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Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

The 'War for Porosity' in the Appalachian Basin

When it comes to the challenges and concerns of how to store the raw material hydrocarbons in the Appalachian Basin, we are at crunch time. According to Dan Billman, it is a conversation that should have already started.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

The Quest for the Best in the Permian Basin

If you have ever wondered what Robert Southey, who wrote “Goldilocks,” Lewis Carroll, who wrote “Alice in Wonderland,” and W.H. Adams, widely credited with discovering the Permian Basin, have in common – and you would be forgiven if you haven’t – then this month’s AAPG Global Super Basins Leadership Conference will be the occasion to find out. Because someone from Chevron has been thinking about that very comparison – both from the perspective of how the company is working to use the Permian as a template for future exploration and also because it sums up the state of affairs in 2020 about as well as anything.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Division Column DPA By Meredith Faber

Staging Our Future

As geologists, we manage uncertainty for a living. Geological scenarios are rarely black and white. Through experience, we’ve come to expect the various shades of grey that accompany the technical decisions we make, usually much to the vexation of our engineering colleagues who are more accustomed to speaking in absolutes. We’re trained to do the best we can with the data we have in any given moment and explain why we commit to the decision we make. Over the decades, we’ve excelled at this practice, except in one critical area: our own public image. We’re completely capable of explaining risk and reward to a boardroom of investors, but some proportion of the public thinks the worst of us.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Director’s Corner By David Curtiss

The 'Epic Poem' of Evolving Global Oil Politics

“A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams.” – Gilbert H. Grosvenor

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Historical Highlights By Jeff A Spencer

Who Was That Roughneck?

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.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Geophysical Corner By Heather Bedle,Karen Leopoldino-Oliveira

The Importance of Properly Cropping Seismic Data

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.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

A Renewed Look at the Anadarko Basin

'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.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer President’s Column By Rick Fritz

AAPG's Strategic Plan

Welcome to 2021! I am so glad to see 2020 in my rearview mirror, but there are just as many challenges in front of us with the new year. As you know from my previous columns, AAPG while experiencing significant financial challenges, is also at a turning point as we prepare for the future. To that end, the AAPG Executive Committee set up a short-term strategy with tactics in July 2020 at the start of the fiscal year.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Article By David Brown

The Cumulative Super Basin of the Rocky Mountains’ Niobrara-Mowry Shale

The world’s super basins have their roots in deep time and their fruits in long-standing, prolific oil and gas production. But that doesn’t mean the industry understands them completely or knows where they all are. One potential super basin complex in the Rocky Mountains area of the United States isn’t even officially named yet. Located mostly in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, bounded to the northeast by the older Williston Basin and to the west by the Sevier thrust belt, it contains numerous, present-day basins including the Powder River, Big Horn, Wind River, Green River, Uinta, Piceance and Denver basins.

Added on 01 January, 2021

Explorer Article By Heather Saucier

Are Critical Minerals the New Oil and Gas?

Electric vehicles have been targeted as an important transition toward a greener planet. Yet the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries is creating a significant environmental impact. As it stands, most large volumes of lithium-bearing rocks and brines mined in Australia, Chile, Argentina and other countries must be shipped to China, which controls 65 percent of the supply chains for battery-ready lithium chemicals and 73 percent of the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries. While carbon emissions from shipping is substantial, the greatest environmental impact comes from the actual processing of lithium and the manufacturing of its end products. The United States could play a significant role in solving this problem.

Added on 01 January, 2021

DL Abstract By Alex Simms

Interactions Between Ice Sheets and Relative Sea Levels: Lessons From Antarctica and NW Scotland

Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.

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Added on 21 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Lesli Wood

The Shelf is a Dangerous Place: Surfing the Cretaceous Seaways

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.

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Added on 19 August, 2024

DL Abstract By Kurt W. Rudolph

Estimating, Benchmarking, and Managing Subsurface Uncertainty: Principles and Examples

Subsurface risk and uncertainty are recognized as very important considerations in petroleum geoscience. And even when volume estimates are relatively accurate, the reservoir characteristics that determine well placement and performance can remain highly uncertain. In analyzing results and work practices, three aspects of uncertainty are reviewed here.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By John Suppe

Probing What Makes the Crust Strong (or Weak): Insight from Boreholes, Earthquakes, Active Fault Systems, and Toy Models

For well over a century there have been conflicting indications of the strength of the crust and of faults and what controls them. Much of our ignorance comes quite naturally from the general inaccessibility of the crust to measurement--in contrast with our understanding of the atmosphere, which is much more accessible to observation as well as more rapidly changing. Crustal strength is best understood in deforming sedimentary basins where the petroleum industry has made great contributions, particularly in deforming petroleum basins because of the practical need to predict. In this talk we take a broad look at key issues in crustal strength and deformation and what we can learn from boreholes, earthquakes, active fault systems, and toy models.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Tao Sun

Integrated Reservoir Characterization and Modeling with Computational Stratigraphy

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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Added on 20 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Lesli Wood

The Future of Geoscience: Your role in saving the Earth

The Earth is not a fragile place, but our place on the Earth is very fragile. Geoscience offers a pathway to understand how the Earth has evolved and the role of biological life forms in that evolution.

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Added on 19 August, 2024

DL Abstract By John Castagna

Beyond Physics in Geophysics

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Jacob Covault

Submarine-Channel Evolution From Seismic Stratigraphy & Numerical Models: Patterns and Predictions Revisited

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.

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Added on 20 July, 2022

VG Abstract By Keith Gerdes

Tethyan Carbonates - Linking Tropical Seas and Crashing Plates to Some of the Largest Oil and Gas Fields in the World

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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Added on 24 August, 2015

DL Abstract By Kurt W. Rudolph

Tectonic Controls on Source Rock Deposition

While there are many habitats that are associated with the deposition of organic-rich marine and lacustrine source rocks, one important pathway is linked to the onset of increased basin subsidence associated with major tectonic events. A key aspect is that this subsidence is spatially variable, with the uplift of basin flanks contemporaneous with the foundering of the basin center, resulting in a steeper basin profile.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

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