The roundtable discussion becomes virtual as petrophysicists and geophysicists continue to debate the need for interdisciplinary communication.
In July I offered up a few tidbits of the roundtable discussion that ran in August between petrophysicists and geophysicists. Apparently I've touched a bit of a nerve with this article. Never in all my meanderings have so many people chosen to respond to one of my columns. At least people read what I write once in awhile...
The truly interesting thing about the responses is that they've come from around the world. This is heartening because, of course, I was limited in my selection of roundtable participants to those folks who were either based in Houston, Texas, or could travel here for the meeting. Thanks to international postage and e-mail, this has become a truly global conversation.
Here are some of the comments I've received.

Dr. Sergio Pellegrino, senior geophysicist, RWE DEA AG, Hamburg:
I was educated in geological sciences and practiced field geology for a number of years before falling in love with geophysics. In my day, there was not such thing as a specific degree in geophysics. I am therefore one of many industry-trained geophysicists with a strong geological background, which enabled me to feel comfortable working together with geologists and petrophysicists. I found it easy to learn from them and make them understand my problems simply because we could use a language, though with nuances, which we could both comprehend.
Modern geophysicists, on the other hand, come out of the college "bakeries" with a superficial geological background, and this is the onset of the integration problem. Their vernacular languages emphasize their differences, which in reality have no reason to exist (for the same reason that) reservoir engineers and geophysicists shouldn't be at odds in dealing with the earth. After all, we are all trying to do the same thing, namely to describe the same object with different tools.
As to the rock physics, I agree with (Chroma Energy Chief Operating Officer Peter) Duncan when he states that for many petrophysicists and geophysicists, it is still considered a sort of higher-order discipline. It is true that we are beginning to understand the importance of rock physics, and we have to if we want to (save ourselves) the miseries following a dry well aiming at a perfect bright spot and an unquestionable AVO response.

Mike Forrest, exploration consultant and retired Shell Oil, Houston, Texas:
Rock physics is good subject to stimulate discussion, and its importance is undervalued by most oil companies. I consider petrophysics and rock physics the same because I believe a petrophysicist should understand the rock properties. But as Peter Duncan noted in your article, the oil patch generally likes to use petrophysics for "pay count" and rock physics for understanding the seismic signature of the rocks. Some oil companies believe petrophysics and rock physics can be done by geologists or geophysicists instead of properly trained petrophysicists. The reason stated is that geologists understand the local geology, which is correct - but they do not understand the rock properties.
Integration of seismic and rock physics is just as important, probably more so, than integration of seismic with geology and reservoir engineering. A true petrophysicist (with rock physics training) must be part of the oil exploration team.

Michael Wiltshire, Wiltshire Geological Services, Adelaide, Australia:
I am a geologist and geophysicist and have worked in the upstream industry for about 36 years, the last 32 as an independent. For the last 22 years I've worked almost exclusively with log data. In this time, my company has built a world-class digital log archive for Australia and parts of adjacent areas (Papua New Guinea, New Zealand).
To my mind, the problem of lack of effective communication between the disciplines arises because of a fundamental difference in perspective. The petrophysicist's primary interest is in reservoir evaluation - in fact, wireline technology was developed to aid in reservoir appraisal. Petrophysics is consequently focused on the small-scale borehole environment. Geophysics deals with whole earth physics and is therefore concerned with the entire rock sequence rather than just the reservoir intervals.
Recent advances in digital seismic data acquisition and processing techniques have allowed geophysicists to relate rock physical properties to seismic performance and to extract critical reservoir attributes such as porosity and fluid properties from seismic performance data. Because seismic acquisition yields enormous volumes of high-quality data, seismic interpreters are accustomed to thinking and working in this environment. Petrophysicists are not so lucky. Large arrays of high-quality well log data are very rare, and it is even rarer for petrophysicists to have the time and managerial freedom to view (and consider interpretation of) logs as whole of sequence appraisal tools rather than formation appraisal tools.
To my mind, the value in the data lies in our ability to understand and interpret it rather than in our mere possession of it.

Petar Trifunovic, Naftagas petrophysicist, former Yugoslavia:
I must say I am surprised with Bob Truman's claims about petrophysicists. In the Naftagas petrophysical department we have eight petrophysicists, and we all have degrees in geophysics-petrophysics. We also have very good cooperation with our geophysical department in geophysical/ petrophysical integration. We adopted principles of Amoco's petrophysical integration program, and we think it is a good way to work on projects today.
Two of our former colleagues are now petrophysicists at Baker Atlas, and both of them have degrees in geophysics (geophysical well logging plus petrophysics).
Finally, I would like to say that we are interested for any form of cooperation since our country has been isolated for the last 10 years, so you can forward my e-mail address to anyone who is interested in this subject (petart@drenik.net).

Thanks to all who responded. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about this issue in the coming months.