10 May, 2019

Latin America & Caribbean Region Report April 2019

 

AAPG LACR IBA teams competed at the Region Semifinals in Rio de Janeiro while students and young professionals throughout the region represented AAPG at local conferences and educational events.

AAPG Latin America & Caribbean Region Imperial Barrel Award Semifinalists, the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), Bucaramanga, Colombia

Advance the science of geology
Visiting Geoscientist Program (VGP)
  • Coordinator Mauricio Guizada prepared a report of FY2019 fiscal year-to-date visits and expenditures to share at the Global VGP Meeting at the AAPG Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE) in San Antonio
  • In the first 9 months of the FY2019 fiscal year (June 2018 to April 2019, LACR VGs made 39 VG visits in 11 countries, reaching 24 universities and 1281 attendees.
  • Coordinators are working to formalize new VGs in Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela
Earth Science Week

Brazil

  • 25 April – Students and school teachers from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, were trained about rock and minerals and given mineral kits. 18 participants.

Trinidad & Tobago

  • 6 April – STEM Session: Renewable Energy. North based students were taught about the definition of renewable energy and description of renewable resources. Discussion concerning why we need renewable energy - regarding the "finite" non-renewable resources we are currently exploiting, how long fossil fuels take to form and therefore allowing the students to understand that these cannot be replenished within our lifetime. Also discussed the environmental impact of a fossil fuel dependent world and how both developed and developing countries have already begun to tailor their economies and industries around cleaner energy. Types of renewable energy: Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Tidal and Wave Energy, Geothermal Energy Presented by Kami Allong. 15 students attended.
Promote the use of technology
GTW Brazil 2019: Solutions for Appraisal and Development of Onshore and Offshore Fields
  • Rio de Janeiro, 13-14 June 2019
  • Session Themes:
    • Alternative solutions for field clusters
    • EOR/IOR solutions for mature fields
    • Value of information in appraisal activities
    • Use of technology in complex reservoirs
  • Poster Session Theme: Tools & technology to optimize exploration and production
  • Working with session chairs to select presentations for oral and poster sessions
  • Confirmed sponsorships from Ecopetrol, Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, Enauta, Murphy Oil and Spectrum
  • Finalizing program and promoting registrations
GTW Suriname 2019: Recent Discoveries and Exploration and Development Opportunities in the Guiana Basin
  • Paramaribo, 5-7 November 2019
  • Working to select session chairs and presenters
  • Confirmed sponsorships from Staatsolie, Kosmos, Halliburton, Tullow; several other companies expressed interest
  • Session Themes:
    • Tectonic Setting and Prospectivity in the Guiana Basin
    • Recent Exploration in Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana
    • Maximizing Resource Potential in Emerging Basins
    • Enhancing Exploration and Development through Integration and Data Management
    • Beyond Guiana: Emerging Plays, Prospects and Discoveries throughout the Caribbean
    • Government-Industry-Community: Collaborative Strategies for Emerging Hydrocarbon Economies
AAPG Hedberg Research Conference: Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Circum-Gulf of México Pre-Salt Section
  • Mexico City, 4-6 February 2020
  • Technical committee working actively to develop program
  • Developing marketing materials and negotiating venue contract
ICE Buenos Aires 2019: Expanding Frontiers and Unlocking Resources for Future Generations*
  • 27‐30 August 2019, Hilton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center
  • Finalizing content for Technical Program and registration announcement to be sent in printed and digital form throughout the world in late-May
  • Registration for the conference, short courses and field trips will open on May 9
  • Actively soliciting sponsors and exhibitors
2020 Events
  • Activities planned include GTW Colombia (focused on offshore) in Bogotá in April and Energy Opportunities 2020 in Mexico City in September
Serve AAPG members throughout the Region
