A professional who negotiates permits with property owners to allow prospecting, surveying, and testing for petroleum and gas deposits. Responsibilities include:

• Searches public records to determine legal ownerships of proposed exploration sites.
• Precedes prospecting party to area and interviews local authorities and landowners to determine legal and highway regulations and to draw up trespass agreements.
• Draws sketches of prospecting locations and terrain to be traversed.
• Drives stakes in ground to indicate locations of shot holes and recording instruments for use in surveying land and conducting seismic, magnetic, and gravity tests.