The Bosphorus is a thin strait separating the continents of Europe and Asia. For millennia it has been a crossroad, where east meets west, in the beautiful city of Istanbul. And it is here that we’ve just concluded the first-ever Regional APPEX conference.
Nearly 200 attendees from 29 countries attended the inaugural APPEX Regional 2012 event, held Nov. 8-9 in Istanbul, Turkey. The event was built on the success of the annual APPEX Global conference in London, an established forum for those looking to build partnerships and promote prospects.
The Bosphorus is a thin strait separating the continents of Europe and Asia. For millennia it has been a crossroad, where east meets west, in the beautiful city of Istanbul. And it is here that we’ve just concluded the first-ever Regional APPEX conference.
Building on the highly successful Global APPEX held annually in London, nearly 200 delegates from 29 countries came to Istanbul, this regional hub of commerce – and location of AAPG’s 2014 International Conference and Exhibition – to meet for two days and talk about oil and natural gas investment opportunities in eastern Europe and central Asia.
I would like to thank TPAO, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, and its president and CEO Mehmet Uysal and his team for their strong support, which made this a memorable and successful event. I also want to thank our host society, the Turkish Association of Petroleum Geologists, and its president, Ismail Bahtiyar, as well as all of our sponsors for supporting this meeting.
I’d also like to recognize APPEX Committee chair Mike Lakin, the AAPG European Region Council and Jeremy Richardson, Anisha Patel, Fionn Devine and Ciaran Larkin, our AAPG team in London for a superb job organizing the conference.
APPEX is an acquisition and divestiture (A&D) conference. As such, it is where science, technology and exploration creativity meet business opportunities.
It’s about finding and making deals to explore and produce oil and natural gas.
Ours is fundamentally an applied science. As an association our purpose is to advance the science of petroleum geology.
But we don’t do science for science’s sake. We seek to advance science to find oil and natural gas to fuel the world’s growing need for energy.
That is where the true value of what we do as petroleum geoscientists becomes evident.
Connecting science and business is also the focus of a brand new product developed by DPA President Charles Sternbach, in cooperation with AAPG’s education department: the AAPG/DPA Playmakers Forum .
Building on the successful Discovery Thinking forums at ACE and ICE, this one-day program will provide you with updates on hot plays around the United States, as well as build skills needed to succeed at an A&D conference, such as APPEX, or prospect expos, such as NAPE.
Charles has established a stellar lineup of speakers – and we’re packing a lot of useful information into one day, as well as opportunities to network with other professionals. It’s part of our on-going commitment to demonstrate the relevance of our science and provide value to our members and prospective members.
The AAPG/DPA Playmakers Forum is where oil finders gather. I urge you to visit the Education page at our website for more information and to register for this event.
And mark your calendars for our next A&D conference: The Global APPEX will be held March 5-7 in London.
Hope to see you there.