I’ve wireline logged wells in exploration and production settings, perforated them with explosives and watched the oil flow. I've worked the back deck on marine crews, as a jug hustler on land crews and as assistant observer in both environments before moving into management and then establishing my own businesses. With a diverse and extensive background across the upstream exploration industry, I bring a lifetime of experience to the table as the owner of Canesis Data.After an unexpectedly unexciting career start in weapon system design and lured by the ridiculous salary on offer, I joined Schlumberger as a well logging engineer. My time with them was both exhilarating and demanding, particularly on exploration rigs. Production platforms - maybe less so.Looking for a change of lifestyle, I worked in marine seismic and land crews, eventually joining SSL Well Survey Division. While the salary wasn't as great, the experience was unparalleled. Flying around Europe and North Africa in company planes, acquiring the occasional VSP and enjoying fine hotels and cuisine at oil company expense, it was certainly a lifestyle that resonated with me.Recognizing a need to move from the field into tie-wearing activities, I founded Velpro, a well-seismic company in the Merlin Profilers Group. After Schlumberger took over MP, they were required to divest Velpro, which became Spectrum Geophysical Services. The main shareholder’s eventual plan involved deploying land airgun crews in Europe - an idea met with diverging perspectives on my part, leading to a strategic exit.I then co-founded Mass Data Systems, focusing on technology transfer from the military field to exploration, leading to the development of the Seisfile program for seismic vectorizing. MDS became Seiscan Geodata, a vectorising service company, which was bought by Robertson Research after ten years.My journey continued with the establishment of Canesis Data (it’s an anagram of Seiscan – for those wondering) initially developing the WinTrack software for vectorising services and working up Canadian and Asian datasets. Nowadays vectorising services are handled by an associate company, Petroscan, and I focus on locating legacy data. While I've stepped away from vectorizing data myself, I occasionally digitize maps when the need arises.As the steward of Canesis Data, I take pride in my unique journey through the oil and gas exploration landscape, blending hands-on experience with a strategy to deliver comprehensive, useful data solutions from disregarded archives.