Oil May Reach $86 per Barrel This Summer - 12 June, 2024 07:30 AM
'Anthropocene' Was Rejected by Geologists, But the Word Has Already Taken Over the World - 12 June, 2024 07:30 AM
California Seeks Company Profits in Big Oil Climate Lawsuit - 12 June, 2024 07:30 AM
Canadian Oil and Gas Player Acquires Acreage Offshore Namibia - 12 June, 2024 07:30 AM
New Zealand to Reverse its 2018 Offshore Oil Exploration Ban - 12 June, 2024 07:30 AM
Advances in deep learning and artificial intelligence promise to not only drive our cars but also taste our beer. Specifically, recent advances in the architecture of deep-learning convolutional neural networks have brought the field of image classification and computer vision to a new level.
Saudi Aramco hopes to push the boundaries of exploration by creating and encouraging new technologies. The company said it is pursuing the promise of “the fourth industrial revolution” through Big Data and supercomputing and investigations into nanotechnology applications.
The University of Adelaide sits on a goldmine of geological research opportunity in South Australia’s Bight Basin.
The University of Kansas recently opened its state-of-the-art, $78 million Earth Energy and Environment Center.
As oilfield tech advances keep pace with Moore’s Law, unconventional resources drive U.S. crude production to record heights.
Who are the “future energy geoscientists” and in what kind of professional world will they work? Veteran petroleum geologist and organizational leader Chandler Wilhelm envisions a changing industry that will require different skills and provide new and different opportunities for young professionals and students beginning to choose their career paths.
Having relevant petrophysical information is vital for successful drilling, completion, and stimulation. However, it has not been easy to find ways to obtain reliable information. Welcome to an interview with Don Herman, who discusses a new tool that logs deviated, horizontal, and vertical wells where wireline could not reach TD. Cordax will be presenting at U-Pitch at URTeC.
Imagination, an integrative approach to old-fashioned geology, plus advanced technologies played a leading role in the 2010-13 discovery of the Guama Field in the Plato Region of the Lower Magdalena Basin of Colombia.
The University of Oklahoma’s STACK-MERGE- SCOOP Consortium educates students and industry alike.
Geoscience education is turning out to be a good fit for the modern university, and an especially good way to position students for the future. In part that’s because of the nature of earth science studies, said Stephan Graham, dean of the geoscience school at Stanford University.
La Formación Smackover del Jurásico Superior (Oxfordiano) es una de las productoras de petróleo y gas más prolíficas de la llanura costera del noreste del Golfo de México, depositada en una rampa de carbonato proximal. Este estudio es una caracterización integral del ambiente de depositación de la Formación Smackover basada en datos sísmicos 3D y de pozos en los campos Vocation y Appleton situados en las subcuencas de Conecuh y Manila, en el suroeste de Alabama.
Recent interest in unconventional gas resources has attracted several oil and gas explorers to sedimentary basins in Southern Quebec.
El geocientífico visitante Juan Pablo Lovecchio revisa aspectos generales de la ruptura, grietas y formación pasiva de márgenes y evolución a través del tiempo, así como elementos del desarrollo del sistema petrolero.
Since the first explorationists discovered the subsurface potential in Tunisia, the country’s institutions took the role of a partner rather than only a regulator. Today, one of ETAP missions is promoting exploration opportunities in Tunisia through both regional and targeted approaches, including sharing knowledge, high-quality data and best practices. ETAP commits to supporting continued drilling activity in mature areas and encouraging/incentivizing exploitation of new and emerging plays.
This talk will present a brief overview of proppants followed by a comprehensive discussion of the major considerations that are driving proppant selection in these plays.
Irewole Ayodele discusses the role of Geosciences when evaluating reservoir assets for mergers and acquisitions. In this presentation, Irewole Ayodele will provide a broad overview of M&A initiation and due diligence in the oil and gas industry. Then more details will be provided on the role of geoscientists in conducting due diligence on oil & gas assets. The lecture will use a few case studies showing what kinds of red flags and pitfalls acquirers should be able to spot, mitigate or avoid for a successful M&A valuation process. Webinar presented via Zoom on 26 November at 5PM Dubai time.
Fossil fuels have led to a profound increase in world living standards but resulting emissions of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere are a primary factor in climate change. Atmospheric content of CO2 and methane have risen 146% and 257% respectively since pre-industrial time and the rate of increase through 2019 has accelerated. If significant steps are not taken in the coming decade to halt the increase in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a phase may be reached in the 2030-2050-time frame described as a “tipping point”, in which steady changes may be replaced by a large-scale change in the climate system. The Middle East is an area of high climate change vulnerability in the coming decades due to extreme temperatures, sea level rise and changing weather patterns.
