← Back to Articles | Original (German)
“It begins in Linz!”, the saying applies exactly to the childhood and youth of Wolfgang Schöllnberger, who was born on May 16, 1945. On his mother's side, his family worked in the German mining industry (Mansfeld) for generations. The love of nature came from his Upper Austrian grandfather.
He attended elementary school and high school in the Upper Austrian capital, where he experienced the flood of the Danube in July 1954 as a nine-year-old. "I also hung around in my little one-person inflatable boat: it was a blast for days, despite the dead fish that accompanied us in the water! I just thought it was a shame that it all happened during the big holidays and not during the school year." (Mail: May 29, 2020). As a 14-year-old, he received the Linz and Eferding 1:75,000 geological map from his parents for Christmas. His natural history professor at the humanistic high school is Franz Wieser, a geologist. So it's finally clear: "Schölli", as his school friends call him, is going to be a geologist!
He spent the next few years (1964 to 1971) in Vienna, where he studied geology and received his doctorate in 1971 on the southern edge of the Dead Mountains in the Northern Limestone Alps. Today he looks back with gratitude. "In my career as a globally active geologist and in dealing with geologists from many countries, I soon became aware that my geological training in Austria was something special, which allowed me to solve geological problems better and more quickly than many of my international colleagues, many of whom - especially in the petroleum industry - came from universities that only had cratonic 'layer cake' geology (corresponding to a simple mountain structure with horizontal layers of rock on top of each other) on their doorstep." (Mail: February 24, 2025).
While he was still a student, assignments took him to Turkey, the Rocky Mountains (USA) and Greenland, where rare earths were involved. When a ring collecting canal was built near Grundlsee (Styria) in the early 1970s, he mapped the canal route and documented places with salt deposits that cause aggressive water in the subsoil. So it was clear where expensive, acid-resistant concrete pipes were needed; Normal concrete pipes were then sufficient for the rest of the route. It's good that people listened to a geologist back then! In 1972, the saying of his fellow student Wolfgang Vetters, “Schöll goes to Shell,” marked his entry into professional life. He followed his teacher Wolfgang Schlager to the Netherlands, where he also met his wife Hendrika (Hennie).
After a few years at the Royal Dutch Shell Group (1972 to 1978), where he worked, among other things, on an oil platform off the Spanish Mediterranean coast, he went to the USA to work for Amoco (American Oil Company) in Houston (Texas). Here he worked on the development of oil fields in Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf of Suez. In 1986, he became chief geologist at Amoco Production Company in Chicago, responsible for 850 geologists worldwide.
Now things happened in quick succession: in 1989 he became vice president for exploration in Africa and the Middle East. In 1990 he was responsible for the entire world (Worldwide New Ventures). In 1992, when America celebrated its 500th anniversary, he accepted American citizenship, gave up the "ö" in his name and became "Schollnberger" from then on.
In 1993 he sits on the board of Amoco Production Company. When Amoco and BP (British Petroleum) merged to form BP Amoco in 1998, he became Technology Vice President and was responsible for the group's research and development (R&D) until his retirement in May 2004.
In 2006 he published a daring but still valid draft of the global primary energy spectrum up to the year 2100. From 1999 to 2003 he was also chairman of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, the global umbrella organization for the oil and gas sector based in London. During his era, OMV also became a member.
"My heart burns for the following topics […]: promoting young talent, geology in 4D, climate history, public relations with a focus on the energy transition." (Mail: September 28, 2023). Schollnberger is by no means a man of empty phrases; he puts his money where his mouth is. The recipients of his generous support are the Montanuniversität in Leoben, the Institute of Geology at the University of Vienna, where he himself studied, and the ÖGG, the Austrian Geological Society. The latter also takes care of the graves of well-known geologists. When Alexander Tollmann's grave at the Gersthofer Cemetery in Vienna threatened to be abandoned in 2019, he stepped in and took over the renovation of the gravestone for the ÖGG, including an extension of the grave usage fee.
During the Corona crisis, he contacted the Vienna Geology Institute by telephone and offered support from his private funds for teaching. He finances free access to the archive of the AAPG data pages (AAPG: American Association of Petroleum Geologists) twice, for the Montan University and the University of Vienna.
Here he also covers expensive conference fees, pays for additional PCs, screens and 40 geological compasses. In this way he ensures the basis of a good education, like the one he enjoyed in Vienna over 50 years ago. The resulting excellent master's theses have been awarded the Wolfgang Schollnberger Master Thesis Prize every year since 2021. He has been a lecturer in Leoben since 1992 and has also been an honorary professor since 1999. Leoben students received generous support for several USA excursions thanks to his position at Amoco. He also worked to ensure that Leoben graduates could achieve international success. In 1994, thanks to his contribution, Amoco gave the Montanuniversität its own drilling rig for research and a research microscope.
In his retirement (since June 2004) he follows and comments on current geological research in the Salzkammergut. At the same time, thanks to his experience gained in 50 countries, he is a sought-after analyst in the energy sector. But the petroleum geologist Schollnberger is by no means relying on fossil energy, but rather on renewables, to put it in his language. In October 2012, he concluded an eleven-page assessment of Austria's energy supply, which he wrote free of charge for the then Ministry of Economic Affairs, with the words: "The turn towards increased use of 'renewable' forms of energy is not a choice for Austria and Europe for supply policy reasons, but - as described above - a necessity in the medium and long term. It has to happen if Austria's economy wants to remain competitive."
Four years later, he published a guest commentary in the “Presse” (January 18, 2016) about “Safe gas from Russia? At what price?” He closely follows the relationship between Russia and Austria in the energy sector, especially natural gas. This is the title of a guest commentary in the "Wiener Zeitung" (January 4, 2017): "Will OMV become 'Gazprom West' or will Norway come to the rescue?". Here he writes, among other things, "Of course Austria needs Russian gas. But it is not necessary to become very dependent on one supplier now, at a time when there is a huge and long-lasting oversupply of cheap oil and gas in many production areas that are open to OMV," and called for a broader positioning in the gas sector eight years ago.
To stay up to date, Schollnberger reads Austrian newspapers, including the STANDARD and the blog: History of Science(s). He often has personal points of contact that he communicates spontaneously. When I write about inconsequential giveaways (April 25, 2025), he contributes memories from his wealth of professional experience. "As you write, these are actually part of the biography. Any additional flags such as 'Session Chair', 'Program Chair', 'Organizing Committee' or even 'Chairman' of the entire conference, etc. are also meaningful."
Of course he also has a personal favorite piece. "The most valuable giveaway for me (not because of the monetary value, but because of the symbolic value) was given to me as co-chair (with Mikhail Belonin) of the AAPG/VNIGRI Regional Conference 2001 in St. Petersburg, Russia (yes, such a thing still existed back then): a teapot with a cup (white, red and gold) from the Lomonosov porcelain factory. It still has a place of honor in the house." (Mail: April 28, 2025). To explain: If the AAPG stands for the United States, the VNIGRI (Vserossiyskiy Neftyanoy Nauchno-Issledovatel'skiy Geologorazvedochnyy Institut) as the "All Russia Petroleum Research Exploration Institute" is a comparable Russian counterpart.
There is nothing more to add to his final sentence, “Drinking tea together is far better than going to war with each other.” (Thomas Hofmann, May 16, 2025)