Explorer Article

Throughout the past decade, Brazil’s pre-salt basins and giant deepwater oil discoveries have brought significant attention to the country and to the offshore South Atlantic. Though operating in the Brazilian pre-salt play promises billions of barrels of oil, it also requires billions of dollars in investment and technology, something just a handful of companies can bring to the table. While Petrobras and international companies focus their attention on the Brazilian offshore, a handful of Brazilian companies and foreign investors have focused inland, where they are quietly starting Brazil’s onshore revolution.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

In North America’s history of building pipelines to transport oil, natural gas and petroleum products, somewhere along the way, the process became political. By pulling the presidential permit on the Keystone XL pipeline, President Joe Biden sent a powerful message: Even if a pipeline benefits citizens and trade relations with important allies, and even if it has met or exceeded design and regulatory requirements and secured community support, its fate can ultimately be determined by a whim.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Delegates Voice Article

Steve Brachman, HoD chair, examines the House of Delegates with regard to its expenditures, revenue generated, as well as its functions and benefits to AAPG.     

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer ProTracks

Like many of my age cohort, I often listen to podcasts on my daily commute to work. One of my favorites is Motley Fool’s “Rule Breakers,” a stock market-oriented podcast by David Gardner. One of the common refrains he uses to describe his stock-selecting philosophy is that he looks for “dark clouds I can see through.” The premise is simple: if a company has been beaten down for a good reason, but you have line of sight on that issue being resolved, there exists an opportunity to acquire at a good value and profit from the recovery. Can we see through the dark clouds that hang over the industry today, to a brighter future?

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Director’s Corner

How are you doing? I was telling a friend recently that I feel like Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in the boxing ring. We’ve reached the final round, and I’m battered and bruised, my sharp jabs and uppercuts replaced by exhausted flailing. The big question – the only question – is whether this is the first fight of the film where I end up face down on the canvas, or whether it’s the second with the referee lifting my gloved hand into the air as Bill Conti’s film score soars. How about you? As the months of this pandemic drag on, how are you doing? It turns out there’s a name for what many of us are feeling these days.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The best-case outlook for the future of world energy looks highly positive for the oil and gas industry. In that outlook, energy demand returns to pre-pandemic levels and production increases as the world’s economies recover, giving the industry an opportunity for a strong rebound and years of attractive growth. But other scenarios could put roadblocks in the way of exploration and production, some of them potentially coming from the energy industry itself. OPEC+ definitely holds one key to the future, and the global energy transition appears to have picked up a considerable amount of momentum over the past year and a half.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

“If you care about the climate, elimination is not the way to go. Innovation is,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, at a forum sponsored by General Electric and hosted by the news website Axios on the eve of President Joe Biden’s global climate summit last month. That the summit was held during Earth Day was not a coincidence. The forum, which also included as guests, Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Fanning, and GE Chairman and CEO Larry Culp, was part of the media company’s “Energy Forward” series, which focuses on politics and policies surrounding sustainability, energy efficiency and new technologies in the coming decades.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

In the quest to reach net-zero emissions of energy-related carbon dioxide by 2050, a longtime goal of the United States, other world governments and energy agencies, no one is even close to achieving it. Despite 2020’s largest decline in emissions as a result of less energy usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EIA anticipates “a rapid rebound in energy demand and emissions” this year. Furthermore, they project that by 2050, U.S. energy-related emissions will be 5-percent higher than 2020 levels. Although it looks unlikely, net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is possible, according to at least one notable expert within AAPG, but not without a strong reliance on nuclear energy.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

When the Biden administration effectively canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline as a first order of business in January, environmentalists all over North America celebrated a major victory. “There was no magic to how we beat the Keystone XL Pipeline – it was grit, shared leadership and never forgetting who and what we were fighting for,” said the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. But did they really know what they were fighting for?

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

The overriding principle of AAPG’s special interest groups is to create an environment in which experienced professionals with like-minded views and concerns can come together to discuss, share, commiserate and become familiar with industry trends and Association events. Further, such groups create an environment in which individual members, including those in academia and service companies, as well as those in non-petroleum-based companies, both contribute to and benefit from programs and events of interest. The geoscience community in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was no stranger to the concept. For years, there was a SIG for young professionals, but the thinking was that there also needed to be something tailored for the experienced professional.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Palermo, Italy
Thursday, 25 April 2024, 8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m.

