Today’s oil and gas industry relies on new science, but some old-school methods remain tried-and-true, says George Devries Klein, an award-winning petroleum geologist and consultant. During the past 50 years, he has seen technology rapidly evolve in his work as a sedimentologist, sedimentary geologist, sequence stratigrapher, basin analyst, regional geologist and petroleum geologist.

Klein graduated from Wesleyan University and received his master’s degree in geology from the University of Kansas and his doctorate, also in geology, from Yale University in 1960. He worked as a research geologist for Sinclair ...