March 2006

My letter to AAPG members in the January EXPLORER (“AAPG at the Crossroads”) laid out a course implementing AAPG’s Strategic Plan and moving the Association toward a true international identity in the coming years, recognizing that, in the present global energy transition, the alternate course – the status quo – is to surrender world E&P leadership and to be bypassed (as merely a regional association) on the global energy stage.

Where can you have the opportunity, for about $80 per day for the price of admission, to choose from 465 technical talks, 415 posters, view state-of-the-art technology from around the world, and enjoy networking with top geoscientists and business leaders?

It is the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE), scheduled for April 9-12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

I hope you will be able to attend the AAPG Annual Convention in Houston, scheduled for April 9-12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which will feature a number of DEG-sponsored sessions and activities, plus DEG-flavored topics that will be of interest to all.

Fizz-gas and commercial-gas reservoirs look identical in stacked P-P seismic data and in migrated P-P images – and the failure of traditional post-stack P-P data to distinguish between these two gas saturations has frustrated efforts by operators to avoid drilling fizz-gas targets for decades.

A solution now appears to be available through the use of multicomponent seismic technology.

This column will focus on two issues that have been and will probably continue to be on the screen in Washington for the remainder of this year and on into the future. The 2007 federal budget and legislative initiatives that foster the maintenance and growth of the scientific community.

AAPG’s Southwest Section exists to advance the science and profession of geology as it relates to the exploration for and development of petroleum, natural gas and other energy minerals in the southwestern region of the United States of America.