Explorer Emphasis Article
By Barry Friedman
When it comes to biomass – and, specifically, the burning of scrap lumber and forest debris – people on both sides of the debate agree that not only do trees release carbon dioxide when burned, but they are also the most effective tool we have at removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The question and disagreement, then, is what the net result is: do trees – the source of biomass for energy – capture the same amount of CO2 (through photosynthesis) while growing? “Almost half of the ‘renewable’ energy that Western Europe credits itself for is biomass of various kinds,” said Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2021
Explorer Emphasis Article
By Emily Llinás
DeNovo uses green energy to power offshore platforms and reduce country’s carbon footprint.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2021
Explorer Emphasis Article
By David Brown
New study shows how challenging the energy transition will be.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2021
Explorer Division Column DPA
By Don Burdick
“All of the above.” I’ve certainly said that phrase when referring to the energy needs of humanity. Sure, I’m in the hydrocarbon business, but I have happily supported utilizing all forms of energy in the quest for human thriving. And I’m not alone in this welcoming approach to energy sources. Many leading voices in the hydrocarbon community openly support an increase of renewables in the global energy mix. Of course, there are genuine concerns regarding the scalability, intermittency, availability, cost and environmental impacts of renewable energy options, but extreme rhetoric attacking renewables is rare. However, the extreme attacks on hydrocarbons have become so commonplace in today’s world that a balanced view of energy has been lost.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer Article
The pandemic has been a challenge for all networking and social events but geologists have a history of seeking interaction with our friends and colleagues, regardless of the number of people around us – whether at a conference or couch, it makes no matter! This well-known fact inspired the AAPG Women’s Network and the Association for Women Geoscientists to kick-off a series of online networking and educational events that have fondly become known as the “Geology of” series. Everything we love has an underlying geologic aspect, and the “Geology of” series explores the links between geologic components such as climate, bedrock, soil and water chemistry. Two events have been hosted thus far in 2021: “Geology of Wine,” which saw more than 80 attendees, and “Geology of Beer,” which drew more than 500.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer President’s Column
By Gretchen Gillis
Listening to “A Change Is Gonna Come” as I write prompted me to think about change. For some of us, change is not a comfortable thought because we focus on how change affects our sense of self, or we fixate on the potential loss of comfortable routines and familiar circumstances. For others, change is the stuff of life because it promises something new and exciting. For AAPG, change is inevitable as we prepare to serve future generations of petroleum geologists and geoscientists in closely related fields like environmental geology, geothermal energy and the burgeoning hydrogen industry.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer Article
By Ken Milam
Maria Capello said being named AAPG Distinguished Lecturer was her “hat trick.” She has now been a Distinguished or Honorary Lecturer for three major professional societies including AAPG, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and Society of Petroleum Engineers (twice). Her tenure as AAPG lecturer will begin soon with 20-30 lectures planned, some virtual and some in person, on the topic of “Coupling Geoethics to Sustainability.” The role will once again take her to a number of countries around the globe.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer Geophysical Corner
By Alexandro Vera-Arroyo,Heather Bedle,Karen Leopoldino-Oliveira
As geoscientists, we are predisposed to associative thinking. Trained for pattern recognition by our education and experiences, we have learned to recognize familiar elements in a new dataset and integrate those pieces of information into a subsurface geological model. However, this learning system is usually biased and most of the time we are unaware of it. With the increasingly common use of machine learning in our workflows to bolster human interpretation, we must become increasingly aware of our biases, so that they they can be minimized as we train the algorithms. Herein is a case study and bias discussion from the Ceará Basin in Brazil, where deep convolutional neural networks are used to aid in the petrophysical analysis and volumetric assessment of a potential reservoir.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer Historical Highlights
By Michael Morton
To most outsiders in the 1950s, the Buraimi Affair was a passing curiosity, a faraway squabble about territorial rights in a remote corner of southeast Arabia known as the Buraimi Oasis. The British government backed its protégés, Abu Dhabi and Oman, against Saudi Arabia, while the United States government took a mediating role. However, as the Time magazine report suggested, there was another aspect to the dispute: it was rumoured that Buraimi was “floating on a pool of oil.”
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021
Explorer Article
By Barry Friedman
It is no secret that deepwater depositional systems hold some of the largest petroleum reservoirs on Earth. To get those reserves out safely, effectively and economically from such depths requires technology, expertise, and a little bit of luck. The challenges associated with doing that – determining the presence, distribution and quality of those reserves – is the work of the Quantitative Clastics Laboratory at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 October, 2021