Free Notice (Other) - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:01-cv-00413-JLK-BNB

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Civil Action No. 01-K-0413 (BNB)

3 M.D. MARK, INC., 4 Plaintiff, 5 VS. 6 7 8 9 10 *********************************************************** 11 ORAL DEPOSITION OF ROBERT QUILLIN VOLUME 1 12 *********************************************************** 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Brandy 21 State 22 23 24 25 of Texas, in the offices of Winstead, Sechrest & Minick, located at 1201 Elm Street, Suite 5600, Dallas, Texas, in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the agreement hereinafter set forth. Cooper, a Certified Shorthand Reporter in and for the ANSWERS AND DEPOSITION OF ROBERT QUILLIN, produced as a witness at the instance of the Plaintiff, taken in the above-styled and -numbered cause on the 16th day of January, 2003, A.D., beginning at 2:05 p.m., before KERR-McGEE CORPORATION and ORYX ENERGY COMPANY, Defendants.

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Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 4 line 6
6 Q. Mr. Quillin,...

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 7 line 6 through Page 9, line 17
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Q. Okay. Give me your educational background if you

would, please. A. I have a bachelor's degree in physics from the

University of Texas at Arlington and a master's degree in geophysics from the University of Texas at Dallas. Q. A. Q. A. Q. And when did you receive your bachelor's? In 1972. And when did you receive your master's? 1977. All right. And -- and where have you been

employed since receiving your master's degree? A. I was employed in Denver -- for a small company in And in '82, I went to work

18 Denver from -- from '77 to '82.

19 for Sun Company and was with Sun and then subsequently Oryx 20 21 22 23 24 25 and then subsequently -- I now work for Kerr-McGee. Q. Okay. What was the small company in Denver you

worked for? A. Q. A. It was a company called Microgeophysics. They were a seismic acquisition company? No. They were pretty much, for the most part,

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nonseismic except that they -- the seismic portion was monitoring earthquakes. They were really not so much an

oil exploration company as minerals and other types of --

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Q. A. Q. A. Q. A.

Oh, really? -- engineering applications. And it's called micro -Microgeophysics. Are they still in business today? I think they are. I don't -- I haven't seen

them -- it's been many, many years. Q. A. Q. Company? A. Q. A. Right. Now, what Sun Company did you go to work for? I -- I think it was just Sun Company at the time. Okay. But I think they're still in business. And then you said you went to work for Sun

18 I -- that's been a number of years ago and I don't remember 19 the specifics of whether it was Sun Oil and Gas or just Sun 20 21 22 23 24 25 Company or specifically what the name was at the time. Q. A. Q. Okay. But it was -- and that was from '82 on? And -- and then rotated to Oryx in '88.

'82 on.

Okay.

And tell me what your job descriptions were

starting when you went to work for Sun Company in 1982. A. I initially started to work in a nonseismic

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1 technology group and the purpose was to evaluate nonseismic 2 3 4 techniques for oil and gas exploration. initially that's what I did. Q. Okay. And how long did you do that? That's when --

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A. Q. A.

For approximately two years. And what was your title? Boy, that's a long time ago. I think I was still

just called a geophysicist -Q. A. Okay.

-- and I didn't have any other distinction outside

of that. Q. A. All right. And then when did it change? I was

My -- my position changed in around 1984.

rotated from that group into a -- an interpreter position in the Michigan basin, although it was based out of the -the Dallas area. Dallas area. I mean, I was working Michigan from the

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 13 line 21 through line 23
21 22 23 Q. A. And what is your title today? I'm -- I'm a -- a geophysicist -- senior

geophysicist.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 14 line 11 through Page 15, line 21
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Q. During your career with Sun and Oryx and

Kerr-McGee, you've used geophysical data; is that correct? A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Correct. And have you interpreted seismic data? Yes. Have you interpreted geological data? Yes. Use geological studies and things like that, too? Studies and well logs and anything I can lay my

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hands on. Q. Okay. Were you familiar with licensing of

geophysical information? A. I mean, I was limitedly familiar with it in that

if I was interested in acquiring additional data, I might contact vendors which would -- which would send us, you

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know, license agreements and stuff and those were always given to attorneys to -- for evaluation and modification and -- and authorization. Q. All right. And so did you deal with seismic data

brokers? A. Q. Yes. Did you deal with what are known as spec

companies? A. Occasionally from time to time, but not as -- not

as regularly. Q. A. Q. A. Okay. At least in the areas I was working. Okay. Explain that to me. Why --

Most -- most of the -- the -- in most of the areas

15 I was working at the time, particularly onshore U.S., there 16 weren't a lot of spec companies. The areas I work in my Most of the

17 forte is working very large regional projects. 18 19 20 21

spec work that's being done today are on 3-Ds -- 3-D seismic data sets, not 2-D seismic data sets. So they're

very limited in -- in aerial extent because they're very expensive.

