May, 2002
HGS Meetings

HGS Dinner Meeting

"Thinking ‘Out of the Box’ - the Role of the Geologist in Meeting Future Energy Demand”

Abstract:

The demand for oil and gas in the next century will greatly increase in the next few decades and reserves are limited. Converting vast amounts of “undiscovered” resources into proven reserves will require geologists “to think out of the box”. This means looking at methods no one has tried before, looking for accumulations previously thought unlikely, and looking in places where others have overlooked or thought impossible.

This has never been easy, but it has been the key to giant new reserves being developed. Overturning the “dogma” that is currently favored by explorationists with a new “heresy” has a history of difficulty. From the “anticlinal theory” in the 1880’s to sequence stratigraphy in the 1980’s, geologists have had to persevere to get a new idea tested. Several recent plays that have convincingly converted former “undiscovered resources” into “proven reserves” are basin-centered gas, coal bed methane, and sub-salt exploration. Some older plays, like the early offshore Indonesian exploration, required not only creative geology, but unusual deal making.

Buying reserves or increasing reserves by merging with another company does not discover new oil and gas. Taking the risk to develop a new idea, to finance an unusual idea, and to drill is what will provide the supply needed in the next century.

Biographical Sketch:

Robbie Gries is President of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She is founder and President of Priority Oil & Gas LLC, a Denver-based natural gas production, petroleum exploration and development company operating in Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. Priority has also been instrumental in the development of a one million acre “tight gas sand” project onshore in the cross-border region of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where there no economic production to date. Partners are currently drilling a pilot project to evaluate the area.

Robbie has been active in the petroleum industry for 28 years, working initially for Texaco, Inc., then Reserve Oil Inc. She has been independent since 1980. She has combined the business side of oil and gas with her passion for the science of geology, publishing over 30 professional papers. She has developed and published ideas about drilling beneath thrusted Precambrian rocks along the Rocky Mountain uplifts. In the 1980’s she pioneered the discovery of a concealed and unexplored Cretaceous basin beneath the San Juan volcanic field in southern Colorado. Robbie is a Director for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an Honor Alumnus of Colorado State University and has a Master’s degree in geology from The University of Texas at Austin where she currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Geology Foundation.

SPE-GCS sponsored
2nd Annual Petroleum Leadership and Outlook Conference

Details:

A number of experts both inside and outside the petroleum industry will discuss the issues facing our business today. Gary Hamel, a Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School and nationally known speaker on the role of innovation in the workplace, will be this year’s keynote speaker.

The one-day conference will be divided into three forums - Geopolitics and the Security of Supply, Leadership, and the Wall Street Viewpoint - followed by the keynote address. Speakers and sponsors are still being added, so visit www.ploc.org http for the most up to date information about session participants.

The issues discussed at highly-successful PLOC 2001 were timely and important for the industry. Audience participation made the conference was extremely interesting and effective, with forums where both panelists and audience could highlight the issues and ideas and debate opinions.

Last year’s conference attendees thought the PLOC was not to be missed, so mark you calendars now.

HGS International Exploration Dinner Meeting

"3D Paleogeographic and Plate Tectonic Reconstructions: the PALEOMAP Project is Back in Town "

Posters:

Poster 1
"Central Africa’s Cretaceous Rifting: Examples from Chad"
an example of using PALEOMAP Paleogeography in an Exploration Project
by Steve Henry, Geolearn LLC, Al Danforth, Consulting Exploration Geologist, and Mahamat Nasser Hassane, Director of Petroleum, Ministry of Mines, Energy and Petroleum, Republic of Chad.

Figures:

Cover Illustration:
Paleo topography and bathymetry of the Late Cretaceous (80 MMYA). Paleogeographic reconstructions by C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP Project, www.scotese.com

Figure 1.
Reconstruction of present-day bathymetry and topography in paleo-coordinates for the Late Miocene.

Figure 2.
Paleo bathymetry and topography for the Early Miocene.

Abstract:

The PALEOMAP Project is known for its synthesis of the plate tectonic, paleogeographic, and paleoclimatic history of ocean basins and continents during the last 1100 million years, and the illustration of Earth history through maps, computer animations, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this talk, Chris will present his latest 3D paleogeographic and plate tectonic maps and animations (see cover illustration - Paleo Topography and Bathymetry of the Late Cretaceous 80 MMYA).