Region website & social media as of 2 May 2019
  • Facebook page has 1773 followers (increased 2.0%)
  • Twitter account has 652 followers (increased 2.2%)
  • LinkedIn account has 921 followers (increased 3.7%)
Promote awareness of AAPG
Corporate Advisory Board
  • Steering Committee approved creating a LACR Corporate Advisory Board which could provide strategic and tactical guidance to leadership and help to provide ongoing support for education and workforce development initiatives
Develop the next generation of geoscientists
Imperial Barrel Award*
  • IBA LACR sponsors: Chevron ($15,000 USD), Shell ($10,000 USD)
  • In-kind sponsors: Petrobras (semifinals venue), Schlumberger (Petrel licenses for Brazil teams), ABGP (participant lunch at semifinals)
  • In-person Region Semifinals held at Petrobras Research Facility in Rio de Janeiro on April 5
  • Participants included the
    • Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia – Region Winner
    • Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina (2nd place)
    • Universidade do Estado de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    • Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas
  • Semifinals judges included Ronan Avila (ANP), Nadege Bize-Forest (Schlumberger), Luis Gustavo Pipa (ExxonMobil) and Marco Vinicius Popini (Petrobras)
  • Region Semifinal winner (UIS) will compete in the Global Finals in San Antonio on 18 May. Team members and the advisor will attend the AAPG Annual Conference and Exhibition.
2019 Student-Young Professional Leadership Summit*
  • 30 August – 1 September 2019 in Buenos Aires
  • Advertising Summit Sponsorship option in the ICE Buenos Aires 2019 sponsorship brochure
  • Confirmed Sponsorships from Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell
  • Received applications from the nominee of each Student and YP Chapter, which will be evaluated to select participants
  • Working on the program, budget and venue
Ready to Work (RTW) Program
  • Committees working in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia to develop programs for recent graduates being trained to work in the energy industry
  • The initiative is supported by the FY2019 Region budget and, in Brazil, through sponsorship provided by ExxonMobil
  • Program dates:
    • Colombia: 27 May – 1 June
    • Brazil: 27 May-7 June
    • Bolivia: 6-13 July
  • RTW committees will provide certificates of participation to individuals who complete the program successfully
  • Committees will present final reports to the LACR showing how funding was used
Student Chapters
  • 6-15 March – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, received support from national and international associations, and national media for the third edition of the oil and gas forum (III Rural Óleo & Gás): ABGP, AAPG, ALAGO, CPRM, SBG, SBGf and TN Petróleo - Editora Brasil Energia (Revista Brasil Energia Petróleo).
  • 10 March – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, started the 2nd trainee AAPG program, gathering 28 students willing to become part of the Executive Committee.
  • 27 March – UNIPAMPA, Brazil, held the lecture “Mass extinction and the geological factors that shaped life on Earth”, by Ph.D Antônio Jorge Magalhães. 142 students attended.
  • 29 March – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, participated at the SPE Career Talk (HR reunion), 1 student attended.
  • 01 April – UNIPAMPA, Brazil, held the activity “Reception of Unipampa freshmen”. 100 students attended.
  • 1 April – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, 30 new students associated to AAPG and joined the UFRRJ SC.
  • 1-5 April - IPN, Mexico, held the “First Meeting of Earths Sciences Student Chapters”. More than 1,300 students and professionals attended.
  • 2 April – IPN, Mexico, held in cooperation with Chevron the "Chevron Day". More than 600 students and professionals attended.
  • 3 April – UWI Student Chapter, Trinidad, met with Amrit Cooblal and Ibraheem Ali of the Young Professionals group and had a meeting to discuss current standings with respect to the chapter's activities and finances. 7 people attended.
  • 5 April – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, held the first big reunion with the new members and trainees.
  • April 5 – UFPR, Brazil, held the presentation “Geophysics at the service of sedimentology: Sedimentary dynamics of a continental margin revealed by 3D seismic” presented by PhD. Fernando Farias Vesely (UFPR). 28 people attended.
