Pre-Conference Short Courses
Pre-Conference Short Course 1 | Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)
Clastic Facies and Depositional Environments in Core
| Dates: | Wednesday, 8 September–Friday, 10 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Location: | Calgary, AB, Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta (ERCB) Core Research Centre |
| Instructor: | Bill Arnott (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada) |
| Fee: | Professional US $2,000 +5% GST Student (limited) US $1,000 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 20 people |
| Content: | 24 PDH |
This is a hands-on core workshop that emphasizes the understanding of physical and biogenic structures in the interpretation of sedimentary depositional environments.
Environments are then related in both time and space using sequence stratigraphic principles. Course time is split approximately 70:30 between core observation and lecture presentations. Practical exercises include core observation and interpretation, which then are used to correlate well-log crosssections from subsurface examples in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Course is especially useful for entry-level geologists and those looking for a refresher course in siliciclastic sedimentology and stratigraphy.
Pre-Conference Short Course 2 | Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)
Seismic Interpretation of Structural Styles
CANCELED
| Dates: | Wednesday, 8 September–Sunday, 12 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructors: | Mark Cooper (Sherwood Geoconsulting, Calgary, AB, Canada) and Marian Warren (Jenner GeoConsulting, Calgary, AB, Canada |
| Fee: | Professional US $2,850 +5% GST Student (limited) US $1,425 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 20 people |
| Content: | 40 PDH |
Pre-Conference Short Course 3 | Energy Minerals Division (EMD)
The Alberta Oil Sands: Regional Geologic Framework, Environmental and Regulatory Issues: A Core Workshop
CANCELED
| Dates: | Thursday, 9 September–Friday, 10 September |
| Time: | 08:00–16:30 |
| Location: | Calgary, AB, Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta (ERCB) Core Research Centre |
| Instructors: | Fran J. Hein (Energy Resources Conservation Board, Calgary, AB, Canada) and Laurence Andriashek (Energy Resources Conservation Board, Edmonton, AB, Canada) |
| Fee: | Professional US $640 +5% GST Student (limited) US $320 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Course notes, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 20 people |
| Content: | 16 PDH |
This course is targeted to AAPG, CSPG and SEPM members as well as energy industry, university and government workers. Its key message is an overview of Canada’s oil sands industry, from both a geologic and regulatory perspective.
Over the two days, we will have a series of lectures on the geology and hydrogeology of the three oil sands areas of Alberta — the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake deposits. Hands-on core exercises will be done on each of the main deposit areas, and will examine different parts of the geologic framework including: Quaternary glacial deposits, bedrock channel deposits; caprock; bitumen reservoir deposits; and underrock, including karst deposits along the unconformity. Specific geo-risk issues, including Quaternary-bitumen reservoir connections, caprock integrity and under-rock karstification will be addressed from both an environmental and regulatory perspective.
Pre-Conference Short Course 4 | American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Writing for the AAPG Bulletin
| Dates: | Saturday, 11 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Gretchen Gillis (AAPG Editor 2007-2010 and Editorial Advisor for Schlumberger, Houston, TX, USA) |
| Fee: | Professional US $40 +5% GST (increases to US $50 after 13 August) Student (limited) US $20 +5% GST (increases to US $25 after 13 August) |
| Includes: | PowerPoint slides, sample papers from the AAPG Bulletin and Bibliography, including writing resources; refreshments and lunch. Attendees will receive a coupon for the AAPG Getting Started Series CD redeemable at the AAPG Bookstore. |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 0.7 CEU; 7 PDH |
Students, young professionals and experienced professionals considering publishing their work in the AAPG Bulletin will benefit from this course. Attendees will learn how to write for publication in the AAPG Bulletin, from creating an abstract to outlining, writing and illustrating their work. During the full-day course, attendees will work on abstracts and outlines. Lectures will provide guidance for finishing other parts of the manuscript.
In addition, attendees will learn how to reduce their time to publication and how to support the AAPG Bulletin as reviewers.
Topics include:
- Why do we write?