Global plate tectonic, paleogeographic and paleoclimatic reconstructions will be presented for the early Miocene, Late Cretaceous, Permian, and Devonian. These reconstructions use 3D paleotopographic and paleobathymetric information to represent the surface of the Earth and the shape and depth of the ocean basins. Each map is composed of over 6 million pixel-points that capture digital elevation information at a 10 x 10 km geographic resolution and 40 meter vertical resolution. This quantitative, digital approach to paleogeographic modeling permits new ways to visualize and analyze the changing surface of the Earth through time using standard GIS (ESRI 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst), 3D modeling, and computer animation techniques.

The process of building a 3D paleogeographic map begins with the digital topography and bathymetry compiled by NOAA (Smith & Sandwell, 2001), the BEDMAP Project (British Antarctic Survey), and the IBCAO Arctic Project (Jakobsson et al., 2000). The topographic and bathymetric information is gridded at a 6-minute resolution, and the individual data points (pixel-points) are rotated back to their paleopositions using the global plate tectonic model of the PALEOMAP Project. The resulting map is reconstruction of present-day bathymetry and topography in paleo-coordinates (Late Miocene, Figure 1 ).

In the next processing steps, the digital elevation and bathymetric values are corrected to take into account the complex effects of thermal subsidence (Stein & Stein, 1992), glacial rebound, tectonic and volcanic activity and erosion. The result is a revised, global paleotopographic and paleobathymetric surface. To complete the 3D paleogeographic model the new topographic surface is digitally “flooded” by raising or lowering sea level according to the estimates from eustatic sea level curves (e.g., Haq et al., 1987).

The new paleogeographic map raises interesting geological questions. For instance, the shorelines shown in the early Miocene map ( Figure 2 ) are familiar but not identical to today’s coastlines. Florida is flooded, as are the molasse basin of the Alps, Persian Gulf foredeep and the peri-Caspian region. But surprisingly, so are the Amazon and Parana basins. Conversely, if sea level were higher, one might expect that Southeast Asia would be flooded. However, geologic evidence indicates that Southeast Asia was emergent during the early Miocene. This suggests that dynamic plate tectonic forces associated with subduction in the Java-Sumatra trench may be “pulling-down” the leading edge of Indonesia.

The digital topographic and bathymetric models presented here are currently being used for paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic simulations. They provide the framework and foundation for a detailed and quantitative modeling of Earth surface processes since the late Precambrian.

Biographical Sketch:

Chris Scotese is Professor of Geology at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches global tectonics, basin analysis and GIS. For more than 25 years, he has been making maps and animations showing the plate tectonic, paleogeographic and paleoclimatic evolution of the continents and ocean basins. His maps can be found in National Geographic, Scientific American as well as numerous scientific books and journals.

He received his Ph.D at the University of Chicago, started the PLATES Project at Institute for Geophysics (Austin), was a Senior Research Geologist at Shell Development Company (Houston), and together with Malcolm Ross developed GIS software to produce plate reconstructions (PALEOMAP Foundation). His award-winning website, www.scotese.com, describes with maps and animations the current research work of the PALEOMAP Project.

You can contact Chris at: PALEOMAP Project, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, 76019 Email: chris@scotese.com website: www.scotese.com

HGS Lunch Meeting

"Review of Late Jurassic Depositional Systems and Potential Hydrocarbon Plays, Northern Gulf of Mexico Basin”

Abstract:

Post-salt Upper Jurassic siliciclastic and carbonate rocks in the East Texas-North Louisiana-Mississippi region record the early post-rift evolution of the Interior Zone rift basins of the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Four major river systems were fixed in space but variable in supply rate; they carried sand and mud in from the northwest (ancestral Red River), the north (ancestral Ouachita River), the northeast (ancestral Mississippi River), and the east (ancestral Alabama River). Shoal-water carbonate deposits formed when siliciclastic inputs were low and shallow-water, high-energy conditions prevailed-usually in association with basement highs, salt swells and abandoned deltaic shelf margins.

