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Congress at Cambridge in July 1980. The papers are truly interdisciplinary, being written by geologists, geochemists and chemists, as well as palynologists, and are concerned both with academic studies and practical applications.

The editor, Dr Jim Brooks suggests correctly, that the book will inform and assist workers in petroleum and related geoscience subjects and will also be a relevant reference book for students “wishing to understand and appreciate some of the recent advances in petroleum geochemistry”. In a foreword, M. F. Ridd, General Manager of the Exploration Division of BNOC, suggests that the book should also be of interest to

all professionals concerned in the increasingly difficult and costly search for oil and gas.

The 22 papers reproduced in full (with three others in abstract only) were contributed by a total of 40 authors. There are many diagrams and half-tone illustrations, although the reproduction of the latter is uninspiring. So also is the overall unjustified style of printing. The index is regrettably meagre for such an important compilation.

“Organic Maturation Studies and Fossil Fuel Exploration”, Ed. J . Brooks. ISBN 0.12.135760.0. Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd, 24-28 Oval Road, London NWl 7DX. 441 pp. E25 or $60.

OBITUARY

HAROLD VINCENT DUNNINGTON 1919-1981

Harold Vincent Dunnington, who was known as “Don” Dunnington to his friends and colleagues all his professional life, attended the University of b e d s from where he graduated BSc with First Class Honours in June, 1940. The situation prevailing at that time demanded that he temporarily postpone the start of his geological career and serve with the British Army in Europe for the years 1940 to 1946. With peace declared, he was introduced to the Iraq Petroleum Co by Dr R. G. S. Hudson, his professor at Leeds, and immediately went to Kirkuk, as Divisional Palaeontologist. Here he stayed from 1946 to 1958. During this period he expanded his work far beyond the confines of palaeontol- ogy and stratigraphy to encompass many aspects of petroleum geology. He thus set the groundwork for what was to become his life-long professional association with the geology of the Middle East.

The results of this fruitful period were

summarised in his paper “Generation, Migration, Accumulation and Dissipation Of Oil In Northern Iraq” in The Habitat of Oil. It was with this paper that Don Dunnington served notice to the world of petroleum that he was an original thinker concerning the problems of oil-finding in the Middle East.

The other major project of this period was the formalisation of the stratigraphical nomenclature for Iraq with his co-authors R. Wetzel, D. M. Morton and R. C. van Bellen in the Lexique Siratigraphique Internationale compiled from their own reports and those of many other geologists. The high standard of this lexicon owes much to Don’s “behind the scenes” overall editorship and critical review of the total volume. It was also during this period that stylolites, with their ubiquitous occurrence in the deeply buried carbonates of north Iraq, caught his interest. He re-opened the discussion on this type of sedimentary

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structure, supported the theory of their formation in hard rock and showed in his publications their relevance to petroleum geology as agents of porosity destruction, barrier formation, fluid expulsion and structure.

During these years overseas Don en- couraged and guided the work of many colleagues, including the first generation of Iraqi geologists who joined Iraq Petroleum Co at that time.

Having spent twelve years in Iraq, Don Dunnington returned to London and for the next sixteen years, between 1958 and 1974, he held positions of increasing seniority in the Exploration Division of the Iraq Petroleum Co and Associated Companies-as Head of Special Studies, then as Chief Geologist, and finally as Manager of the Exploration Division. During the initial years when Don was at Head Office, he was involved in the most active exploration phase ever pursued by the company in Iraq,Zrucial States and Oman. Eventually there was a marked reduction of effort mainly due to political changes until, in the last years, exploration was restricted to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The results of the onshore exploration in Abu Dhabi were extremely successful, making Abu Dhabi a major oil-producing nation.

In his more senior positions Don deliberate- ly set out to improve the training and development of his staff. He fostered interdisciplinary co-operation between geologists and geophysicists and between geologists and reservoir engineers, in order to improve the efficiency of both oil exploration and production operations. Although there is nothing exceptional in this today, such co-operation and the degree to which it was instituted were then quite innovative.

Inevitably, as the Iraq/Abu Dhabi com- panies came to the close of their exploration programmes, redeployment of staff was necessary, either by transfer to owner companies or by finding other employment; throughout this unsettling period Don helped many colleagues to readjust to the changes by giving them his reassurance and under- standing.

While in London, Don was associated with the academic world as an external examiner to the MSc course of petroleum geology at Imperial College. This enabled

him to maintain contact with many Iraqi and Middle Eastern geologists as well as to get to know the rising generation of new British petroleum geologists.

It was during this period that the University of Leeds recognised the outstanding contri- bution of Don Dunnington to petroleum geology by conferring upon him in 1969 their highest disthction of Doctor of Science.

In 1974, the exploration activities of the Iraq Petqoleum Co and Associated Com- panies, which had been going on for fifty years, almost completely terminated, and Don retired. To round off his active career he lectured to his peers at the 1974 National Conference on Earth Science at Banff, Alberta. The topic of the conference was “Geological Priqciples of World Oil Occur- rence”, and Don’s contribution was to explain his theory that Middle East oil richness is probably relafed to the prevalence of exceptionally productive source rocks, of generally similar type throughout, of Upper Jurassic-Middle Cretaceous ages. Later sedimentational and tectonic history was necessarily benevolent towards oil migration and accumulation processes. His insistence on long-range primary migration over distances of perhaps hundreds of miles, with subsequent secondary vertical migration in the Asmari type fold-and-structure fields of Iran and Iraq, was thought-provoking to those raised on ideas of lateral, short- distance, within-the-closure-area migration processes.

Don Dunnington’s retirement was in name only, and it was no surprise that he continued his researches on the Middle East. He helped to found the Journal of Petroleum Geology in 1978, and was its first Editor-in- Chief. He was also a Director of and Exploration Advisor to Cluff Oil Ltd, and his advice to this young British company was invaluable.

The untimely death of Don Dunnington is a very great loss to his wife Yvonne and his four adult children. The oil community loses an eminent Middle East geologist, who up to the time of his death was planning to write a text-book on that area. He will be greatly missed by all those who knew him personally and professionally and remembered for his remarkable work, his friendship and his leadership.

Edward Hart