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A film on Prof. Ziad Rafiq
Beydoun is possible
Lebanese geologist was legend in
Yemen
BY DR. ENG. MOHAMMED DARSI
FOR THE YEMEN TIMES
This is about one of the most famous geologists, who gave his time and life to
studying the geology of Yemen, the country in which he spent much of his early
career, in its southern part and maintained a life-long interest in it.
In my opinion Ziad Rafiq Beydoun, is one of the most famous of all eastern
geologists, who played a great role in the geological research history of the
Republic of Yemen. So I regard him as the third stage of the geological research
history of Yemen. (See Yemen Times Issue 2 (Jan. 10, 2000) Issue 10 (March 6,
2000) and Issue 15 (April 10, 2000)
Yemeni geologists are highly appreciative of him as a brilliant mind who wrote
many books about Yemen, and rendered distinguished services to geological
exploration and research. He was not only the major scientific figure in the
Middle East during the second part of the 20th Century Yemen, but also held a
leading position internationally.
Biography
Beydoun was born in Beirut in 1924 and grew up in Haifa, Palestine, where he
went to school. He took his first-class degree at the American University of
Beirut (AUB) in political science and history and studied geology to doctorate
level at St Peter's College, Oxford.
Beydoun joined the Iraqi Petroleum Company in 1948 and actively spent the next
15 years in surface and subsurface geology across the Middle East - mainly in
the deserts of Arabia and Yemen. He earned his Oxford doctorate - awarded in
1961 for his thesis on the geology of Yemen - on the basis of his practical
findings.
He played a key role in the discovery of oil in Oman.
In 1963 he returned to Lebanon, and held the posts of assistant professor at
AUB- American University of Beirut and that of geological advisor in the
ministry of national economy.
In 1966 he moved to London to take charge of Marathon Oil's Middle East and
North African evaluation studies. When he returned to AUB in 1970 as professor
of geology, he continued to advise Marathon, spending summers in its London
office, frequently visiting its research centre in Colorado.
He married in 1983, and lived mainly in London between 1985 and 1993. He became
a scientific director of a World Bank/UNDP project on hydrocarbons in the Red
Sea and the Gulf of Aden in 1987, and was made professor emeritus in 1992.
His academic contacts were on a large scale, especially when he held
consultancies for oil companies including ARCO, Bow Valley, Aran and Hunt Oil.
He participated in over 40 leading international and regional congresses, and
was an editorial board member of the Journal of Petroleum Geology.
He received the William Smith medal from the Geological Society of London in
1994 and was awarded the Order of the Cedars in 1995.
On March 7, 1998, Beydoun died in Beirut, at the age of 73.
What his colleagues and friends said
"Despite pain and exhaustion, he continued to write and produce. At his
hospital bed, he was surrounded by books and new articles," says his widow,
Muntaha Saghieh.
"Almost any paper on the geology of the Middle East refers to his books. He
constructed a framework of regional geology that others will be building upon
for the next hundred years," says his AUB colleague, Chris Walley.
"His knowledge was encyclopedic," says Walley. "You could bring up any
part of the region, and he would remember that someone had drilled down to 3,000
meters and what they'd found. Ziad was a fast, accurate writer who set the
standard in the region for writing science in English."
"He was a softly spoken, straightforward, honest man," says long-time
friend, Nabeel Ashkar.
"I was always impressed and touched by his gentlemanly behavior," says
Pierre Azoury, AUB professor of mechanical engineering.
"After all," noted Helga Seeden, "we stand on geology. Archaeology and
all the rest are man-made extras."
I personally met him at the first congress of the Yemeni Geological Society and
spoke with him for a short time. Really, professor Beydoun was a revolution in
the science of geology with his studies on the Middle East and mainly on the
geology of Yemen. It is known that many people today write more and more about
less and less''.
Publications
Beydohad a huge output of published work, including six books and over 40 papers
in international journals. His most famous works and publications on Yemen are
the following:
1.Synopsis of the Geology of the Eastern Aden Protectorate. Report 2/st.
Int. Geol. Cong. Copenhagen, 21:131-149. 1960.
2.Contribution to the Geological Map of the Arabian Peninsula, Aden
Protectorate. In: Geological Map of the Arabian Peninsula, USGS-Aramco, Miscell.
Geol. Invest. Map 1-270a, USGS. 1:2,000.000 scale. 1963.
3.Geological Map of Eastern Aden Protectorate.
Tolworth, England: British Directorate of Overseas Surveys. 1:1,000,000. (D.O.S.
(Geol.) 1148). 1963.
4.The Stratigraphy and Structure of the Eastern Aden Protectorate.
Overseas Geology and mineral Resources Supp. Ser., Bull. Supp. 5,107p. HMSO
London. 1964.
5.Eastern Aden Protectorate and part of Dhufar, In:
Geology of the Arabian Peninsula, U.S.G.S. Profess.
