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Events Blog By Grant Smith

Solve Oil and Gas Challenges Using Python

Learn from your home or office by attending AAPG Online Short Course, Python Coding and Petroleum, 25–27 August 2020, 8:00 am–11:00 am (CDT). This hands-on coding and app course will feature programming in Python and use the platforms and software packages that are available either open-source, or free (or almost free), along with possible trial licenses.

Added on 12 August, 2020

Explorer President’s Column By Rick Fritz

Our Suspicions, Mathematically Confirmed

A few members ask me, “Why does the Executive Committee worry so much about money all the time?” Well, actually we prefer to focus on science and members’ needs, but as Woody Allen once said about the importance of money, “It is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” The primary reason I am discussing money in this column is to let you know changes are coming. We cannot afford to do everything we have done in the past. Some programs will be reduced or cut. We will let you know as this happens.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Director’s Corner By David Curtiss

AAPG in a World of Shifting Values

If you’ve ever picked up a book on business – how to start a business, how to run a business, how to save a business – you typically don’t have to page too far before you run into a popular term: “value proposition.” The pandemic is causing us to reassess AAPG’s value proposition for our members and our customers. We must consider that what has worked in the past may not work in the future and that our members’ and the industry’s needs are experiencing fundamental change.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Ken Milam

Annual G-Camp Goes Virtual

After 13 years of taking teachers into the field, this year’s G-Camp was held virtually in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers said. The program is aimed at 5th through 12th-grade teachers and offers supplemental material for the teachers’ science curriculum. The goal is to have teachers return to the classroom with new knowledge and excited about what they are teaching, and ultimately for “the kids to come to college saying, ‘I want to enroll in geology.’”

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Heather Saucier

Field Camp Without the Field

Despite advancing technologies that have almost completely digitized most aspects of the oil and gas industry, a geoscientist’s ability to understand hands-on concepts and details from the field perspective is still coveted by employers. A person might have easy access to a calculator to perform basic math functions, so to speak, but the need to understand the concepts of multiplication and division remains paramount. Yet, a 2018 AGI Status of the Geoscience Workforce study found that undergraduate field camp attendance for geoscience students has been decreasing. In addition to obstacles related to time and cost, universities are encountering a new hurdle: a growing bias among students against field work, she added. So how do educators steer students back into the field?

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Emily Llinás

Cancel, Postpone or Transform

AAPG’s Latin America and Caribbean Region started 2020 with a strong lineup of technical and business events. The year 2020 was the year of promise. The Hedberg Conference went well in February, but one of the participants from China canceled travel plans because of a coronavirus outbreak in the country. One month later, the world turned upside down. Countries closed their borders, companies sent workers home, and sponsors canceled support. In-person conferences were not just risky but prohibited in most cases. It was time to go back to the drawing board.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Joseph Moore

The Utah FORGE: An International Laboratory for Advancing Enhanced Geothermal Development

'Conventional geothermal reservoirs are characterized by a heat source, hydrothermal convection, and sufficient natural permeability to allow for fluid migration. Recognizing the geologically restricted occurrence of natural sites, additional opportunities have been sought. Enhanced geothermal systems are reservoirs in hot rock that lack the natural permeability required for fluid movement. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated a program to test and develop new technologies for characterizing, creating and sustaining EGS reservoirs under natural field conditions. A site approximately 350 kilometers south of Salt Lake City Utah was selected for the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, or “FORGE” laboratory. '

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Geophysical Corner By Ritesh Sharma,Satinder Chopra

Shale Capacity for Predicting Well Performance Variability

The goal of reservoir characterization work carried out for a shale play is to enhance hydrocarbon production by identifying the favorable drilling targets. The drilling operators have the perception that in organic-rich shale formations, horizontal wells can be drilled anywhere, in any direction, and hydraulic fracturing at regular intervals along the length of the laterals can then lead to better production. Given that this understanding holds true, all fracturing stages are expected to contribute impartially to the production. However, studies have shown that only 50 percent of the fracturing stages contribute to overall production. This suggests that repetitive drilling of wells and their completions without attention to their placement must be avoided, and smart drilling needs to be followed by operators.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Historical Highlights By Paul J. Markwick

Paleogeography in Exploration

There is something about colored pencils that we, as geologists, find impossible to resist. From geological maps to field sketches to interpreting seismic on those never-ending rolls of paper taped to the longest corridor wall we can find – what more could any geologist want? Our need for powerful software, paper and colored pencils reflects a fundamental problem in geology and especially exploration: how to manage, analyze and visualize the diversity and wealth of information required to solve exploration problems? Early geologists were faced with the same challenge 200 years ago. It was one of the first petroleum geologists, Thomas Sterry Hunt, who saw the value of paleogeography in exploration, and who, in 1873, first coined the term “paleogeography.”