  • 7 April – UNAM SC and YP Mexico, collaborated with Geology Museum UNAM by implementing activities during the “Seventh Meeting with the Earth”. More than 15,000 members of the public attended.
  • 9 April – UNICAMP, Brazil, held the activity “AAPG Student Chapter: How to join and the benefits of becoming a member” By Letícia Corrêa and Lucas Marti. 150 students attended.
  • 9 April – UNICAMP, Brazil, held the activity “Antarctic Expedition: geology and paleontology of Vega island” by Alessandro Batezelli. 150 students attended.
  • 10 April – UNIPAMPA, Brazil, held the short course "Unipampa AAPG Student Chapter – Interaction between oil industry and academy" by Ph.D Ezequiel Galvão de Souza, 50 students attended.
  • 10 April – Mexico, visit of the PhD. student Sergio Gámez Galicia from the University of Leeds, Sergio carried out the seminar "Restoration of lithosphere and depositional geometries across the rift to drift transition, Pelotas Basin, Uruguay." 9 Students and 7 professionals attended. This activity was possible thanks to National Oil Company of Palacio de Minería, CDMX”. “Ichnology and sedimentology of Miocene Shallow - to marginal – marine deposits” by Luis Ignacio Quiroz. 22 students attended.
  • 10 April – UANL, Mexico, participation in the “National Geology Convention 2019”
  • 11 April – UFRJ, Brazil, provided the lecture "Do you know what is a Student Chapter?" for students from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. About 40 people attended.
  • 12 April – UFRGS, Brazil, held the activity "Reception of new undergraduate students of the geology course". 40 students attended.
  • 12 April – UNISINOS, Brazil, held the class "Neoproterozoic basins - Camaquã Basin tectonics and sedimentation", taught by PhD Farid Chemale and PhD Paulo Paim. 30 people attended.
  • 13th April – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, held the field trip named "Quaternary Sedimentation Environments" (Renata Gama- UERJ) associated to the III Rural Óleo & Gás, 23 people attended.
  • 14 April – UANL, Mexico, field trip to the “Sierra de Picachos, Tamaulipas”. The main subject of the field trip was Igneous Petrology. It was led by PhD. Juan Alonso Ramirez Fernandez. 30 students attended.
  • 14-18 April – UNISINOS, Brazil, held the field trip "Camaquã Basin tectonics and sedimentation" taught by PhD. Farid Chemale and Ilana Lehn. 19 people attended.
  • 15 April – UFRGS, Brazil, held the activity "Paleobotany and Palinology of the Transantartic Mountain", by Valentina Corti, Universitá di Siena. 16 students attended.
  • 15 - 17 April – UFRuralRJ, Brazil, held the third edition of the oil and gas forum (III Rural Óleo & Gás), 162 people attended.
  • 15 - 22 April – 5 Students participated in the activities related to the Uruguayan Geo-Tourism Week, offering talks and guides through the UNESCO Geopark "Grutas del Palacio" in Trinidad, Flores, Uruguay.
  • 17 April – Suriname SC, Suriname, held a members meeting where the annual program and recruitment program were discussed. 11 people attended.
  • 22 April – ESPOL, Ecuador, held an activity to produce to a welcome video for freshmen. 4 officers attended.
  • 24 to 26 April – UERJ, Brazil, held the “I UERJ Petroleum and Gas Geology Workshop”, comprising 12 talks and 3 short courses. 130 people attended.
  • 24-26 April – IPN, Mexico, assistance to the “Second EAGE Workshop on deep water exploration in Mexico” in Cancún, Quintana Roo. 8 IPN SC Members attended.
  • 26 April – T&T Student Chapter, T&T, participated with the Young Professionals group in a live webinar entitled, "A Global tour of Mud Volcanoes, Natural and man-made," by Dr. Mark Tingay, head of pore pressure and geomechanics, Petronas, Malaysia. 19 people attended.
  • 29 April – UFPR, Brazil, held the presentation "Everything you wanted to know about generating rocks and were ashamed to ask". 15 people attended.
  • 30 April – UNICAMP, Brazil, held an activity to draw and delivery books to the raffle winners promoted by the Student Chapter for fundraising. 10 students attended.
  • 30 April – ESPOL, Ecuador, participated in "ESPOL Induction Program 2019" 4 officers and 40 students attended
  • 30 April – Suriname SC, Suriname, held a recruitment program for students of the Department of Geosciences. 20 students attended.
YP Chapters

