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20/04/2021 News

Between heaven and earth in the Béarn region: a passionate employee

Over the summits of the Pyrenees or at the CSTJF, Lloyd lives his love of sport and his job as an adventure.

“Life is like skydiving” so Lloyd Fenelon might say. Because what he loves most is to be soaring thousands of feet above the ground. This skydiving addict has clocked up more than 400 jumps since he discovered this adrenaline-filled sport in 2013. When he has his feet back on the ground, he walks the length and breadth of the CSTJF campus in Pau, where he is also passionate about his job as a reservoir geophysicist.

Very similar universes

According to Lloyd, honing the mind, self-confidence and testing your limits are ingredients that are just as important at work as in skydiving. “It’s all about performance, about the desire to constantly do better and improve. In my work, I strive to push back my limits just like in skydiving. I explore universes and step out of my comfort zone. Deep down, I think that what I’m seeking in my work and in this sport lies in moving forward, in mastering my subject. This is what the theory of flow is based on, the search for an optimal psychological state that occurs when I feel a balance between my personal skills and the demands of the task.”

Another common denominator: there are no short-cuts in skydiving when it comes to safety, and for the geophysicist, and all Total employees worldwide, safety is a core value.

The Béarn, a land of experts

Pau and its surroundings were the ideal spot for Lloyd to put down roots and practice both his sport and his job, in a recognized professional environment. When he trains, he takes off from the Lasclaveries airfield and enjoys the amazing sensations he experiences when he jumps. He can give free rein to his competencies at the Jean Féger Scientific and Technical Center, where geophysics – a science that makes the invisible, visible – is one of the flagship disciplines in Géosciences. In this internationally recognized center, he can make use of cutting-edge equipment such as Pangea III, Total’s 31.7-petaflops supercomputer, the first ever designed for industrial use. “Pangea gives us access to the latest innovations in terms of imaging so that we can study complex environments in countries such as Brazil or the Gulf of Mexico. It’s also a crucial tool for simulating the production of hydrocarbon reservoirs. I’m currently working on a production model to develop a giant field in the Persian Gulf. I’m sharing this adventure with amazing teams that make this type of project possible. The multicultural and multidisciplinary environment at the CSTJF is extremely rich and makes the job very exciting, boredom is never an issue!”

  • To enter the universe of PANGEA III, watch this video

To finish, the geophysicist comes back to the close ties between working as a team and skydiving. “It’s a question of trust, we work together and that’s the basis for building a team; the same goes for skydiving. All in all, work, like skydiving, is an adventure. That’s the way I see things.”.

 

 

Lloyd discovered skydiving thanks to a gift from his family... The sport covers many activities such as formation skydiving, wingsuit flying, canopy formation and more artistic events such as freestyle with a videographer... France excels in most of the disciplines and is a leading skydiving nation. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Lloyd Fenelon was able to fit in 50 or so jumps and hopes to be back up in the air very soon.