Present the current status of unconventional resources around the world, including a broad perspective to better understand the important palaeogeographic, tectonic and burial history that lead to significant accumulations and production from unconventional reservoirs.

Theme subcategories:

• Shale gas and liquids exploration: insights from palaeogeography, tectonic setting and burial history
• Biogenic gas
• Unconventional plays: unconventional methods
• Shale plays in eastern hemisphere
• Coalbed methane
• Geothermal resources of sedimentary basins
• Gas hydrates
• Resource plays (shale gas, tight oil)

The Appalachian basin is where the industry began and the basin is reemerging. This theme will cover the history and renaissance in hydrocarbon production in the Appalachian basin from Titusville to the emerging plays and discoveries of the last decade.

Theme subcategories:

• Marcellus Shale
• Utica Shale
• Pennsylvanian - Upper Devonian shallow reservoirs
• Deep reservoirs and Rome Trough plays – An under explored target
• Carbonates – Silurian and Ordovician targets
• EOR, EGR and CO2 opportunities
• History of the Appalachian basin petroleum

The theme will provide a perspective on recent oil and gas discoveries, emerging plays and breakthroughs in geoscience technology around the world.

Theme subcategories:

• Recent oil and gas discoveries and the keys to their discovery
• Emerging oil and gas plays worldwide (global exploration)
  • U.S. and Canada
  • International
  • Onshore
  • Offshore
• Risk analysis of new ventures
• Leading-edge technologies used to identify emerging frontiers
• Regional frontier play analysis
  

Present cutting edge geoscience and multidisciplinary studies applied to oil and gas fields worldwide.

Theme subcategories:

• Subsurface uncertainty management — how models help
• The geologic tools of field surveillance
• Horizontal drilling and completion technology in non-shale reservoirs
• 3D and 4D models in mature fields — identifying remaining reserves and reinventing old plays
• Lessons from the deep water fields — insights into depositional processes, structure, hydrocarbon systems and geohistory
• Application of geophysics to mature oil and gas fields
• Reservoir characterization, geologic modeling and geostatistics
• Novel techniques in reservoir modeling and flow simulation — concepts and applications
• Other

This theme will present the current trends and concepts of deposition, stratigraphy and characterization of siliciclastic rocks from sandstone to shale as applied to both exploration and development projects.

Theme subcategories:

• Depositional systems and sedimentology of shale and tightsand reservoirs (SEPM Research Symposium)
  • Additional SEPM Research Symposium Information (click to view)

    Global interest in shale and tight-sand unconventional reservoirs as a significant new hydrocarbon resource demands innovative research into unraveling the unique depositional systems and sedimentologic processes that contributed to their accumulation. This research symposium is intended to highlight stratigraphic and sedimentologic research and emerging depositional concepts which can be used as predictive tools in exploration and exploitation of unconventional shale and tight-sand reservoirs. Discussion and research topics listed below are meant to serve as general guidelines to the content sought for this SEPM sponsored theme session, other topics are certainly welcome:

    • Use of sequence-stratigraphic approaches and chemo-stratigraphic methods in the identification of shale and tight-sand reservoir 'sweet spots'
    • Sedimentologic and stratigraphic influence on fracture mechanics and organic geochemistry of shale and tight-sand reservoirs
    • Comparison of 'deep' versus 'shallow' depositional models for the accumulation of organic-rich shale facies
    • Organic-rich shale facies- a consequence of regional tectono-depositional systems and basin evolutionary history or global events?
    • Conventional siliciclastic depositional models — are they appropriate for interpretation of unconventional shale and tight-sand reservoirs?
    • Exploring mudstones and tight-sand reservoirs— depositional processes and characterization
    • Reservoir prediction in low-permeability lacustrine facies
• Deep water siliciclastics
  • Domestic
  • International
• Alluvial-Fluvial-Deltaic-Eolian siliciclastics
• Sedimentology, geomorphology and stratigraphy of coastal, estuarine and nearshore systems
• Digenetic effects on clastic reservoirs
  • Climate and weathering controls
• Source-to-sink sedimentary systems
• Advances in correlation methods and architectural analysis of clastic reservoirs
• Outcrop, subsurface and simulation — perspectives on
  quantitative modeling of sedimentary systems

This theme will present the current understanding and new research into carbonate and evaporite deposits as applied to exploration and development.

