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Explorer Division Column EMD

Energy Minerals Division members will find much of interest within the 11 themes that form the technical program at the 2005 AAPG Annual Convention in Calgary.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Spotlight on Education: Summer offerings filling up fast.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Putting the margin back in marginal fuels: A top Canadian energy expert believes his country needs to move past an oil and gas economy by integrating less attractive carbon fuels such as coal, coke, asphaltenes and biomass.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Like printing money in the field: Production just keeps going gangbusters in the Barnett shale play in north-central Texas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

It was only a matter of time -- and thanks to computers, the time has arrived for wave equation migration to make a big impact in exploration.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Annual Meeting Technical Program

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

What's new? Full-wave seismic is positioned to become the next new thing in seismic imaging technology.

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

Gas shales are currently one of the hottest plays in the United States as a result of high gas prices, the remarkable success in the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin, technological advancements in drilling and completions, and predicted near-term shortages of natural gas.

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

This year for New Year's Eve I returned to an old family tradition of staying up most of the night.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Energy industry companies and geoscience college students are invited to participate in the fifth annual AAPG/SEG Spring Student Expo, set March 10-12 at the Sarkeys Energy Center at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Muscat, Oman
Sunday, 5 April 2026, 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

This one-day advanced course delivers a focused and highly practical framework for interpreting structural styles in the Middle East, combined with the unique advantage of applying Generative AI (GenAI) to elevate geological understanding and decision-making. Built for geoscientists working in exploration, development, or basin modeling, the course emphasizes practical techniques, hands-on interpretation, and modern tools that increase accuracy, speed, and confidence in structural workflows. We begin with a foundational module designed to unify all participants, regardless of background, around the principles of fault mechanics and structural style recognition. Participants will revisit faulting fundamentals, mechanical stratigraphy, and structural style classification. The goal is to align interpretation techniques with geological processes, and to establish a shared vocabulary for the day. An introduction to GenAI highlights its role in managing structural ambiguity and enhancing workflows, helping geoscientists clarify options when data is incomplete or conflicting. Normal Faulting Through a sequence of focused exercises, participants explore fault segmentation, growth history, and interpretation in extensional domains. This segment reinforces practical skills in identifying and validating fault geometries in map and section views. GenAI is introduced as a scenario-building tool: participants will use it to explore structural uncertainty, generate alternative models, and compare extensional interpretations, all using fragmented or incomplete datasets, not as a seismic interpreter but as a powerful thought partner. Strike-Slip and Transtension This module targets the complexity of strike-slip and transtensional systems. Participants learn to distinguish pure strike-slip geometries from transtensional overprints, assess compartmentalization, and model realistic deformation patterns. Interpretation exercises develop structural reasoning in map and cross-sectional views. GenAI is applied here to integrate multi-source inputs, such as field data, analogs, and internal reports, to support rapid synthesis and generate testable structural concepts. Salt Tectonics The final segment introduces key diagnostic features of salt-related deformation: welds, reactive and passive diapirs, and halokinetic sequences. Exercises train participants to recognize salt-influenced geometries and link them to broader structural evolution. GenAI then supports pattern recognition and memory mining, leveraging archived knowledge from prior studies, case histories, and analog reports to help geoscientists build and validate interpretations faster and with more confidence. What makes this course different? This is not a theoretical seminar. It’s a learning accelerator, where foundational concepts are applied in realistic interpretation settings, then extended with state-of-the-art GenAI capabilities. You’ll not only sharpen your structural reasoning, but learn how to delegate time-consuming tasks, like synthesizing legacy reports, generating alternative scenarios, or exploring interpretation options, to an intelligent AI partner. By the end of the day, participants will: Recognize and differentiate key fault styles with confidence Improve fault interpretation quality and geological risk assessment Use GenAI to test structural scenarios and extract insight from fragmented or incomplete datasets Accelerate their ability to interpret, communicate, and make decisions in structurally complex plays This course equips you with what matters most today: deep geological understanding, elevated by the best of modern AI. Who Should Attend and Why This course is ideal for both new hires and experienced geoscientists working across exploration, development, and reservoir modeling. Its exercise-driven format ensures that participants with diverse backgrounds, geologists, geophysicists, geomodelers, can engage, learn, and apply. While some familiarity with geosciences is beneficial, prior structural geology training is not required. What makes this course indispensable is its ability to bridge theory and practice: participants will gain a clear understanding of how rocks deform over time, how fault geometries evolve, and how these structures influence seismic interpretation, mapping, and static/dynamic modeling. By integrating real case studies and GenAI-enhanced workflows, the course delivers practical tools to improve subsurface outcomes and build models that match project maturity and business objectives. Main Objective This course delivers the structural geology foundations every geoscientist needs to confidently interpret faults and build or validate static models. Derived from decades of project reviews, interpretation support, and applied field experience, these “must-know” concepts include fault mechanics, growth, segmentation, and structural style recognition, relevant to both exploration and production settings. Participants will strengthen their ability to recognize deformation styles, interpret fault geometries in map and section view, assess mechanical stratigraphy and reactivation risk, and QC interpretations with confidence. Throughout the course, GenAI is introduced not as a software tool, but as a workflow enhancer, used to reduce ambiguity, test structural hypotheses, and extract insight from fragmented datasets or legacy documentation. This empowers geoscientists to think more clearly, work more efficiently, and improve the geological soundness of their models. Key Points Date: 5th April,2026 Venue: Crowne Plaza Hotel, OCEC Registration Fee: $590 Registration Deadline: 22nd February,2026 *Registration will be opening shortly Instructors Pascal Richard PRgeology Jan Witte Falcon-Geoconsulting

