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Sedimentology and Stratigraphy

Explorer Historical Highlights

There is something about colored pencils that we, as geologists, find impossible to resist. From geological maps to field sketches to interpreting seismic on those never-ending rolls of paper taped to the longest corridor wall we can find – what more could any geologist want? Our need for powerful software, paper and colored pencils reflects a fundamental problem in geology and especially exploration: how to manage, analyze and visualize the diversity and wealth of information required to solve exploration problems? Early geologists were faced with the same challenge 200 years ago. It was one of the first petroleum geologists, Thomas Sterry Hunt, who saw the value of paleogeography in exploration, and who, in 1873, first coined the term “paleogeography.”

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Touchstone Exploration is the operator of the 184-square kilometer Ortoire Block onshore south eastern Trinidad. The block spans from the villages of Tableland in the west to Pierreville Mayaro in the east and to the very remote areas within the Guayaguayare forest to the south. Structurally, the block covers the greater part of the open east facing Ortoire Syncline which entails Late Miocene Lower Cruse to Pleistocene Mayaro Formation deltaic fill. These passive fordeep infill deposits sit conformably onto a southeastern-verging Early to Middle Miocene fold belt. As such throughout the breadth of the Ortoire Block there are numerous tear fault dissected west-southwest to east-northeast trending anticlines.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

'Sourced in part by the Eagle Ford Group, the Austin Chalk has been a hot spot for operators on and off for a century. The rise of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing brought a renewed interest in the formation, which has produced new discoveries in Texas and Louisiana. Yet in parts of the Austin Chalk, extracting oil and gas can be extremely tricky. Several years ago, the Carbonate Reservoir Characterization Research Laboratory at the University of Texas began a project to analyze approximately 40 cores from the Austin Chalk – the first group to do so. '

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Exploration of the Brookian-age Nanushuk and Torok formations on the North Slope of Alaska is a hot topic these days. The Nanushuk and Torok formations are Cretaceous progradational clastic deposits in the Colville basin of Alaska. These formations offer new opportunities to the oil and gas community because of their shallow depth, vast spatial extent, publicly available data, scope of development and other appealing features.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Josh Rosenfeld highlighted some perspectives on the Paleogene drawdown hypothesis in the Gulf of Mexico in the April 2020 issue of the EXPLORER, a result of suspected isolation from the world ocean during the Cuban arc-Bahamas collision with implications for Wilcox reservoir deposition. In contrast, John Snedden and authors’ portrayed the Wilcox as a period of normal marine deposition, requiring no such drawdown, in the May 2020 issue. Still another concept was presented by Roger Higgs at the South African 2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, that marine isolation occurred but that fluvial input exceeded evaporation such that the Gulf became brackish, hence the poor development of Wilcox fauna.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Geologists will soon have a set of software tools that can automatically correlate hundreds of stratigraphic tops that will encompass thousands of well logs. The new approach – a software Python package, ChronoLog – will potentially change how such compilations are done.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

They might have to invent a new designation for the Anadarko Basin: “super-super basin.” An extraordinarily deep basin, it towers far above the standard definition of a Super Basin – a basin containing multiple reservoirs and source rocks with cumulative production of at least 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and future production potential of more than 5 billion boe. The Anadarko has all that and more.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Fossils and microfossils can be used to determine information about evaporites as well as carbonates and clastics. This is an area that is growing in importance. Join Susan Nash for an interview with Gil Machado, Ph.D. from the University of Lisbon who discusses salt biostratigraphy and its new usefulness.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Asia Pacific Blog

AAPG Asia Pacific is proud to announce the first two sessions of AAPG Asia Pacific Presents, a collection of online presentations being offered free of charge.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Some 257 people gathered at the beautiful new Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in the last week of February 2020 to attend the first AAPG/EAGE Papua New Guinea Petroleum Geoscience Conference and Exhibition. The theme for the conference was, “PNG’s Oil and Gas Industry Maturing Through Exploration Development and Production.”