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Xavier Moonan

Record-Breaking Gas Discoveries in the Ortoire Syncline

Touchstone Exploration is the operator of the 184-square kilometer Ortoire Block onshore south eastern Trinidad. The block spans from the villages of Tableland in the west to Pierreville Mayaro in the east and to the very remote areas within the Guayaguayare forest to the south. Structurally, the block covers the greater part of the open east facing Ortoire Syncline which entails Late Miocene Lower Cruse to Pleistocene Mayaro Formation deltaic fill. These passive fordeep infill deposits sit conformably onto a southeastern-verging Early to Middle Miocene fold belt. As such throughout the breadth of the Ortoire Block there are numerous tear fault dissected west-southwest to east-northeast trending anticlines.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Workshop

Houston, Texas

Thursday, 6 June – Friday, 7 June 2024, 8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Geothermal, Lithium, Hydrogen: New Energy from Subsurface Fluids Conference

For the first time, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Geothermal Rising are bringing together geothermal, critical minerals and gases to explore the connections between them, either in the formation of the reservoirs or reserves, or in exploring for, evaluating, and producing them. Specifically, the conference will bring together geothermal, lithium, geologic hydrogen, helium, iodine, and more in the form of technical presentations, probing panel discussions, poster sessions, and more.

Added on 12 March, 2024

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

How Orogens Could Collapse Forming Sedimentary Basins: The Case of the Betic-Rif Orogen

The Betic hinterland, in the westernmost Mediterranean, constitutes a unique example of a stack of metamorphic units. Using a three-dimensional model for the crustal structure of the Betics-Rif area this talk will address the role of crustal flow simultaneously to upper-crustal low-angle faulting in the origin and evolution of the topography.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By Sherilyn Williams-Stroud

Atmospheric and Social Climate Change: Implications for the Future Geoscience Workforce

Climate change is not only happening in the atmosphere but also in the anthroposphere; in some ways the former could drive or exacerbate the latter, with extreme weather excursions and extreme excursions from societal norms occurring all over the earth. Accomplishing geoscience for a common goal – whether that is for successful business activities, resource assessment for public planning, mitigating the impacts of geological hazards, or for the sheer love of furthering knowledge and understanding – can and should be done by a workforce that is equitably developed and supported. Difficulty arises when the value of institutional programs to increase equity and diversity is not realized.

Request a visit from Sherilyn Williams-Stroud!

Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Isabelle Moretti

The Natural H₂ Exploration Started: Why, Where and by Who?

Why H₂ is generated in subsurface? Which are the reactions and the promising geological setting? Example in countries where H₂ have already been found: Australia, Brazil. Kinetic reactions: i.e., Is the natural H₂ renewable? What we don't know yet about this resource and about the H₂ systems (generation/transport/accumulation). Overview of the current landscape (subsurface law, permitting, E&P activity)

Request a visit from Isabelle Moretti!

Added on 13 September, 2023

VG Abstract By Keith Gerdes

Tethyan Carbonates - Linking Tropical Seas and Crashing Plates to Some of the Largest Oil and Gas Fields in the World

The carbonate sequences that were deposited in the now exhumed Tethyan Ocean influence many aspects of our lives today, either by supplying the energy that warms our homes and the fuel that powers our cars or providing the stunning landscapes for both winter and summer vacations. They also represent some of the most intensely studied rock formations in the world and have provided geoscientists with a fascinating insight into the turbulent nature of 250 Million years of Earth’s history. By combining studies from the full range of geoscience disciplines this presentation will trace the development of these carbonate sequences from their initial formation on the margins of large ancient continental masses to their present day locations in and around the Greater Mediterranean and Near East region. The first order control on growth patterns and carbonate platform development by the regional plate-tectonic setting, underlying basin architecture and fluctuations in sea level will be illustrated. The organisms that contribute to sequence development will be revealed to be treasure troves of forensic information. Finally, these rock sequences will be shown to contain all the ingredients necessary to form and retain hydrocarbons and the manner in which major post-depositional tectonic events led to the formation of some of the largest hydrocarbon accumulations in the world will be demonstrated.

