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Play Types

Explorer Emphasis Article

For a variety of reasons, an exploration play in the Appalachian Basin is drawing the attention of oil companies around the country: the Trenton-Black River.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The San Juan Basin - the largest producer of natural gas in the Rocky Mountain region and the proving ground for coalbed methane production in the United States - is once again a prolific source of unconventional natural gas resources.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

There’s a new - some might say urgent - sense of excitement when it comes to the role of shale gas production in today’s energy mix, as well as its potential for the coming years.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

What's going on here? Despite some grand occurrences that otherwise would make it a year of wine and roses, 2000 ultimately didn't seem like much of a party year.

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

This Fact Sheet, compiled by the AAPG Division of Environmental Geosciences, addresses groundwater and the Underground Injection Control (UIC) well fracturing concerns under the SDWA.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Deep water and subsalt plays are the two hottest exploration frontiers in the Gulf of Mexico and searching for structures below the salt in waters thousands of feet deep is the most exciting play with the greatest potential for reward vs. the risk.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The oil and gas business continues to be among the crown jewels of the United Kingdom's economy, sustaining an impressive performance for over three decades -- and through innovative approaches, officials mean to keep it that way.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Wildcat Recollections Column

In the mid-1990s, Arco International reviewed a farm-out proposal from Enterprise Oil for drilling on a block held by Enterprise in the Romanian Black Sea. Enterprise already had completed a seismic program and had mapped a variety of structures on the block.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The oil and gas business has been one of the crown jewels of the United Kingdom's economy for years, sustaining an impressive performance for over three decades - and through innovative approaches, officials mean to keep it that way.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

An increasing number of companies, in an increasing number of places around the world, consider horizontal drilling as an option in all kinds of plays. Through May 1999 Denver-based IHS Energy Group's databases contained records for 20,430 horizontal wells in 67 different countries.

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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