AAPG Explorer - American Association of Petroleum Geologists

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EXPLORER
HISTORICALHIGHLIGHTS
Todd Went Where the Oil Was
By PETER NEWMAN
Highlights” profiles
individuals who have enjoyed
“Historical
substantial success in petroleum
exploration. One such person is Don
Todd, a geologist and small independent
who virtually single-handedly initiated the
process that opened offshore oil production
in Indonesia.
Todd faced serious hurdles, both
political and technical, but his boldness and
persistence finally won the day.
‘Where the Oil Is!’
This epic story begins in the mid-
1960s, with Todd consulting in Billings,
A friend once told Don Todd that Indonesia had a lot of oil – and that conversation alone
sparked the first chapter in the story of Indonesia’s contemporary energy history.
22 JULY 2011 WWW.AAPG.ORG
AAPG member Peter Newman is a retired petroleum geologist who
worked five years in Indonesia (Sinclair then ARCO, 1968-73) as well
as Pakistan and Algeria, plus various U.S. assignments.
Mont. At the time, he’d had his share of
dry holes and a few modest successes
and was just getting by.
But one day a friend’s comment
changed his life: A landman buddy had
read that, prior to World War II, Indonesia
had produced 2 percent of the world’s oil.
“Dammit, Todd, that’s where the oil is!”
the friend said. “Let’s go to Indonesia!”
Having just plugged a well and not
knowing what else to do, the venturesome
Todd said what the hell and began
researching the Indonesian oil patch.
(Note: oil was $3/bbl at the time, $1.20 in
Indonesia).
Todd identified four areas of interest, with
the western Java Sea being his number one
pick, because:
u This area had a geologic edge – it lay
on the projected trend of the depocenters
of the Sumatran oil basins, which held some
giant fields.
u It was logistically superior, being
the closest to Jakarta, which had an
international airport and major seaport.
u Offshore seismic would be far cheaper
than onshore, where you would face jungles
and rice paddies. And the Java Sea was
shallow, calm and storm-free, making for
benign operating conditions.
u Indonesia’s politics were unsettled, and
offshore operations should be out of reach
of disruptive elements.
This combination of factors seemed
to offer good potential – even though it
looked unlikely that the known onshore
basin in West Java might continue offshore.
According to “The Geology of Indonesia,”
R.W. Van Bemmelen’s monumental study
and the “bible” of the time, beginning just
five miles offshore you would find only a thin
veneer of sea-bottom mud covering shallow
basement.
Todd could see no good reason why Van
Bemmelen should be right – it didn’t make
much sense to him that the Java Sea, a
topographic low, would be superposed over
a basement high. But he hoped to learn
more in Jakarta.
Catch-22
Todd needed partners to fund his
initial expenses, and he brought in two
small independent companies to join
his Independent Indonesian American
Petroleum Company (IIAPCO). In June 1964
he made his first of many trips to Indonesia,
which, under President Sukarno at the time,
was very left-leaning and anti-business. His
first job would be to check the government
files for information about that adjacent
onshore basin.
However, it was a classic Catch-22:
Todd needed the files to help him decide
which area to focus on, but the files would
be closed until he had selected an area and
signed a contract.
It was time to take a taxi out to the
onshore area.
There he found a small shut-in field from
pre-war days – and when he got someone
to open a well it flowed some 40 BOPH of
sweet, waxy, 40-degree oil. That proved
the possibility of good source rocks near
his offshore focus area but said little about
reservoirs.
Later he would learn from a university
geologist that the sands in this coastal
area were dirty because of their proximity
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