This one-day field trip will provide an introduction to a Miocene-Pliocene succession of southern Sicily, which includes outcrops of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), as well as the Messinian-Zanclean GSSP (Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Point) and Zanclean stratotype. The MSC sedimentary record consists of an evaporitic-carbonate unit at the base (the Basal Limestone), overlain the Lower Gypsum unit, in turn overlain by the Upper Gypsum unit, and sealed by transgressive chalk deposits of the Trubi Fm. The Lower Gypsum unit (massive gypsum with cm-sized selenite crystals) will be visited along the beach of Siculiana Marina (about 15 km NW of Agrigento). Next, we will visit near Capo Rossello (about 10 km NW of Agrigento) an outcrop of the Upper Gypsum unit consisting of clay-gypsum cycles and overlain by the Trubi Fm. The latter, at Scala dei Turchi beach, consists of chalk deposits arranged in a spectacular thick succession (~120 m thick) interpreted as astronomically-controlled depositional cycles. The uppermost interval of the MSC sedimentary record, including the Messinian-Zanclean GSSP, will be observed along the beach of Eraclea Minoa located about 20 km NW of Capo Rossello. Pricing Fee: €50 Attendee Limit: Min 15 - Max 50 People Registration Deadline: 11 April 2024 Field Trip Rendezvous Point Hotel nH Palermo Field Trip Leaders Antonio Caruso University of Palermo Attilio Sulli University of Palermo

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Palermo, Italy
Sunday, 21 April 2024, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

This one-day field trip will focus on Mesozoic (Jurassic to Cretaceous) carbonates outcropping in the fold and thrust belt of western Sicily and equivalent to the aquifer complex of the Sciacca Geothermal Field located in the southwestern part of the island. Participants will have the opportunity to visit in the first stop a spectacular “drowned” carbonate-platform succession at Mt. Maranfusa located in an inactive quarry about 50 km SW of Palermo. The succession consists of Lower Jurassic peritidal cycles overlain by Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous pelagic limestone (e.g. ammonitic limestone, “chalk”) and marked by an unconformity with locally hardground. Syn-depositional Mesozoic tectonic is characterized by neptunian dykes and normal faults, whereas reverse faults, strike-slip faults, and joints are related to subsequent Cenozoic deformation. In the second stop, at Mt. San Calogero, adjacent to the picturesque coastal town of Sciacca (about 100 km south of Palermo), we will visit the surface expression of an extensive karst system linked to uprising geothermal fluids. Furthermore, we will discuss main characteristics of the Sciacca Geothermal Field and its connection to deep mantle-derived fluids. Outcrop data will be integrated with both 2D seismic lines and exploration well logs showing the stratigraphy and structure of the deep aquifer. Given the presence of faults and joints in the outcrops, this field trip can provide the participants with valuable insights into naturally fractured reservoirs at the sub-seismic scale. Pricing Fee: €50 Attendee Limit: Min15 - Max 45 People Registration Deadline: 11 April 2024 Field Trip Leaders Gianni Mallarino MOL Group Attilio Sulli University of Palermo

