Explorer Article
By Ken Milam
Salt tectonics may be “an outlier in this country’s university training in structural geology,” but geologists entering the petroleum industry will almost certainly find themselves dealing with the topic, explained Mark G. Rowan of Rowan Consulting in Boulder, Colo. A growing understanding of how they form – especially since the 1980s – has been helpful in increasing their importance to exploration and production. Rowan discussed “Salt Diapirs – What Are They, How Do They Form and What is Their Role in Hydrocarbon Exploration?” at the recent Visiting Geoscientist Program Super Session organized by AAPG and the AAPG Foundation.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 April, 2021
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Malcolm Lansley
Last month we looked at the reasons why, as geoscientists, we need low frequencies. We also reviewed the sensors used to receive the reflected seismic signals and the recording instruments. This month’s article will address some of the issues of the seismic source. In other words, how do we get the required low frequency energy into the Earth? The two most frequently used sources for land acquisition are vibrators and explosives. We will assess the operational and cost differences between them and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 March, 2021
Explorer Article
By Emily Llinás
Last year started with promise for the Colombian offshore industry. Shell EP Offshore Ventures Limited and Ecopetrol, S.A. signed an agreement for Shell to acquire an interest in and operate the Fuerte Sur, Purple Angel and Col-5 blocks located in the southern Colombian Caribbean basin. Noble Energy opened an office in Barranquilla and announced plans to drill a prospect at 8,500 feet on the Col-3 block in the Guajira Basin in northern Colombia. Ecopetrol and Petrobras prepared to mature the 2014 Orca discovery on the Tayrona block, also in Guajira. Then COVID-19 came to the Americas in March 2020, and everything changed.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 March, 2021
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Malcolm Lansley
For many years the geophysical industry has spent considerable time and effort on improving the high-frequency content of recorded seismic data in the pursuit of higher resolution. However, in the last two decades we have seen an increased interest in extending the bandwidth of our data toward lower frequencies as well. In this series of two articles, I will address the reasons we need low-frequency information, the issues related to its acquisition for onshore projects and discuss the equipment and methods being used.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 February, 2021
Explorer Historical Highlights
By Jeff A Spencer
Winthrop Rockefeller was the grandson of John D. Rockefeller and the fifth of six children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. The eldest Rockefeller organized and incorporated the Standard Oil Company in 1870. By the early 1880s, Standard Oil had a near-monopoly of the U.S. petroleum industry. At his retirement, Rockefeller was said to be worth $1.5 billion – the richest man in the world. He was also considered the world’s greatest philanthropist, giving more than $500 million to educational, scientific and religious institutions. Determined to learn the family’s oil business “from the ground up,” Winthrop worked at Standard Oil of New Jersey’s Bayonne refinery for a few weeks in June and July of 1933.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 January, 2021
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Heather Bedle,Karen Leopoldino-Oliveira
This study is primarily based on a 3-D seismic dataset that covers 1,107 square kilometers of the deepwater Ceará Basin. For this demonstration, the seismic cube was cropped and extends over an area of 765 square kilometers. It covers part of Premier Oil, Cepsa, Chevron and Ecopetrol exploration blocks, as well as ANP’s blocks of permanent offer. Here we present a broad overview of the seismic geomorphology of the study area aiming at delineating the turbidite channels, as the sands are deposited in the channels and can accumulate the hydrocarbons, which can be exploited for the benefits of the petroleum industry, as well as discuss a pitfall associated with the cropping of seismic data.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 January, 2021
Explorer Article
By Barry Friedman
'Molly Turko, even in these dark times of COVID and decreased worldwide energy demand, is at heart an optimist.
“There is always a light, you just have to know where to look,” she said. And she feels that the Anadarko Basin, a place she has spent the last 10 years of her professional life, is a great place to start looking. For Turko, who has worked in multiple basins in the United States, including the Ardmore, Powder River, Appalachian, onshore Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain basins, said the Anadarko, along with the adjacent Wichita Uplift, may hold the most attractive possibilities.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 January, 2021
Explorer Historical Highlights
By Henry S. Pettingill,Paul Weimer
During the 1980s, early prospecting in deepwater margins was the simple extension of prolific updip producing basins that were charged. However, the migration of petroleum exploration and development into deepwater was fraught with challenges. For engineers and geologists, one of our biggest challenges was to overcome our collective lack of understanding about the geology of deepwater. We had to revisit everything we thought we knew, one paradigm shift after another.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Olga Malinovskaya,Sabine Klarner
The past few years have seen increasing interest in the application of machine learning techniques in the industry, specifically in seismic interpretation. Over a clastic Tertiary clinoform interval in the public F3-Netherland dataset, we benchmarked advanced neural network algorithms against standard probabilistic lithology classifications from seismic data, to understand their benefits and limitations, and to check which approach works best under which circumstances.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020
Explorer Emphasis Article
By David Brown
Researchers generally say they are scrambling to keep up with the changing needs of the oil industry combined with the emerging, broader concerns of society. Amazingly, technology research for oil and gas continues to flourish even now, despite some recent problematic headwinds. And even though computing-related technology gets most of the attention these days, today’s energy research extends far beyond Big Data and its applications.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020