Request a visit from Keith Gerdes!

Added on 24 August, 2015

DL Abstract By Frank Peel

A Lost World Rediscovered: 3D Seismic Data Reveal Spectacular Images of a Jurassic Landscape on the Eve of Louann Salt Deposition in the Gulf of Mexico, with Implications for Salt Deposition

Around 170 million years ago, the Gulf of Mexico basin flooded catastrophically, and the pre-existing landscape, which had been a very rugged, arid, semi-desert world, was drowned beneath an inland sea of salt water. The drowned landscape was then buried under kilometers of salt, perfectly preserving the older topography. Now, with high-quality 3D seismic data, the salt appears as a transparent layer, and the details of the drowned world can be seen in exquisite detail, providing a unique snapshot of the world on the eve of the flooding event. We can map out hills and valleys, and a system of river gullies and a large, meandering river system. These rivers in turn fed into a deep central lake, whose surface was about 750m below global sea level. This new knowledge also reveals how the Louann Salt was deposited. In contrast to published models, the salt was deposited in a deep water, hypersaline sea. We can estimate the rate of deposition, and it was very fast; we believe that the entire thickness of several kilometers of salt was laid down in a few tens of thousands of years, making it possibly the fastest sustained deposition seen so far in the geological record.

Request a visit from Frank Peel!

Added on 16 November, 2022

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

Salt versus Shales in Continental Margins and Orogens

In comparison with the known boundary conditions that promote salt deformation and flow in sedimentary basins, the processes involved with the mobilization of clay-rich detrital sediments are far less well established. This talk will use seismic examples in different tectonic settings to document the variety of shale geometries that can be formed under brittle and ductile deformations.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By Kurt W. Rudolph

Tectonic Controls on Source Rock Deposition

While there are many habitats that are associated with the deposition of organic-rich marine and lacustrine source rocks, one important pathway is linked to the onset of increased basin subsidence associated with major tectonic events. A key aspect is that this subsidence is spatially variable, with the uplift of basin flanks contemporaneous with the foundering of the basin center, resulting in a steeper basin profile.

Request a visit from Kurt W. Rudolph!

Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Jennifer Wilcox

The Role of Carbon Capture in Meeting Net-Zero Carbon Goals

President Biden has laid out a bold and ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the United States by 2050. The pathway to that target includes cutting total greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and eliminating them entirely from the nation’s electricity sector by 2035. The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management will play an important role in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions by reducing the environmental impacts of fossil energy production and use – and helping decarbonize other hard-to abate sectors.

Request a visit from Jennifer Wilcox!

Added on 20 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Tao Sun

Integrated Reservoir Characterization and Modeling with Computational Stratigraphy

As oil and gas exploration and production occur in deeper basins and more complex geologic settings, accurate characterization and modeling of reservoirs to improve estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) prediction, optimize well placement and maximize recovery become paramount. Existing technologies for reservoir characterization and modeling have proven inadequate for delivering detailed 3D predictions of reservoir architecture, connectivity and rock quality at scales that impact subsurface flow patterns and reservoir performance. Because of the gap between the geophysical and geologic data available (seismic, well logs, cores) and the data needed to model rock heterogeneities at the reservoir scale, constraints from external analog systems are needed. Existing stratigraphic concepts and deposition models are mostly empirical and seldom provide quantitative constraints on fine-scale reservoir heterogeneity. Current reservoir modeling tools are challenged to accurately replicate complex, nonstationary, rock heterogeneity patterns that control connectivity, such as shale layers that serve as flow baffles and barriers.

Request a visit from Tao Sun!

Added on 20 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Alex Simms

Interactions Between Ice Sheets and Relative Sea Levels: Lessons From Antarctica and NW Scotland

Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.

Request a visit from Alex Simms!

Added on 21 July, 2022

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