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
Explorer Article
By Heather Saucier
As companies work toward developing alternative sources for a world with ever-increasing energy demands, energy minerals are moving to the forefront of the conversation. AAPG’s Energy Minerals Division finds itself in the spotlight these days for its work in prospecting alternative energy sources, such as geothermal and hydrates, for commercial use. “We’ve got good momentum right now with interest in alternative energy,” said Ursula Hammes, AAPG Member, EMD president and president at Hammes Energy and Consultants.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020
Learn! Blog
By Susan Nash
Understanding the role and influence of salt in the subsurface has been the key to many hydrocarbon discoveries and appraisals and more recently carbon & hydrogen capture and storage, and geothermal interests. Now, AAPG has a new Technical Interest Group, co-founded and co-chaired by Clara Abu (Ph.D Candidate Imperial College), Rachelle Kernen Ph.D., Leonardo Muniz Pichel Ph.D., Clara Rodriguez Ph.D., and Tim Shin, MSc. Welcome to an interview with one of the co-founders, Clara Abu.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 18 November, 2020
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Heather Bedle,Karelia La Marca
“Machine learning” has become a common phrase in geophysics. These methods, based on complex algorithms and statistics, allow geoscientists to speed up and improve their interpretations. However, as interpreters, we can feel intimidated and concerned about how much of our expertise can be replaced by machine learning algorithms. To better understand the limitations, we assess the importance of human validation and participation in one machine learning process, highlighting the upsides and downsides of a machine-derived process versus a geoscientist-guided selection of attributes. As Earth scientists, we explored a suite of seismic attributes and selected those that were meaningful for interpreting a deepwater channel system and compared our results with the attributes derived from principal component analysis.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2020
Explorer Article
By Heather Saucier
In the business of oil and gas exploration, it’s all about managing risk. Companies are more likely to drill where there are strong indications of hydrocarbons from field and seismic data, nearby wells and discoveries – and preferably, all of the above. So, when the federal government officially opens the doors in the near future to the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for commercial drilling, it could be like watching a game of poker.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2020
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Brett Carpenter,Pierre Karam
Fault seal potential is an essential step in determining the potential for fluid migration and assessing risks during hydrocarbon exploration. Multiple assessment tools have been developed and focus on (1) lithological juxtaposition, of permeable and impermeable stratigraphic units, and (2) fault rock sealing, assuming that clay material gets smeared along a fault zone. Most of these tools rely heavily on well log data, whether it is collected and analyzed in 1-D or 3-D settings.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2020
Explorer Article
By David Brown
The North Sea Rift Basin ranks as one of the world’s most famous and indefatigable super basin areas. Like a pugnacious prize fighter, it’s been counted out again and again, only to rebound and punch back into contention. While some explorers consider the North Sea province highly mature, and even late life, it continues to produce plenty of oil and gas. And discoveries.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2020
Explorer Article
By Heather Saucier
Since the 1968 discovery of Prudhoe Bay, North America’s largest conventional oilfield, operators have been drawn to Alaska’s remote and mysterious North Slope in search of other giants. The discovery of the Alpine Field in 1994 fueled interest in stratigraphic traps, and the region continues to yield significant discoveries, such as the 2013 Pikka Field, just east of the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska. Considering all the territory that stretches north of the Brooks Range, one area –the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – has remained off-limits to exploration since its creation in the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Despite decades of heated debate between the industry and environmentalists on whether to allow exploration of the area – which is widely believed to be rich in hydrocarbons and a major step toward energy independence – it has remained closed. Until now.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2020
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Ritesh Sharma,Satinder Chopra
As discussed in part 1 of this article, when it comes to the attributes used in equation 1 for seismically determining shale capacity, it is difficult to make a manual choice for the cut off values. To alleviate such a problem, application of machine learning techniques could be useful and thus worth exploring.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 September, 2020
Explorer Article
By David Brown
It’s natural to think of super basins as highly developed, mature play areas. When a basin has already produced more than 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, there’s an established history of exploration and production. The Santos Basin, especially the basin’s pre-salt play offshore Brazil, is one of the more notable exceptions to that idea. This super basin area is almost all about the future. “There is so much running room, so much remaining potential. We’re going to see new reservoirs developed, new plays developed,” said James Deckelman, vice president of investment and program assurance for ION Geophysical in Houston.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 September, 2020