HOUSTON GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S

2000 - 2001 ANNUAL REPORT

Executive Board

President Craig Moore

President-elect Paul Hoffman

Vice-president Denise Stone

Treasurer Bill Osten

Treasurer-elect Craig Dingler

Secretary Greg Gregson (thru 2/14/01)

Editor Chuck Sharpe

Editor-elect Wendy Hale-Erlich

Director 2002 Tom McCarroll

Director 2002 Paul Babcock

Director 2001 David Fontaine

Director 2001 Sharie Sartain

Highlights of the Year

This year saw a renewed confidence in the petroleum industry as gas prices soared from $3.50 at the beginning of the year to a high of $10 before eventually retreating to $3.20 by fiscal year end. Oil prices during this time, traded within the mid-$20 to the low $30 range. As it has been in the past, HGS is directly affected by the optimism and bottom line of the various oil companies throughout the area. This year was no exception as reflected by the surge in personnel placement ads (162 in 99-00 vs. 345 in 00-01), the strong increase in profits from continuing education courses, the debut success of AIPEX and the slight increase in membership.

Several milestones were celebrated this past year. Steve Hill organized the recognition of the 100^th anniversary of Spindletop as 200 people filled four buses on a road trip to the original site. The 50^th meeting of the GCAGS was hosted by HGS under the leadership of Larry Bartell. Finally, after several years of defeat, the state legislature finally passed a Texas Geoscience Registration bill.

New business and activities started and/or accomplished include starting a Legal, Office and Personnel Policy ad hoc committee to put in place an office manual for HGS employees; forming an international continuing education subcommittee; using e-mail as a tool for mass mail outs; the Environmental Committee hosting a road rally in the Houston area; printing a special summer bulletin to advertise certain events (Technofest, AIPEX, etc.); planning for the 2002 AAPG annual convention to be held in Houston; and subsidizing the printing of an oil activity book to be handed out at Earth Science Week. Also, AAPG sponsored for the first time, a prospect expo (American International Prospect Expo) in the Houston area. Plans call for this to be an annual event here with HGS helping to promote the event in return for a portion of the profits.

Also of note was the resignation in February of Greg Gregson as HGS Secretary due to differences of opinion with the rest of the board regarding the nomination procedure. Duties of secretary were rotated monthly among the other board members.

This past year also saw the passing away of two long standing HGS volunteers, Evelyn Moody, who chaired the Library Committee for a number of years and Merrill Haas, a long-time contributor and member of the HGS Undergraduate Scholarship Foundation.

Committee Reports

Academic Liaison

Chair: Art Berman

This committee coordinates geological speakers and provides science fair judges for primary and secondary schools in the Houston area. No reply was received from this committee concerning a year-end report.

Advertising

Chair: Annette Mather

Bulletin income was slightly higher compared to last year. This year, Bulletin advertising brought in $117,799 compared to $112,546 the previous year. This increase in ad revenue reversed a three-year in a row decline trend. However this increase in ad revenue was not enough to offset the rising cost of producing the bulletin. The bulletin loss $25,620, compared to last year’s loss of $22,161.

Advisory Committee

Chair: Paul Britt

This committee is charged with the task of long-term planning by predicting trends and how they may affect the HGS. Specifically, their future outlook will include assessing technology’s impact on HGS. No reply was received from this committee concerning a year-end report.

Arrangements

Chair: Lee Boatner and Rene Mott

Because of increased costs, the venue for the luncheon meeting was changed from the Hyatt downtown to the Petroleum Club. Hyatt’s cost was to be $24.50 per person while the Petroleum Club was charging $22.50. This also brought about an increase in prices charged to attendees. Prices for the year were increased from $20 to $25 for members and from $25 to $30 for nonmembers and walk-ups. Lee coordinated the luncheons at the Hyatt downtown while Rene coordinated the evening meetings at the Westchase Hilton. Prices for the General Dinner Meetings remained at $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers and walk-ups. In order to clear up confusion between all the various prices with all the different meetings, it was approved by the executive board to establish a consistent price for all HGS meetings. Beginning in September 2001, all meetings will cost members $25 with nonmembers and walk-ups being charged $30.

