Explorer Article

Colombia is a land of contrasts – of tradition and innovation, wealth and poverty, triumphs and tragedy. Newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro highlighted Colombia’s contrasts in an address at COP27 recently, delivering an eloquent but confrontational discourse. His political agenda includes accelerating the energy transition. Other leftist leaders in Latin America have supported the national oil companies and continued exploration and production, but Petro’s policies advocate an immediate cessation from dependence on petroleum and coal, which he likens to cocaine addiction.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Natural disasters worldwide, public debate, policy decisions and shareholder pressure are just some of the factors motivating companies to seek alternatives to traditional oil and gas to fuel the ever-increasing demand for energy worldwide. One of those alternatives is hydrogen – a renewable energy source that proponents believe brings a wealth of opportunities and challenges. Argentina’s national energy company YPF is one such proponent. They are considering using natural gas from the massive Vaca Muerta play to produce “blue hydrogen,” which is produced by combining natural gas and steam.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

If the world had a comprehensive plan to address climate change, what would it look like? That’s an important question, even a crucial question for industry and businesses globally, especially the energy industry. Companies need to plan for significant climate-related action coming in the years and decades ahead. “The world does have a climate plan – or rather, a lot of plans. There’s a ton of economic and climate models that have been done around various pathways,” said Derek Pankratz, senior research manager with the Center for Integrated Research in Deloitte Services LP.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Growth through strategic acquisition and the disciplined and responsible stewardship of oil and gas assets, coupled with a pro-active plan to clean up orphaned wells is a unique business strategy which Diversified Energy has adopted, starting with Appalachia and then moving to the Midcontinent and beyond. Welcome to an interview with Brad Gray, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with Diversified Energy.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Search & Discovery, the popular open access, online journal owned and operated by Datapages, Inc. is once again accepting new submissions. We’re once again posting abstracts submitted to us by the AAPG sections and regions from their meetings. And if you’ve recently presented at one of those meetings or at IMAGE’22 and want to ensure that your work is available to a broader audience, we invite you to submit your presentation slides or poster to Search & Discovery. Our team will work with you to get it formatted and posted online.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Readers Forum

Back when I kept a summer home in Denver, I had two neighbors who bought mountain bikes. Two years later, I bought one of the bikes for 10 cents on the dollar. It was in pristine condition. I asked my neighbor why he was selling. He said, “It never did anything for me.” I asked him how often he rode it. He replied, “Ride it? You mean I have to put energy into this thing?” The AAPG is the same as a mountain bike. They are both wonderful vehicles that can take you to exciting places. But you must put energy into them.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer President’s Column

I suddenly realized I was having a déjà vu moment while standing on the exhibition floor in Houston at IMAGE 2022. I was in the main aisle trying to remember where I wanted to go next when I was suddenly transported back to the AAPG annual meetings we had in the 1980s. Shockingly, the excitement and energy I could see in the large crowd ahead of me mentally jerked me back to all of those great AAPG annual conventions we had before COVID. As an old codger, I have an excuse for this kind of mental lapse, but I don’t think I was the only one who felt this way. Many other attendees expressed similar feelings to me about IMAGE ‘22.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Embracing the exploration spirit so often embodied in the annual Halbouty Lecture, Cindy Yeilding, retired senior vice president of BP America, rallied and encouraged her audience at the August 2022 IMAGE conference to repurpose their geoscience knowledge and skillsets for the energy transition. As the world searches for viable ways to decarbonize, it will not be uncommon to hear people say, “That technology will never work at scale, or it might work but it’s never going to make any money,” Yeilding said. “Those are all parts of the energy transition conversation, which tells us that using our exploration mindset is right for new exploration opportunities.”

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

“We’re probably at least 10 times larger. I mean, it just dwarfs any other project in North America.” That’s Vincent Ramirez, CEO of 3PL Operating, Inc., talking about a large and valuable lithium discovery his company has made in Railroad Valley, Nev. As lithium will play a vital role in the world’s changing energy landscape, generally, and because much of the known lithium deposits are in Chile, Australia, Argentina and China, specifically, 3PL’s find in central Nevada is potentially a very big deal.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Because petroleum figures so prominently in our lives today, petroleum geologists play a vital role in raising public awareness of the relationship between Earth science and sustainability. That’s why you are invited to bring your education, experience and expertise to the 25th annual Earth Science Week, which celebrates the theme of “Earth Science for a Sustainable World.” Earth Science Week 2022 is Oct. 10-16.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Hot Items

Explorer Article

A new type of buoyancy model can be used to understand the source of residual oil zones, both thick and thin, to help determine the likelihood that economically viable recoverable oil resides in transition zones of imbibition reservoirs. Application of a buoyancy and breech model will fill a void in reservoir characterization. It will help distinguish between TZs and ROZs, the first of which allows application of primary and secondary (waterflooding) oil recovery methods and the second of which requires more difficult CO2-enhanced oil recovery projects.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

It isn’t news to anyone that prediction is difficult, especially when it’s the future (as a great man once said). Uncertainty and unpredictability are just a part of the job of tracking and predicting the future supply and demand of energy. That being the case, when energy analysts say that the current level of uncertainty is particularly high, it might be easy to dismiss it as a “dog bites man” story. It isn’t.

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

Perhaps you did a double take pulling the April issue of EXPLORER from the mailbox. What is this? If you joined AAPG in the last 40 years, you’ve only known EXPLORER in its long-standing tabloid format. It worked well for many years as our advertisers – particularly seismic companies – loved the large format and the ability to display their data on a sweeping canvas. For readers, it was a little more awkward.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

The Casablanca oil field, discovered in 1975 and located on the Mediterranean shelf edge, has been greatly significant in the world’s offshore oil industry activity, besides being by far the biggest oil field in Spain.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Advancements in processing and imaging techniques have continued over the last several decades, which have gradually improved the quality of the processed surface seismic data. When the quality of the existing seismic data is not adequate to perform an interpretation task reasonably, then the interpreter looks for other options. Is it feasible to acquire a new survey? In the absence of an improved survey, will reprocessing of seismic data be a good option?

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Headquarters Contacts

Susan Nash
Susan Nash Director, Innovation and Emerging Science and Technology, AAPG +1 405 314 7730