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Europe Blog

Meet Joe Staffurth from Exxon as he lectures, 'Farmout Market Update (Africa – Atlantic) “Where are the deals being done and not done?',  during Session 1 at the 2015 APPEX Regional Conference in November at Nice, France. This talk reviews the current state of the oil and gas exploration.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Europe Blog

Dave McCarthy will present the paper 'Falkland Islands: Summary of past exploration, current activities & future potential' during Session 3 at the 2015 APPEX Regional Conference in Nice, France.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Europe Blog

Join Bruce Walker during Session 3 at the 2015 APPEX Regional Conference in Nice, France as he speaks about 'Exploration Hot Spots in North West Europe'. This presentation will review the key frontier plays that remain in Northwest Europe and look at the companies which are positioning themselves to explore these regions.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Europe Blog

Nearing the end of the presentations during Session 4, Stuart Lake will present a paper focusing on exploration along the transform margin and some of the possible conclusions the play mapping, common risk segment maps and dry hole analysis have revealed. You can hear this talk at the APPEX Regional 2015 in Nice, France on 6 November.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Division Column EMD

In the coming year, the Energy Minerals Division is looking to improve and expand its information delivery system. EMD also is seeking volunteers to fill a number of vacant section and region councilor positions.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Wolfcamp formation in the Permian’s Delaware Basin kicks out impressive volumes of hydrocarbons. The play is considered to have great promise, as it’s currently viewed as a kind of adolescent in terms of its maturity.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Europe Blog

AAPG Europe and PESGB are pleased to launch a series of full day technical workshops, to be held on the third Tuesday of every month beginning in November.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Middle East Blog

Production of tight reservoirs would have been impossible without the groundbreaking innovations in drilling and stimulation technology. With each new resource play, new challenges need to be addressed which do range from exploration, appraisal and pilot stages to the rationalization of factory drilling. It has become vitally important for the industry to put even more focus on R&D to develop knowledge, technology and innovation that can deliver a sustainable competitive advantage and open new frontiers.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Director’s Corner

Unconventional resources have changed the exploration and production business and are changing our profession. It’s a change for the better, where today geoscientists and engineers work closely to identify prospective areas, drill them and optimize recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Focusing on rocks, learning from others and implementing new technologies were the keys to success identified during a talk on “Evolution of Unconventional Oil Plays from Early Innovations to Future Challenges,” at the DPA luncheon held during the recent AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Denver.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tuesday, 18 February Wednesday, 19 February 2025, 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Join us for AAPG Orphan, Abandoned, Idle and Marginal Wells Conference 2025. This workshop will focus on orphan, abandoned, idle, and marginal wells and the business opportunities and technology associated with plugging and repurposing wells, reducing methane emissions, protecting water supplies, and extending the lives of marginal wells.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Houston, Texas
Tuesday, 10 December Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 7:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Join us for an AI and analytics workshop that focuses specifically on subsurface energy, and provides the needed knowledge, tools, and insights. Opportunities are emerging, and those who have the tools, skills, and knowledge will be at the forefront. Specifically, the conference will bring together AI and Machine Learning and a wide range of data issues in the form of technical presentations, probing panel discussions and poster sessions.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Houston, Texas
Saturday, 1 February 2025, 8:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Everyone in Houston lives within a few miles of a bayou. Some people think of them as permanent, but the bayous are constantly changing, especially during high water events like Hurricane Harvey. This trip is a 2.5 mile walk down a section of Buffalo Bayou where we will look at the archives of past storms and discuss what to do for future storms.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Short Course
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Thursday, 20 February 2025, 7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

This introduction to methane monitoring, measurement, and quantification is for all those who would like to understand the requirements and regulations regarding methane emissions and to be able to design a measurement and monitoring solution, complete with the appropriate types of technologies, techniques, and safety protocols.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

Production from unconventional petroleum reservoirs includes petroleum from shale, coal, tight-sand and oil-sand. These reservoirs contain enormous quantities of oil and natural gas but pose a technology challenge to both geoscientists and engineers to produce economically on a commercial scale. These reservoirs store large volumes and are widely distributed at different stratigraphic levels and basin types, offering long-term potential for energy supply. Most of these reservoirs are low permeability and porosity that need enhancement with hydraulic fracture stimulation to maximize fluid drainage. Production from these reservoirs is increasing with continued advancement in geological characterization techniques and technology for well drilling, logging, and completion with drainage enhancement. Currently, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, USA, and Venezuela are producing natural gas from low permeability reservoirs: tight-sand, shale, and coal (CBM). Canada, Russia, USA, and Venezuela are producing heavy oil from oilsand. USA is leading the development of techniques for exploring, and technology for exploiting unconventional gas resources, which can help to develop potential gas-bearing shales of Thailand. The main focus is on source-reservoir-seal shale petroleum plays. In these tight rocks petroleum resides in the micro-pores as well as adsorbed on and in the organics. Shale has very low matrix permeability (nano-darcies) and has highly layered formations with differences in vertical and horizontal properties, vertically non-homogeneous and horizontally anisotropic with complicate natural fractures. Understanding the rocks is critical in selecting fluid drainage enhancement mechanisms; rock properties such as where shale is clay or silica rich, clay types and maturation , kerogen type and maturation, permeability, porosity, and saturation. Most of these plays require horizontal development with large numbers of wells that require an understanding of formation structure, setting and reservoir character and its lateral extension. The quality of shale-gas resources depend on thickness of net pay (>100 m), adequate porosity (>2%), high reservoir pressure (ideally overpressure), high thermal maturity (>1.5% Ro), high organic richness (>2% TOC), low in clay (<50%), high in brittle minerals (quartz, carbonates, feldspars), and favourable in-situ stress. During the past decade, unconventional shale and tight-sand gas plays have become an important supply of natural gas in the US, and now in shale oil as well. As a consequence, interest to assess and explore these plays is rapidly spreading worldwide. The high production potential of shale petroleum resources has contributed to a comparably favourable outlook for increased future petroleum supplies globally. Application of 2D and 3D seismic for defining reservoirs and micro seismic for monitoring fracturing, measuring rock properties downhole (borehole imaging) and in laboratory (mineralogy, porosity, permeability), horizontal drilling (downhole GPS), and hydraulic fracture stimulation (cross-linked gel, slick-water, nitrogen or nitrogen foam) is key in improving production from these huge resources with low productivity factors.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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