Awards

Chair: Dean Grafton

Besides providing awards in the form of engraved paperweights to the various speakers other awards given this year included:

Best Paper Award – John Hastings, Mark Gregg & Charles Bukowski, Jr. of Edge

Petroleum on paper entitled “Developing an Exploration Tool in a

Mature Trend: a 3D AVO Case Study in South Texas.”

Outstanding Bulletin Article Award – None given

Outstanding Student Awards – Elisabeth Grove of Rice University

Dennis Ruez, Jr. of UT at Austin

Aaron Jones of Stephen F. Austin

Tina Gammill of Sam Houston State

Debleena Banerji of University of Houston

Nathan Whitman of Lamar

Danielle Bailey of Texas A&M

Earth Science Teacher Award - None given

Jerry Cooley Award – None given

Honorary Life – Warren Calvert

Distinguished Service Award – Sandi Barber

Steve Brachman

Charles Sternbach

President's Award – Lee Boatner

Steve Hill

Inda Immega

Rene Mott

Scott Thornton

Rising Star Award – Andrea Adams

Kelly Latter

Janet Combes

Alison Henning

Kevin McVey

HGS/HGA Distinguished Service Award – Linnie Edwards

Science Fair – The following winners were invited to Guest Night

Senior Division:

David McAllen (Pearland HS)

Josh Shamburger (The Academy of Science and Technology)

Ninth Grade Division:

Austin Battensperger (The Academy of Science and Technology)

Junior Division:

Mallory Ryan (Branch Crossing Junior High)

Corporate Star Award – Phillips Petroleum

Kerr McGee

25 Year Members: Bruce Archinal, Paul Babcock, Randall Barta, Robert Burgess, James Burkholder, Royce Carr, John Currier, Evelyn Etter, Wilbert Gaston, Dean Gilbert, Glenn Hatcher, Steve Hill, Carroll Hird, Robert Johnson, Richard Kehlenbach, Jr., John King J.N. Kirk, Garry Kramchak, Gene Litke, Larry Lukavsky, Fred Lundstrom, William Meaney, Quentin Moore, Ronald Pressler, James Richter, Joseph Rogers, Victor Schmidt, Robert Smith, L.J. Snyder, David Sturm, Frank Theall, C.N. Tinker, Timothy Trautman, Johnnie Wanger and John White.

50 Year Members: Richard Banister, Weman Crawford, Gordon Hinz, Kenneth Johnson, W.C. Miley, Robert Owens, George Taylor, and August Walla.

This past year, the board wanted Dean to look into revising the judging sheet for best

paper award. The present sheet is a duplicate of AAPG’s judging sheet and is designed

for scientific papers and not general interest talks of which HGS has several a year.

Ballot

Chair: Don Scherer

This committee is responsible for mailing out and counting ballots for HGS board member candidates. This year 832 ballots were returned and counted which is close to the same response as the previous year (846). This committee would like to increase voter awareness among the members and try to generate better numbers than an 18% return.

Bulletin

Editor: Chuck Sharpe

Editor-elect: Wendy Hale-Erlich

Staff Members: Annette Mather, Elsa Kapitan-White, Charles Revilla, Linda Sternbach, Michael Dumont, Sneha Chanchani and Pam Morelos.

Because of increased production costs and not being able to offset this with increased ad revenues, the bulletin showed a loss of 25, 620 this past year. This compares to a loss of $22,161 for the ’99-00 year. Losses over the last few years have steadily increased from year to year. The number of featured technical articles printed in the bulletin were much more plentiful than the last several years. Featured articles presented this year included:

Oct. thru Jan. – “Spindletop” by Michel Halbouty.

Oct. – “The ‘Prospector Myth’ vs. Systematic Management of Exploration

Portfolios: Dealing with the Dilemma” By Peter Rose & Gary Citron.

