April 2017

“It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” This quote has been on my mind this year because being president of AAPG has been an exercise in adapting to change.

Oil prices go up. Oil prices go down. This should perhaps be added to the list of sure things in life, alongside death and taxes.

For the first time since the oil price collapse in November of 2014 and the difficult restructuring of our industry that followed, there are some signs of life returning to the oil patch.

AAPG has joined with other associations to form the Geopolicy Working Group to create “Geoscience Policy Recommendations for the New Administration and the 115th Congress.”

The main challenge for a seismic interpreter is to extract the maximum amount of information from seismic data and integrate that with other relevant data so an accurate reservoir model of the subsurface prospect can be conceived.

A few months after the founding of AAPG in early 1917, the first description of the Wolfcamp Formation was published in the University of Texas Bulletin No. 1753 titled “Notes on the Geology of the Glass Mountains” by J. A. Udden, on Sept. 20, 1917.

Based on the success of the previous conferences and the fact that Myanmar is the current focal point for exploration in Southeast Asia, another successful event was held in the former capital city of Yangon in February: the third annual Myanmar Oil and Gas Conference.

The Canada Region young professionals (YPs) had a great finish to 2016, including welcoming some new members to the organizing committee.

Julie Mitchell, a geology teacher from Erie High School in Erie, Colo., and Hendratta Ali, associate professor of geosciences at the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) in Hays, Kan., have been named the AAPG Foundation’s 2017 Teacher of the Year and this year’s Inspirational Geoscience Educator Award (IGEA) winner, respectively.