- Writing an abstract (exercise)
- Parts of a manuscript – abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references and acknowledgements
- Writing an outline (exercise)
- Figures and figure captions
- Examples from the AAPG Bulletin
- Dealing with a journal – following instructions to authors, increasing the likelihood of manuscript acceptance and learning about and supporting the journal by serving as a manuscript reviewer
- Tips on writing
- Resources for writing
Pre-Conference Short Course 5 | American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Creative Petroleum Exploration
| Dates: | Saturday, 11 September–Sunday, 12 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructors: | Edward Beaumont (Tulsa, OK, USA) and Douglas Strickland (Jaden Consulting, LLC, Grand Rapids, MI, USA) |
| Fee: | Professional US $895 +5% GST (increases to US $995 after 13 August) Student (limited) US $450 +5% GST (increases to US $500 +5% GST after 13 August) |
| Includes: | Course notes, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 1.5 CEU; 15 PDH |
This course is for geologists, geophysicists, engineers and any other geoscientist needing to learn the skills necessary to “think outside the box” and be more creative in exploration for oil and gas.
Oil and gas-finding is an art that requires a creative flair. Modern theory says that creativity is a skill that can be learned and developed through attention and practice. If oil is “first found in the mind” as Wallace Pratt taught us, then developing skills that enhance creativity should be a goal of all explorationists. The purpose of the workshop is to enable participants to begin developing a conceptual understanding of successful exploration, and from that understanding develop their own philosophy of oil and gas finding. The workshop illustrates the application of modern creativity theory to petroleum exploration using numerous case histories and exercises.
Many pertinent issues to successful exploration are covered during the workshop. Participants have the opportunity to consider and learn about:
- What creativity is and •
- how it can be applied to petroleum exploration
- How oil and gas is found as illustrated by case histories
- What characterizes successful explorationists
- The importance of multidisciplinary teams to the creative process
- Methods for enhancing individual and team creativity skills
Pre-Conference Short Course 6 | American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Image Log Interpretation
| Dates: | Saturday, 11 September–Sunday, 12 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Laird Thompson (UF3, Auburn, CA, USA) |
| Fee: | Professional US $895 +5% GST (increases to US $995 after 13 August) Student (limited) US $450 +5% GST) (increases to US $500 +5% GST after 13 August) |
| Includes: | Course notes, 2 CDs (AAPG Image Atlas and a CD with software and problem sets), refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 1.5 CEU; 15 PDH |
This course will benefit geologists, geophysicists, engineers and others who are working on image log interpretation for their company and are looking to expand their knowledge of the application of image log data sets to solve a variety of industry problems.
The primary objective is to show the range of interpretations possible with image log data sets — qualitative, quantitative, geological (sedimentological, structural and diagenetic analyses) and to allow participants to work on examples of these diverse opportunities. This will be accomplished through brief lectures interspersed with numerous workshop exercises.
Topics include:
- Getting started with the software
- The data — their acquisition, quality control and processing
- Looking at lithologies with image logs
- Artifacts on the images
- Working a sedimentology problem
- Image textures — sedimentology vs. diagenesis
- Working a carbonate problem
- An introduction to structural geology and geomechanics
- Working a fracture problem
- An introduction to SCAT
- Working a fault problem
- Working a geomechanical problem
- Quantitative image log analysis
- Working a quantitative problem
Pre-Conference Short Course 7 | Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM)
Sequence Stratigraphy for Graduate Students
| Dates: | Saturday, 11 September–Sunday, 12 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructors: | Vitor Abreu and Jack Neal (ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, TX, USA) |
| Fee: | US $25 +5% GST (limited to graduate students) |
| Includes: | SEPM Student Membership, US $20 SEPM book coupon, SEPM CSP # 9 Exercises in Sequence Stratigraphy, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 1.6 CEU; 16 PDH |
Every graduate student in geoscience who needs to better understand theory and application of sequence stratigraphy should attend this course, which is designed to teach graduate students the principles, concepts and methods of sequence stratigraphy. Sequence stratigraphy is an informal chronostratigraphic methodology that uses stratal surfaces to subdivide the stratigraphic record. This methodology allows the identification of coeval facies, documents the time-transgressive nature of classic lithostratigraphic units, and provides geoscientists with an additional way to analyze and subdivide the stratigraphic record.
Using exercises that utilize outcrop, core, well log and seismic data, the course provides a hands-on experience to learning sequence stratigraphy. The exercises include classic case studies from which many sequence stratigraphic concepts were originally developed.