Jan. – “Geological Sequestration of Greenhouse Gases: Opportunities for Industry

Academe Research Partnerships” By Paul Knox & Susan Hovorka

Feb. – “Deep, Geopressured Gas Accumulations and Fluid Inclusion Stratigraphy

(FIS) Signatures: Exploration Implications from the Lower Miocene

Trend, Gulf of Mexico” by Charles Brewster & Don Hall

March – “Frequency Attenuation: A Fracture Indicator” by Ilyas Najmuddin

June – “Opportunity in a World-class Hydrocarbon Basin: Trinidad and Tobago’s

Eastern Offshore Marine Province” by Lesli Wood & Carolyn Roberts

Computer Application

Chair: Beverly Scippa

Webmaster: Bill Osten

This committee is responsible for keeping the membership abreast of computer technology, applying technology in ways which maybe beneficial to HGS and maintaining the HGS website. Also, this was the first year that this committee turned over the responsibility of the membership database and the office computer support to the Office Committee. Computer Apps started out the year working on estimates to scan past bulletins. However, this committee, which in the past had been a highly active one, was near non-existent this past year. Exception being the website which generated over 82,000 hits in two years and brought in over $3400 in advertisement this year. The board is in the process of finding a new chair for this committee as well as a new webmaster since Bill Osten would like to step down.

Continuing Education

Chair: Robert Pledger

Courses offered this year included:

10/12 – Geopressure Workshop ($2063 profit)

11/8 – Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Dry Hole Seminar (180 in attendance; $14,098

profit)

4/30 – Sizing Up International Petroleum Opportunities ($2846 in profit)

5/15 – Overview of Exploration Risk Analysis for Managers ($4032 in profit)

6/19 – Applied Biostratigraphy for Geologists, Geophysicists & Engineers (final

numbers not known)

Although the number of courses offered this year was five less than the previous, net income from this committee was up substantially, $26,403 vs. $13,780.

Earth Science Week

Chair: Inda Immega, Janet Combes, and Alison Henning

Members: Jennifer Pasche and Andrea Adams

In its second year of existence, this committee planned and promoted activities to coincide with earth science week (Oct. 8-14). Its goal is to generate interest and increased awareness of the geological sciences and its impacts on our daily lives. Earth Science Week was formally joined this year by the Houston Museum of Natural Science, AAPG House of Delegates, Association for Women Geoscientists, GSH, Houston Gem and Mineral Soc., Gulf Coast Section of SEPM, SIPES (Houston Chapter); SPE (Gulf Coast Sec.) and Texas Earth Science Teachers Association. With a year under its belt, this committee increased the number and quality of activities it presented. Events included 1)Energy Passport – an educational game at the museum with prizes for children; 2)Energy Theater – a premier play by Dr. Sidney Berger of University of Houston entitled “The Adventures of Gus Gasoline and June”; 3)a field trip to the Stone City Bluff outcrop along the Brazos River; and 4)encouraging members to adopt a school. Dr. Pamela Berger, director of Environmental Policy for the City of Houston, proclaimed Earth Science Week in Houston on behalf of Mayor Lee Brown. For this upcoming year, the HGS board approved sponsoring an Oil Activity Book by Michele Dykstra. Upon the printing of this primer, HGS will pay Michele $1000. In return, HGS will receive a ¼ back cover ad. HGS will also purchase 400 copies for $1000 ($2.50 per copy). The plans call for 100-150 copies to be given away during Earth Science Week with the remainder to be sold for $5.00 in order to reimburse costs.

Emerging Technology

Chair: Frank Rabbio

Members: Rosemary Mullin, Shawn Porsche, Jim Doyle, Jim Brenneke

Technofest V was held on July 26, 2001 at the Westchase Hilton, with 464 people in attendance and generating a profit of $4,113. In addition 29 new HGS members were signed as a result of this event.

Five emerging technology talks were presented this year and included:

9/21 - “Sequence Stratigraphy and 3D Modeling of a Pennsylvanian Distally

Steepened Ramp Reservoir: Canyon and Cisco Formations, South

Dagger Draw Field, New Mexico, USA” by Scott Tinker, et al.