Theme subcategories:

• The Great American Carbonate Bank — geology and economic
  resources of the Cambro-Ordovician Sauk Megasequence
• Stratigraphy, sedimentology and diagenesis of carbonate
  and interbedded carbonate and organic-rich mudrock
  unconventional reservoirs
• Porosity creation in carbonate reservoirs through burial
  corrosion and other burial and hydrothermal processes — how
  important is it?
• Characterization of carbonate and evaporite systems —
  stratigraphy, depositional processes, diagenesis, reservoirs and
  seals
• New tools and techniques to characterize carbonate reservoirs
  — advances in seismic imaging, well-log analysis and reservoir
  modeling
• Importance of mechanical stratigraphy and identification of
  fractures in carbonate reservoirs
• Carbonate reservoirs as targets for enhanced oil recovery —
  major considerations
• New plays and play concepts for carbonate reservoirs
• Identification and modeling of complex pore systems in
  carbonate reservoirs
• High resolution chronostratigraphy of carbonate systems and
  reservoirs

This theme will examine the relationship between energy and environment and will cover a range of topics from risk, environmental protection, regulatory issues, and public perceptions concerning energy production and CO2 capture and storage.

Theme subcategories:

• Environmental risks in deep offshore and frontier areas
• Water risks and mitigation strategies from onshore unconventional resource development
• Understanding stray gas
• Air quality concerns from oil and gas production
• Regulatory issues with hydraulic fracturing
• Advances in carbon capture and geologic storage in North America
  • CCS and CCUS
• Resource development for a healthy society

This theme will present new concepts and ideas covering the range of sedimentary basin-scale systems and hydrocarbon generation and accumulation.

Theme subcategories:

• Stratal patterns in basin analysis, sedimentation and tectonics
• Tectonic control on sedimentation patterns
• Porosity and permeability development and evolution
• Exploring the Role of ichnology in modifying porosity and permeability
• Geo-themochronologic methods in basin analysis

This theme will present the state-of-the-art approaches and research into structural geology and tectonics from the basin to the reservoir.

Theme subcategories:

• Structural diagenesis
• Plate tectonics and neotectonics
• New models in contractional tectonics and fold-thrust belts — implications for exploration and production of hydrocarbons, including reservoir productivity
• New models in extensional tectonics — implications for tectonostratigraphic evolution and play element prediction
• New models in oblique and strike-slip systems — how well does the flower structure model hold up?
• Exploration in salt and deep water structural systems
• Impact of faulting, fracturing and stress in shale and tight
  reservoirs
• Geomechanical modeling of natural and stimulated reservoirs
• Fault analysis and fault controlled traps
• Other

This theme will focus on leading-edge technology and recent advances in geophysics with emphasis on integration of geology, geophysics and petroleum engineering to improve exploration and production.

Theme subcategories:

• 3D reflection seismic, post stack attribute and pre-stack attribute method-based interpretations relevant to stratigraphic and fault geometry of hydrocarbon plays
• VSP seismic interpretation relevant to hydrocarbon plays
• Microseismic methods relevant to fracturing and exploration geophysics
• Potential field methods relevant to exploration
• Induced seismicity
• Other geophysical methods and analysis techniques relevant to exploration geophysics
• Rock physics
• Geology/geophysics integration case studies
• Other

This theme will cover advances in geoscience applications and research from play and prospect assessment to reservoir modeling to global understanding of earth history.

Theme subcategories:

• Stratigraphy and sedimentology
• Geochemistry
• Geochronology
• Hydrology and engineering geology
• Marine geology and oceanography
• Paleontology and biostratigraphy
  • Important transitions in the formation of the Earth’s sedimentary crust and implications for the modern and future earth-life system
• Astrogeology
• Education and public outreach
• Retrospectives of Petroleum Exploration
• Other

This theme will focus on the research and current work of student members of AAPG and SEPM.