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It is perhaps the most ironic move in the industry in years. On Nov. 4, citizens in Denton – a city on the edge of the Barnett Shale in north Texas with a population of 123,000 – voted to ban hydraulic fracturing.
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There’s a major scientific initiative evolving in Baton Rouge, La., that is expected to have a positive impact around the globe. It’s the relatively new Water Institute of the Gulf, appropriately located in this city bounded on its western edge by the majestic Mississippi River as it wends its way southward to meet the Gulf of Mexico.

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For anyone looking to learn from the best oil finders in the business and to interact with successful explorers as they share accounts of their greatest discoveries, that opportunity is at hand. Get ready for this year’s editions of the Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) Playmaker Forums.

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This film captures truth about energy and delivers its message with passion. “Public understanding of energy is very low. Energy education is vital.” That’s past AAPG president and newly-named AAPG Honorary member Scott Tinker, who helped create and narrates the film “Switch,” a non-partisan, non-advocacy documentary about the world’s energy needs, on why he thought the project was necessary.

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Yes, you can go home again. Just ask Cynthia B. Peterson, newly appointed dean and first woman of the College of Science, and professor of biochemistry at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she graduated Magma Cum Laude in 1979 with a bachelor’s in biochemistry.

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Emphasis: World Developments

 

In international exploration, the new normal is starting to look like the old normal. And 2014 looked a lot like the year before.

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Some highlights from international activity in 2014.

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Typically when runners are on their marks, they know the course ahead of them. However, as industry players anxiously wait for Mexico to open its hydrocarbon-rich fields to foreign investors, the shortest course to the pay zone is not so clear.

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Twenty years ago a formal message written on AAPG letterhead announced the beginning of a long relationship. Since the formalities of that early communication, two association leaders experienced an affiliation that has been mutually beneficial.

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AAPG President Randi Martinsen and Africa Region President Dave Blanchard were scheduled to address the 32nd annual NAPE international conference and exhibition this past fall, but the trips were cancelled due to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Read the excerpts of the messages read by meeting officials on their behalf.

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Oil should be a blessing. It creates jobs and puts food on the table for millions of people. It fuels the power that drives industrial growth and development to move countries beyond oil and gas into a sustainable future. That is how the first female president of NAPE views the hydrocarbons she has been working to discover since beginning her career 24 years ago.

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Innumerable geoscientists worldwide are familiar with the AAPG Giant Oil Fields publications. These AAPG members are spearheading the effort to compile “Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade 2000-2010” featuring papers covering fields in areas around the globe.

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It was a long journey – and anticipation seemed to build by the week – but another AAPG Publication Pipeline delivery finally arrived successfully at its destination, this time to the AAPG Student Chapter at China University of Petroleum in Beijing (CUPB).

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Standing Columns

A frequent focus of discussion between members of the Executive Committee and the AAPG staff is membership – how to better serve it, of course, but also how to grow it and retain it.

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No sooner had the ink dried on my last column about the winds of change buffeting our industry when we saw oil prices slide from $75 a barrel to $55. I didn’t foresee these winds arriving at gale force, but that’s what’s happened.

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Recently, the AAPG Division of Professional Affairs held its mid-year meeting in Tulsa, and this year focused on the “Culture of Greatness” – the ability of our industry and profession to provide resources.

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This month’s Geophysical Corner column deals with Sobel filtering for enhancing seismic coherence attribute.

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Demand for all forms of energy, including oil and natural gas, will grow significantly in the next 26 years – but political and regulatory uncertainties create risks that may constrain the private-sector investments needed to meet the demand. That’s the message found in several recent analyses of the global energy market, which could shed light on patterns of energy growth and issues constraining industry’s ability to meet the growing demands.

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When referring to the early Russian oil industry, one almost always hears the names of the fields located in the southern Absheron Peninsula, in Azerbaijan. Rarely does one hear about the oil heritage of the northern Russian lands close to the basin of the Izhma-Pechora River.

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The historic 2014 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition marked the first time an AAPG international conference was held in Istanbul – but that wasn’t the only new dynamic at work.

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The AAPG Foundation has joined the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Foundation (SEGF) as a partner in the acclaimed Geoscientists Without Borders (GWB) program.

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