11/16 - “Real-time Geopressures While Drilling – Considerations and Case

Histories” by James Bridges

1/18 - “Geomorphologic, Stratigraphic, and Seismic Visualization Analysis

of Deepwater Deposits” by Henry Posamentier

3/22 - “Knowledge Management and New IT Architecture Will Maximize

Upstream Value-Creation” by John Gibson

5/17 - “The Benefits of Integrating Seismic and Petrophysical Data” by David

Davies and Roger Young

A total of 275 people attended the above talks, a decrease of 13 over the previous year. Net revenue here was $2522.

Engineering Council of Houston

Special Representatives: Claudia Ludwig and Richard Howe

The ECH is a council representing eight area engineering and science societies of which one is HGS. Its purpose is to encourage technical education, develop cooperative technical projects and promote welfare through technical and scientific innovations. Summer internships at the museum and the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston at the Astroarena are some of the more prominent projects they sponsor. Each year ECH solicits contributions to help offset the cost of putting on the science fair. After prompting from the council in 1998, HGS donations to this cause were raised to $1000. Claudia served as President of this group this past year.

Entertainment

Golf

Chair: Fred Jensen

Held 9/25 at Kingwood and Deerwood Country Clubs with a sold out field of some 500 golfers. The tournament had a net profit of $3389, compared with a loss of $2000 the previous year. Fred resigned as chair and was replaced in June by Keith Blair.

Shrimp Peel

Chair: Lee Shelton

Held 11/3 at the Sam Houston Race Park for the second time. 675 tickets were sold with 620 people actually attending. Plans called for holding this event on the inside part of the track, however rain forced the event indoors. Because of $13,000 in sponsorship money, this event netted $3837, $5644 less than the previous year.

Fishing Tournament

Chair: Robert Perez

This committee was without a chair for most of the year. Instead of the usual bass tournament held in April, this committee put on a joint HGS/GSH saltwater tournament. Event was held on June 22, 2001 at the Teakwood Marina in Galveston where 60 people participated. First place winners were Steve Gillie (speckled trout), Billy Enyart (redfish), Charles Curtin (flounder) and Steve Gillie (heaviest stringer). Final figures were not compiled as of this writing.

Tennis Tournament

Chair: Ross Davis

This event, which was held 6/1 at Houston Racquet Club, netted $745.

Skeet Shoot

Chair: Ken Mohn

After a year hiatus, this event was finally held on 10/6/00 with some 121 shooters present. Winners were Barry Boyce and John Walker.

Environmental

Chair: Glenn Lowenstein

This committee held nine meetings this past year, one more than last year. The talks presented included:

Sept. 14 – “Subsidence” by Tom Michel (24 in attendance)

Oct. 12– “Case History of the Use of Cross-Hole Tomography in the Delineation

of a Subsurface Hydrocarbon Release” by Arlin Howles (13 in

attendance)

Dec. 14 – “Rapid Remediation by Thermal Technologies” by Myron Kuhlman

(14 in attendance)

Jan. 19 – “Light Rail in Houston – Environmental Impact Considerations in

Transportation Construction Projects” by David Marsh and Lynda

Mifsud (20 in attendance)

Feb. 8 – “Of Slime and Punishment – Environmental Litigation in a New Age”

by Henry Smahlik (9 in attendance)

March 15 – “Safety, Health and Environmental Issues Facing Offshore Oil

Operations” by Richard Keeland (17 in attendance)

April 12 – “Expert Witness Testimony and Trial Exhibits” by V. Stephen Reed &

Anchor Holm (13 in attendance)

May 10 – “TRRP – The First Year” by Paul Lewis (18 in attendance)

Total attendance for the above meetings was 128, a decrease of 146 over last year. All events were held at the HESS building. For the first time in 12 years, this committee sponsored an HGS road rally. The event was held on Feb. 24 with a total of 25 participants representing ten teams. Winning team was Joe Wyszynski and Billie Long. Technical meetings netted $305 to the society with the road rally netting $125.

Exhibits

Chair: Jim Becnel

This committee is responsible for promoting the HGS at the AAPG and GCAGS conventions by leasing a booth and exhibiting displays.