Argentina

  • Chapter members supporting development of Student and YP programs at ICE Buenos Aires. The Conference will include a Student-YP Roundtable focusing on career challenges and opportunities in the energy industry.

Bolivia

  • 9 April – 11th Session “Cycle of Geoscientific Talks” with Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Senior Exploration Geologist, Schlumberger who presented "Basin Modeling - Application in Pore Pressure Prediction and Geological Effort Regime". 33 people attended.
  • 22 April – First 2019 Bulletin AAPG YP Bolivia Chapter. Information of previous and future chapter activities (2018-2019).
  • 27 April - 4 May – 16-hour basic course “Reservoir Petrophysics” Co-hosted by “CBHE Bolivian Chamber of Hydrocarbons and Energy”, about characteristics and physical properties of clastic rocks, to determine the quality of reservoirs.
  • 30 April – Conference to UMSA Student Chapter. Carlos Jimenez, AAPG YP Bolivia Chapter/YPFB Chaco, presented “Impact of continental environments on the production of hydrocarbons in the Andean foothills”. 23 people attended.
  • April (throughout month) – Ready to Work Program preparation: Committee meetings to define milestones and step to follow. Preliminary Program Drawn.

Brazil

  • 5 April – Chapter provided support to the IBA Semifinals in Rio de Janeiro. Four YP members participated: Daiane, Igor, Hyalla, and Priscila.
  • 6 April – Field trip to Pedra Bonita in Rio de Janeiro organized by Priscila Amaral for the semifinals participants of IBA 2019. Professor Marcus Berao explains about the geologic context to 19 participants.
  • 11 April – Two online meetings. One to discuss the RTW program (5 participants) and the other one with Leticia and Priscila to discuss the YP Bulletin.
  • 15 April – Guilherme Sowek and Priscila negotiated with an oil company about sponsorships for Ready to Work.
  • 15 April – Priscila Amaral participated in an online meeting to discuss GTW Brazil.
  • 16 April – Monthly meeting to define the election of the committee of YP Brazil Social meeting at 'Costelinha'. 8 participants.
  • 17 April – Online executive committee election.
  • 17 April – Participation in “III Rural Oleo & Gas” of UFRuralRJ Student Chapter. Daiane Cardoso and Priscila attended the event. Priscila delivered a presentation about YP activities. Priscila and Guilherme negotiated the RTW sponsorship with another oil company.
  • 18 April – Francielly organized the online election and results with Hyalla Queiroz and Carlos Fracalossi.
  • 24 April – YP Brazil supported the “I Oil & Gas Workshop” organized by UERJ Student Chapter. YP donated some books and Priscila Amaral spoke in a short presentation about the YP activities.
  • 25 April – Diego Gracioso taught mini-course during UERJ workshop "Exploratory game: Simulation of the bidding round of exploratory blocks" in two days. 18 students attended.
  • 26 April – Francielly participated in the first meeting of UFRN SC, where she gave a presentation about AAPG and YP Brazil. 6 students participated.
  • 26 April – Thamila Bastos participate in the UERJ “Oil & Gas Workshop” with Marina Abelha representing ANP (National Agency of Petroleum).
  • 29 April – Online meeting to discuss the RTW. Five YP members participated. Online meeting with Leticia and Priscila to discuss the YP Bulletin. Leticia will finalize the YP Bulletin as coordinator.
  • 30 April – Meeting with ABGP to discuss the RTW program. Diego Gracioso attended. Started sharing RTW in social media.
  • During April, the YP Brazil Chapter acquired 11 new members.

