The Exxon Factor: The Roles of Corporate and Academic Science in the Emergence and Legitimation of a New Global Model of Sequence Stratigraphy

In the 1970s, a paradigm shift took place in petroleum exploration with the development, within Exxon's research laboratories, of a new model for oil exploration based on seismic stratigraphy and global sea level change. We demonstrate that this approach was widely accepted by the academic and petroleum geology communities outside Exxon in the absence of data, replication, or independent peer review. We attribute this acceptance to the “Exxon …