xi
Preface
It is with feelings of great honor and profound sadness that I introduce
this work on behalf of my friend and colleague, Dr. Pei-Jen (P. J.) Lee,
whose sudden death on November 1, 1999, deprived him of the opportunity. Traditionally, the author writes his own preface to provide readers with a window into the complicated writing process. I cannot open
that window, but I hope to convey the object and scope of this monograph, P. J.’s last communication on an area of expertise that helped
defi ne his professional life.
1
The scientifi c accomplishments of P. J. Lee are a huge source of
pride for the Geological Survey of Canada. His body of work ranks
among the Survey’s most important contributions to petroleum geology, approaching the enunciation of the Anticlinal Paradigm by T. S.
Hunt, the Survey’s fi rst geochemist. P. J. joined the Geological Survey
of Canada in 1979. It was against the grand backdrop of the fi rst and
second “oil-price shocks” that he and his collaborators, most especially Paul Wang and Ping Tzeng, set out to provide Canada and the
global geoscience community with improved tools to describe yet-tobe-found petroleum resources.
P. J. Lee dispassionately recounts these efforts in a review of petroleum assessments carried out by the Geological Survey of Canada
(Lee, 1993d). That paper fails to capture the frantic atmosphere that
prevailed as Canada set out to fi nd its own “Prudhoe Bay” within its
vast Arctic and oceanic frontiers. Neither does his paper capture the
excitement that accompanied the internal availability of his new probabilistic methods at the Geological Survey in the early 1980s (Lee and
Wang, 1983b, 1985). Especially exciting was the meeting with Gordon
Kaufman and his team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), which provided encouragement for the continued development
of the new methods. P. J. had a warm and wonderful smile; for days
after Gordon departed, he literally beamed.
Between 1981 and 1990, Geological Survey colleagues came to
work full of excitement and anticipating new ideas. The work of P. J.
and his team reached a zenith with the development of the Petroleum
Exploration and Resource Evaluation System (PETRIMES), which
Preface
It is with feelings of great honor and profound sadness that I introduce
this work on behalf of my friend and colleague, Dr. Pei-Jen (P. J.) Lee,
whose sudden death on November 1, 1999, deprived him of the opportunity. Traditionally, the author writes his own preface to provide readers with a window into the complicated writing process. I cannot open
that window, but I hope to convey the object and scope of this monograph, P. J.’s last communication on an area of expertise that helped
defi ne his professional life.
1
The scientifi c accomplishments of P. J. Lee are a huge source of
pride for the Geological Survey of Canada. His body of work ranks
among the Survey’s most important contributions to petroleum geology, approaching the enunciation of the Anticlinal Paradigm by T. S.
Hunt, the Survey’s fi rst geochemist. P. J. joined the Geological Survey
of Canada in 1979. It was against the grand backdrop of the fi rst and
second “oil-price shocks” that he and his collaborators, most especially Paul Wang and Ping Tzeng, set out to provide Canada and the
global geoscience community with improved tools to describe yet-tobe-found petroleum resources.
P. J. Lee dispassionately recounts these efforts in a review of petroleum assessments carried out by the Geological Survey of Canada
(Lee, 1993d). That paper fails to capture the frantic atmosphere that
prevailed as Canada set out to fi nd its own “Prudhoe Bay” within its
vast Arctic and oceanic frontiers. Neither does his paper capture the
excitement that accompanied the internal availability of his new probabilistic methods at the Geological Survey in the early 1980s (Lee and
Wang, 1983b, 1985). Especially exciting was the meeting with Gordon
Kaufman and his team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), which provided encouragement for the continued development
of the new methods. P. J. had a warm and wonderful smile; for days
after Gordon departed, he literally beamed.
Between 1981 and 1990, Geological Survey colleagues came to
work full of excitement and anticipating new ideas. The work of P. J.
and his team reached a zenith with the development of the Petroleum
Exploration and Resource Evaluation System (PETRIMES), which