The “AAPG Energy Transition Forum – A New Era for Geoscience” in Amsterdam, September 2018, brought together expert speakers and distinguished participants to discuss the Future of Energy, Sustainability, Digitalisation, and Skills and New Ways of Working. Sessions provided thought-provoking presentations and interactive breakout sessions utilising a variety of facilitation styles to maximise engagement.

The emerging consensus in 2018 was that:

• The Energy Transition is irreversible but will take different speeds and shapes in different geographies, given various local economic and societal pressures. In all scenarios there is still a need for oil and gas for the foreseeable future, and the demand for certain earth metals will actually materially increase.
• Geoscience skills are still needed during the Energy Transition to continue to provide the increasing amount of sustainable energy the world needs in the decades to come. This energy will come from a more diverse set of sources and many require geoscience skills (e.g. geothermal). Also, subsurface skills are required for environmental solutions, such as carbon capture and sequestration.
• Digitalization will transform the geosciences as it is such a data-rich field and that is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can have the biggest impact. Digitalization is not expected to take away geoscience roles but will materially change the way we work.
• Geoscientists bring unique skills to the Energy Transition, given their deep experience dealing with highly complex problems and the use of big data. The geoscientist of the future needs deep ‘domain knowledge’ as well as being adept with digitalization.

Archive Website
ETF 2018 Summary Report

Videos from ETF 2018