Field Trips

Chair: Howard White

This committee began the year looking for a new chairman to replace Harry Mueller who resigned in August. Only one field trip, the Grand Canyon was planned for the year. This trip occurred 6/6 – 6/14/00 and had 30 participants, a sell out.

Finance

Chair: Steve Brachman

This committee is responsible for compiling the budget each year. At the beginning of the year, total income was budgeted at $643,600 while total budgeted expenses were $641,282, an increased difference of $64,364 and $62,049, respectively from the actual budget of the previous year. Year-end financial statements are attached at the end of this report. Of note is the hosting of the GCAGS convention bringing an additional $4810 of income to the society.

Fund Development

Chair: Lee Backsen

This committee was busy this year raising corporate money to support the GCAGS and upcoming AAPG conventions.

Global Climate Change (Ad Hoc)

Chair: Jefffrey Lund

This committee had planned on presenting a global warming symposium sometime during the fall of 2000, but was postponed. Jeff took over the role of General Chairman for the upcoming 2002 AAPG convention to be held in Houston and devoted much of his time to that endeavor and not so much with this committee. As a result, the global climate change committee lacked any focus. Lee Gerhart, who recently wrote the book “Geologic Perspectives on Global Climate Change”, was asked to spearhead the originally planned symposium. However, as of this writing, his response is uncertain.

Government Affairs

Chair: Randy Miller

This committee is responsible for monitoring all activities at every level of government that may effect the profession of geology, and to promptly inform the membership through articles and other communications. In the past, this committee would publish several updates throughout the year. Only one such article was published in the February Bulletin. Of course being an election year, federal legislation was minimal and state registration of geologist was treated separately under a different committee (State Registration).

Guest Night

Chair: Clint Moore

This year’s event, featuring the IMAX file “Galapagos”, was held on June 16 at the Museum of Natural Science. Because of the havoc brought about by Tropical Storm Allison hitting the Houston area during early June, tickets sales were slow. Only a little over 200 tickets were sold, roughly 250 short needed for a sell out. Thanks in part to BHP and TGS, who each donated $3500; Guest Night is expected to show around a $6500 loss. Exact numbers have not been finalized at time of this report. Since holding this event on and off for the last ten years, only one other time has this not been a sellout.

Historical

Chair: Dan Bonnet

This committee compiles an annual year-end report of HGS activities, policies and historical trends.

Houston Energy Council

Chair: Sandi Barber

This newly formed committee whose purpose is to promote technical and social cooperation with other local societies, sponsored several functions this year. A joint HEC/HAPL luncheon featuring Ralph Eads, executive V.P. for El Paso, was held on February 8 at the Hyatt; a Petroleum Leadership and Outlook Conference was held on April 21 at the Adam’s Mark; and a training seminar for earth science teachers was held at University of Houston the week of 6/11/01. In addition, to help defray costs, HEC provided a $50 stipend to teachers finishing the seminar. Other members of this council include GSH, HAPL, SIPES (Houston Chapter), SPE (Gulf Coast), the Houston Chapter of SPEE, SPWLA (Gulf Coast), and API – Houston.

Houston Geological Auxiliary

President: Lois Matuszak

Pres.-elect: Millie Tonn

Not only does HGA hold social events for its members, but also volunteers from that organization help key in membership dues at the HGS office and set up table arrangements at key functions such as Shrimp Peel and Guest Night. Other board members include:

1^st V.P.: Jackie Smith

2^nd V.P.: Karen Allen

3^rd V.P.: Linnie Edwards

Sec.: Jean Allred

Treas: Margaret Jones

Historian: Betty Frost

Parliamentarian: Edie Frick

International Explorationists

Chair: Scott Thornton

This last year, this committee had 10 dinner meetings. Talks presented last year included:

9/18 - “Petroleum Geology of the Western Ust-Yurt Basin, Republic of

Kazakhstan” by Kurt Reisser (91 in attendance)

10/18 - "Deepwater Nigeria OPL-213: An Exploration Risk Reduction Approach

Using Integrated Geoscience Technologies” by R.K. Sawyer, et al. (161

in attendance)

11/20 - "Africa’s Vast Petroleum Reserves” by Kevin Burke (167 in attendance)