Smackover shoal-water carbonates formed within an extensive carbonate ramp from south-central Arkansas to central Texas and were influenced by initial salt movement. Subsequent Haynesville-age Gilmer carbonate shoals in Texas rimmed rift-related high blocks, as well as highs formed by early salt movement. Siliciclastic sedimentation progressively dominated east of Shreveport, and submarine fans developed in association with a lowstand episode. During early Cotton Valley time, a major southeastward advance of the ancestral Red River delta formed the Taylor and Bossier sand series, while to the east, lower Terryville shoreline sands began to prograde southward in front of an expanding lagoon. During late Cotton Valley time, continued clastic sedimentation formed wave-dominated deltas in Texas and upper Terryville strike-fed sandstones in north Louisiana. At the close of Cotton Valley deposition in the earliest Cretaceous, regional transgression allowed Knowles carbonates to “colonize” the abandoned shelf edge and form a thick shelf-edge reef complex on its seaward slope. The significant “Calvin” lowstand wedge of sandstones was deposited offshore of this edge in Louisiana during a subsequent major sea-level fall, and was then covered by Winn carbonates deposited during the subsequent sea-level rise.

High-potential exploration plays remain in Upper Jurassic strata. Smackover and Buckner/Gilmer shoals have produced over 10 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCFG) and 750 million barrels of oil (MMBO) in East Texas and North Louisiana, but large segments of the complex atolls along the Sabine Uplift have not been defined. Complex shoals may rim old rift-related highs such as the Sabine and Wiggins highs. The Gilmer (“Cotton Valley Lime”) pinnacle reefs of the Robertson-Leon trend may develop (in one form or another) over a broad swath of east-central Texas into westernmost Louisiana. Haynesville-age submarine fans may extend eastward into Mississippi. Updip Cotton Valley is an established 10-TCF tight-gas sandstone play in Texas and Louisiana, but its basinward extensions have high untapped potential. Significant high-quality Upper Cotton Valley production similar to the North Louisiana “blanket sands” may still be found in central Mississippi. The earliest Cretaceous (Knowles/Calvin/Winn) margin is poorly tested. Calvin-like sandstones of the lowstand wedge should occur in east-central Texas and in southwestern Mississippi.

Biographical Sketch:

Dr. Thomas Ewing is a geologist and geophysicist with 21 years of experience in hydrocarbon exploration and research in geology and geophysics. He received a BA in Geology from the Colorado College in 1975, an MS in geochemistry from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1977, and a PhD in geological sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1981. Dr. Ewing was a research geologist for over four years at the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. While there he was in charge of geologic analysis of Gulf Coast geopressured reservoirs and geothermal resources, served as a co-author of the “Atlas of Texas Oil Reservoirs”, and served as compiler of the Tectonic Map of Texas.

Since 1985 he has been co-owner with Linda Ewing of Frontera Exploration Consultants, Inc., a San Antonio-based consulting company. He has worked with Venus Exploration, Inc. since 1985 for its ongoing, successful exploration efforts in the Yegua Trend of the Gulf Coast Basin, Cotton Valley trend of Texas and Louisiana, West Texas, and Kansas; he is now a Senior Explorationist at Venus.

Dr. Ewing is a member of many regional and national professional societies, is a Certified Petroleum Geologist (#4538), and served as Treasurer and Vice-President of the AAPG Division of Professional Affairs. He is an AAPG Delegate from the South Texas Geological Society, and served as Vice-Chairman of the AAPG House of Delegates in 1992-3.

He also served as President of the Energy Minerals Division of the AAPG, and in that position held a seat on the AAPG Advisory Council. Dr. Ewing chaired the Edwards Aquifer Committee of the South Texas Geological Society in 1988-90, which issued a call for geologic and technology-based aquifer management. He served as President of the South Texas Geological Society in 1990-1, and as General Chairman of the 1996 GCAGS Convention in San Antonio.

Tom has spoken extensively at local, regional, and national geological meetings and has authored or co-authored over 70 published papers and abstracts. Among other awards, he has twice received the Gulf Coast Section AAPG Levorsen Award (1982 and 1999), and the GCAGS Distinguished Service Award in 1993.