The fourth edition of the AAPG/EAGE Shale Gas Evolution Symposium took place on 11-13 December 2018 at the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa Hotel, Bahrain. This year we received 102 attendees from 26 different companies and 9 different countries.
The Opening Ceremony on the 11th morning included keynote welcoming addresses delivered by His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Minister of Oil, Kingdom of Bahrain and both the AAPG and EAGE Presidents, Ms. Denise Cox and Mr. Jean-Jacques Biteau. The Opening Ceremony was followed by a strategic plenary session focused on the future global perspective of shale gas, the session included a high level international panel of industry leaders including:
- Denise Cox, President, AAPG
- Frederic Chemin, General Manager, Dubai Petroleum Establishment and Dubai Supply Authority
- Jean-Jacques Biteau, President, EAGE
- Hafiz Al-Shammery, Prospect Portfolio Development, Saudi Aramco
The day closed with an icebreaker dinner and keynote talk delivered by Pasquale Scaturro on The First Descent of the Nile: A Geologists Journey Down the Longest River in the World.
This three-day symposium also included 6 session keynotes, 18 oral presentations, 11 poster presentations and an optional field tour that took place on the final day. The event covered topics from shale gas plays with long production histories, to shale gas characterizations and their productivity and economics.
At the end of the event awards were also presented to the best poster presentations, Mahdi AbuAli, Saudi Aramco was awarded for the 2 posters he presented on ‘Reflectance Analysis of Organic Matter in Early Paleozoic Organic-Rich Shales’ and ‘Optical Characterization and Hydrocarbon Potential Determination of Organic Matter in Early Paleozoic Organic-Rich Shales’ and Jeff Bayless, NuTech Energy was also recognized for his poster titled ‘Behind the Log: A Characterization Workflow Designed for Improved Learning Curves’
On the last day of the symposium, Ahmed Fateh, Tatweer Petroleum, guided the participants of the Awali Field Tour to the first oil field to be discovered in the Arabian Peninsula. The visit gave participants an overview of the facies architecture, digenetic processes and structural features present on the field.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our most sincere gratitude to our sponsors, Saudi Aramco and Tatweer Petroleum as Platinum Sponsors, Schlumberger as the Silver Sponsor, Halliburton as the Luncheon Sponsor and FracGeo as the Table Top Exhibit Stand Sponsor. Thank you all for your support and commitment and for making this symposium possible.