Southwest Section

Join leading experts to learn about important new developments for developing rigorous, consistent and statistically valid reserve estimations. It has been 5 years since the SEC published “Modernization of Oil and Gas Reporting” which gave companies more flexibility and options for reserve and resource estimation

The course starts with patterns of carbonate deposition and moves on to an examination of modern analogs for ancient sediments, diagenesis, and select case histories of Paleozoic and Mesozoic basin reservoirs.

A succession of exercises and complementary lectures will expose the participants to deep-water depositional systems, facies analysis, chronostratigraphic framework, comparison of local to global depositional patterns, and application of an integrated approach to stratigraphic analyses using multiple data sets.

With dramatically lower oil prices, it is more important than ever to optimize the productive zones within the Eagle Ford. This year's GTW will focus on case studies, experiences, and new applications of technologies that have been used to pinpoint sweet spots, identify understimulated zones, locate bypassed / stranded pay, and thus successfully optimize production. Techniques will include lesson learned and case studies on re-fracturing, geochemistry, integrated reservoir characterization and more.

This course provides scenarios for implementing valuable field safety processes and a template for creating programs tailored to the needs of individual field trip leaders.

The overall goal of this course is to provide tools for efficient and effective re-exploration and development. It uses a two-part approach. First it uses petrophysical analysis to understand all that can be derived from examination of standard open-hole logs. This is followed by integrated approaches to discover key factors controlling oil and gas distribution in carbonate reservoirs in the greater Midcontinent USA. Methodologies and workflows reviewed include geosteering and evaluation of horizontal wells and optimizing carbon storage utilization and management.

All shale plays are different, and all shale plays shed light on other shale plays. Join experts to discuss world shale plays and share the “lessons learned” in dealing with a wide variety of lithologies, reservoir conditions, and degrees of heterogeneity.

This course is oriented towards the recognition and characterization of uncertainty in unconventional reservoirs. Starting with resource/reservoir assessment methods, it moves through the full unconventional value-chain. This two-day exercise and example filled workshop provides participants with the techniques and reasoning needed to validly assess the merits of the search for, and development of, unconventional resource plays.

Geomechanics – in both completions and drilling operations – has become a critical technology in the development of Unconventional Plays. This course presents the basics of oil field geomechanics and its application to unconventional developments; specifically, the role of stress, pore pressure, mechanical properties, and natural fractures on hydraulic fracturing operations.

The course is a practical and applied introduction to geochemical techniques routinely employed in shale-gas condensate and tight-oil reservoir assessment with an emphasis on tools and techniques. Participants should have a solid background in petroleum geology.

URTeC was developed with an industry advisory group — professionals managing how wells are drilled and how plays are developed every day. Representatives from Anadarko, Apache, Chesapeake, ConocoPhillips, Devon, ExxonMobil-XTO, Schlumberger, Shell, SM Energy, Statoil and others spoke about the importance of geologists, geophysicists, engineers and business managers working together — and understanding each other. They encouraged SPE, AAPG and SEG to collaborate on URTeC to facilitate that learning and understanding.

This course is designed to give participants the basic working tools to explore and develop hydrocarbons in salt basins. Because no two basins are alike, the focus is on understanding the processes and styles of salt-related deformation. At course completion participants should be able to under the depositional setting of layered evaporites, describe the mechanics of salt flow, interpret salt and stratal geometries associated with diapirs, salt welds, and minibasins, and assess more accurately the risks in the exploration of salt basins.

Save the date for the 2016 Gulf Coast Association Geological Societies (GCAGS) Annual Meeting. Watch the website for details to come.