Explorer Division Column EMD

AAPG’S Energy Minerals Division (EMD) will respond to heightened awareness of global energy issues by offering an extensive and diverse selection of sessions, short courses, field trips and forums at the upcoming 2009 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, set for June 7-10 in Denver.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The Covenant was so promising, but what else does Utah hold up its sleeve? The search for additional fields continues in a challenging, complex region.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Field (trip) of dreams: AAPG Honorary Member Roger Slatt is leading a research team in a reservoir characterization study of the Barnett Shale.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Sometimes finding the Big One doesn’t call for high-tech applications. Past AAPG president John Amoruso talks about having a concept, which led to the 2004 discovery of his namesake.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Fred F. Meissner is an honored exploration geologist and receives the Sidney Powers Memorial Award. Learn more about his achievements and life work.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

AAPG’s Distinguished Instructor program, entering its second season, will expand to two instructors – one for domestic groups, and one for international.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Basin modeling traditionally has been used in oil and gas exploration to estimate source rock maturity and to determine charge -- but in recent years, the range of basin modeling applications has expanded.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The southwest Wyoming region has almost everything you could want in a Rocky Mountain hydrocarbon province.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A field that can be touted as an industry showpiece for what can be accomplished with the right technology in combo with the right commodity price sometimes attains its lofty status only after years of expensive trial and error -- and frustration -- on the part of the operators.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Everything old is new again: The Arctic Alaska already is considered a world-class petroleum province, but future exploration may depend on a new view of old rocks.

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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Request a visit from Ameed Ghori!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Paleozoic North America has experienced multiple mountain building events, from Ordovician to Permian, on all margins of the continent. These have had a profound effect on the resulting complex basins and their associated petroleum systems. Subsequent uplift, erosion and overprinting of these ancient systems impedes the direct observation of their tectonic history. However, the basin sedimentary records are more complete, and provide additional insights into the timing and style of the mountain building events. In this study, we employ ~90 1D basin models, ~30 inverse flexural models, isopachs, and paleogeographic maps to better understand the Paleozoic history of North America.

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Request a visit from Kurt W. Rudolph!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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