This year's AAPG-SEG International Conference and Exhibition (ICE), held for the first time ever in Melbourne, Australia, was by all accounts a technical and networking success.
Despite the daunting challenges currently faced by the industry, the event drew nearly 1,400 of the world's best and brightest geologists, geophysicists and engineers from about 40 different countries, who ranged from students and young professionals to seasoned veterans of the industry.
Hosted by the AAPG Asia Pacific Region, SEG, the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG), the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), the conference incorporated PESA's Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium (EABS), which featured recent advances in the understanding of petroleum basins along Australia's eastern margin and across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand.
Highlights included:
♦ The opening ceremony, with ICE 2015 General Chair Phil Loader of Woodside Energy serving as master of ceremonies.
♦ Ian Macfarlane, Australia's Minister for Industry and Science, sharing insights during the plenary session.
♦ The Reg Sprigg Memorial Symposium, which detailed Australia's major petroleum provinces.
♦ Discovery Thinking forums.
♦ The Marita Bradshaw Symposium I and II, honoring the career of recently retired Marita Bradshaw.
♦ A special talk by renowned "rock star," geologist and television personality Iain Stewart at the featured speaker luncheon.
The Melbourne meeting was the first ICE held under the collaborative efforts of AAPG and SEG, a joint venture designed to co-present ICE around the globe in order to provide members and the greater global oil and gas industry with the highest level of geosciences information and data exchange opportunities.
There will be two ICE events in 2016:
♦ April 3-6, in Barcelona, Spain.
♦ Sept. 6-9, in Cancun, Mexico.
For more information on these meetings go to www.aapg.org/events/conferences/events.