AAPG’s spotlight turns to South Africa this month for a historic conference that boasts a premiere technical program that focuses on the top topics of today’s industry.
AAPG’s spotlight turns to South Africa this month for a historic conference that boasts a premiere technical program that focuses on the top topics of today’s industry.
The AAPG International Conference and Exhibition will be held Oct. 26-29 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre – the Association’s first ICE ever in South Africa.
Next stop, Cape Town. AAPG’s 2008 International Conference and Exhibition (ICE) will be held Oct. 26-29 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre – the Association’s first ever ICE in South Africa. The meeting’s theme is “African Energy, Global Impact,” and it will feature 70-plus technical sessions exploring the latest in exploration, geology, geosciences and industry trends. The Geological Society of South Africa will serve as conference co-hosts.
The theme is “African Energy, Global Impact,” and organizers have worked for more than two years compiling a technical program that not only offers the latest in African geology and exploration but also a variety of sessions dealing with cutting edge technology and science from around the world.
“While there is a large part of the technical program that uses examples from the African oil and gas experience to bring lessons of global importance, this conference also looks at the larger issues of worldwide energy resources, the technology employed to image and extract them, the people it takes to successfully commercialize those reserves and how to minimize the impact on the environment in the process,” said Sipho Mkhize, conference general chair.
That program also includes a large number of short courses, special forums, featured luncheon speakers and geological trips showcasing the best of African geology.
In keeping with the South Africa theme, this year’s 70-plus technical sessions are built around “the big five” symbols of Africa’s animal kingdom.
Those themes are:
- The Elephant – A Steady Advance: “Deepwater: Ancient Analogues, Current Technologies, Future Opportunities.”
- The Leopard – Unraveling Secrets: “Advances in Geoscience and Allied Disciplines.”
- The Black Rhino – Turned Around From Near Extinction: “Next Generation Tools and Technologies.”
- The Lion King – Roar of the Future: “The New Business of Energy.”
- Cape Buffalo – Beauty and the Beast: “Gondwana and Pangean Petroleum Systems: Exploration, Development and Production – Emerging Plays, Lessons and Analogs.”
In addition, the Cape Town program offers:
- A colorful and exciting opening session, featuring a live performance of music from South Africa, a talk from Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of Minerals and Energy for South Africa, and a keynote address by Duncan Clarke, chairman and CEO of Global Pacific & Partners, titled “Africa: Great Frontier in World Hydrocarbons, Past, Present and Future.”
- A plenary session dealing with African energy.
- Four special forums dealing with the Lusi mud volcano; global climate change (from an African perspective); the role of small and independent companies in Africa’s future; and the geosciences work force of the future.
- An African deepwater core poster session.
- A featured speaker luncheon offering the talk “The Four-Billion-Year Existence of Life – Africa’s Role in Understanding This Remarkable Story,” given by Bruce Rubidge, director of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of Witwatersrand.
- The AAPG Distinguished Lecturer Luncheon, featuring Lynn N. Hughes, a judge with the U.S. District Court in Houston and this year’s AAPG distinguished lecturer of ethics, speaking on “Dilemmas in Trust.”