12/18 - “Future Hydrocarbon Potential of Iran” by Weldon Beauchamp (167 in

attendance)

1/15 - "New Trends of Petroleum Exploration in Central and Eastern Europe” by

Frank Horvath, et al. (78 in attendance)

2/19 - "Hydrocarbon Potential of the Brazilian Atlantic Margin” by Ian Davison

(193 in attendance)

3/19 - "Petroleum Geology of the Peng Lai 19-3 Oil Complex, Bohai Bay,

People’s Republic of China” by Michael Kuykendall (70 in attendance)

4/16 - "Thermal Modeling – Oil or Gas? Examples from the Faroes-Shetland

(NW Europe) and Casamance (NW Africa) Basins” by A.D. Carr (51 in

attendance)

5/21 - “Cuba: an Overview of Its Geology, Hydrocarbon Systems and Petroleum

Industry” by Jon Frederic Blickwede (99 in attendance)

6/18 – “New Exploration Plays: A Modification of a Traditional Exploration

Approach in Columbia” by Tomas Villamil (? attendance)

The technical meetings of this committee brought in a profit to HGS of $4613. The International Committee also joint sponsored the 2^nd annual, Robert Sheriff Lecture Series with the University of Houston Alumni Association. This event was held on November 20^th at the Westchase Hilton. Besides a lecture on the petroleum reserves of Africa, 32 posters by faculty and staff were also displayed.

Library

Chair: Bill Champion

This committee is responsible for cataloging the some 17,000 logs stored at the downtown Houston public library. This year, the Houston Public library began the process of reorganizing its geological collection. The library wanted HGS to contribute $11,300 toward this effort or else risk loosing its identity with the collection. The board declined offering this endowment to the library. This committee is looking into contacting commercial log companies about transferring the logs to them. Sadly, Eveyln Moody, who chaired this committee for numerous years, passed away on 9/17/00.

Membership

Chair: Matt Bognar

HGS membership at the end of the fiscal year was 4602, an increase of around 100 from the previous year.

Mentor Program

Chair: John Adamick

This program is an AAPG sponsored program with John Adamick being its Houston contact. Its goal is to match students and/or newly independent geologists with a mentor. There are roughly 20 HGS members who volunteer their services as mentors.

Museum of Natural Science Liaison

Chair: Clint Moore

This committee now has over 125 volunteers to provide assistance to the public on the geology displays in the museum. This is over double amount of volunteers at the end of the last fiscal year. All volunteers receive a golf shirt with the HGS logo printed on them. Although the trained volunteers of this committee are active throughout the year, they are especially so during earth science week. This committee coordinates with the Earth Science Week committee to provide numerous volunteers for the observed event (Oct 8 –14). Also, HGS sponsors an intern summer program at the museum through this committee and the Energy Council of Houston. This year’s intern was David McAllen.

Neogeos

Chair: Kelly Latter and Andrea Adams

Treasurers: Peter Evans & Kelly Latter

Speakers Coordinators: Ted Stieglitz & Andrea Adams

Logistics Coordinator: Dan Rozman & Kelly Latter

Field Trip Coordinator: Greg Aller

Social Coordinator: Matt Boyd

Webmaster & Site Coordinator: Mike Unger

This committee was formed a year and a half ago by the board with the purpose of addressing the professional, geological and social needs of younger HGS members, new to the work force. Denise Stone acted as advisor and lead support in getting this program underway. Membership has grown tremendously in this program over the pass year, as some 215 young professionals are now members. This compares to about 60 at the end of the previous year. This committee holds numerous professional and social meetings throughout the year. Numerous volunteers from Neogeo members also help out with other HGS functions, such as Earth Science Week.

New Publications

Chair: Tom Fiorito & Bill Rizer

Tom and Bill took over as co-chairs in October. A proposal from this committee was to provide a digital (CD) document data base of key manuscripts and other publications on the petroleum geology of the continental shelf. They are currently looking into the costs and logistics of providing this new publication. For various reasons, the ideas of publishing a deepwater volume, revisiting old fields or building stones of Houston have basically been abandoned.

