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Explorer Article

As the United States looks for ways to decarbonize its energy sources, some believe the nation’s abundant gas reserves – estimated at 495 trillion cubic feet in 2019 by the U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves – can play an important role. Using the steam methane reforming process, the numerous petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast are the No. 1 producers of hydrogen in the nation. Because this hydrogen is produced with a CO2 byproduct, it is not considered a clean energy. However, by integrating carbon capture, utilization and storage into the SMR process, a clean form of hydrogen could be produced and used for process heating, in gas turbines that generate electricity, in shipping vessels and in the petrochemicals industry.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Adventure enthusiasts should enjoy the story of Angelo Pitoni, a larger- than-life geologist whose story includes exploits rivaling any of those portrayed on the big screen. This article focuses specifically on a chapter of his life that took place in my country, Venezuela, and forms part of our country’s oil exploration history.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Colombia’s indigenous U’wa community is rooted in tradition, and community members follow ancient ancestral customs, including living without electricity. Life changed for U ́was living near El Chuscal, Guandalay, in Northeast Colombia in November 2021, when a project developed by the University of Pamplona geoscience students brought electricity to their community for the first time.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer President’s Column

Listening to “The Mummers’ Dance” by Loreena McKennitt as I write prompted me to think about the tremendous amount of work that has gone into considering where AAPG should go. Like heading for a sea voyage, people of different perspectives choose the route that seems best in that moment. AAPG must do the same so that we can continue to enjoy great adventures filled with learning and camaraderie.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Division Column EMD

Many members of the Energy Minerals Division are researching or working to develop non-fossil energy resources, including geothermal, critical and nuclear minerals, and some “colors” of hydrogen, all in service to human civilization’s ongoing energy transition. Over the years, there has been a variety of reasons given for why the current transition is necessary. These are very real and important concerns, but what often gets left out of the public discourse on the energy transition is how complex and disruptive it will be, especially if we’re going to meet any of the ambitious goals set for this century.

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

Last month I wrote about the substantial increases in E&P investment necessary to ensure the availability of oil and gas supplies in the future to reduce price volatility and enhance global energy security. I drew on the analysis in a recent report of the International Energy Forum and IHS Markit. Business activity and investment in E&P remains on my mind this month, as I look forward to the upcoming NAPE Summit, from Feb. 8-11, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

John S. Wold was a man of such prolific industry and accomplishment that his life story reads less like a narrative and more like a series of escalating and expanding accomplishments in one field after another. Along with being a successful petroleum geologist and mineral resource producer, this award-winning AAPG Member was also an accomplished inventor, scientist, academic, entrepreneur, rancher, philanthropist and public servant. He had the distinction of being the first professional geologist in the U.S. Congress – and a petroleum geologist at that.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Phase decomposition is a novel technique that decomposes a composite seismic signal into different phase components, which can improve reservoir characterization. The technique is particularly useful in those areas where thin-bed interference causes the phase of the input seismic response to differ from the phase of the embedded wavelet in the data.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

When the International Petroleum Technology Conference comes to Saudi Arabia in February, the technical program will include a significant look at both unconventional oil and gas and conventional tight oil in the Middle East. Those are two different concepts in the region and the distinctions are important. The Middle East holds a large conventional tight oil resource, now emerging as a serious focus for development. With so much recent attention devoted to unconventional resources, conventional tight oil could be considered an overlooked sibling.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

So what motivates a man, an entrepreneur and a geologist, who in the past eight years has secured corporate funding to the tune of $300 million for three start-up oil and gas companies, but has also seen and lived through the other end of that spectrum when he was, literally, making minimum wage? Better still, how does the man himself explain it? “I’d say the short answer is, ‘the love of a new adventure.’” That’s Donald G. Burdick, CEO of Olifant Energy, who said, perhaps surprisingly, the adventure did not come out of boredom or burnout. First at Marathon, through Samson, Vintage and QEP, and most recently at Cimarex, Laredo and Panther Energy II, he said there was always something else out there calling him.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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