British academic geophysics quite relevant; a rebuttal

In his July Leading Edge article Professor Anton Ziolkowski had occasion to remark that the contribution of geophysics departments in British universities to the development of North Sea exploration technology over the last decade and more has been negligible. Similar comments from the petroleum industry to the effect that the teaching of geophysics in our university departments has no relevance to their needs have also appeared in print from time to time in recent years.