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Explorer Historical Highlights By Rasoul Sorkhabi

OPEC at 60

Sixty years ago this month, on Sept. 14, 1960, representatives from five oil producing gathered at the Al-Shaab Hall in Baghdad to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC was formally dedicated to “the coordination and unification of the petroleum policies of the member countries and the determination of the best means of safeguarding their interests, individually and collectively.” Public perceptions in the West about OPEC are usually negative. OPEC is viewed as an oil cartel, or even a monopoly, whose sole purpose is to control the oil market. The 60th anniversary of OPEC is an appropriate opportunity to review its formation.

Added on 01 September, 2020

Explorer Article By David Brown

It's All About the Future with the Santos Basin

It’s natural to think of super basins as highly developed, mature play areas. When a basin has already produced more than 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, there’s an established history of exploration and production. The Santos Basin, especially the basin’s pre-salt play offshore Brazil, is one of the more notable exceptions to that idea. This super basin area is almost all about the future. “There is so much running room, so much remaining potential. We’re going to see new reservoirs developed, new plays developed,” said James Deckelman, vice president of investment and program assurance for ION Geophysical in Houston.

Added on 01 September, 2020

Explorer Article By Emily Llinás

Cancel, Postpone or Transform

AAPG’s Latin America and Caribbean Region started 2020 with a strong lineup of technical and business events. The year 2020 was the year of promise. The Hedberg Conference went well in February, but one of the participants from China canceled travel plans because of a coronavirus outbreak in the country. One month later, the world turned upside down. Countries closed their borders, companies sent workers home, and sponsors canceled support. In-person conferences were not just risky but prohibited in most cases. It was time to go back to the drawing board.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By Xavier Moonan

Record-Breaking Gas Discoveries in the Ortoire Syncline

Touchstone Exploration is the operator of the 184-square kilometer Ortoire Block onshore south eastern Trinidad. The block spans from the villages of Tableland in the west to Pierreville Mayaro in the east and to the very remote areas within the Guayaguayare forest to the south. Structurally, the block covers the greater part of the open east facing Ortoire Syncline which entails Late Miocene Lower Cruse to Pleistocene Mayaro Formation deltaic fill. These passive fordeep infill deposits sit conformably onto a southeastern-verging Early to Middle Miocene fold belt. As such throughout the breadth of the Ortoire Block there are numerous tear fault dissected west-southwest to east-northeast trending anticlines.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Explorer Article By David Brown

Source of Confusion

Understanding source rock provides a key to evaluating the hydrocarbon potential of super basins and an important tool for basin exploration. Geologists get the basics right, in general, but sometimes they might be thinking about source rock the wrong way. They are definitely talking about it in the wrong way.

Added on 01 August, 2020

Bulletin Article By H. Scott Hamlin,Junwen Peng,Kitty L. Milliken,Qilong Fu,Xavier Janson

Depositional and postdepositional processes of an oil-shale analog at the microstructure scale: The Lower Cretaceous Agrio Formation, Neuquén Basin, northern Patagonia

Lenticular fabric and calcareous nannofossils suggest high carbonate productivity in the water column and algal-derived organic matter of the Agrio Formation. Evaluation of depositional and postdepositional controls on the resultant microstructure will result in a better understanding of potential target intervals.

Added on 23 July, 2020

Explorer Article By Gretchen Flint

Announcing the Recipients of the 2020 AAPG Student Chapter Awards

Recipients of 2020 AAPG Student Chapter Awards, encompassing recognition for student and volunteer achievements around the entire world, have been announced by AAPG. In a year that has seen its share of hardship, it makes it all the more special to present the awards to these deserving students, student chapters and volunteers who have risen to meet – and overcome – the challenges facing them.

Added on 01 July, 2020

Explorer Foundation Update By Jensen Angelloz

Announcing the 2020 IBA Finals Winners

Call it unprecedented, call it exciting and unpredictable, call it historic – and you’re right each time. The 2020 Imperial Barrel Award global finals competition was one for the record books – for the first time ever, the entire competition, impacted by the global pandemic that threatened to end it before it began, was held virtually in early June, adding a new chapter in the program’s illustrious history. Indeed, this year’s competition had many firsts – a global pandemic, an entirely virtual competition and the introduction of the IBA Exploration Leadership Series.

Added on 01 July, 2020

Explorer Article By James Pindell,Stephen Cossey

It Is Still Viable!

Josh Rosenfeld highlighted some perspectives on the Paleogene drawdown hypothesis in the Gulf of Mexico in the April 2020 issue of the EXPLORER, a result of suspected isolation from the world ocean during the Cuban arc-Bahamas collision with implications for Wilcox reservoir deposition. In contrast, John Snedden and authors’ portrayed the Wilcox as a period of normal marine deposition, requiring no such drawdown, in the May 2020 issue. Still another concept was presented by Roger Higgs at the South African 2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, that marine isolation occurred but that fluvial input exceeded evaporation such that the Gulf became brackish, hence the poor development of Wilcox fauna.

Added on 01 July, 2020

Explorer Emphasis Article By Emily Llinás

GIS Provides a Variety of Career Options for Geoscientists

Preparing for hurricanes, creating scripts with Python and responding to pandemics are just a few of the job functions of Johann Sidial, 31-year-old geologist and AAPG Member who works with the government of Sint Maarten’s Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure. In his role as geographic information systems officer, Sidial is responsible for managing and executing the acquisition, analysis and visualization of datasets across Sint Maarten, a constituent country for the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Dutch Caribbean.

Added on 01 July, 2020

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Northern Rocky Mountain Geological Highway Map - Download

Added on 21 April, 2009

Book

Anomalies: Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology 1917-2017

Robbie Rice Gries

Added on 16 March, 2018

Book

Memoir 113: Giant Fields of the Decade 2000-2010

Edited by R. K. Merrill and C. A. Sternbach

Added on 01 September, 2017

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Texas Geological Highway Map - Download

Added on 21 April, 2009

Book Reviews

Book Review

Memoir 111: 3-D Structural Interpretation: Earth, Mind, and Machine

This volume sets out to understand more about the convergence of geology, 3-D thinking, and software, which collectively provide the basis for truly effective interpretation strategies. Product #1280. Price: Member $74/List $148.

Added on 01 December, 2017

Book Review

MEMOIR 100: Tectonics and Sedimentation: Implications for Petroleum Systems

This 18-chapter volume is small enough to focus on the interplay among tectonics, sedimentation, and petroleum systems. Yet it is big enough to cover the diversity of structural styles in important petroliferous sedimentary basins around the globe. Product #1174. Price: Member $174 / List $174.

Added on 01 December, 2018

Book Review

Memoir 112: Imaging Unconventional Reservoir Pore Systems

This volume will prove useful to anyone interested in the methods for observing and quantifying the pore systems that control hydrocarbon storage and flow in unconventional reservoirs. (Product #1281. Member price $144 / List price $339.)

Added on 01 July, 2018

Book Review

Memoir 117: Petroleum Basins and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia

This Memoir is critical for exploration geoscientists in the petroleum industry, research institutions, and academia in order to understand the diverse petroleum systems, the tectonic and geologic evolution of sedimentary basins, and the development of hydrocarbon fields in these regions of South America. Product #1303. Price: Member $131 / List $262.

Added on 01 April, 2019

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