As I write this article, I have been AAPG president for two weeks. It has already been an experience. What I didn’t realize until now is how much being president-elect prepared me for this year. I tried to spend last year talking with people. I had the opportunity to speak with a wide variety of our membership and ask them what they believe should be AAPG’s top priorities. There are too many to include in this article, but the ones that seemed most prevalent were education and succession.
Horn
Education
It is no secret that in the past five years many universities have stopped teaching many courses in geoscience. Some have even shuttered or consolidated entire departments. The number of students pursuing a geoscience degree has dropped precipitously. Several leaders in our industry have lamented that they fear there will be too few geoscientists to meet the energy demands of our children and children’s children. There is also a concern that exploration knowledge has left much of the industry. With a large focus on L48 drilling in North America, many early and mid-career geoscientists have drilled hundreds of wells, but they tend toward being all the same. The opportunities to work in multiple basins and learn from a wide range of geologic settings have become less common.
Historically, interest in petroleum geoscience has mirrored market cycles, dipping during downturns and rebounding with recovery. But today, the decline appears structural: the number of university programs has dropped significantly and only a small percentage of geoscience graduates enter the energy sector at all. We have seen a multitude of staff reductions in the past, however, this time it is in phase with most senior staff opting to step away from their companies. Privately, many industry leaders have expressed their concern about training their staff to step into an exploration role.
Financial
It is no secret AAPG has been challenged financially over the past 10 years. Our income has not matched our spending. There are many reasons for this. Fortunately, we have been able to correct this trend in the last year.
We are building a three-year strategy. Tom Wilker and I have developed the first plan. The intent is to make it a three-year rolling plan, so incoming Executive Committee members will have a roadmap to follow and the opportunity to add to the plan going forward. AAPG’s “strategy on a page” will be presented to the membership once approved by the EC.
Digital
One aspect of the three-year plan is to leverage the publications assets to generate ongoing income. With the surge in AI and democratization of information, AAPG will pursue a comprehensive digital strategy – which will include an updated web page! This is a longer-term execution process given security issues and protection of intellectual property. It is also a critical moment for AAPG to modernize how we serve members, be fiscally accountable and sustain our mission. President-Elect John Casiano will be working with Tom Wilker to make this happen.
As president I am committing to begin the process to address these issues:
- We are going to reinvigorate the Imperial Barrel Award competition. This is AAPG’s capstone program for university students. We need people to mentor, teach and guide these teams as they work on subsurface data sets in petroleum, CCS and geothermal. When I sat down to create an organization chart for the IBA, I quickly realized it was ballooning into a big program. However, at present only six to eight people are doing all the work. I am happy to announce that Catie Donohue is the new IBA chairperson, and if you would like to be part of this event and offer suggestions, please contact Catie or me directly at [email protected].
- A second initiative AAPG is pursuing is the Geoscience Academy. This is a developing program for our industry. We are partnering with subsurface consultants and many international oil companies to create content that fits with the digital world in which we live. We are also looking for instructors who have developed content and have taught many industry courses for their companies or for training firms. We must also reengage with universities. As an industry, we are responsible for being involved in education and research.
- AAPG will have a balanced budget and updated budget planning process. We will follow our income and expenses quarterly.
- We have begun taking steps to update the website and revamp our outward-facing marketing to the membership and the public.
I am very excited about this year, and I hope that I will meet as many of you as possible at IMAGE 2025 in Houston, Aug. 26-29. Please don’t hesitate to stop me and provide feedback. I am here to serve all of you.
Best regards,
Brain W. Horn