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Learn! Blog

This year's AAPG Woodford Shale Forum on 12 May 2015 in Oklahoma City, promises to be very insightful to geologists and engineers. Included is a special Entrepreneurship session focusing on being successful in the oil industry. Learn about special pricing for students and scholarships for individuals who have been laid off. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Update your knowledge on world shale plays and take advantage of new opportunities using new technologies / techniques which you will learn with us at the AAPG International Shale Plays Workshop, 28-29 April 2015.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Spectral decomposition of seismic data helps in the analysis of subtle stratigraphic plays and fractured reservoirs. The different methods used for decomposing the seismic data into individual frequency components within the seismic data bandwidth serve to transform the seismic data from the time domain to the frequency domain– and generate the spectral magnitude and phase components at every time-frequency sample.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Online registration is now open for the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, which will be held May 31-June 3 in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. And those who register by April 6 can save up to $210 on their registration fees. Student fees and one-day pass payments also are available.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The Upper Jurassic Smackover formation in northern Louisiana and surrounding states has been explored and drilled for decades, but has only recently seen the sophisticated approach needed to decipher its challenging geology.

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

In virtually all regions of sustained production, the industry is steadily improving in situ recovery methods and reducing environmental impacts of bitumen and heavy oil production, especially those associated with surface mining.

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

Equipping you to be a world-class geoscientist is our goal here at AAPG. It’s why we exist as a scientific and professional association: To assist you throughout your career to stay at the top of your game.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

At a time when some operators are slowing production of unconventional resources, and as oil and gas prices continue to fall, three companies have high hopes for producing shale oil north of the Arctic Circle for the first time in petroleum history.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Following many years of on again/off again activity, the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) was, at long last, being proven in recent months to be a viable commercial play, but the market has done a 180-degree spin owing to the unanticipated, near-devastating drop in oil prices.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Oil prices ... barreling downward. Natural gas prices ... up in flames. Gasoline prices ... tanking. The year got off to a scary start for the oil and gas industry

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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