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Explorer Director’s Corner By David Curtiss

Geoscientists play a lot of different roles in our industry, but foremost, we are technical and scientific experts. We understand the rocks, their depositional history and their potential to generate hydrocarbons.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Geophysical Corner By Kurt Marfurt,Ritesh Sharma,Satinder Chopra

Integration of AVAz/VVAz and Coherence/Curvature Seismic Attributes

Coherence and curvature attribute computations are usually carried out on stacked seismic data volumes to delineate faults, flexures and large fractures. If the vertically-aligned parallel fractures in the subsurface are filled with fluid, or weakly cemented, the P-wave velocity across the fractures will be slower than that parallel to the fractures. These differences give rise to a velocity variation with azimuth. Because impedance is the product of density and velocity, such fractures also give rise to amplitude variation with offset.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Historical Highlights By Jon Gluyas

Helium Shortages and Emerging Helium Provinces

The search for new sources of helium is of paramount importance as a combination of declining production and increasing demand have made helium prices soar. This follows a century in which the United States had a near monopoly on helium reserves and U.S. production met global demand. Although most of the helium production story has taken place in the United States, there are other nations that have produced and are producing helium.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Article By Ken Milam

Energy Companies Combat Energy Poverty

About 1 billion people in the world live without electricity. In 2015, the United Nations announced an ambitious agenda to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Two years on, several multinational energy companies have become involved, or increased efforts already under way, with initiatives aimed at bringing Goal 7 to reality for about 200 million people, mostly in least-developed counties.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Business Side of Geology Column By Barry Friedman

U.S. Oil Production Sees Growing Pains from Limited Pipeline Capacity

It isn’t so much a lack of demand creating the ongoing oil supply glut, but a lack of market connectivity: the United States needs more oil pipelines.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Business Side of Geology Column By Barry Friedman

Lessons in Building a Company in Partnership with Private Equity

In simple terms,” said Donald Burdick, CEO and co-founder of Olifant Energy, “you can view partnering with a private equity firm as a way to partner with many investors under one large aggregator.” On the most basic level, private equity firms reach out to many investors for their funds and then turn around and deploy that capital among their portfolio of companies. “This approach,” said Burdick, “mitigates risk for the investors and it simplifies the financial reporting for the portfolio company.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Article By Ken Milam

BP Celebrates 40 Years of Production in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay

It was only expected to produce for 30 years. But now, 40 years later, BP looks forward to another 40 years of production in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Business Side of Geology Column By David Brown

Oil Price Volatility Makes Discipline, Profitability Key Factors in M&A

M&A activity appears to be on the rebound, but current oil price volatility tempers the otherwise optimistic mood going into this year’s APPEX conference in London.

Added on 01 February, 2019

Explorer Article By David Brown

Sound and Fury

With a new batch of freshman lawmakers in Congress, there has been increasing attention on a proposed “Green New Deal” to aggressively tackle climate change, among other issues. But how feasible is it?

Added on 01 February, 2019

Canada Blog

Energy, Carbon and Poverty: Seeking the Radical Middle

Energy fuels the economic engine of the world. Access to secure energy—affordable, available, reliable, and sustainable—is not only vital for economic health, but also to lift the world from poverty, and to invest in the environment. Are carbon policy and poverty mutually exclusive, or does there exist an energy “radical middle” that can address the challenges of carbon and poverty, and still preserve a healthy economy?

Added on 23 January, 2019

DL Abstract By John Suppe

Probing What Makes the Crust Strong (or Weak): Insight from Boreholes, Earthquakes, Active Fault Systems, and Toy Models

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.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

VG Abstract By Keith Gerdes

Tethyan Carbonates - Linking Tropical Seas and Crashing Plates to Some of the Largest Oil and Gas Fields in the World

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.

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Added on 24 August, 2015

DL Abstract By Sherilyn Williams-Stroud

Atmospheric and Social Climate Change: Implications for the Future Geoscience Workforce

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.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

How Orogens Could Collapse Forming Sedimentary Basins: The Case of the Betic-Rif Orogen

The Betic hinterland, in the westernmost Mediterranean, constitutes a unique example of a stack of metamorphic units. Using a three-dimensional model for the crustal structure of the Betics-Rif area this talk will address the role of crustal flow simultaneously to upper-crustal low-angle faulting in the origin and evolution of the topography.

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Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By Tao Sun

Integrated Reservoir Characterization and Modeling with Computational Stratigraphy

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!

Added on 20 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Shane Prochnow

Subsurface Machine Learning Approaches at Hydrocarbon Recovery and Resource Forecasting for Unconventional Reservoir Systems

This presentation is a survey of subsurface machine learning concepts that have been formulated for unconventional asset development, described in the literature, and subsequently patented. Operators that utilize similar subsurface machine learning workflows and other data modelling techniques enjoy a competitive advantage at optimizing the development of unconventional plays.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Frank Peel

A Lost World Rediscovered: 3D Seismic Data Reveal Spectacular Images of a Jurassic Landscape on the Eve of Louann Salt Deposition in the Gulf of Mexico, with Implications for Salt Deposition

Around 170 million years ago, the Gulf of Mexico basin flooded catastrophically, and the pre-existing landscape, which had been a very rugged, arid, semi-desert world, was drowned beneath an inland sea of salt water. The drowned landscape was then buried under kilometers of salt, perfectly preserving the older topography. Now, with high-quality 3D seismic data, the salt appears as a transparent layer, and the details of the drowned world can be seen in exquisite detail, providing a unique snapshot of the world on the eve of the flooding event. We can map out hills and valleys, and a system of river gullies and a large, meandering river system. These rivers in turn fed into a deep central lake, whose surface was about 750m below global sea level. This new knowledge also reveals how the Louann Salt was deposited. In contrast to published models, the salt was deposited in a deep water, hypersaline sea. We can estimate the rate of deposition, and it was very fast; we believe that the entire thickness of several kilometers of salt was laid down in a few tens of thousands of years, making it possibly the fastest sustained deposition seen so far in the geological record.

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Added on 16 November, 2022

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

Salt versus Shales in Continental Margins and Orogens

In comparison with the known boundary conditions that promote salt deformation and flow in sedimentary basins, the processes involved with the mobilization of clay-rich detrital sediments are far less well established. This talk will use seismic examples in different tectonic settings to document the variety of shale geometries that can be formed under brittle and ductile deformations.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By John Castagna

Beyond Physics in Geophysics

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address.

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Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Kurt W. Rudolph

Tectonic Controls on Source Rock Deposition

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!

Added on 14 September, 2023

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