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Muscat, Oman
Thursday, 9 April Friday, 10 April 2026, 7:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m.

The Jabal Akhdar in the Central Oman Mountains forms a ~90 km × 60 km dome. The core of this dome consists of Cryogenian to Ediacaran siliciclastics and carbonates, including source rocks. These rocks are separated from the overlying rocks by a spectacularly exposed angular unconformity. The rocks above this unconformity are Permo-Mesozoic shelf carbonates of the Arabian passive margin. The rocks below the unconformity are folded twice, while those above show no such folding. During the Late Cretaceous, Arabia was overthrust by the Samail Ophiolite and Hawasina deep-sea sedimentary rocks. Final doming occurred during the late Eocene to early Miocene. The Jabal Akhdar Dome is a textbook example of stratigraphy and structural geology development from the Cryogenian to the present. Furthermore, findings from the dome can be used as a natural laboratory and serve as an analogue for the hydrocarbon-bearing sequences in interior Oman. The two-day field trip will start at the Saiq Plateau where we will examine Cryogenian Snowball-Earth diamictites with cap carbonates, blended within the scenic landscape of Jabal Akhdar. The second day will start at a breath-taking vista point at Wadi Bani Awf. From there we will descend into the core of the Jabal Akhdar and explore the structural style of the Cryogenian and younger succession. Field Trip Information: Date: 9th – 10th April 2026 Time: 7:30am – 7pm Field Trip fee: $550 Registration Deadline: 5th March 2026 (*registration will be opening shortly) Fees Include: 1 night accommodation in a hotel Guided hiking tour through rose farms and ancient villages in Jebel Akhdar (2–3 hours) Traditional Omani lunch hosted at a local home BBQ dinner in a scenic open area at Jebel Akhdar All transportation (4x4s) Field Trip Leaders Andreas Scharf GUtech Oman Ivan Callegari GUtech Oman Wilfried Bauer GUtech Oman

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Muscat, Oman
Monday, 6 April Wednesday, 8 April 2026, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

The AAPG Structural Styles of the Middle East is back! This exciting and highly anticipated Geoscience Technology Workshop will take place from 6 – 8 April 2026, in Muscat, Oman. This workshop aims to explore the diverse structural styles resulting from the different deformation phases on the tectonostratigraphic framework of the Arabian Plate and adjacent regions.  

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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