November, 1999
HGS Meetings

HGS Dinner Meeting

"Structural arrays and depositional geometries in hydrocarbon provinces: a view from orbit"

Abstract:

Exploration success, whether for resources on Earth or on neighboring planets, depends on an explorer's skill in three-dimensional visualization and pattern recognition. In some provinces, fault and fracture patterns replicate from the scale of an entire orogen down to the scale of a thin-section. In repeatedly and complexly deformed regions, the challenge becomes one of discriminating among superposed patterns—critical for evaluating trap integrity and predicting porosity/permeability distribution. Three-dimensional relationships between structures, basin configurations, sediment-body geometries, and volcanic vent distribution are readily observable in photographs by astronauts. Photographic data can be registered to maps and plots of other data and co-displayed using off-the-shelf computer programs. Such displays reveal details of source-reservoir juxtapositions and variations in fracture networks over a basin.

The pattern of rifts, for example, is one of long, straight, steeply dipping faults bounding basins that are longer than they are wide. Basins are generally half-grabens, and the flanks with greatest structural relief are depositional sites for coalesced alluvial fans. Axial lakes with evaporites, abundant algae, and fine-grained, low-permeability sediments provide oil-prone source beds. Half-grabens are separated by transfer zones, across which the tilts of grabens reverse. Volcanic vents occur at rift/transfer-zone junctions and, less commonly, along basin-bounding faults; thermal effects on surrounding strata are minimal. Most of these attributes can be examined in single synoptic frames captured from orbit.

Geomorphologist Hoover Mackin observed that geology is rarely a science of brilliance; it is a science of wisdom. The best geologist is one who has observed a lot of rocks from every possible vantage point. Orbiting spacecraft provide an exceptional vantage point for viewing rocks at the scale of an entire tectonic province, for the eyes and minds of informed observers.

Biographical Sketch:

Pat Dickerson was born at a very early age in Waukegan, Illinois. She has worked as a geologist, editor, photographer, writer, dancing instructor and apricot cutter for a California fruit-packing firm (not in that order).

For the past two years, as a scientist in the NASA Office of Earth Sciences, she has been training Shuttle, Mir and Space Station crews in global tectonics and drawing from their photographs in her tectonics research and publications. She is creating electronic handbooks on global tectonic topics for crew use—handbooks that will eventually become resources for public education—and has received an award from the Astronaut Office for those efforts.

The Rio Grande Rift of west Texas and New Mexico—particularly the Big Bend province—has been the subject of much of her geological/geophysical research, field work, and her publications over the past 30 years. She returned to the rift this spring to stage, in collaboration with colleagues at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, the first field geophysical training exercise to prepare astronauts for planetary exploration.

In addition, Pat has worked in Argentina, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Belize, northern Mexico, the Adriatic region, the gold mines of Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, and the Midcontinent.

Attempts have been made to educate her in geology and archaeology at various institutions, among them California State University at San Jose and the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a bachelor's degree in geology/Greek archaeology (1970), a doctorate in geology (1995), and held a postdoctoral fellowship in tectonics (1996).

Environmental / Engineering Dinner Meeting

"Best kept secrets of field monitoring equipment"

Abstract:

The talk will consist of a "show and tell" explaining the differences between various kinds of air monitoring equipment. The discussion will include the following issues:

Here's a great opportunity to delve into the black boxes that we curse and kiss, and demystify them.

Biographical Sketch:

Mr. Beyer is a graduate of Purdue University with a major in Forestry. He worked with Heath Consultants for 28 years partly as a Regional Manager in Houston responsible for sales and operations in an eight-state area. In 1992, Mr. Beyer became manager of Milco Safety Rental (MSR), a water and gas leak detection equipment rental business servicing utility companies. He now is the owner of MSR.

International Dinner Meeting

"Play and prospect diversity, a platform for continued success at Totalfina"

Abstract:

Total (now Totalfina) experienced rapid growth in production and reserves during the last decade, fueled by a variety of fields in different parts of the world.

These fields exhibit great geological diversity, from complex thrust structures in Colombia, Venezuela, and now Bolivia, through the challenges of very different types of traps in carbonates in Iran, Myanmar, and Libya, to the multitude of (often thin) fluvio-deltaic sands of the Mahakam Delta and Gulf of Thailand.

Over this period, assets in both the Far East and Latin America have become important contributors to the performance of the company. Illustrations of a selection of these fields will demonstrate their extraordinary diversity. It is also interesting to try and trace some of the exploration decision points leading to the steps in the growth of the portfolio of producing assets in these areas.

This geological diversity has ensured that both our geoscientists and exploration management are offered excellent opportunities to gain experience, which is essential to enable the right decisions to be made. This experience will give the company a good chance of maintaining its growth in the future and of adapting to the abrupt changes that the coming years are likely to bring.

Biographical Sketch:

Andy joined the oil industry in 1969 armed with an honours geology degree from Reading University, England. After 4 years with Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company in the Emirates, he joined Total in 1974 and transferred to Paris for a few years (which enabled him to become fluent in French.) He was promoted to Exploration Manager in 1984, first in the UK and then in Indonesia until the end of 1990. After another spell in the Paris head office, he moved to Nigeria in 1994 to open up the E&P office in Lagos, and moved on from there as General Manager of the Singapore New Ventures office in 1997 until its closure in April 1999. He is currently assigned to the Totalfina Worldwide Business Intelligence Group in Paris.

