Explorer Emphasis Article

Marches. Protests. Sanctions. Power struggles. Thanks to 24-hour broadcasting and social media, news of Venezuela’s political and economic crisis has reached the four corners of the Earth. But how does South America’s petroleum powerhouse affect the geoscientists living within its borders? What goes on in workplaces and classrooms far away from cameras? The EXPLORER talked with students, professors and professionals to find out how the crisis is affecting them.

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

Our industry has been through a lot of changes since 2000, due in no small part to the explosive growth in unconventional oil and gas. Petroleum geologists have had to adapt to this change by learning new skills to keep abreast of the technological changes required to explore and develop unconventional oil and gas resources.

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

Geoscientists play a lot of different roles in our industry, but foremost, we are technical and scientific experts. We understand the rocks, their depositional history and their potential to generate hydrocarbons.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

About 1 billion people in the world live without electricity. In 2015, the United Nations announced an ambitious agenda to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Two years on, several multinational energy companies have become involved, or increased efforts already under way, with initiatives aimed at bringing Goal 7 to reality for about 200 million people, mostly in least-developed counties.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Business Side of Geology Column

It isn’t so much a lack of demand creating the ongoing oil supply glut, but a lack of market connectivity: the United States needs more oil pipelines.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Business Side of Geology Column

In simple terms,” said Donald Burdick, CEO and co-founder of Olifant Energy, “you can view partnering with a private equity firm as a way to partner with many investors under one large aggregator.” On the most basic level, private equity firms reach out to many investors for their funds and then turn around and deploy that capital among their portfolio of companies. “This approach,” said Burdick, “mitigates risk for the investors and it simplifies the financial reporting for the portfolio company.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

It was only expected to produce for 30 years. But now, 40 years later, BP looks forward to another 40 years of production in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Business Side of Geology Column

M&A activity appears to be on the rebound, but current oil price volatility tempers the otherwise optimistic mood going into this year’s APPEX conference in London.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

With a new batch of freshman lawmakers in Congress, there has been increasing attention on a proposed “Green New Deal” to aggressively tackle climate change, among other issues. But how feasible is it?

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Canada Blog

Energy fuels the economic engine of the world. Access to secure energy—affordable, available, reliable, and sustainable—is not only vital for economic health, but also to lift the world from poverty, and to invest in the environment. Are carbon policy and poverty mutually exclusive, or does there exist an energy “radical middle” that can address the challenges of carbon and poverty, and still preserve a healthy economy?

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Hot Items

Explorer Director’s Corner

Perhaps you did a double take pulling the April issue of EXPLORER from the mailbox. What is this? If you joined AAPG in the last 40 years, you’ve only known EXPLORER in its long-standing tabloid format. It worked well for many years as our advertisers – particularly seismic companies – loved the large format and the ability to display their data on a sweeping canvas. For readers, it was a little more awkward.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Advancements in processing and imaging techniques have continued over the last several decades, which have gradually improved the quality of the processed surface seismic data. When the quality of the existing seismic data is not adequate to perform an interpretation task reasonably, then the interpreter looks for other options. Is it feasible to acquire a new survey? In the absence of an improved survey, will reprocessing of seismic data be a good option?

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

The Casablanca oil field, discovered in 1975 and located on the Mediterranean shelf edge, has been greatly significant in the world’s offshore oil industry activity, besides being by far the biggest oil field in Spain.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

It isn’t news to anyone that prediction is difficult, especially when it’s the future (as a great man once said). Uncertainty and unpredictability are just a part of the job of tracking and predicting the future supply and demand of energy. That being the case, when energy analysts say that the current level of uncertainty is particularly high, it might be easy to dismiss it as a “dog bites man” story. It isn’t.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A new type of buoyancy model can be used to understand the source of residual oil zones, both thick and thin, to help determine the likelihood that economically viable recoverable oil resides in transition zones of imbibition reservoirs. Application of a buoyancy and breech model will fill a void in reservoir characterization. It will help distinguish between TZs and ROZs, the first of which allows application of primary and secondary (waterflooding) oil recovery methods and the second of which requires more difficult CO2-enhanced oil recovery projects.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Headquarters Contacts

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