New Study Finds Earth Warming at Record Rate, But No Evidence of Climate Change Accelerating - 06 June, 2024 07:30 AM
The US Oil and Gas Industry Emits Less Carbon Than It Used To - 04 June, 2024 07:30 AM
Depleted horizontal oil and gas wells could have a second life storing renewable energy, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Because renewable forms of electricity generation like solar and wind require low-cost energy storage, the NREL researchers propose using depleted hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells to store electrical energy in the form of compressed natural gas to be released to spin an expander/generator when electrical demand is high.
Are years of upstream oil and gas underinvestment and under-exploration finally catching up with the world? Is the hope of avoiding a climate catastrophe now a lost cause? Can the global energy industry deliver adequate, affordable energy to meet the world’s future needs? Is the word in an energy crisis? Annually at midyear, a number of organizations publish overviews of the global energy picture. Based on those reports, there is good news. And bad news.
Question: If the science of predicting the risks and mitigation of induced seismicity, figuratively speaking, was a glass of hydraulic fracturing injection fluid, would it be half full or half empty? The answer is . . . yes. One on hand, geoscientists are getting better about predicting the when and where of seismicity; on the other, there is a lot more seismicity in a lot more places that have to be predicted.
As geoscientists try to determine their future roles in the oil and gas industry as well as in the energy transition, some discover that there is a solid bridge between the two in a doctoral research and training program in the United Kingdom. GeoNetZero is part of the UK’s Centre for Doctoral Training program, led by professor John Underhill and established in 2014 to help train geoscientists through a partnership of universities and industry for today’s energy challenges.
Approximately 80 percent of today’s global energy supply comes from fossils fuels, 54 percent of which is supplied by oil and gas. Global society’s goal for the near future is to enjoy the same or better quality of life, but with zero carbon emitted. This presents a set of challenging questions of particular relevance to AAPG members. How will energy demand evolve? How difficult is it to remove oil and gas from the global energy mix? And if they remain part of the mix, what kind of hydrocarbons are we looking for? How important will geological carbon storage be in assisting efforts to reach net zero? These questions were investigated in a recent paper by the authors entitled, “Demand for ‘advantaged’ hydrocarbons during the 21st century energy transition,” and published in the journal Energy Reports. The results are summarized here.
Nestled in the southernmost Caribbean lies Trinidad and Tobago, a 5,130-square-kilometer twin-island republic, famous for its colorful Carnival celebrations, melodious steelpan drums, picturesque beaches and savory street foods. Trinidad and Tobago is known also for its longstanding presence in the energy sector, which is the primary economic driver for the country’s population of 1.4 million. T and T’s latest Deep Water Competitive Bidding Round launched in December and closed in June. The Ministry will announce bidding round results in September.
During the height of the pandemic, Society of Exploration Geophysicists Executive Director Jim White and I discussed how we could work better together – delivering an innovative conference for petroleum and energy geoscientists that also involved other geoscience disciplines focused on solving real world challenges. Our elected leaders at the time supported the vision for AAPG and SEG to create a new, joint annual meeting: the International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy, or “IMAGE,” conducted in cooperation with SEPM. We’re eager and ready for IMAGE ’22 in Houston at the end of this month, and hope that you are, too.
Peter Odell was a pioneer figure in petroleum economics. His ideas and analyses were highly influential in his own time and are still worth studying today. Many people came to know of Odell through his best-selling “Oil and World Power: A Geographical Interpretation.” What strikes the reader of this and other works by Odell is the author’s cross-disciplinary approach to the oil and gas industry, integrating economic analyses with geopolitics, history, maps and geography. His publications were relatable to geologists as well. The issues he addressed, in different forms, are still with us.
The Africa Region’s GeoMagic team is the winner of the AAPG Sustainable Development in Energy Competition. AAPG’s Sustainable Development in Energy Competition for students and young professionals is intended to encourage sustainable development in energy industries. The objective is to harness the creativity of students and young professionals to develop innovative and sustainable development projects across the energy spectrum with a positive social, environmental and economic impact.
What exactly will be the role of geoscientists as we traverse the difficult path to a net-zero future? Maria Angela Capello, managing director of Red Tree Consulting, executive vice president of the carbon storage company RESI and AAPG Distinguished Lecturer, said those professionals will play a unique role because, frankly … Who else is there?
The presentation will focus on hydraulic fracture geometry in shales, the materials used in the fracturing process, and treatment monitoring via microseismic.
This talk will provide information to better understand the principles of surface geochemistry (SG), how best to use SG data in exploration or development programs, how to develop a cost effective sampling and analytical program, and will also explore best practices for the interpretation and integration of SG data.
An overview of a new ambient seismic imaging method and applications of the method throughout the lifecycles (exploration through refracing) of unconventional oil and/or gas fields.
The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is one of the more exciting shale plays in the United States at the current time.
Effective hydraulic fracture stimulation is critical for shale development, and microseismic is the only technology able to map the growth of these hydraulic fracture networks.
Fossil fuels have led to a profound increase in world living standards but resulting emissions of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere are a primary factor in climate change. Atmospheric content of CO2 and methane have risen 146% and 257% respectively since pre-industrial time and the rate of increase through 2019 has accelerated. If significant steps are not taken in the coming decade to halt the increase in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a phase may be reached in the 2030-2050-time frame described as a “tipping point”, in which steady changes may be replaced by a large-scale change in the climate system. The Middle East is an area of high climate change vulnerability in the coming decades due to extreme temperatures, sea level rise and changing weather patterns.
Patawarta Diapir, approximately 2-6km2 located in the Central Flinders Ranges, South Australia, has been interpreted as a single allochthonous salt sheet containing Tonian-aged igneous and layered evaporite sedimentary intrasalt inclusions derived from the Callanna Group. In this webinar, Rachelle Kernen describes the diapir as five primarily silty limestone inclusions (0.5-2km2), re-interpreted as Ediacaran-aged Wonoka Formation and Patsy Hill member of the Bonney Sandstone (Wilpena Group). Webinar presented Thursday 3 December 2020 at 11:00 SGT (GMT+8) Singapore time
The goal of this e-symposium is to provide an overview of the latest trends and technologies for water management for oil and gas drilling, completions, and production.
In a world moving to net-zero emissions during the COVID-driven oil price collapse, there remain important scientific and business opportunities for geoscientists, particularly those with expertise in stratigraphy, sedimentology, reservoir geology and hydrocarbon production. In this webinar, Dr. Julio Friedmann, senior research scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University discusses the challenges this community faces which are not scientific or technical, but rather involve shifts in business model, policy and global market trends. Webinar presented via Zoom on 11 December 2020 at 11:30 am CST (UTC-6).
This esymposium takes a close look at workflows associated with resource plays, and analyzes where integration must occur between disciplines, data, and workflows at all phases of the process.
President Biden has laid out a bold and ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the United States by 2050. The pathway to that target includes cutting total greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and eliminating them entirely from the nation’s electricity sector by 2035. The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management will play an important role in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions by reducing the environmental impacts of fossil energy production and use – and helping decarbonize other hard-to abate sectors.
Request a visit from Jennifer Wilcox!
Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.
Request a visit from Alex Simms!