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Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 16 line 14 through Page 17, line 3
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. Okay. And then how about when you were with Oryx,

did they acquire 2-D data? A. Q. Yes.

And did you -- were you involved in laying out any

surveys? A. Q. Yes. Okay. When was the last time you recall laying

out a seismic survey -- a 2-D seismic survey? A. Q. A. Q. Around 1997. Okay. You're talking about onshore U.S. -Yes.

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A. Q. A.

-- or are you talking about international? Onshore U.S. Around 1997.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 20 line 16 through Page 23, line 25
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Q. Okay. When you worked for Oryx and Sun, did the

company have policies concerning restricting access to geophysical information? A. I don't know whether they had policies or not. It

But certainly -- you know, you had to check data out.

was fairly -- fairly controlled and who -- who had what at what given time. As an example, you know a person working

23 in California wouldn't necessarily have a need to have data 24 in Arkansas or something like that. So it was generally

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fairly well controlled as far as where the data was at any

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given time. Q. Was the data -- the geophysical data kept in -- in

secure locations? A. Q. I'd -- I'd say yes. Okay. Were there restrictions on showing the

geophysical data to people not employed by the company? A. Q. Yes. And tell me what those restrictions were, if you

can recall. A. Well, it would depend on where the data came from.

11 If it was a license data, then there would be a contractual 12 obligations for -- according to the specific wording of the 13 14 contract on -- on who could see it and under what circumstances and how controlled the scenario would be.

15 Certainly, there would be obligations not to give copies of 16 the data to anyone. If it's data that was proprietarily

17 acquired by -- by Sun or Oryx or Kerr-McGee, then they have 18 a hundred percent rights to it and they can give it or show 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 it at any time since it belongs to them. Q. Okay. What advantage, if any, does a company --

is there to a company to license speculatives -- lines of seismic data? A. Q. A. Cost, I think for the most part. Explain. You can usually license data for less money than

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you can go and acquire new data. would be one issue.

So that cost would be --

Sometimes data is -- certainly speed.

3 The data has already been acquired, so you don't have to -4 5 to go through the process of permitting to shoot new seismic data and everything. So it's -- it's available

6 through a license process, are two of the -- the positives. 7 8 9 10 11 Q. Okay. Is it true that in some cases you can't

even get data of certain areas today because of restrictions on permitting and shooting? A. Yes, that's true. And -- and -- and also urban --

urban growth and -- and spread or -- or ownership -- land In some places that

12 ownership changes and stuff like that. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 do.

used to be fields are not fields anymore. Q. You can't run any 50,000 pound vibe trucks through

someone's backyard, right? A. Q. Through Plano, right. Okay. Do you still use two dimensional -- or 2-D

data today. A. Q. A. Q. A. Yes, I do. What do you use it for? Regional work. Okay. It is. Is that important to you? That's -- that's -- that's really what I I look at big

Is I don't -- I don't look close in.

picture -- big picture things.

So I use a lot of 2-D work

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tying into 3-D work, if -- if at all available, because there is a lot more information on 3-D data. Q. Do you use 2-D seismic data to locate areas where

you may be interested in acquiring 3-D data? A. Yes. Yes, that's definitely true. To try to

focus in a little bit more on -- and narrow the scope of That's one of the -- one

7 where you could acquire 3-D data. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of the things you would do. Q. Okay.

What about age of data?

In the work that

you're doing today, what vintage of seismic data are you using in your work? A. All the way from the late '70s -- mid to late '70s

all the way up through the '90s. Q. Is any of that data that was shot in the 1970s, is

it valuable for exploration purposes? A. Yeah. In some cases it's very much data -- data And it depends on the instrumentation used

set dependant.

in the companies that were acquiring the data at the time and how it's been handled and processed. But it -- you

know, it doesn't have -- doesn't have nearly as much value as -- as more current -- more current data because we can do much more sophisticated things today than -- than -because of the way we acquire the data, than we could with the instrumentation that was available in the '70s and the '80s.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 24 line 21 through Page 26, line 6
21 22 Q. (BY MR. PELZ) Does Kerr-McGee have any other

geophysicists that work with you to interpret 2-D seismic

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data? A. Yes. You mean that work specifically like on my

team or just work with 2-D seismic data in general?

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Q. team?

Let's -- let's do it both ways.

How about on your

A.