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Banff, Canada
Saturday, 11 May 2024, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm Fee: $300 AAPG members $350 Nonmembers $200 Academic/AAPG Emeritus Members $50 discount for workshop registrants Fee Includes: Transportation Insurance Field guide Entrance fee to Banff National Park Registration available during workshop registration This field trip will focus on the structural geology of the foothills and Front Ranges of Banff. Participants will be able to view excellent field examples of structures very similar to the producing oil and gas fields in the foothills to the west of Calgary and to learn about the complexities of sub-seismic-scale deformation. The field trip starts with an introduction to the interaction between thrust front with foreland basins and the interaction of basement trends with thrust belt geometries and (conventional) hydrocarbon fields. During the 1-day trip participants will follow a dip transect from the undeformed foreland basin, the eastern edge of the foothills marked by the triangle zone, the Front Ranges boundary and end at the Main Ranges west of Banff. Field Trip Itinerary Depart from Calgary – 8:00 a.m. Stop 1: Cochrane Retreat Road Overlook Trip overview and introduction; safety and logistics comments; interaction of thrust front with foreland basin; interaction of basement trends with thrust belt geometry and (conventional) hydrocarbon field distribution; appreciation of scale for subsurface play fairway. Stop 2: Scott Lake Stop 3: The Stony Nakoda Tim’s Classic stop, with historical importance for understanding the thrust belt and thrust geometry. Part 1 of displacement gradient on a large thrust. Most importantly, toilet stop after all the Tim’s coffee and driving. Review of Mt Yamnuska from a different perspective; preview of drive through McConnell damage zone and change in HW stratigraphy.. Stop 4: Lac des Arcs Imbricate thrust sheets in the Front Ranges and Banff Formation. Stop 5: Canmore T-junction Observe complexities of sub-seismic-scale deformation in mechanically layered rocks in the footwall of a large thrust Stop 6: Canmore strike view of the Rundle thrust Exposed strike view analogous to a cut-away of a giant conventional Foothills hydrocarbon field such as Turner Valley. Cross faults within the thrust sheet offset potential reservoir units at sub-seismic scale. Cross faults are arguably part of a regional trend associated with deeper, basement-rooted NE-SW structures. Stop 7: Mt Norquay Overlook Stop 8: Bow Falls Fracture systems in the Vega Siltstone Mbr of the Triassic Sulphur Mtn Fm. This outcrop of Vega Member siltstone of the Sulphur Mtn Fm is considered equivalent to upper Montney Fm. We will focus on the outcrop adjacent to the steps up to the Falls overlook.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Palermo, Italy
Monday, 22 April Wednesday, 24 April 2024, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

This Symposium marks a collaborative event that brings together AAPG Europe and AAPG Middle East, with a central focus on carbonates and mixed carbonate systems worldwide, while highlighting their significance within these two regions. The primary objectives are an overview of controls that govern the evolution of these systems in time and space and the characterization and prediction of their properties across scales.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Monday, 27 May Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

In order to support the energy transition, optimizing exploration and production from complex stratigraphic-diagenetic conventional and unconventional plays remains highly important. At the same time, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) poses new technological challenges that will impact both the industry and academia for decades to come. This 2nd edition will present reviews and discuss technology developments in geological process-based forward modeling achieved during the last 2 years. New perspectives for future technology developments and implementation in industry workflows will be discussed and with the additional focus on CO₂ storage and other sustainability-related applications, the scope of the workshop will be considerably extended.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 24 October 2013, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium will be introducing signal processing techniques as a means to maximize extracting geomechanical data from petrophysical logs.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

The Santos Basin is an excellent example of how much oil is kept in remote sites, just waiting to be found by bold explorationists with the will and resources needed to find them. Join Flávio Feijó to for a presentation of the history and potential for future discoveries in the Santos Basin Webinar will be presented via Zoom on Tuesday 14 July 2020 at 11am CDT (UMT-6). Register Now at Zoom

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 8 December 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium focuses on methods for predicting connectivity within clastic fluvial systems.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Visiting Geoscientist Xavier Moonan provides an overview of the destruction in the Los Iros area following the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. His talk focuses on understanding the results from various post-earthquake studies conducted on the Los Iros, reviewing the theories developed to explain the origin and integrating datasets to provide an understanding of what transpired.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 29 September 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This study will focus in the combination of λρ – μρ inversion with clustering analysis techniques in order to discriminate brittle zones in the Barnett Shale.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Wednesday, 31 March 2021, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Join us for 'Pivoting 2021: Risk and Recovery in 2021'. Panelists discuss how they now approach risk assessment and opportunity evaluation after the dramatic changes due to economic stresses (crises) and a global pandemic. Webinar will be presented via Zoom 7pm - 8:30pm CDT, 31 March 2021.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 19 May 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium presents and discusses the results of laboratory tests and research relating to determining shale prospectivity in general, and specifically in the Black Warrior Basin, Alabama.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Tuesday, 1 January 2013, 12:00 a.m.–1:00 a.m.

The presenters will discuss effective management of wind farm operations and the challenges often encountered. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 28 July 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This presentation discusses one operator’s approach to fully integrate data captured in the Marcellus Shale in order to optimize horizontal well performance.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Tuesday, 9 September 2014, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Water cut is a big factor in gauging the success of horizontal drilling in the Mississippi Lime Play (MLP). The contributing factors are related in part to the spectrum of producing lithofacies and reservoir quality encountered that varies laterally and vertically, sometimes dramatically. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

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.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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