The main objectives are to review:
- Basic concepts and terminology of sequence stratigraphy
- The stratigraphic building blocks of depositional sequences
- Recognition criteria for the identification of depositional sequences and their components in outcrops, cores, well logs and seismic
- The application of sequence stratigraphy in non-marine, shallow marine and submarine depositional settings
Post-Conference Short Course 8 | Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC)
Completions and Stimulations for Geologists
| Dates: | Thursday, 16 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Jennifer Miskimmons (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA) |
| Fee: | Professional US $450 +5% GST Student (limited) US $225 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, refreshments and lunch |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 8 PDH |
This one-day short course provides a basic understanding of completion and stimulation techniques for geoscientists. The design of wells, from casing schematics through initial stimulation, is covered including the following topics: single completions, multiple completions, tubing sizes and designs, packers and other downhole equipment, perforating techniques, formation damage, acidizing, hydraulic fracturing and other stimulation techniques. The course approaches these topics from a multidisciplinary viewpoint to facilitate the input of geological and petrophysical components into completion and stimulation operations. Data and information that should be considered and shared by all disciplines will be discussed.
Post-Conference Short Course 9 | Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)
Fault Seal Analysis
| Dates: | Thursday, 16 September–Friday, 17 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Russell K. Davies (Rock Deformation Research USA Inc., McKinney, TX, USA) |
| Fee: | Professional US $1,500 +5% GST Student (limited) US $750 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, exercises, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 20 people |
| Content: | 16 PDH |
The objective of this course is to introduce fault seal concepts and methods to geoscientists (geologist and geophysicist) and petroleum engineers in the hydrocarbon industry to apply in their exploration and development projects. This course includes basic fault flow characteristics, but will also develop more complex concepts.
This course is a two-day classroom lecture overview of principles and modern methods in fault seal analysis with exercises to emphasize the main points. Key topics include:
- Fault geometry and fault zone architecture
- Flowbasics
- Permeability and Darcy’s Law
- Capillary seal concepts and sealing capacity
- Relative permeability
- Hydrodynamic seal
- Fault rocks
- Description and deformation mechanisms
- Flow properties
- Fault mapping methods
- Juxtaposition seal
- Fault rock seal
- Shale gouge ratio
- Clay smear potential
- Mapping fault rock distributions: review of basic principles including triangle and juxtaposition diagrams
- Applications of fault seal analysis in exploration and production
- Predicting sealing capacity
- Fault rock properties in reservoir flow simulation models
Post-Conference Short Course 10 | Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)
Practical Geomechanics for Unconventional Oil and Gas
| Dates: | Thursday, 16 September–Friday, 17 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Pat McLellan (McLellan Energy Advisors Inc., Calgary, AB, Canada) |
| Fee: | Professional US $1,250 +5% GST Student (limited) US $625 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, list of references and Internet resources, spreadsheet program for basic wellbore stability and stress analyses, demonstration of advanced geomechanical software, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 40 people |
| Content: | 16 PDH |
Petroleum geomechanics play an increasingly important role in exploration and well planning in many unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. This course provides a concise overview of basic rock mechanics principles and their application to many practical problems encountered in the E&P process.
Topics include:
- In-situ stresses and formation pressures: What you need to know about measuring and calculating in-situ stresses and pore pressures. Stress changes due to depletion or injection.
- Rock mechanical properties: How to determine them in the laboratory, from wireline logs, and other methods. When log-lab calibration really matters.
- In-situ stress and natural fractures: Concept of “critical shear stress” and how to use it to your advantage in finding fracture permeability and understanding well productivity.
- Natural fracture networks: Introduction to stochastic fracture network modeling using core and log data. Forecasting fracture connectivity in reservoirs and caprocks.
- Wellbore stability: Fundamental mechanics of borehole collapse and lost circulation. Cause and effect. Determination of the appropriate “mud weight window”. When will an openhole completion work. Practical guidelines for drilling and completions.
- Hydraulic fracturing: Basics steps for planning and executing a well stimulation campaign.
- Oil sands geomechanics: What’s new in thermally enhanced recovery with SAGD and CSS. Assessing caprock integrity for steam injection projects.
- Geomechanical monitoring: Basics of microseismics; tiltmeters, InSAR, GPS and other techniques that rely on the measurement of ground or subsurface movements.
Post-Conference Short Course 11 | Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)
Sequence Stratigraphy
CANCELED
| Dates: | Thursday, 16 September–Friday, 17 September |
| Time: | 08:00–17:00 |
| Instructor: | Ashton Embry (Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, AB, Canada) |
| Fee: | Professional US $1,000 +5% GST Student (limited) US $500 +5% GST |
| Includes: | Manual, refreshments and lunches |
| Limit: | 25 people |
| Content: | 16 PDH |
