In May this year members of the industry gathered with many others to pay tribute to Nigel Johnson, a colleague whose knowledge of the stratigraphy of WA’s Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary basins was encyclopedic.
Nigel probably sat more wells and wrote or edited more well completion reports than anyone else in Western Australia and possibly Australia. For nearly five decades he earned the respect of his peers for his diligent and dedicated services which meant no stone, or in his case, no grain, was overlooked.
Nigel was quite famous and well-remembered for his rigorous and comprehensive sample descriptions. On one occasion, a six-line sample description dedicated the first three lines to a kaleidoscope of colours!
In the early 1960s, Nigel was the first graduate to gain an M Sc from the recently established Geology Department at the Australian National University. Being a resident of Canberra, it’s not surprising that he then joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources. Not long after, he was seconded to The Geological Survey of Western Australia.
He then moved from the Government to the private sector to work for West Australian Petroleum (WAPET)as a wellsite geologist, initially sitting many of the appraisal and development wells on Barrow Island. Later he became a regular for the company on exploration wells in the Canning Basin.
Nigel started contracting from 1979 and worked for MESA, Western Mining Corporation and other explorers including Home Energy where he sat many discovery wells in the Onshore Canning Basin during the early to mid-1980’s. As the wellsite geologist on the Blina discovery, he was the first person to see oil in the cuttings and then produced from the Devonian carbonates.
Nigel returned to WAPET (later Chevron)in 1994 as Wellsite and then Operations Geologist for many of the Gorgon Gas Field wells and many of the Deep Water Carnarvon Basin gas discoveries.
Nigel continued working into his early to mid-70’s, not because he had to, but for his love and dedication to his profession. He will be sadly missed not only for what he brought to the oil and gas industry technically but for his support and humility he brought to his co-workers and to the industry as a whole. He was a member of PESA for more than fifty years, continuing his membership after his retirement, and served as secretary of the WA Branch when it was still known as the APEA Professional Division.
Outside the industry, Nigel had many interests. He was an astute investor in the mineral and energy sector, a long-time supporter of the Liberal Party, an active Rotarian making several trips overseas, loved fishing and was a very keen, all-year-round swimmer at Cottesloe beach. He was also a keen gardener, even establishing vegetable plots at well sites – legend has it, that one well in the Canning went on so long he was able to pick tomatoes from the same bushes in consecutive years! Closer to home he was a member of the Rare Fruit Society of WA.
Vale Nigel Edwin Alexander Johnson (1936-2026)
Prepared by Don Poynton with contributions from Peter Baillie, Ed Kopsen, Phil Lawry and Jeff Roche.
