Norman Leslie Falcon FRGS FRS (29 May 1904 Braunton, Devon, UK – 31 May 1996) was a British geologist, known for his contributions to discoveries of petroleum and natural gas reserves.
[2] Almost immediately on his return from the Edge Island expedition, Falcon departed for Persia and arrived by tanker at Abadan on 1 November 1927.
In 1930, APOC's management decided upon a project to completely map the Zagros Mountains at a scale of 4 miles to the inch (about 2.5 km to 1 cm).
The programme work led to a better understanding of British stratigraphy, particularly of the Coal Measures Group belonging to the Upper Carboniferous strata in the Midlands.
Falcon became involved in developing the oil industry in Iraq, the Trucial States, Oman, and the Eastern Aden Protectorate.
In 1953 Falcon was appointed AIOC's Geological Manager, directly assisting G. M. Lees in corporate matters of oil exploration.
The techniques pioneered on the Calypso led to geological mapping of the sea floor south of the Dorset coastline and in 1961 to the drilling of the UK's first offshore oil well.
In 1955 the British Petroleum Company returned to Iran but held only a 40% equity in the consortium that replaced AIOC's Iranian monopoly.
By 1965, when Falcon retired, the British Petroleum Company held the rights to slightly more than 20% of worldwide oil reserves outside Soviet Russia.
During his decade-long stewardship, the company found major new reserves in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Libya, Nigeria, as well as Iran.
His presidential address to the BA's Section C provided a valuable summary of Arabian Plate geology related to the Tethyan Trench.
[2][8] In 1960, the Falcon family moved to a large Edwardian house with a 4.5 acre (about 1.8 hectare) garden in Chiddingfold, Borough of Waverley, Sussex.
[2] As a posthumous honour, the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) created the Norman Falcon Award for the best paper, in the preceding calendar year, published in the journal Petroleum Geoscience.
[10] In 1973 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal and was elected an Honorary Member of the American Association of Petroleum Engineers.