Alan works in the company’s exploration areas in Argentina. He’s also an accomplished draftsman, dedicated to depicting the wells where he works and the geological formations he studies. Find out more in the second edition of Our Stories.

"Drawing has always been a way to keep me busy and entertained. I’ve been doing this all my life. I’m a geologist so I studied the natural world, and for me, the most wonderful thing about nature is being able to observe and understand it. Drawing is a more direct way of understanding what we see," explains Alan Buchanan in the latest edition of Our Stories.

Alan works in Tecpetrol’s Exploration area and manages to combine his two favorite things: nature and drawing. He spends his free time during the long days in Tecpetrol’s Neuquen fields sketching the vast Patagonian landscapes and the company’s drilling rigs.

Alan took up drawing when still a child as a way of expressing his experiences. When he finished high school, he thought about studying design or architecture, but his passion for ecology won the day and he chose geology. "Geology offered a professional learning path that interested me, and I’ve always been attracted by the oil industry," he says.

Drawing is a lengthy thought process, which for him is also a form of communication: "It often happens that the idea I have in my head is a little vague when it comes to putting it on paper and that’s all part of the process."

In addition to Patagonian landscapes and geologies, Alan sketches people, paints on canvas and is now starting to work with pottery. One of his favorite models is his dog Haruki, named after Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, which he adopted with a friend during the pandemic.

In his chat with Our Stories, Alan told us several anecdotes about his travels, including the eighteen months he spent in France when he was studying for his Master's degree in geology in oil exploration.

Listen to the podcast (in Spanish).

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