Annual Report 2012: FY July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012
Europe Region
There were a number of achievements and overall growth of AAPG’s presence in Europe during 2011-2012. With our professional staff of Europe office in London and their help it looks optimistic that the region is looking at a decent measure of follow-up success as far as educational programs and other activities.
The key issues we face are
- Promotion of active membership
- Managing transition from student to professional membership
- Broadcasting products and services
- Provision of services/support to student chapters
- Identifying European lecturers and visiting geoscientists conferences
The AAPG European Region and the Moroccan Association of Petroleum Geologists co-hosted a conference on Northwest African exploration and geology in October 2011 in Marrakech.
ICE went to Europe in October 2011 and visited Milan, Italy. This show is the one we can be proud of as European Region to welcome all of the international attendees there. A strong technical program plus an historically inspiring setting helped make the 2011 International Conference and Exhibition a world-class winner. Attendees totaled 1,989 from 70 countries around the globe, making it the fifth largest ICE in AAPG history. Several of the technical sessions attracted standing-room-only crowds, confirming what organizers called a technical program that covered all the hot topics of petroleum geology. Our “thank you” goes to all of our ER AAPG members that have been involved in organization. They truly deserve our recognition as well as all of the sponsors for their generous support.
APPEX, the annual international E&P deal forum, took place at the Business Design Centre in London, Islington. For 10 years now APPEX has brought together principals, senior managers, business developers and new venture managers for an unmatched opportunity to network and do business with NOCs, governments and global E&P deal-makers and decision-makers. Over two-and-a-half days, 600+ attendees explored current and future trends in international business, new oil and gas hot-spots, and discovered and debated dozens of upcoming prospects from around the globe. All this took place in a relaxed, friendly environment that has been carefully designed for maximum networking, allowing attendees to buy, sell and trade prospects and properties, find new strategic partners and clients, and stay one step ahead of the competition. Accompanying the conference and exhibition one short course was presented by Ted Beaumont, AAPG president-elect. AAPG President Paul Weimer visited universities in UK, and also David Curtiss, AAPG Executive Director was present at APPEX.
Warsaw was the venue for a Geosciences Technical Workshop on unconventional gas shales in Poland, which was held in May 2012. The workshop attracted an audience of industry, government and academic delegates. The format of the workshop followed a trusted formula of oral presentations during the morning followed by break-out discussion sessions in the afternoon. Oral presentations covered play analogues, shale deposition and lithology, reservoir characteristics and analysis and commercial development and exploitation. There was a diverse range of discussion topics including porosity/permeability prediction, reserves assessment, play definition and lateral variation, model validation and the environmental aspects of hydraulic fracturing. There was a general consensus at the end of the workshop that Polish gas shales could indeed yield promising results.
Student and Young Professional Activities
The ER Council is very much aware that the future of the geoscience community is dependent on the students and young professionals; therefore, a subcommittee of young professionals was formally established. The subcommittee is in charge of all students and young professional activities, IBA has its own subcommittee.
Twenty university teams from across Europe gathered at the Albion Hotel in Prague on March 15-17 for the European Region IBA competition. The Region played host to nearly 150 students, faculty staff and industry representatives. We were honored by the presence of AAPG Executive Director David Curtiss, who was on his way home to Tulsa after accompanying AAPG president Paul Weimer on a visit to Moscow.
The quality of the exploration evaluations and presentations has improved significantly over the years that the competition has taken place. Team from IFP, Rueil Malmaison, who won the competition, represented Europe in the global finals on April 20-21 prior to ACE in Long Beach. Worthy runners up were Royal Holloway University of London in 2nd place and La Salle Beauvais in 3rd place. The judges were extremely complimentary about the overall quality of the presentations with nearly 50% of the teams achieving a score in the upper quartile.
The Region has given financial support to various student chapters in order that they can organize field trips, lectures, and other events. We have also been trying to promote the creation of more Young Professionals Chapters linked to our student chapters, to manage the transition between university and profession.
Education
Lisbon Education Week took place in February at Lisbon University. Two courses on introduction to deepwater hydrocarbon exploration and seismic interpretation applied to hydrocarbon exploration attracted 30 delegates in total.
AAPG President Paul Weimer’s postponed tour took place in Europe in March. He visited Moscow, Russia; Kiev, Ukraine; Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Vienna and Leoben, Austria; Czech Republic; and Brno and Warsaw, Poland. He taught his short courses in a total of seven cities and promoted AAPG to students, young professionals, as well as other members of AAPG.
International DL speaker for Europe, Quinn Passey from ExxonMobil, came to Europe to speak about gas shales. He was in Europe late March /early April and had a great success during his tour speaking in Vienna, Brno, Budapest, Bucharest, Kiev, The Hague, Hamburg, Geneva, Milan, Madrid, and Lisbon.
Newsletter
The newsletter’s mission is to keep the members updated on technical topics as well as worthy news of the European geosciences community. The initiative is driven by Karen Wagner, Statoil, who is acting as chief editor. The ER Newsletter, Unlocking the Future, comes quarterly with regular contributions like R&D projects coordinated by William R. Sassi, IFP; exploration country focus papers coordinated by Karen Wagner; news from the region, student chapters and IBA activities, and regional conferences and seminars.
Membership
As of June 30, 2012 membership in the Region is over 3,600, slightly up on 2010-2011 and about 10 percent of the total AAPG membership. We currently have 37 active student chapters and three young professional chapters.
Council Meetings
The Council regularly meets quarterly to ensure that targets and objectives are being met, showing full commitment to the region and its members. The ER president is in regular contact with the AAPG London office and also meets with the president-elect and past president regularly every other week or by purpose and when needed.