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September 2006

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There’s still time to save money by registering early for the AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Perth -- but the deadline date is drawing closer. This year’s international meeting -- AAPG’s first international conference in Australia since the 1992 event in Sidney -- will be held Nov. 5-8 at the new Perth Convention Exhibition Centre.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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An important deadline is looming for those who want to submit an abstract for the next AAPG Annual Convention. Abstracts can be submitted through Sept. 27 for the AAPG Annual Convention, to be held April 1-4 in Long Beach, Calif.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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It’s a new school year for universities, with a new kind of student. Geoscience professors have seen the desktop-computer generation, the super-processor generation and the laptop generation. Now they’re welcoming the cell-phone/iPod/Xbox/Blackberry/digital-revolution generation.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Eleven speakers have been announced for this year’s Distinguished Lecture program, including one speaker who will be making a record-setting fourth turn as a DL speaker. The program, funded in part by the AAPG Foundation, will offer seven domestic and four international speakers this season.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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For more than 30 years the VGP has been sending qualified, professional geologists to colleges and universities around the world to speak about the future of petroleum geology -- and the speakers are ready for another year in helping geoscience students prepare themselves for their next steps after graduation.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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To some, the academic world of colleges and universities represents Ivory Towers, detached from reality. To the U.S. Department of Energy, they represent a crucial – and practical – research potential.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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The AAPG 2007 Education Calendar is in the final production stages, and when it’s delivered to you in an upcoming EXPLORER you’ll see all of the exciting things being planned. Meanwhile, some valuable training opportunities are available for you this fall as well.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This time-worn admonition appears to have been ignored by certain administrators at Louisiana State University (LSU), where there’s an effort under way to phase out the venerable 54-year-old Coastal Studies Institute (CSI). The irony of the timing is notable given that coastal issues are “front and center” in Louisiana following the devastation incurred by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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The annual meeting of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, which will use a unique, high-tech site for its technical program, will be held Sept. 25-27 in Lafayette, La.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Emphasis: Geophysics Review

 
When you’re hot, you’re hot -- sizzling, in fact. Whether offshore -- like the Western Neptune, left, acquiring a wide-azimuth seismic survey in the Gulf of Mexico -- or deep in undeveloped territory, the seismic industry is having no trouble finding work to keep them busy.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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The demands of the E&P marketplace are growing -- and with the upstream spread thin, some needs and challenges are being exposed. Much of the excitement in the geophysical industry today stems from the need for, and development of, new technologies and approaches to meet new challenges. Indeed, ordinary 3-D seismic has become just so, well, ordinary in many cases.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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There’s nothing quite like a successful field project to demonstrate the commercial viability of a particular technology. So chalk one up for the recently completed wide-azimuth OBS (ocean bottom sensor) node survey over the BP-operated Atlantis field in the challenging deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Acquiring all the necessary permits from various governmental agencies to conduct a seismic data acquisition program can be a particularly time consuming, expensive and tedious process. Once the permits are in hand, considerably more time and money is expended in implementing the appropriate procedures in the field -- particularly when it comes to protecting any endangered species that reside (or are thought to reside) in the area to be surveyed.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Even with a proven product and willing investors putting together a big money deal can be a daunting project.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Standing Columns

September for those in the Northern Hemisphere (or in Rio Linda) is harvest time; you finally get to reap what you have sown and nurtured during the spring and summer. So for 50-somethings, at this stage of our careers we have geologists younger than us -- and if we still have bosses, they actually depend on us. We initiate projects and manage people. Our decisions influence others in our companies.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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There is an increasing need for geologists who understand the development of unconventional reservoirs, such as exploitation of tight gas shales. One of the most interesting aspects of work force studies is the number of new jobs opening for geoscientists in energy-related fields worldwide.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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As one of my colleagues and fellow DEG members recently pointed out, what the DEG has to offer its members should be much more than receiving the annual ballot, quarterly issues of DEG’s journal 'Environmental Geosciences' and the DEG Web site. DEG should provide its members an opportunity for personal involvement and attachment. Let’s talk about opportunities!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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A fundamental premise of seismic stratigraphy is that seismic reflections follow chronostratigraphic surfaces, not lithostratigraphic surfaces. In 1993, Tipper published an intriguing paper which posed the following question: “Do seismic reflection events necessarily follow chronostratigraphic surfaces?”.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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As the calendar turns to September I am struck by the similarity between the agricultural significance of this time of year and the careers for all “50-somethings,” which would include the largest single age group of AAPG members.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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This month the Senate will take up the bill addressing leasing the OCS Area 181 in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The expectation is that the Senate bill (S. 3711, called the “181 Bill”), if passed, will be the counterpart to H.R. 4761, the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act passed by the House of Representatives on June 29. Conference proceedings likely will begin shortly after Senate action and naming of conferees for both the House and Senate. Both houses are expected to move quickly to name conferees if the Senate passes its OCS legislation.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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The AAPG Eastern Section was founded in 1977 in Washington, D.C., by a council of AAPG associated societies. The Section has been active ever since, holding society-hosted annual meetings at locales throughout the Section and eastern Canada. The Section currently is home to 2,209 AAPG members (1,039 Active, 695 Associate, 298 Student, 163 Emeritus, 11 Honorary and three Life members).
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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