Explorer President’s Column

This Executive Committee and the past five EC have been working hard on your behalf. AAPG had a couple black swan events in 2014 and 2015. The Executive Committees during these few years have been working very hard to cut costs and bring the budget into balance in this new commodity price environment. The bottom line to all this is that in five years we have righted the ship, bailed the water, and are sailing once again.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Energy sustainability and environmental responsibility are major pillars for the future of the energy industry. They will also be important themes for the upcoming Pacific Section Annual Meeting April 4-8 in Oxnard, Calif. The meeting’s overall theme is “2020 Vision: Producing the Future.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

In 1994, while chairman and CEO of Barrett Resources, I got a call from my good friend Ray Thomasson, who said, “Bill I have a prospect Larry McPeek has worked up in the Wind River Basin that you might find interesting.” I’d worked every feature of geology in Wyoming’s Wind River Basin and was familiar with about every well drilled there during my career, so I frankly considered myself somewhat of an expert on the basin ... The Cave Gulch Prospect was located along the Owl Creek Thrust in a geologically complex area.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

AAPG Honorary Member and University of Oklahoma geoscience professor Roger Slatt speaks to the vital yet dwindling role of research consortia in advancing education and scientific advancement.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Proposals to ban hydraulic fracturing in the United States have drawn a wide range of responses from analysts, with projected effects ranging from cataclysmic to trifling. Legislation to phase out fracturing was introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year. That turned up the heat on the controversy, as did the emergence of Sen. Bernie Sanders as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders and Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced a bill titled the “Ban Fracking Act” in January.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Welcome to an interview with Matt Bell, Co-Founder of Strategic Piece, who talks to us today about what it takes to take a new technology from the idea stage to successful launch and commercialization. Matt is involved in AAPG’s U-Pitch New Technology Showcase, where he provides support and guidance to companies needing to build markets as well as potentially obtaining capital.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

In the summer of 1865, Thomas Bard arrived in Ventura County, Calif., to begin exploration drilling on properties owned by his uncle, Thomas Scott, in the area of Sulphur Mountain. Scott had made a fortune investing in Pennsylvania railroads in the 1850s and in Titusville oil fields in the early 1860s. Scott undertook petroleum exploration in California on the basis of sensational reports of the oil potential there published by Yale professor Benjamin Silliman in 1864. Writing to Scott about the Sulphur Mountain area, Silliman said, 'Its great value is in its almost fabulous wealth in the best of oil.'

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

“As we are in the forefront of the oil boom associated with unconventional reservoirs, we are on a steep learning curve concerning related high-cost drilling and completion operations and we need to be aware of associated risks and do our best to minimize these risks and financial waste.” That’s Mamdouh A. Shebl, who has more than 34 years’ experience in unconventional reservoir development, and he has seen the protocols industry professionals take to assess the risks of such wells, both from an industry perspective as senior petrophysicist at Chevron’s MidContinent Business Unit, and from an academic one as petrophysics research professor at Texas A&M University. And he thinks the industry can do better.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Geopolitical tensions thrust Iran into an international spotlight in January, in a series of events that briefly unnerved oil markets. The aftermath could have serious, longer-term effects on the oil and gas industry, although those repercussions are difficult to predict. There is one certainty, though, according to one analyst: Iran’s situation under continued U.S.-enforced sanctions is untenable.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, will grant no quarter about either the history and benefits of energy in our lives or its potential to improve our future. “Access to affordable, reliable energy is the foundation of modern economies,” he said. This subject has been on his mind of late, for he has spent the last two years studying those who are, as he puts it, suffering from “energy poverty.” Some 2.5 billion people worldwide live in some form of energy poverty today. “Access to secure energy,” Tinker said, “impacts all other major humanitarian issues, including hunger, shelter, clean water, education, healthcare, human migration, empowerment of women, and more. Those who do not have energy access suffer from energy poverty.”

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Hot Items

wwwUpdate Blog

Courtesy of AAPG and AAPG Datapages, two Discovery Series data sets have been donated free of charge for use as online teaching materials. Discovery Series 10 – Sandstone Petrology: A Tutorial Petrographic Image Atlas 2nd Edition and Discovery Series 15 – Carbonate Petrology: Interactive Petrography Tutorial, both authored by Kitty Milliken, have been posted online for easy accessibility.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
wwwUpdate Blog

Claudia J. Hackbarth, a Houston-based geologist who has held a variety of management and leadership positions for the Royal Dutch Shell Group, assumed the presidency of AAPG on July 1.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
wwwUpdate Blog

AAPG publications are widely read by geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers. Are they your target audience? Then take advantage of the many advertising opportunities available in AAPG’s news and journal magazines.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
wwwUpdate Blog

Executive summary of the AAPG 2022 Member/Customer Planning Survey

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
wwwUpdate Blog

Results of the 2022 AAPG Member/Customer Planning Survey.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Headquarters Contacts

Susan Nash
Susan Nash Director, Innovation and Emerging Science and Technology, AAPG +1 405 314 7730