Paper 560H, 49 p. Washington D.C. 1966.
6.Aden Protectorate and Dhufar. In: Lexique Stratigraphique
International, (Ed.) L.Duberret, Vol. III, fasc. 10b2, 126 p, CNRS Paris. (done
with Greenwood, J.E.G.W.,) 1968.
7.Note on the age of Hadhramut Arch. Overseas Geology and mineral
Resources, 10 (3): 236-240. 1969.
8.Southern Arabia and Northern Somalia: comparative geology. Phil. Trans.
Roy. Soc. London, A 267:
267-292. 1970.
9.Geology of Socotra Island, Gulf of Aden. Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc.
London, 125: 413-446. (done with Bichan, H.R.,) 1970.
10.The Gulf of Aden and North West Arabian Sea. In:
Ocean Basins and Marins, 6, The Indian Ocean, (eds) A.E.M. Narin and F.G.Stehli.
Ch. 6: 253-313, PienumPub. Corp., New York. 1982.
11.The Petroleum Resources Of The Middle East: A Review. Journal of
Petroleum Geology, 9: 5-28. 1986.
12.The Middle East: Regional Geology and Petroleum Resource. Scientific
Press, Beaconsfield U.K., 292 p. 1988.
13.Hydrocarbon prospects of the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden: a review. J.
Petrol. Geol., 12: 125-144. 1989a.
14.Hydrocarbon potential of the deep (pre-Mesozoic) formations in the
Middle East Arab countries. Proceeding OAPEC/ADNOC Seminar on Deep Formations in
the Arab countries: Hydrocarbon Potential and Exploration Techniques. Abu Dhabi,
Oct. 1989, 31-84.
15.Arabian Plate Hydrocarbon Geology and Potential -a Plate Tectonic
Approach. AAPG Studies in Geology No. 33, Tusla, OK, 77p. 1990.
16.Arabian Plate Hydrocarbon Geology And Potential - A Plate Tectonic
Approach: In: (Eds), Studies In Geology, American Association Of Petroleum
Geologists, 33, 77. 1991.
17.Red Sea-Gulf of Aden: re-assessment of hydrocarbon potential. Marine
and Petroleum Geology, 9 (5):
478-485. (Done with and Sikander, A.H.,) 1992.
18.The Red Sea-Gulf of Aden: Biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy and
paleoenvironments, J. Pet. Geol., 15, 135-156. (Done with Hughes, G.W.,) 1992.
19.The Qishn Formation, Yemen: lithofacies and hydrocarbon habitat.
Marine and Petroleum Geology, 10 (4): 364-372. (Done with Bamahmoud, M.O., and
Nani, A.S.O.,) 1993.
20.Geological evolution and hydrocarbon potential of the deep formations
in The Middle East Arab countries. Proceeding to the Second Seminar on
hydrocarbon potential of the Deep Formations in the Arab Countries. OAPEC,
Cairo, Oct. 1994. 52p. 1994.
21.Productive Middle East clastic reservoirs: their depositional settings
and origin of their hydrocarbons. Sedimentary Facies Analysis, (ED.) A.G. Plint,
Special Public. International Association of Sedimentologists, 22: 331-354.
1995.
22.As-Saruri, M.L., and Baraba, R.S., 1996.
Sedimentary basins of the Republic of Yemen: their structural evolution and
geological characteristics. Revde I'Instit. Francais du Petrole, 51 (6):
763-775.
23.Rift sedimentation and tectonics in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
region. Journal of Petroleum Geology, 19: 235-245. 1996.
24.Introduction to the revised Mesozoic stratigraphy and nofor Yemen.
Marine and Petroleum Geology, 14, special Issue on Yemen. 1997. As a conclusion,
I would like to say that Ziad Rafiq Beydoun, is one of those individuals whose
diverse activities defy neat categorization.
Also a stratigrapher
He was as much a geologist as a stratigrapher, an educator as well as an
administrator, and a popular writer on the Middle East and Yemeni geological
topics as well as the author of about 50 publications.
In this respect, I would like to invite all people, who are interested in
Beydoun Z.R.'s life and works not just to write about him often, but also to
introduce his work and life in the Middle East and mainly in Yemen to others in
a scientific documentary film.
I am sure, this step is going to help others to understand, what kind of works
and activities had been done during the main part of the third stage of the
geological research history work of the Republic of Yemen or Beydoun Z.R. Stage.
As a result of this work the future petroleum exploration activities is going to
be boosted up attracting many foreign exploration investment agencies to work in
Yemen. This is the main reson, why Prof. Ziad Rafiq Beydoun's life story is must
reading for anyone with oil and gas interest .. anywhere .. in the world.
________
Dr. Eng. Mohammed Darsi Abdulrahman Nedham,
is a specialist in geology Petroleum Exploration and Production Board (Aden
office), Republic of Yemen. He graduated from Jilin University
(China) in 2002 as a Doctor of Science (Geologist).
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