It may seem like a long way off, but perhaps now is the time to mark your calendar for an international conference that promises to be among the most exciting and exotic ever offered by AAPG.
The 2008 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition will be held Oct. 26-29 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The theme is “African Energy — Global Impact,” chosen because Africa is one of the largest hydrocarbon producers in the world, and its prominence is on the rise.
Recent activity from deepwater West Africa, the Nile Cone, the developing Rift Valley play and the exciting exploration off East Africa — along with the new licensing rounds in North Africa — have generated worldwide interest. The activity is making a global impact.
Also, the anticipated growth of the African economies in coming decades — spurred in great part by exploration success — will have tremendous implications for global energy markets. For example, the work being done in the Karoo research projects in South Africa is a model applicable to deepwater sedimentation exploration and production anywhere in the world.
An international conference in Cape Town is ideally situated to bring these African energy elements together in a global context.
Technically Superb
The technical program’s call for papers is expected to be issued, and includes an intentionally “wild” format.
The five technical themes align with the “Big 5” of Africa’s animal kindgom: the lion, elephant, black rhinoceros, Cape buffalo and leopard. Of those, the first three are well known and regularly sighted, and the latter two less famous and often a challenge to find.
As with Big 5 sightings, Cape Town’s themes also cover the lesser practiced and studied aspects of the energy business, including coal, coal bed methane, uranium, oil and gas shale – either well-exploited in Southern Africa or in its infancy.
That means:
- The mega-scale, Vredefort dome impact crater, Namibian meteorites and layered, mafic-intrusive complexes such as the Bushveld Complex make astrogeology and analogous structures in lunar Mare deposits a logical theme and session choice.
- Combined aspects of engineering, geophysics and geology will be embraced in topics such as reservoir connectivity, micro and nanotechnologies, fluid and pressure prediction, geo-hazards, 4-D, CSEM, tight gas and many more.
- Every AAPG Division has endorsed this conference and plans to participate.
- In addition to over 70 technical sessions addressing five main themes, special forums will be offered on topics of great interest, including:
- The potential impact of the oil industry’s looming demographic crisis.
- The role of the independent in west African exploration and production.
- Keynote speakers will set the stage with talks ranging from mega-tectonics of Africa to exploration case studies circum Africa.
- Global climate change.
Why Non-African Geoscientists
Should Attend Cape Town
Many geoscientists who work African exploration, development and production actually live elsewhere; this venue will provide an opportunity to meet and hear those who work locally.
A natural draw for those outside South Africa is the nearby outcrops of the Karoo (Permian) sandstones and Zerressene turbidites of Namibia, which are world class analogs for deepwater slope and basin reservoirs.
These formations are the habitat of large hydrocarbon finds not only in west African countries of Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, but also the Gulf of Mexico and other locations.
The opportunity to study these outcrops is even more rare since the recent closure of ranches in West Texas that contain the best outcrops of the Brushy Canyon Formation.
Some of the best papers from other technical meetings (DOWAC Luanda, best of SEG and SAGA) also will be featured.
The conference educational program, with planned short courses such as 3-D seismic and core workshops from deepwater reservoirs of South African Basins, will deliver teachings directly from experts to those seeking to enhance their knowledge in a broad range of petroleum geoscience topics.
Check out the meeting announcement, and keep track of the latest news regarding Cape Town .