Explorer Historical Highlights

In January 1860, Lawrence, Kan., newspaperman George W. Brown, while visiting his hometown of Conneautville, Pa., was captured in the excitement of a new oil boom radiating from nearby Titusville.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Back for more: Operators found new success when they took another look at Louisiana’s Wilcox play.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Look again: The North Sumatra Basin, a world-class petroleum province since the late 19th century, is getting a 21st century reboot.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Surprise! Ordinarily a target for oil production, the Cretaceous Niobrara formation is proving to be more versatile in Colorado’s Piceance Basin.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

Historical Highlights: In spite of secrecy, lack of access to well data, long-time BP employee was privileged to become involved in a major petroleum province before it was discovered and stayed with it until it reached maturity.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Regions and Sections

Oil production in Nigeria started in 1958 after the discovery of Oloibiri oil field in 1956.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

Even from the beginning, the discovery well gave a hint that the Permian Basin was going to be a major oil province. That well was the Santa Rita #1 – Santa Rita, the patron Saint of the Impossible.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Coexist – often easier said than done, especially when the exploration industry is attempting to work in highly populated or environmentally sensitive areas. So how does it work in California?

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

After World War II – possibly as part of the Marshall Plan – Shell was obliged to give an American company a half interest in the acreage it held in Netherlands.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

It was nearly midnight on a Saturday late in June 1971 when BOCAL’s new palynologist Barry Ingram telephoned chief geologist Peter Kaye to tell him the gas discovery in North Rankin-1 were in Triassic sediments.

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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