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Bitumen/Heavy Oil (Oil Sands)

Explorer Historical Highlights

Wildfires might be what come to mind when most people think of northeastern Alberta, owing to recent news coverage of the record evacuation of about 88,000 people from the Fort McMurray area. Current events notwithstanding, however, northeastern Alberta is historically best known for its huge bitumen resources.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Hot pipes set me free! Tar sands, heavy oil, paraffin — three killers of mature fields. Finally, a simple and effective solution — hot pipes! It’s a great concept, but does it work? Here’s a continuation of an interview with Dr. Richard Snow, Pyrophase, who answers questions about their technology that helps stimulate flow in wells with paraffin or low-gravity oil problems.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The solution to heavy oil and paraffin-clogged mature wells can often by heat, but heat is hard to economically introduce into a well. Welcome to an interview with Richard Snow, Chief Scientist at PyroPhase, whose new technologies are designed to economically heat the reservoir and allow the oil to flow.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Where is the oil? How much is there? and What is the best strategy for recovery? These are a few of the questions that we'll answer at the Making Money with Mature Fields - Geosciences Technology Workshop, October 5-6, 2016, Houston, TX. The goal of this workshop is to review mature fields and to identify the amount and nature of oil that can be recovered, and to evaluate competing strategies for economically producing the remaining reserves. In addition to looking closely at fields, we will review new and improved technologies that may help revitalize reservoirs and overcome problems such as low pressure, paraffin, corrosion, and more.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

New products can revitalize under-performing wells in mature fields. However, it is important to understand precisely why the well is not producing and to select the treatment that will work for the unique conditions of the well. Welcome to an interview with Olivia Carey, who has committed herself to finding new solutions for wells in need of revitalization. She discusses the products, candidate wells, and increased production using new products. 

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Registration is now open for the 4th annual Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) to be held Aug. 1-3 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The 'New Thinking and Value Propositions in Exploration and Production: ProActive Steps Now' GTW Workshop was an excellent opportunity to knowledge share in a time of low price environments every where.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Division Column EMD

AAPG’s Energy Minerals Division is excited to present a strong and informative technical program at the 2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Calgary, Canada. EMD has an intriguing program this year, covering a variety of unconventional energy topics of current interest to both EMD and AAPG members.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Registration is now open for the 4th annual Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) to be held Aug. 1-3 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

This brief article is a continuation of 'U.S. Oil and Gas Plays that Work Now for the Small Independent or Small Consultant Team (Part I)'  which aims to provide sources of information that can be used to develop a list of candidates to acquire, and to target wells and fields that can be revitalized using new technologies and team-based approaches. Some of the areas are potentially a better fit for a medium-sized company with significant access to capital. Some areas are ideal for the small independent or consultant. 

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 23 July 2009, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

As commodity prices have dropped, many shale plays have become uneconomical as statistical plays and have increasingly become recognized as geological plays demanding new insights from data.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

Recognition and Correlation of the Eagle Ford, Austin Formations in South Texas can be enhanced with High Resolution Biostratigraphy, fossil abundance peaks and Maximum Flooding Surfaces correlated to Upper Cretaceous sequence stratigraphic cycle chart after Gradstein, 2010.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 24 October 2013, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium will be introducing signal processing techniques as a means to maximize extracting geomechanical data from petrophysical logs.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 19 March 2015, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

A detailed biostratigraphic analysis and stratigraphic framework of the Paleocene and Eocene Chicontepec Formation in the Tampico-Misantla basin, onshore eastern Mexico, was conducted using 33 wells.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 19 May 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium presents and discusses the results of laboratory tests and research relating to determining shale prospectivity in general, and specifically in the Black Warrior Basin, Alabama.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 30 June 2020, 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.

Visiting Geoscientist Juan Pablo Lovecchio reviews general aspects of rifting, rifts and passive margin formation and evolution through time, as well as elements of petroleum system development.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 20 August 2009, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium covers advances in geothermal energy, integration with petroleum operations, and lessons learned in recent cases.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Friday, 20 January 2012, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is one of the more exciting shale plays in the United States at the current time.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Wednesday, 31 October 2012, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium will focus on how surface geochemical surveys and Downhole Geochemical Imaging technologies can be utilized jointly to directly characterize the composition of hydrocarbons vertically through the prospect section.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Tuesday, 2 December 2014, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

The gas transport in organic-rich shales involves different length-scales, from organic and inorganic pores to macro- and macrofractures. In order to upscale the fluid transport from nanoscale (flow through nanopores) to larger scales (to micro- and macrofractures), multicontinuum methodology is planned to be used.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

Production from unconventional petroleum reservoirs includes petroleum from shale, coal, tight-sand and oil-sand. These reservoirs contain enormous quantities of oil and natural gas but pose a technology challenge to both geoscientists and engineers to produce economically on a commercial scale. These reservoirs store large volumes and are widely distributed at different stratigraphic levels and basin types, offering long-term potential for energy supply. Most of these reservoirs are low permeability and porosity that need enhancement with hydraulic fracture stimulation to maximize fluid drainage. Production from these reservoirs is increasing with continued advancement in geological characterization techniques and technology for well drilling, logging, and completion with drainage enhancement. Currently, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, USA, and Venezuela are producing natural gas from low permeability reservoirs: tight-sand, shale, and coal (CBM). Canada, Russia, USA, and Venezuela are producing heavy oil from oilsand. USA is leading the development of techniques for exploring, and technology for exploiting unconventional gas resources, which can help to develop potential gas-bearing shales of Thailand. The main focus is on source-reservoir-seal shale petroleum plays. In these tight rocks petroleum resides in the micro-pores as well as adsorbed on and in the organics. Shale has very low matrix permeability (nano-darcies) and has highly layered formations with differences in vertical and horizontal properties, vertically non-homogeneous and horizontally anisotropic with complicate natural fractures. Understanding the rocks is critical in selecting fluid drainage enhancement mechanisms; rock properties such as where shale is clay or silica rich, clay types and maturation , kerogen type and maturation, permeability, porosity, and saturation. Most of these plays require horizontal development with large numbers of wells that require an understanding of formation structure, setting and reservoir character and its lateral extension. The quality of shale-gas resources depend on thickness of net pay (>100 m), adequate porosity (>2%), high reservoir pressure (ideally overpressure), high thermal maturity (>1.5% Ro), high organic richness (>2% TOC), low in clay (<50%), high in brittle minerals (quartz, carbonates, feldspars), and favourable in-situ stress. During the past decade, unconventional shale and tight-sand gas plays have become an important supply of natural gas in the US, and now in shale oil as well. As a consequence, interest to assess and explore these plays is rapidly spreading worldwide. The high production potential of shale petroleum resources has contributed to a comparably favourable outlook for increased future petroleum supplies globally. Application of 2D and 3D seismic for defining reservoirs and micro seismic for monitoring fracturing, measuring rock properties downhole (borehole imaging) and in laboratory (mineralogy, porosity, permeability), horizontal drilling (downhole GPS), and hydraulic fracture stimulation (cross-linked gel, slick-water, nitrogen or nitrogen foam) is key in improving production from these huge resources with low productivity factors.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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