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Explorer Historical Highlights By Dan Plazak

The idea of an oil-finding instrument was not new. Water dowsers were common throughout the United States and among most people of European descent worldwide, and they were quickly adapted to looking for oil. Soon after the Drake well in 1859, people started working on inventions to detect oil by geophysical methods.

Added on 01 February, 2023

Explorer Emphasis Article By Emily Llinás

Trinidad and Tobago Concludes Onshore and Nearshore Bid Round

On Jan. 9, Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries concluded the 2022 Onshore and Nearshore Competitive Bid Round. This bid round featured a total of 11 blocks covering more than 115,000 hectares. Blocks offered included Aripero, Buenos Ayres, Charuma, Cipero, Cory D, Cory F, Guayaguayare, South West Peninsula Onshore, St. Mary’s and Tulsa, located in the central to southern onshore Trinidad; and the South West Peninsula Offshore, located off the southern coast of Trinidad. Xavier Moonan, president-elect of AAPG’s Latin America and Caribbean Region and exploration manager of Touchstone Exploration Inc., follows the bid rounds closely.

Added on 01 February, 2023

Explorer Emphasis Article By David Brown

Clean Energy Opportunity Adds to Super Basins Appeal

Energy super basins grabbed the attention of the oil and gas industry during the past five years, with good reason. Now a period of re-evaluation has kicked in. Producers are looking beyond total resource potential to apply other criteria, including economic, environmental and regulatory considerations. Those yardsticks could help identify which basins will dominate energy production in the decades ahead.

Added on 01 February, 2023

Explorer Article By Emily Llinás

Opportunities through Crisis

The Peruvian Congress’s ousting of President Pedro Castillo on Dec. 7 led to two weeks of protest throughout the country, with at least 50 reported dead in clashes with law enforcement. In Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city located 400 kilometers from the southern border, AAPG members Luis Alexander Alvarez and Alexandra Del Castillo took refuge in their homes. Alvarez, a mining and hydrocarbon geologist, said the social unrest directly affected him and his family.

Added on 01 February, 2023

Explorer Readers Forum By Carlos Girabaldi

Latin America’s Path to Sustainability and Security through the Energy Transitions

I have the honor of leading the executive secretariat of ARPEL, the Association of Oil, Gas and (as of lately) Renewable Energy Companies of Latin America and the Caribbean. ARPEL is a key factor in the development and transformation of the oil and gas sector of our region. We foster cooperation and coordination on strategic and operational aspects among our member companies, and with sister trade and professional associations (such as AAPG), governments, regulators, academia and other stakeholders. ARPEL held its 6th conference in Lima, Peru in November.

Added on 01 December, 2022

Explorer Historical Highlights By Orlando Méndez

One Hundred Years of a Lost Blowout

A century ago, a gusher helped transform Venezuela from an agricultural country known as an exporter of coffee, cacao and cattle into one of the world’s largest oil producers. It was front-page news on the world’s most important newspapers. The country’s most significant 20th-century discoveries took place in the Maracaibo Basin between 1910 and 1925 and were based on surface geological exploration of concessions held by American and European companies. One of the strikes, the large La Rosa Field, was discovered in 1917 by Venezuelan Oil Concessions, a Royal Dutch Shell affiliate, on a 3,000-square-mile concession.

Added on 01 December, 2022

Explorer Article By Emily Llinás

Colombia’s Energy Future: New Leaders and Mixed Messages

Colombia is a land of contrasts – of tradition and innovation, wealth and poverty, triumphs and tragedy. Newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro highlighted Colombia’s contrasts in an address at COP27 recently, delivering an eloquent but confrontational discourse. His political agenda includes accelerating the energy transition. Other leftist leaders in Latin America have supported the national oil companies and continued exploration and production, but Petro’s policies advocate an immediate cessation from dependence on petroleum and coal, which he likens to cocaine addiction.

