This workshop continues its successful legacy as a premier platform for sharing recent advances in stratigraphic trap Exploration, bringing together case studies, emerging technologies, and collaborative industry academia initiatives to address increasingly complex subsurface challenges.
Exploration in mature basins has entered a new phase, as many traditional structural traps have been extensively tested. Recent stratigraphic discoveries continue have reinforced the strategic value of these plays, while also emphasizing the challenges of identifying and evaluating subtle trapping geometries such as pinch outs, channelized systems, carbonate build ups, and unconformity related traps.
Successful exploration increasingly depends on integrated, multidisciplinary workflows that combine geology, geophysics, and petrophysics with advanced seismic imaging, sequence stratigraphy, rock physics, and basin scale understanding. This workshop will focus on how these elements are brought together to improve subsurface interpretation, reduce uncertainty, and enhance prospect definition.
The program will highlight modern exploration approaches, including the use of 3D seismic data, seismic attributes, and direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs), supported by advances in data analysis, interpretation techniques, and quantitative workflows. Real world case studies will showcase exploration outcomes, including comparisons between pre-drill predictions and drilling results, as well as lessons learned in risk and resource assessment.
In addition, the workshop will explore the broader application of stratigraphic and subsurface characterization expertise in emerging energy domains such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), geothermal systems, and subsurface energy storage, where containment, reservoir performance, and long-term integrity are critical considerations.
By emphasizing geological insight, integrated workflows, and practical case studies, this workshop aims to strengthen predictive capability, reduce exploration risk, and support more effective development of stratigraphic traps across both conventional and emerging energy applications.
Program
Session 1: The Art and Strategy of Exploring Stratigraphic Traps
Theme: Building predictive understanding of stratigraphic systems
This session establishes the geological and stratigraphic framework for trap formation, focusing on how sedimentological evolution controls trap effectiveness. It emphasizes multi-scale integration and predictive approaches linking depositional systems to trapping geometries, while addressing the influence of facies variability and diagenesis on trap integrity and reservoir performance. The session also highlights how integrated geological modeling improves predictability in complex settings.
Topics of Interest
• Multi-scale integration and data conditioning to understand erosional truncation surfaces and sealing relationships
• Predictive frameworks linking sedimentological evolution to trap effectiveness
• Sequence stratigraphy and seismic sequence stratigraphy
• Evaluation of pinch-outs, channelized reservoirs, and carbonate buildups
• Facies variability and depositional and diagenetic controls on reservoir quality and trap distribution
• Enhanced predictability through integrated geological modelling
• Seismic imaging in carbonate and clastic environments
• Regional stratigraphic trap play concepts
Session 2: Advances and Integrated Workflows in Stratigraphic Trap Exploration
Theme: From data to prospect through integrated workflows
This session focuses on modern exploration approaches combining geophysics, geology, and data analytics to detect subtle stratigraphic accumulations. It highlights the transition toward data-driven prospectivity assessment and thei ntegration of advanced technologies into exploration workflows.
Topics of Interest
• Multidisciplinary workflows integrating geophysics, geology, and data analytics
• Transition from structurally dominated exploration to stratigraphic prospectivity assessment
• Use of 3D seismic data and direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs)
• Integration of seismic attributes, rock physics, and forward modelling
• Risking, uncertainty analysis, and probabilistic prospect ranking
• AI-driven detection of subsurface anomalies
• Digital transformation technologies to accelerate decision-making
• AI for subsurface scenario modelling and pattern recognition
Session 3: Integrated Case Studies: From Discovery to Development
Theme: Translating interpretation into exploration performance
This session presents global case studies demonstrating the successful identification and development of stratigraphic traps. It focuses on how geological understanding is translated into operational decisions and measurable outcomes.
Topics of Interest
- Global case studies of stratigraphic trap exploration and development
- Operational insights linking geological interpretation to performance
- Drilling outcomes compared with pre-drill predictions
- Risk and resource estimation
- Lessons learned and practical challenges in exploration and development
Session 4: De-Risking Stratigraphic Traps: Reducing Uncertainty and Accelerating Decision-Making
Theme: Reducing uncertainty for successful project delivery
This session focuses on reducing subsurface uncertainty and improving exploration outcomes through integrated subsurface studies, supported by advances in drilling and completion technologies.
Topics of Interest
- Integrated subsurface characterization and play-based exploration for uncertainty reduction: play-fairway analysis and petroleum-system evaluation to improve exploration decision-making
- Advanced seismic imaging, interpretation, and quantitative interpretation response of stratigraphic traps: seismic acquisition, processing, inversion, attribute analysis, quantitative interpretation, and AI-assisted workflows
- Quantification and management of exploration uncertainty: risk assessment, probabilistic workflows, uncertainty analysis, and decision-based prospect evaluation
- Innovative drilling and completion technologies for improved exploration success: advanced drilling, formation evaluation, geosteering, and completion solutions that reduce subsurface uncertainty
- Case studies and lessons learned from stratigraphic trap exploration: successes, failures, and best practices from mature and frontier basins
Session 5: AI-Driven Stratigraphic Trap Exploration: From Data Integration to Predictive Modelling
Theme: Leveraging AI and machine learning to discover, characterize, predict, and unlock the full potential of stratigraphic traps
This session explores how modern data-driven artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques are reshaping the way geoscientists identify and evaluate stratigraphic traps, both for conventional hydrocarbon exploration and emerging energy-transition applications.
Topics of Interest
- Evolution of computational power and breakthroughs in machine-learning algorithms for handling subsurface data
- Accelerated decision cycles, reduced exploration risk, and cost-effective field development
- Moving from proof-of-concept studies to operational workflows
- Training-data challenges and opportunities
- Creation of synthetic seismic datasets for model training and risk analysis
- Prediction of depositional environments
- Modelling stratigraphic stacking patterns and predicting facies transitions
- Explainable AI and uncertainty quantification
Committee
Slb
Shell International, UK
Petrostrat
Kuwait University
Direct Geosolutions
Halliburton
Halliburton
Eni
Bapco Upstream
Aramco
Aramco
Aramco
KOC
Bapco Upstream
Petrogas
TNO
Pricing & Registration
*To avail the Member rate you must be an active member of AAPG, DGS, GSO or KGS.
**To register as a Young Professional you must be under the age of 35 with less than 10 years of work.
Registration
Submit an Abstract
The AAPG Stratigraphic Traps of the Middle East GTW Call for Abstracts Ends on 14th August 2026.
You are invited to prepare an abstract for oral or poster presentation. If you are interested in participating, please send a short abstract to cnavarro@aapg.org
Venue
Venue
Manama, Bahrain
Address
Manama, Capital Governorate, Bahrain
Sponsorship & Exhibition
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