AAPG's
Distinguished Lecture program, which only a few years ago became
a truly global effort, is ready to once again cover the planet with
speakers for the 2001-2002 season.
The program, funded by the AAPG Foundation, will offer 14 speakers
-- eight for the United States and six on international tours, offering
a diverse range of geologic and geoscience topics.
Eleven different topics will be available to both U.S. and international
audiences this year.
For a third consecutive year, this year's slate includes an AAPG-SEG
Inter-society lecturer, Kurt Rudolph, with ExxonMobil Exploration
in Houston, who will speak on "DHI/AVO Analysis Best Practices:
A Worldwide Analysis."
AAPG's Distinguished
Lecture program was developed to expose students, young geologists,
college faculty members and members of geological societies to current
information, research and thinking.
The 12 2000-2001 Distinguished Lecturers provided more than 187
visits -- 127 domestic and more than 60 in the international arena
-- to nearly 9,000 people. (The figures are estimates because at
press time Paul Crevello was just starting on the first of his two
final tours for the season. Those numbers will be added to the 2000-2001
season.)
As in past years, support for several tours comes directly from
the AAPG Foundation's
Distinguished Lecture Fund. They are:
♦ The Allan
P. Bennison Distinguished Lecturer -- International Distinguished
Lecturer, provided by contributions from longtime Tulsa geologist
Allan Bennison, who now resides in Glass Valley, Calif.
The Bennison lecturer will be presented this year by Carlos Bruhn,
with Petrobras E&P, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His topic is "Contrasting
Styles of Oligocene/Miocene, Giant Turbidite Reservoirs From Deepwater
Campos Basin, Brazil."
♦ The J.
Ben Carsey Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions
from J. Ben Carsey Jr., of Houston, to establish this new named
lecturer in memory of his father, who served as president of AAPG
in 1967-68.
This year's J. Ben Carsey lecturers will be presented by Roger
Slatt, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. His topic is "Outcrop/Behind
Outcrop Characterization of Deepwater (Turbidite) Petroleum Reservoir
Analogs: How and Why."
♦ The Haas-Pratt
Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions from the
late Merrill W. Haas, in honor of famed geologists (and Haas' mentor)
Wallace Pratt, and granted for emphasis on a specific case history
application of geology in the discovery of oil and gas reserves.
The Haas-Pratt lecture will be presented this year by William
Zempolich, ExxonMobil, The Hague, Netherlands. His topics are:
- "The Kashagan Discovery: An Example of the Successful Use of
a Multidisciplined Approach in Reducing Geologic Risk."
- "Geometry of Dolomite Bodies Within Deepwater Resedimented
Oolite of the Middle Jurassic Vajont Limestone, Venetian Alps,
Italy: Analogs for Hydrocarbon Reservoirs Created Through Fault-Related
Burial Dolomitization."
♦ The Roy
M. Huffington Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions
from the Huffington family in honor of the oilman-geologist.
The Huffington lectures will be presented this year by William
E. Galloway, University of Texas at Austin, who will be offering
talks to groups in China and Southeast Asia. His topic is "Cenozoic
Deepwater Reservoir Systems Tracts of the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Basin."
♦ The Dean
A. McGee International Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by
contributions from Kerr-McGee, which annually supports international
speaking tours.
This year's McGee lecturer is Charles Kerans, Bureau of Economic
Geology, University of Texas at Austin, who will be speaking to
groups in the Middle East. His topics are:
- "Evolving Models of Middle Eastern Cretaceous Carbonate Reservoirs."
- "Evolving Technologies and Opportunities in Carbonate Systems."
This year's list of domestic Distinguished Lecturers also includes:
♦ Cathy Busby,
University of California at Santa Barbara. Her topics are:
- "Evolutionary Model for Convergent Margin Basins and Tectonic
Reconstruction of Northwest Mexico."
- "Climatic and Tectonic Controls on Sedimentation and Volcanism
in the Jurassic Arc-Backarc Region of the Cordilleran United States."
♦ James Harrell,
University of Toledo, Ohio. His topic is "Archaeological Geology
in Egypt: Ancient Oil Wells and Mummy Bitumen, Earliest Geological
Map, First Paved Road, Pyramid Temple Pavements and the Sphinx Age
Controversy."
♦ Peter Hennings,
Phillips Petroleum, Bartlesville, Okla. His topic is "The Present
and Future of Building, Sharing and Exploiting 3-D Computer Models
for Characterization of Strongly Deformed Reservoirs."
♦ John Suter,
Conoco, Houston. His topics are:
- "Sequence Stratigraphy in a Development Setting: Petrozuata,
Faja Petrolifera del Orinoco, Venezuela."
- "Deltaic Systems: Perspectives on Facies Models and Sequence
Stratigraphy."
This year's international Distinguished Lecturers includes:
♦ Salman Bloch,
Texaco, Houston, who will be making an Australasia tour. His topics
are:
- "Anomalously High Porosity and Permeability in Deeply Buried
Sandstone Reservoirs."
- "Predrill Assessment/Prediction of Sandstone Porosity and Permeability
in Frontier and Mature Areas."
♦ James A.
MacKay, Texaco, Houston, who will be making a Latin America tour.
His topics is "Exploration Risk Assessment: What Is It? How Is It
Done? Who Is Responsible?"
♦ Dag Nummedal,
Institute for Energy Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie,
Wyo., who will making a Western European tour.
His topics are:
- "The 'Falling Stage Systems Tract' in Siliciclastic Systems
and Its Control on Reservoir Architecture and Exploration Strategies."
- "Hydrocarbons of the South Caspian: How Exploitation Depends
on the Understanding of the Pliocene Paleoclimate."
♦ Gabor Tari,
Vanco Energy. Houston, who will be making an Eastern Europe-Central
Asia tour. His topics are:
- "Comparison of the Ouachita and Carpathian Fold Belts.
- Examples of Salt Tectonics from the West African Passive Margins:
Exploration in a Major Emerging Petroleum Province.
- Palinspastic Reconstruction of the Carpathian/Pannonian System
Check the AAPG Distinguished
Lecturer Web site where itineraries will be posted and updates
will appear regularly.