Nominations

Chair: Charles Sternbach

Committee Members: Jeff Lund and Sandi Barber

Nominated officers for the ’01-‘02 HGS board were President-elect, Denise Stone and Larry Bartell; Vice-president, Kara Bennett and Paul Britt; Treasurer-elect,Rick Nagy; Secretary, Sharie Sartain and Gabor Tari; Editor-elect, Steve Levine; and Directors, Sarah Stanley, Carol Steffensen, Scott Sechrist and Susan Cunningham.

North American Explorationists

Chair: Stephanie Matthews

This committee sponsored a total of 5 technical meetings, one more than last year.

The venue for meetings changed this year to the HESS building. Geoquest donated a LightPro 760 Powerpoint Projector for this committee to use in its paper presentations.

10/30 - “Discovery of Ring Faults Associated with Salt Withdrawal Basins of

Early Cretaceous Age in the East Texas Basin” by Steven Maione (36 in attendance)

12/11 - “Multidisciplinary Analysis of Tight Gas Sandstone Reservoirs, Almond

Formation, Siberia Ridge Field, Wyoming” by Stephen Sturm, et al. (?

attendance)

1/29 - “Exploration Concepts for Lower Cretaceous Shelf Margin Carbonates of

Texas” by Paul Harris (86 in attendance)

2/26 – “Depositional Response to Dynamic Slope Topography, Eastern Gulf of

Mexico, USA” by Ciaran J. O’Byrne (67 in attendance)

4/30 - “The Development of Large Structures in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico”

by Steve Hall (116 in attendance)

The above meetings showed a loss of $480 for the year.

Office Management

Chair: Jim Ragsdale

Legal, Office Policy & Personnel Subcommittee: Craig Moore, Paul Hoffman, Synthia

Smith, Sandi Barber and Debra Sacrey

This committee, which oversees the day-to-day operations of the HGS office, added an ad hoc subcommittee to its ranks. The Legal, Office Policy & Personnel Subcommittee was formed to come up with an office policy manual for its employees. Most of its time commitment was in finding a lawyer to oversee the task. The employees of HGS (Joan Henshaw and Annette Mather) were given an 8% pay raise, effective 11/1/00 and each was given a $1000 and $300 Christmas bonus, respectively. The Office Management Committee is now in the process of finding a more suitable office space for HGS since the current lease on Harwin has expired. Besides office space, this committee was also in search of a computer programming consultant when Cheryl Laster, the previous one, moved to Dallas.

Personnel Placement

Chair: Mike Cline

Mike Cline took over the role of chair from Art Liebold in February 2001. Because of strong energy prices, job postings on the HGS placement web page saw quite a jump over the previous year (345 vs. 162). This job posting webpage has had over 30,000 hits this last year.

Poster Sessions

Chair: Gabor Tari

No report from this committee. It should be noted however that during the November dinner meeting some 10-15 students presented posters with meals provided to them by Phillips Petroleum.

Publication Sales

Chair: Tom Mather

Tom attended many luncheons and dinners this past year to promote publication sales, including The Color of Oil book. Earth Enterprise, which stored and distributed HGS publications in the past, dropped HGS and several other societies as clients, effective 1/1/01. In its place, the Bureau of Economic Geology agreed to take over these services. They not only will they provide storage and distribution but also promote HGS publications in its catalogs and provide semi-annual reports of sales and inventory. In return, the Bureau will receive a 25% sales commission.

Public Relations

Chair: Mark Cocker

This committee’s duties are to promote HGS activities and news to the appropriate media. In addition to normal tasks, Mark requested and received a mayoral proclamation for Earth Science Week.