Visiting Geoscientist Xavier Moonan provides an overview of the destruction in the Los Iros area following the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. His talk focuses on understanding the results from various post-earthquake studies conducted on the Los Iros, reviewing the theories developed to explain the origin and integrating datasets to provide an understanding of what transpired.
The Niobrara Petroleum System of the U.S. Rocky Mountain Region is a major tight petroleum resource play.
Ray Leonard will be talking to us about 'Climate Change, Covid-19 and the Effect on Energy’s Future'. Fossil fuels have led to a profound increase in world living standards but resulting emissions of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere are a primary factor in climate change. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 has resulted in a significant decrease in world economic activity, which in turn has led to a major, if temporary, decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2. Join Ray Leonard via Zoom on June 15 at 12:00 GMT+1
For well over a century there have been conflicting indications of the strength of the crust and of faults and what controls them. Much of our ignorance comes quite naturally from the general inaccessibility of the crust to measurement--in contrast with our understanding of the atmosphere, which is much more accessible to observation as well as more rapidly changing. Crustal strength is best understood in deforming sedimentary basins where the petroleum industry has made great contributions, particularly in deforming petroleum basins because of the practical need to predict. In this talk we take a broad look at key issues in crustal strength and deformation and what we can learn from boreholes, earthquakes, active fault systems, and toy models.
Request a visit from John Suppe!
The carbonate sequences that were deposited in the now exhumed Tethyan Ocean influence many aspects of our lives today, either by supplying the energy that warms our homes and the fuel that powers our cars or providing the stunning landscapes for both winter and summer vacations. They also represent some of the most intensely studied rock formations in the world and have provided geoscientists with a fascinating insight into the turbulent nature of 250 Million years of Earth’s history. By combining studies from the full range of geoscience disciplines this presentation will trace the development of these carbonate sequences from their initial formation on the margins of large ancient continental masses to their present day locations in and around the Greater Mediterranean and Near East region. The first order control on growth patterns and carbonate platform development by the regional plate-tectonic setting, underlying basin architecture and fluctuations in sea level will be illustrated. The organisms that contribute to sequence development will be revealed to be treasure troves of forensic information. Finally, these rock sequences will be shown to contain all the ingredients necessary to form and retain hydrocarbons and the manner in which major post-depositional tectonic events led to the formation of some of the largest hydrocarbon accumulations in the world will be demonstrated.
Request a visit from Keith Gerdes!
Climate change is not only happening in the atmosphere but also in the anthroposphere; in some ways the former could drive or exacerbate the latter, with extreme weather excursions and extreme excursions from societal norms occurring all over the earth. Accomplishing geoscience for a common goal – whether that is for successful business activities, resource assessment for public planning, mitigating the impacts of geological hazards, or for the sheer love of furthering knowledge and understanding – can and should be done by a workforce that is equitably developed and supported. Difficulty arises when the value of institutional programs to increase equity and diversity is not realized.
Request a visit from Sherilyn Williams-Stroud!
Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.
Request a visit from Alex Simms!
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.
Request a visit from Ameed Ghori!
President Biden has laid out a bold and ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the United States by 2050. The pathway to that target includes cutting total greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and eliminating them entirely from the nation’s electricity sector by 2035. The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management will play an important role in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions by reducing the environmental impacts of fossil energy production and use – and helping decarbonize other hard-to abate sectors.
Request a visit from Jennifer Wilcox!
Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address.
Request a visit from John Castagna!
While there are many habitats that are associated with the deposition of organic-rich marine and lacustrine source rocks, one important pathway is linked to the onset of increased basin subsidence associated with major tectonic events. A key aspect is that this subsidence is spatially variable, with the uplift of basin flanks contemporaneous with the foundering of the basin center, resulting in a steeper basin profile.
Request a visit from Kurt W. Rudolph!
As oil and gas exploration and production occur in deeper basins and more complex geologic settings, accurate characterization and modeling of reservoirs to improve estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) prediction, optimize well placement and maximize recovery become paramount. Existing technologies for reservoir characterization and modeling have proven inadequate for delivering detailed 3D predictions of reservoir architecture, connectivity and rock quality at scales that impact subsurface flow patterns and reservoir performance. Because of the gap between the geophysical and geologic data available (seismic, well logs, cores) and the data needed to model rock heterogeneities at the reservoir scale, constraints from external analog systems are needed. Existing stratigraphic concepts and deposition models are mostly empirical and seldom provide quantitative constraints on fine-scale reservoir heterogeneity. Current reservoir modeling tools are challenged to accurately replicate complex, nonstationary, rock heterogeneity patterns that control connectivity, such as shale layers that serve as flow baffles and barriers.
Request a visit from Tao Sun!
Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.
Request a visit from Jacob Covault!
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