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 26 September 2013, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

The presentation will discuss key reservoir information and how to develop a predictive pressure model.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 23 June 2020, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Visiting Geoscientist Mauricio Guizada provides an overview of general structural geology of the Andes, with a focus on the Central Andes. His talk covers topics related to onshore exploration, G&G methods in exploration and risk analysis. Join Mauricio Guizada via Zoom on June 23 at 4pm CDT.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Wednesday, 17 June 2020, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Join us for 'Sustainability-Focused Opportunities'. A webinar to explore investment trends, new opportunities, and strategies for pivoting for new revenue and diversification in today's times. Webinar will be presented via Zoom 7:00pm - 8:30pm CDT 17 June 2020.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Thursday, 30 July 2020, 8:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.

Hear panelists’ views on how COVID-19 has affected the legal, financial and technological sectors of the energy industry and what they expect for the future. Topics include energy markets, public policy, infrastructure, transportation, corporate culture, digitalization and the energy transition. Send questions and comments for speakers, then make your voice heard in virtual roundtables opening 10 minutes after the panel discussion. Forum registration is free of charge thanks to support from our sponsors. Forum Registration

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 21 May 2009, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium introduces you to the practical benefits of thermal profiling for a variety of unconventional oil and gas projects, including tight gas sands, oil shale, low-gravity oil.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online Traditional Course
Wednesday, 1 January 2014, 12:00 a.m.–1:00 a.m.

Learn to critically evaluate current issues that can impact growth and sustainability of oil and gas ventures.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Wednesday, 27 May 2020, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Join us for 'New Approaches for Start-Up Success' where we will discuss selecting companies to invest in now, the game changers program now, profile of a successful drone and robotics start-up and how we adapted our pitch for the pandemic. Webinar will be presented via Zoom 7pm - 8:30pm CDT, 27 May 2020.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Visiting Geoscientist Xavier Moonan provides an overview of the destruction in the Los Iros area following the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. His talk focuses on understanding the results from various post-earthquake studies conducted on the Los Iros, reviewing the theories developed to explain the origin and integrating datasets to provide an understanding of what transpired.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 17 March 2011, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium will provide information on which tools, processes, and procedures all geoscientists, engineers, and technical professionals working in shale plays need to understand and implement.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

As oil and gas exploration and production occur in deeper basins and more complex geologic settings, accurate characterization and modeling of reservoirs to improve estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) prediction, optimize well placement and maximize recovery become paramount. Existing technologies for reservoir characterization and modeling have proven inadequate for delivering detailed 3D predictions of reservoir architecture, connectivity and rock quality at scales that impact subsurface flow patterns and reservoir performance. Because of the gap between the geophysical and geologic data available (seismic, well logs, cores) and the data needed to model rock heterogeneities at the reservoir scale, constraints from external analog systems are needed. Existing stratigraphic concepts and deposition models are mostly empirical and seldom provide quantitative constraints on fine-scale reservoir heterogeneity. Current reservoir modeling tools are challenged to accurately replicate complex, nonstationary, rock heterogeneity patterns that control connectivity, such as shale layers that serve as flow baffles and barriers.

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Request a visit from Tao Sun!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Engineering of wind farms, development of carbon sequestration projects in shelfal waters, the proliferation of communication cables that connect the world, all of these things suggest that it is time to re-examine what we know about shelf processes both updip-to-downdip and along shoreline, and the influence of shelf processes on erosion and transport of sediments.

Request a visit from Lesli Wood!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

The carbonate sequences that were deposited in the now exhumed Tethyan Ocean influence many aspects of our lives today, either by supplying the energy that warms our homes and the fuel that powers our cars or providing the stunning landscapes for both winter and summer vacations. They also represent some of the most intensely studied rock formations in the world and have provided geoscientists with a fascinating insight into the turbulent nature of 250 Million years of Earth’s history. By combining studies from the full range of geoscience disciplines this presentation will trace the development of these carbonate sequences from their initial formation on the margins of large ancient continental masses to their present day locations in and around the Greater Mediterranean and Near East region. The first order control on growth patterns and carbonate platform development by the regional plate-tectonic setting, underlying basin architecture and fluctuations in sea level will be illustrated. The organisms that contribute to sequence development will be revealed to be treasure troves of forensic information. Finally, these rock sequences will be shown to contain all the ingredients necessary to form and retain hydrocarbons and the manner in which major post-depositional tectonic events led to the formation of some of the largest hydrocarbon accumulations in the world will be demonstrated.

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Request a visit from Keith Gerdes!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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