I've -- I've only recently started working with

another geophysicist and he almost entirely works with 3-D data sets. He very rarely works with 2-D data sets, so

6 that's why I was added to the team to -- to bring in a much 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 more regional -Q. A. Q. A. Regional --- picture. Okay. There are other geophysicists that do work

occasionally with -- with 2-D data sets. Q. A. Who, for example? Bob Fleming -- I think you're going to meet with

him perhaps or already have, I'm not sure -- occasionally works with -- with 2-D data sets in conjunction with 3-D data sets. I -- I think -- I think most of the

geophysicists from time to time have worked a little bit with -- with 2-D data sets, although for development applications, they're usually very focused on small areas with -- with 3-D. If -- if 3-D is available, it's

generally much, much, much more advantageous to use than 2-D data.

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Q.

Do you use 2-D data to help determine reservoir

shape and size and stuff like that?

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A.

You try.

It's -- it's very, very interpretive.

But you -- you'll try to use any data that you can. There's always a lot of risks associated with oil exploration and development and the attempt to -- to calculate the amount of reserves in the ground. you'll -- you know, you use what you have. But

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 27 line 14 through line 24
14 15 Q. All right. When -- well, let me ask you this:

To your knowledge, does Kerr-McGee have any PGI or M.D.

16 Mark seismic data on any file server or any hardware or any 17 18 19 20 electronic storage media? A. Q. A. Yes. They do? Where?

They have some in -- in some Geoquest projects. And -- and -- like I've

21 It's usually very specific though. 22 23 24

got some -- in one of the old projects I used to work there's data in there, although there's not any in the newer projects that I'm working on.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 28 line 1 through line 17
1 2 3 A. So, you know -- I think that -- you know, you'll There's -- I don't know that there's

find some places.

any -- any -- there's probably very few projects that have

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any in there now and they're kind of on a hold status. Q. A. And why is that?

Just -- just because we've been asked to -- to not

work with the data until issues are resolved -Q. A. Q. So --- whatever the issues are. Okay. You've been asked to not work with the --

the PGI or M.D. Mark data? A. Q. A. Q. Yes. And who told you not to work with it? In talking with the attorneys. Oh, okay. Did anybody from management tell you

not to work with it? A. No.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 32 line 21 through Page 34, line 14
21 Q. (BY MR. PELZ) I want to -- I want to ask -- I'm And

22 going to show you what's been marked as Exhibit No. 5.

23 Exhibit No. 5 was a document that was provided to us and it 24 25 has your name on here -A. Uh-huh.

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Q. Texas.

-- to a certain extent under -- it looks like East

A. Q.

Probably just East Texas. Okay. Can you tell me by looking at the map in

front of you, Exhibit No. 6, what -- what areas you have been involved in in mapping?

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A. Q.

I need my bifocals. And if you want, I'll give you the better map

because -- you know, if you can see this one better. A. I was involved in an area through -- through --

right through here. Q. Okay. Can we mark it on the -- on the other map?

Here, I'm just going to -- if you can identify it on the first map and then mark it on the second one, that -- that And here's a -- here's a pen if you want to

15 would be good. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 use that.

And just put the area that -- that you were

involved -- that you've been involved in and then put a No. 9 by it. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. I guess that will be the next number. It's going to be kind of approximate.

Okay. Okay.

Something like that. Any other areas that you've been involved in? Yeah. I worked an area over here. That will be No. 10. Okay.

All right.

Oh, that's No. 10.

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Q. A.

Any others?

And I -- I just got assigned a couple of weeks ago

to an area kind of right down here. Q. A. Q. A. We'll call that 11. That's 11? Okay.

Anything else? Nope. That's it.

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Q. A. Q. A. Q.

Okay.

Now, on --

You're talking about for Kerr-McGee, right? Yeah. Yeah, those -- those three areas. Okay. Now, I'm going to show you what's been

marked as Exhibit No. 7. A. Uh-huh.

Deposition of Robert Quillin, Page 35 line 2 through Page 36, line 1
2 Q. (BY MR. PELZ) Okay. In the answer to the All

3 interrogatories -- let me see here if I can find this. 4 right.

It says, Robert Quillin, the geophysicist, reviewed

5 the following lines in Walker, Houston and Leon Counties as 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 part of a regional mapping project. A. Q. Uh-huh. And it says, 1(a), 1(b), 2, 2(a), 2(b), 3, 5,

5(a), 5(b), 6, 7, 7(a), 9, 9(a), 11, and 11(a); is that correct? A. That's correct. There's actually one additional

line that's not on here and that's line 13. Q. A. Okay. And -- and also as -- as you can see by my circle

that I made, most of these -- most of these lines extend into more counties than just this -- than just these three counties. Q. Okay. So then were you looking at more counties

than -- more counties than Walker, Houston and Leon Counties? A. Yeah. For an example, this line 7 and 7(a) are --

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are right over here in Polk County. Q. A. Okay. All right.

So there -- there -- you know, kind of whatever's

inside that circle right there is the area I was working

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in.

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