Explorer Emphasis Article

The Wattenberg Field north of Denver has become a big deal in the industry since its discovery in 1970 by Amoco Production Company. It’s a twofer, kicking out both oil and natural gas. To many, mention of the field conjures up thoughts of the upper Cretaceous Niobrara shale, which is a prolific producer there, along with other geologic formations. The Codell sandstone, for example, is a major pay in this giant field.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Some might argue that not much has changed in Colorado politics over the last year – except for the fact that the battle to ban drilling by certain groups has escalated from the local to statewide level.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

In the numerous histories written of the development of natural gas and oil in the United States, one name rarely encountered is that of Preston Barmore. This oversight likely is more a reflection of the sadly short life of this unassuming young man rather than any lack of contribution on his part to the burgeoning hydrocarbon industry of the late 19th century.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Best-selling author Simon Winchester will be the featured speaker at the All-Convention Luncheon in Denver, but that’s not the only special luncheon that’s planned for the upcoming AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

AAPG bestows the Robert R. Berg Award in recognition of a singular achievement in petroleum geoscience research. Mark Zoback’s research has advanced the industry’s understanding and application of geomechanics, but he’s also done important work in other areas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
PSGD Blog

Mark Zoback from Stanford University is offering his Reservoir Geomechanics course for free again this year. The course will run April 1st through June 10th, 2015.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Latin America Blog

Join us in Buenos Aires, Argentina 11-12 May for Extending Mature Fields' Life Cycles: The Role of New Technologies and Integrated Strategies, a Geosciences Technology Workshop organized in partnership with the Asociación Argentina de Geólogos y Geofísicos (AAGGP).

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Middle East Blog

AAPG’s Siliciclastic Reservoirs of the Middle East GTW took place from the 23rd – 25th March, 2015 at the Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel and Spa in Kuwait City, Kuwait. 102 industry professionals from 6 countries attended the workshop to network with peers and colleagues and learn about the industry’s geosciences. 15 presentations took place across the 2 days, representing a combination of 9 different companies and academic institutions.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Oil spills get a lot of media attention, but the best stories are about the disasters that didn’t happen.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

With technical sessions designed to have cross-discipline appeal across the industry, Buford Pollett, chairman of the AAPG technical subcommittee for OTC, said this year’s topics were specifically chosen to attract a broad spectrum of professionals.

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)
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

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.

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Request a visit from Jennifer Wilcox!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

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!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

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!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

The Energy sector is a changing business environment. Throughout the 20th century fluctuations of oil supply and demand produced changes in the barrel price that pushed the growth or shrinkage of the industry. In this 21st century, new challenges such as diversification of the energy mix, boosting gas demand, require the exploration of critical minerals and development of new technologies as well.

Request a visit from Fernanda Raggio!

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)
DL Abstract

For well over a century there have been conflicting indications of the strength of the crust and of faults and what controls them.  Much of our ignorance comes quite naturally from the general inaccessibility of the crust to measurement--in contrast with our understanding of the atmosphere, which is much more accessible to observation as well as more rapidly changing.  Crustal strength is best understood in deforming sedimentary basins where the petroleum industry has made great contributions, particularly in deforming petroleum basins because of the practical need to predict. In this talk we take a broad look at key issues in crustal strength and deformation and what we can learn from boreholes, earthquakes, active fault systems, and toy models.

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Request a visit from John Suppe!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

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!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

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.

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Request a visit from Tao Sun!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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