Explorer Division Column DEG

Our industry is overwhelmingly filled with professionals who want to do the right thing the right way, yet real or suspected environmental impacts recur with some regularity.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The call for abstracts remains open for the next AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, which will be held May 31-June 3 in Denver – but the deadline is getting close.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The global contributions to geology of the late Peter Alfred Ziegler of Switzerland and the late David Gwyn Roberts of Wales made such an impact on academia and industry that two special memorial sessions have been scheduled in their honor at the AAPG’s International Conference and Exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey in September.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Improved imaging technology has helped explorationists in the Sultanate of Oman reawaken a sleeping giant.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Imagine the Mediterranean Sea drying out. Imagine the late Permian, as the Earth warmed and dried, and much of life faced extinction. Now put the two together, and you have the basis of an analog examined in the presentation “The Messinian Mediterranean Crisis: A Model for the Permian Delaware Basin?” at the upcoming AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Ireland’s Atlantic basins harbor the potential for major oil and gas discoveries in water depths ranging from 150 to more than 2,500 meters, according to the country’s Energy and Natural Resources office. Even so, exploration activity in the Irish offshore has been sporadic over the past four decades.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

“Spectacular geology and history, together.” That’s how AAPG Honorary member Pinar Yilmaz of ExxonMobil set the scene for the upcoming International Conference and Exhibition (ICE), set Sept., 14-17 in Istanbul, Turkey.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The productive growth of the Bakken has quickly accelerated well beyond previous expectations. With production levels reaching record high numbers, the demand for new knowledge and insights of the area is also at an all time high. Learn how to be successful in utilizing the Three Forks in a stacked-pay, pad-drilling strategy when producing various Bakken members.

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

Asia-Pacific Region Sees Continued Growth

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

The discovery of giant oil fields in new basins typically occurs only after multiple exploration periods and numerous unsuccessful wells. The first explorers might or might not have the right technical concepts, but for various reasons they fail to find the big prize. This pattern was repeated prior to the discovery of the giant (in place) Liuhua 11-1 Field, Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tuesday, 18 February Wednesday, 19 February 2025, 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Join us for AAPG Orphan, Abandoned, Idle and Marginal Wells Conference 2025. This workshop will focus on orphan, abandoned, idle, and marginal wells and the business opportunities and technology associated with plugging and repurposing wells, reducing methane emissions, protecting water supplies, and extending the lives of marginal wells.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Houston, Texas
Saturday, 1 February 2025, 8:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Everyone in Houston lives within a few miles of a bayou. Some people think of them as permanent, but the bayous are constantly changing, especially during high water events like Hurricane Harvey. This trip is a 2.5 mile walk down a section of Buffalo Bayou where we will look at the archives of past storms and discuss what to do for future storms.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.

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Request a visit from Jacob Covault!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

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!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address. 

Request a visit from John Castagna!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

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.

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Request a visit from Frank Peel!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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