Poster Session:

HGS Lunch Meeting

"David F. Work, BP Amoco, speaks on the energy industry in the new century"

Abstract:

The November HGS luncheon, a jointly sponsored meeting by the HGS and the Houston Energy Council, will present a talk by David F. Work, Regional President for BP Amoco Corporation.

From his unique perspective as a senior executive in Amoco, and now BP Amoco, Mr. Work will offer an insider's look at the present and future significance of energy industry mergers, particularly that of BP and Amoco, and his general outlook for the energy industry as it enters the next century.

Dave Work is Regional President for BP Amoco Corporation. In this position, he is the senior BP Amoco representative in the Gulf Coast, Southwest and Rocky Mountain states and concentrates on maintaining and building relationships with external audiences.

Work coordinates his responsibilities with the vice presidents of BP Amoco's seven exploration and production business units in Houston, as well as the leaders of the oil and chemical businesses located in the Houston geographical area. He reports to Rodney Chase, Deputy Group Chief Executive for BP Amoco.

Work returned recently to Houston from London, where he was a Group Vice President in BP Amoco's exploration and Production stream and a member of its Executive Committee.

Work earned a a B.A. in geology from Wesleyan University in 1968 and M.S. in geology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1970. He joined Amoco as a geologist in Denver in 1970 and has spent his career largely in exploration and production operations. He eventually worked his way up to Vice President of Amoco's Houston region and Vice President of Exploration for the Africa and Middle East region, becoming President of Amoco Egypt in 1990.

In February 1992, Work was named Group Vice President of worldwide exploration for Amoco's exploration and production sector. In this post, Work was responsible for the company's oil and gas exploration activities in some 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Before the merger between BP and Amoco, Work was Amoco Corporation's Senior Vice President of Shared Services and a member of the company's Strategic Planning Committee. He was responsible for those groups that provided support services to the corporation's worldwide business operations.

Work is a board member of the Institute of International Education and is actively involved in many professional organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Geological Institute, Wesleyan University, Stanford Earth Science Advisory Board, and the Energy and Geoscience Institute Advisory Board.

Emerging Technologies Dinner Meeting

"3D pre-stack depth migration for geologists"

Abstract:

Mr. Canales will present the basics of 3D pre-stack migration for geologists, including the differences between pre-stack depth, pre-stack time, and post-stack migration. When do you use 3D pre-stack migration? What are the pros and cons for different imaging situations? Come learn all about it at the Emerging Technology Dinner.

Biographical Sketch:

Luis Canales earned a B.S. in civil engineering from University of Mexico in 1970, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D from Stanford University in 1973 an 1975. He worked for Mobil and Digicon, returned to Stanford as a research associate in 1990, then joined CogniSeis in 1994. Currently he is the Vice-President of geophysical research and development at Western Geophysical. His research interests include oise attenuation, cross-well tomography, deconvolution, and migration of seismic data. Mr. Canales won the SEG Reginald Fessenden Award for the invention of Random noise attenuation in the F-X Domain. He is an Honorary member of the Houston Geophysical Society and a member of the Houston Geological Society.

North American Exploration Dinner Meeting

"Deepwater clastics of the Permian Basin: Outcrop analogs for the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea"

Abstract:

The Permian Basin of West Texas has been a testing ground for numerous geologic concepts about both the surface and the subsurface. Deepwater Permian clastics, which infill the Midland and Delaware basins, are significant reservoirs, estimated to contain more than 10 billion barrels of oil in place. Outcrops in the arid Guadalupe and Delaware mountains provide excellent exposures that can be compared to the subsurface. Geologists use these exposures as analogs for subsurface models in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea.

The Permian Brushy Canyon Formation, one of the clastic units, is superbly exposed over a fairway 25 miles long and 7 miles wide, with more than 1,000 feet of vertical exposure. The arid climate and the canyons that dissect the terrain provide a three-dimensional view of both the resistant and nonresistant strata, sand/silt ratios, and the depositional mechanisms that operated from the basin margin outward into the basin. Proximal deposits are highly channelized with a net/gross ratio of 25–30 percent; the distal net/gross ratio is nearer to 60–70 percent. Channel geometries and high-energy depositional mechanisms are visible 15–20 miles into the basin before planar bedforms become predominant. This photo essay illustrates these processes, from which it is possible to discuss their applications to other areas.

Biographical Sketch:

Brad Macurda is a geologist and seismic interpreter. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he was a professor at the University of Michigan (1963–1978) before joining the oil industry. He worked 3 years for Exxon Research and 18 years with The Energists. Brad has conducted many industry training seminars on the stratigraphic interpretation of seismic data and worked on interpretation projects in more than 40 countries. Recently, his projects have focused on deepwater exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, and South Atlantic. Brad is a firm believer in making reality checks by spending time on the outcrop.

Poster Sessions