Colombia

  • 3 April – Third round of the cycle of conferences “Women in the Industry” with Andrea Ortiz, Ecopetrol, who delivered the talk “Deep water deposits: presence, expression and distribution in the Colombian Caribbean”. 14 people attended.
  • 5 April – Online meeting with Deisy Arriola, YP Peru, to share lessons learned and discuss questions about RTW Program Peru 2018. 5 people attended.
  • 8 April – Fourth and final round of the cycle of conferences “Women in the Industry” with María A. Martínez, Ecopetrol, who delivered the talk “Organic geochemistry and petroleum systems modeling: key tools in petroleum exploration”. 8 people attended.
  • 22 April – RTW meeting for tasks assignment and responsibilities. 7 members of the committee attended.
  • 24 April - Talk “Sustainable energetic future: What is the role of young professionals?” by Elvira Gómez, AAPG President-Elect. 10 people attended.

Mexico

  • 7 April – participated as volunteers in the event “Seventh encounter with the Earth” open event aimed at the public; on charge of a stand titled “The oil route (Mexico City)”. 20 volunteers in the AAPG YP stand.
  • 24-16 April – The educational liaison of YP Mexico, Victor Antuna and Ángela Contreras, of the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists & engineers) obtained a sponsorship for 4 student students from ITESCO and UANL to attend the event “2nd EAGE workshop of deepwater Exploration” in Cancun, Quintanaroo, Mexico.

Peru

  • 5 April – Videoconference to share lessons learned in RTW Program Peru 2018 with AAPG YP Colombia Chapter. 5 people attended.
  • 18 April – Field trip to carry out the mapping of the Morro Solar with Engineer Fredy Jaimes. 23 people attended
  • 19 and 25 April – Workshop "Development of Structural and Balanced Sections for the Proposal of Geological Models of Subsoil in Sedimentary Basins" by Christian Hurtado. 50 people attended.

Trinidad & Tobago

  • 8 April – Field Trip “Seismic Line Traverse” Led by Amrit Cooblal. Petroleum Engineering Diploma students were taken on a Seismic Line Traverse Trip where they gained insight into petroleum geology (petroleum system elements), Trinidad geology (formations and ages, geological map) and field geology (measuring dip, strike and sedimentary logging). Students were able to take measurements and relate them to an integrated dataset including seismic, well log, outcrop and geological map. 16 students attended.
  • 12 April – Election results for new AAPG YPTT Executive Committee, who will assume duties from October 2019. The AAPG YPTT Executive Committee 2019-2021 will be: President: Shenille Samlal, Vice President: Charis Mungal, Treasurer: Alexandra Gray, Secretary: Tariq Karamath, Public Relations Officer: Mark Bishop, Student Chapter Liaison: Jonathan Rawlins.
  • 26 April – Webinar "A Global Tour of Mud Volcanoes Natural and Man-Made" via Skype. Dr. Mark Tingay delivered an excellent lecture on an overview of mud volcanoes around the world, insight into subsurface plumbing systems and their link to overpressure and a case study on the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster. 20 students and 5 YP attended.
Upcoming Meetings
  • AAPGLAC Delegate Meeting, 10 May, 12:00 Bog/Lim/Hou/Mex; 13:00 POS/CCS; 14:00 Rio/BA/Prb
  • AAPGLAC Steering Committee Meeting, 15 May, 16:00 Bog/Lim/Hou/Mex; 17:00 POS; 18:00 Rio/BA
  • April 2019 AAPG Latin America & Caribbean Region All-Member Meeting and Reception at the AAPG Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE), Tuesday, 21 May, 17:30 CDT, Grand Hyatt San Antonio