Explorer Article

Are geologists drowning in data? How good are our analytical models? Even when we know what we're doing, do we know that we're doing the right things?

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Wildcat Recollections Column

In the mid-1990s, Arco International reviewed a farm-out proposal from Enterprise Oil for drilling on a block held by Enterprise in the Romanian Black Sea. Enterprise already had completed a seismic program and had mapped a variety of structures on the block.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The oil and gas business has been one of the crown jewels of the United Kingdom's economy for years, sustaining an impressive performance for over three decades - and through innovative approaches, officials mean to keep it that way.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Everyone knows Greenland has oil. But the exploration areas are so frontier they make Dodge City look like the middle of Manhattan, and so far no one has caught a glimpse of commercial Greenland production. So who will be first?

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Wildcat Recollections Column

Indonesia is a prolific oil and gas province with discovered reserves of more than 23 BBO and 150 TCFG. Most of the reserves originate from Tertiary source rocks and are trapped in Tertiary reservoirs on or immediately offshore of Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Last year IAGC sponsored its first conference on data licensing issues — and the topic is so critical that another conference is scheduled for Oct. 31 in Houston, co-sponsored by the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Is the continuing downturn in the geophysical industry affecting worker performance and safety? 'The situation in North America is that we've had seven or eight fatalities since the first of the year. It's the first time in my career that I can remember that kind of thing happening. It's alarming,' said Murray Saxton, corporate HSE officer for CGG Americas Inc. in Houston and chairman of the Health and Safety Committee of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC).

Show more
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Henry Posamentier had success in a study he conducted using seismic geomorphology in the Java Sea while he was with Arco Indonesia.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

It's been a constant in the ongoing story of seismic stratigraphy: New types of data have always sparked quantum leaps of geologists' understanding of the discipline.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Projects in the Gulf of Louisiana.

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.

Show more

Request a visit from Frank Peel!

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.

Show more

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)

Related Interests

See Also ...