Added on 01 December, 2022

Explorer Geophysical Corner By Carolina Crovetto,Fabián Scazziota,Juan Moirano,Kurt Marfurt,Luis Vernengo,Ritesh Sharma,Satinder Chopra

Choice of Attributes for Unsupervised Seismic Facies Classification

With the increasing size of the seismic data volumes, machine learning applications have been found to accelerate the discrimination of seismic facies used in the identification of geologic patterns, defining stratigraphy and the direct indication of hydrocarbons. Many practitioners have demonstrated the application of dimensionality reduction tools such as principal component analysis and independent component analysis, or clustering techniques. Some of these are available in several commercial interpretation software packages.

Added on 01 November, 2022

Explorer Emphasis Article By Emily Llinás

The Role of Hydrogen in Latin America’s Energy Transition

Natural disasters worldwide, public debate, policy decisions and shareholder pressure are just some of the factors motivating companies to seek alternatives to traditional oil and gas to fuel the ever-increasing demand for energy worldwide. One of those alternatives is hydrogen – a renewable energy source that proponents believe brings a wealth of opportunities and challenges. Argentina’s national energy company YPF is one such proponent. They are considering using natural gas from the massive Vaca Muerta play to produce “blue hydrogen,” which is produced by combining natural gas and steam.

Added on 01 November, 2022

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

3PL’s Lithium Find Is a Model for Oil Scientists

“We’re probably at least 10 times larger. I mean, it just dwarfs any other project in North America.” That’s Vincent Ramirez, CEO of 3PL Operating, Inc., talking about a large and valuable lithium discovery his company has made in Railroad Valley, Nev. As lithium will play a vital role in the world’s changing energy landscape, generally, and because much of the known lithium deposits are in Chile, Australia, Argentina and China, specifically, 3PL’s find in central Nevada is potentially a very big deal.

Added on 01 October, 2022

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Digital Download

Northern Rocky Mountain Geological Highway Map - Download

Added on 21 April, 2009

Book

Anomalies: Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology 1917-2017

Robbie Rice Gries

Added on 16 March, 2018

Book

Memoir 113: Giant Fields of the Decade 2000-2010

Edited by R. K. Merrill and C. A. Sternbach

Added on 01 September, 2017

Book

Pinedale Field: Case Study of a Giant Tight Gas Sandstone Reservoir

Edited by Mark W. Longman, Stephen R. Kneller, Thomas S. Meyer and Mark A. Chapin

This memoir contains 15 well-illustrated, peer-reviewed chapters that describe the history of field development, the deposition and diagenesis of the reservoir rocks, geophysical characteristics of the field, special core analysis techniques used to better quantify the reservoir, petrophysical characteristics and interpretations of the reservoir, the types and abundance of natural fractures, and fluid production characteristics in the field. Finally, static and dynamic models for the field are presented in an attempt to integrate all the pieces of this giant geologic puzzle.

Added on 15 April, 2015

Book Reviews

Book Review

Atlas of Natural and Induced Fractures in Core

This volume is an ultimate resource for reading the story and history of fractures in rocks from core. It is a “must-have” volume for all who have, or wish to have, an intimate knowledge of the rocks they work with from a fracture point of view. (Product #1300. Member price $150 / List price $150.)

Added on 01 September, 2018

Book Review

Memoir 98: The Great American Carbonate Bank–The Geology and Economic Resources of the Cambrian-Ordovician Sauk Megasequence of Laurentia

Comprised of 48 chapters, this Memoir covers the biostratigraphy, ichnology, stratigraphy, depositional facies, diagenesis, and petroleum and mineral resources of the GACB. Product #787. Price: Member $184/List $304.

Added on 01 February, 2018

Book Review

Memoir 117: Petroleum Basins and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia

This Memoir is critical for exploration geoscientists in the petroleum industry, research institutions, and academia in order to understand the diverse petroleum systems, the tectonic and geologic evolution of sedimentary basins, and the development of hydrocarbon fields in these regions of South America. Product #1303. Price: Member $131 / List $262.

Added on 01 April, 2019

Book Review

Memoir 112: Imaging Unconventional Reservoir Pore Systems

This volume will prove useful to anyone interested in the methods for observing and quantifying the pore systems that control hydrocarbon storage and flow in unconventional reservoirs. (Product #1281. Member price $144 / List price $339.)

Added on 01 July, 2018

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