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AAPG
EXPLORER
Leadership begins
at home: Steve
Sonnenberg with
his dad, Frank, at
various parts of his
“career” – including
a field trip where
they were “checking
the geology” in the
mid-1950s. The late
Frank Sonnenberg
was a longtime
AAPG member.
Sonnenberg
from page 28
One of the goals is to get operators to
think, literally, out of the geologic box.
“Operators tend to focus on their early
successes,” he said, “so I advise them
to remember other aspects of the play,
including the well-known concept that part
of the production comes from the shales, in
addition to the silty dolostone reservoirs.”
Leading this project, he says, has given
him the ability to see the bigger picture
and to give advice to other consortium
members.
Or at least, he tries to.
“Some of them listen,” he says.
On Bakken, though, he wants to make
sure the right story gets out.
“The general public gets lots of mixed
information about what is going on,” he said,
speaking about the play that has dominated
the media’s energy reporting.
“If there is bad news to report (such
as an operational problem), the public
generally always hears about it,” he said.
“The good news on employment and
the economic benefits of the Bakken
unfortunately doesn’t get the press that it
should.”
Working On a Dream
But if his work in and with the Bakken is
his job, much of his passion is expressed
in geology – and in the opportunities for
leadership that the profession has provided.
“My greatest success so far in all that I
have done is being president of AAPG,” he
said, proudly. “It’s one of the most enjoyable
and challenging things that I have done.”
He talks of the traveling to various
conferences and experiencing the global
perspective on oil and gas.
“It was fantastic,” he said of his time
heading the AAPG Executive Committee.
“Interacting with geologists around the world
was – and still is – great.”
As a geologist, as a leader, he knows
that it’s never just one thing that makes a
person an effective leader.
“The qualities that mark good leadership
include: Commitment, competence,
character, communication, attitude,
relationships, focus, integrity, passion and
vision,” he said.
Sonnenberg also knows that awards
(and he’s won many) do not happen in a
vacuum – and that’s a lesson he learned
early in his career.
“I did my master’s degree under Bob
Berg at Texas A&M University and my Ph.D.
degree under Bob Weimer, Colorado School
of Mines,” he said. “Both are Sidney Powers
medalists from AAPG, and they both
inspired me and all the rest of their students
to get involved in professional societies.”
They were instrumental, in fact, in him
becoming an active member in the Rocky
Mountain Association of Geologists, first as
a program chairman and then in a variety
of other ways as the results of networking
became evident.
Asked whether those leadership
opportunities were circumstance or design,
he says, for certain, at least one experience
was the result of a dream.
“I set a goal in the leadership arena to be
the president of AAPG early in my career,”
he said. “This goal was accomplished
through committee work, being active in all
areas of AAPG governance.”
Don’t Forget to Remember …
He is biased, he’ll tell you that, but he
30 MAY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG
See Halbouty Award, page 38