Explorer Policy Watch

Oil and natural gas production continued to grow in the United States in 2013 even as progress on new federal laws and regulations stalled – but local opposition to shale gas and oil development increased.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Oil spills are a potential challenge in any corner of the world, but the Arctic brings its own set of challenges to oil production and transportation, and so it needs its own dedicated technologies for meeting them.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Indian state of West Bengal, located in eastern India and stretching from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, is a cultural hub where art and literacy flourished. This landscape is dominated by winding rivers and luscious fields of spices, rice and other crops. The Bengal Basin region, however, is confronted with some of the highest levels of naturally occurring arsenic (As) in drinking water, which poses a major health-related environmental threat to the 70-100 million people living in the area.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Energy is required to secure, treat and distribute water; conversely, energy production depends on an abundant and reliable source of water.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Energy Policy Blog

Not oil, not shale, but a huge resource! Industry interest in developing oil shale production technology rises and falls with oil prices and the availability of cheaper options. Shale oil in formations like the Bakken is currently more economically attractive and less risky. Chevron, Shell and Exxon-Mobil have ended their oil shale projects in the past year, but Red Leaf Resources is moving ahead.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Energy Policy Blog

January 8 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new rule on offshore hydraulic fracturing that takes effect on March 1. The rule adds additional effluent limits and monitoring requirements. Operators would be required to maintain an inventory of chemicals used in drilling operations and report any released into surrounding waters. The new EPA rule applies only to existing development and production platforms, and new exploratory drilling operations in federal waters off the Santa Barbara coast. There are 23 existing production platforms in California federal waters.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Energy Policy Blog

Peer-reviewed research from the ongoing EPA hydraulic fracturing study is available, well ahead of the final report that is expected at the end of 2014.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Policy Watch

The recent National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on its late-April 2012 workshop, “Health Impact Assessment of Shale Gas Extraction,” describes many potential health impacts of shale gas development and identifies the data gaps.

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

Whether it is the economy, taxes, global climate, health care, spying, hydraulic fracturing or oil and gas energy in general, the media is saturated with opposing intellectual, political and philosophical positions.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Hot Items

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 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 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 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)
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)

Headquarters Contacts

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