Ali
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1985/86 Rollin Bertrand
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1998/99
Victor Young On
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1986/87 Neil Payne
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1999/00
Vishram Rambaran
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1987/88 John Scott
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2000/01
Lawrence Tiezzi
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1988/89 Kirton Rodrigues
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2001/02
Dr. Krishna Persad
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In 2001, the GSTT established its
first permanent office at the Trinidad and Tobago
Institute of Technology (TTIT), Brechin Castle,
Couva. A comprehensive set of books was donated by
bpTT in 2001 and are currently housed at the TTIT
library. That same year the first ever GSTT
Secretariat was hired (Mrs. Gayatri Mahara)j. The
Secretariat handles the administrative functions,
acts as a source of information and provides means
of access to GSTT’s publications and can be
contacted by telephone at 679-6064 or via email:gstt@tstt.net.tt
and its first website in 1998 at the address www.gstt.org.
The website contains information on Trinidad’s
complex geology and its maintained by one of our
stalwart members Mr. Curtis Archie. Correspondence
to the GSTT can be sent to our mailbox PO Box 3524,
La Romaine, Trinidad & Tobago or to our
Secretariat’s email address.
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