Annual Report 2011: FY July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011
Europe Region
The European Region has had a very active year of conferences, educational events and student activities. The key issues that face the region are:
- Promotion of Active membership
- Managing transition from Student to Professional membership
- Expanding membership in Eastern Europe
- Broadcasting products and services
- Education, particularly in Eastern Europe
- Provision of services/support to Student Chapters
- Identifying European lecturers and visiting geoscientists
Conferences
Our regional conference took place in Kiev, Ukraine and covered Black Sea and Caspian Sea exploration. This very successful conference was held in association with the Ukrainian Association of Geologists. Over 500 delegates attended and feedback about the content and location were generally good.
A workshop on the UN Framework Classification and resource assessment procedures took place at the Royal Society of Arts in London. It was held in association with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. There were about 50 delegates from oil companies, resource auditing companies and government agencies. The event served to introduce people to the new UNFC resource assessment procedure and compare it with existing procedures such as PRMS and CRIRSCO.
APPEX, the annual international E&P deal forum took place at the Business Design Centre in London again this year. The event attracted over 550 delegates and more than 65 exhibitors. Accompanying the conference and exhibition were two short courses presented by John Dolson and Ted Beaumont. AAPG President David Rensink visited universities in Norway, Denmark, and the UK after the conference and attended the inaugural meeting of the Copenhagen Student Chapter.
Student and Young Professional Activities
The regional IBA competition took place in Prague and the 17 teams that competed were judged by a panel of 8 industry executives. The winning team was from the University of Southampton, with IFP and Lisbon coming second and third respectively. Southampton went on to be placed second in the global final at the ACE in April.
Eight Student Chapter Leaders attended the IBA Competition and held a meeting to discuss joint initiatives and programs. The second United Kingdom Student Chapter Leadership Days took place in Manchester with representatives from seven of the ten UK Student Chapters attending.
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
Jan de Jaeger visited universities in Bucharest, Vienna, Kiev, Ivan-Frankivsk, Budapest, and Miskolc to present a course on risk and volumetric analysis to potential IBA teams. This was the first lecture tour wholly supported by the European Region. Herman Darman traveled to Gubkin (Moscow), Utrecht, and Kiev universities to promote the AAPG. Between March and May AAPG Distinguished Lecturer, Peter Kukla visited 10 cities in 10 countries in Europe. Finally, Berend van Hoorn visited ten locations in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy to present a lecture on the geological setting of turbidite systems. In addition he led a field trip to the Laga Formation in Italy.
Short courses on rift basin geology and basin analysis were held at Paris VI University. Approximately 40 delegates attended each course and we plan to hold these courses in Paris again next year.
We had a much more successful Education Week in Aberdeen this year with a raft of European presenters and lecturers. It lasted 4 days and comprised 12 speakers covering drilling, petrophysics, geophysics, and unconventional hydrocarbons. A field trip to Stonehaven was held in association with the event.
Jaap Mondt travelled to Kiev and as part of the Tutkovsy Lecture series in conjunction with NADRA and the UAG, presented a two-day lecture covering geophysics, seismic acquisition and processing, quantitative and joint interpretation. There was a very good turnout of delegates and students with supplementary presentations organized by the UAG in Kiev.
Membership
As of Dec. 31, 2010 membership in the Region is 3,576, slightly up on 2009 and about 10 percent of the total AAPG membership. We currently have 33 active Student Chapters and three Young Professionals Chapters.