Sathes Sandasegaran is five years into his career as a reservoir geoscientist at Petronas, Kuala Lumpur. A strong academic start and first job with analyst Rystad Energy belie his sometimes challenging upbringing. Throughout he says EAGE activities have provided constant support and encouragement.
Early life challenges
I grew up in a small town in Malaysia, known as Batu Caves, an area renowned for massive limestone cave backdrops. Living in a small multi-cultural neighbourhood, I was enrolled into a Chinese-speaking school although this wasn’t my native language (what were my parents thinking!). The upside was I came to master the four main languages in Malaysia, and enjoyed debating. More importantly I found myself increasingly aware of an environment where energy wasn’t always necessarily accessible, fuelling my life-long interest in energy issues.
Move to university
I began my studies at Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) with an engineering foundation course but soon gravitated towards petroleum geoscience. By this time my mum was the sole bread winner after my dad passed away. To help pay my way, I took on multiple jobs (McDonald’s, transcribing, tutoring, etc). Fortunately I landed on a study scholarship that brought some relief. Another complication was the Covid outbreak in my final semester. For us students it did have the effect of improving our digital skills as everything went online. Some five years late at a long delayed graduation ceremony, I was happy to be recognised as valedictorian of my year with a Chancellor’s award. In my valedictorian address, I shared my experiences, gratitude to my mum for her immense sacrifices, and my philosophy to press forward and not ‘self-reject’, a tempting negative response during the pandemic.
Involvement in student affairs
I saw the value in EAGE involvement early on at university, served as the president of the UTP Student Chapter and actively organised numerous technical and career events. We even won the best student chapter at EAGE Annual. You could say that I grew my career with EAGE and am now currently actively working on young professionals activities in the Asia region.
Analyst start
I kickstarted my professional career as a regional E&P analyst with Rystad Energy in Kuala Lumpur. I was coached by great mentors to adapt a granular approach in carrying out data research and analysis. This sometimes required technically sound workflows, plenty of creativity and assumptions especially when dealing with limited public domain data. The experience allowed me to develop a big picture view of the global energy trends, as well as industry decarbonisation strategies.
Oil company beckoned
Unexpectedly, immediately after my valedictory address, I was approached and offered the opportunity to join Petronas by a member of the company leadership team present. There followed a series of rigorous structured interviews and assessment which eventually landed me a job as a reservoir geoscientist.
Current work
As a reservoir geoscientist, I work with a multi-disciplinary team collaborating to deliver field development plans to produce company discoveries in a cost-effective manner and manage the carbon emissions responsibly. I contribute to the geophysical assessments for building an integrated reservoir model. We deal with big data and cutting edge technologies, and every day we face different complexities and challenges. I find that really cool. Petronas also empowers us to drive our own career path. As an AI junkie, I am accorded plenty of opportunities to evaluate the applications of machine learning to our complex problems in geophysics and static modelling.
Looking Ahead
Five years into my career has been an incredible journey, and I am looking forward to continue the work reimagining how we approach energy. I recently completed an Masters at IFP School with a focus on integrated reservoir modelling through the Petronas Development programme. My next step will be to broaden my horizons through an MBA to develop a strong techno-commercial sense.
View on energy transition
In my view, it’s imperative that we strive for a just transition, one that recognises the social and economical implications of a transition into a low carbon economy. In developed countries, energy is accessible and renewable energies are cost competitive. This is often not be the case for developing countries, where energy security and accessibility still remains a challenge. A successful transition would be a well-functioning, inclusive and low carbon economy.
Leisure time
I enjoy backpacking trips to immerse in nature and, more recently, I have hopped on the pickleball bandwagon!