Remembrances

Chair: Bill Robbins

20 known members of HGS, passed away this year. Condolences and $25 donations were sent in remembrances of the following HGS members:

Edward McFarlan (79) d.7/17/00

Philip McKinney (82) d. 4/21/00

James Rolf, Jr. (48) d. 5/28/00

Robert Watkins (51) d. 7/10/00

Robet Warth (74) d. 7/15/00

Evelyn Moody d.9/17/00

James Nagle d.9/26/00

Robert Thornton (66) d.9/2/00

John Montgomery, Jr. (73) d.10/14/00

Reginald Neale (66) d.11/5/00

Ronald Menzel (65) d.11/8/00

Don Boyd (66) d.12/20/00

Nelson Steenland (80) d.12/3/00

Harold Voight d.12/20/00

James Critz (82) d.1/22/01

Almer “Chili” Childers (91) d.4/11/01

William Penttila d.2/3/01

F. Kenneth Aitken (58) d.4/9/01

Merrill Haas (90) d.4/21/01

Richard Scattolini (54) d.4/27/01

Scouting Committee

Chair: Gretchen Hopper

In order to reflect the inclusion of Girl Scouts this year, this committee underwent a name change from Explorer Scouts to Scouting Committee. Some 40 students between the ages of 15 and 18 participate in this program, whose intent is to spark interest in the geological sciences between the Boy and Girl Scouts. This is achieved through lectures, activities and field trips. Because of a $2000 donation from HGS in the ’99-’00 fiscal year, a letter of appreciation was sent from Troop 222 of the Boys Scouts of America. George Krapfel replaced Gretchen Hopper as chair in June of 2001.

Spindletop 2000

Chair: Steve Hill

January 10, 2001 marked the 100^th anniversary of the Spindletop discovery. To celebrate this event, HGS filled four buses with over 200 people and drove to Beaumont. Here they toured the museum, visited the original well location and listened to a historical address by Michel Halbouty during the event luncheon. In addition, Michel Halbouty wrote a four-part article on the Spindletop discovery in the HGS bulletin. Thanks in part to Schlumberger, this event made a profit of $2,700.

State Registration

Chair: Dave Rensink

After many unsuccessful years, the 77^th legislature finally passed a geology licensing law in Texas. The particulars on licensing and how it affects geologists can be found in the Sept. 2001 bulletin.

Technical Program

Chair: Denise Stone

The following were the technical talks presented at the dinner meetings:

9/11 - “Global Energy Trends” by Richard Berard, Jr. (71 in attendance)

10/19 - “The Color of Oil: The History, the Money and the Politics of the World’s

Biggest Business” by Michael Economides (53 in attendance)

11/6 - “The Virtual Oil Company: Capstone of Integration” by Robert Peebler (50

in attendance)

1/8 – “Tectonic Control on the Creation of Supergiant Fields in the Central South

Caspian Area” by Steve Hall & Vanessa Sturrock (92 in attendance)

2/5 – “OCS Sale 181, 10 Months and Counting, Eastern Gulf of Mexico Sale 181

Area – Play Concepts and Trap Types” by Robert Kukowski (74 in

attendance)

3/5 – “Interpretation and Modeling of Time-Lapse Seismic Data: Lena Field, Gulf

of Mexico” by D.H. Johnston, et al. (84 in attendance)

4/9 - “Case History: Amberjack A16ST (T) Well Pore Pressures” by Vanessa

Sturrock (62 in attendance)

5/7 - “Key Patterns of Corporate Organization and Culture Influencing

Exploration Performance” by Peter Rose & Gary Citron (70 in attendance)

The following were the technical talks presented at the luncheon meetings:

9/27 – “An Integrated Study of the Liuhua 11-1 Field Using an Ultra-High

Resolution 3D Seismic Dataset: South China Sea” by Chip Story, et al. (49

in attendance)

11/15 - “Case History and Integrated Study of West Cameron 76 Field, Gulf of

Mexico Shelf - Big Reserves in the Expanded Marg A” by Kevin

Guilbeau, et al. (90 in attendance)

1/24 - “Developing an Exploration Tool in a Mature Trend: a 3D AVO Case

Study in South Texas” by Mark Gregg, et al. (114 in attendance). HGS

Best Paper Award

2/28 - “Distinguishing Water Saturation Changes from Porosity or Clay Content

Changes Using Multicomponent Seismic Data” by Fuping Zhu, et al. (51

in attendance)

3/28 – Garden Banks 625 – A Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Post-Drill Review” by

Mark Sunwall & Robert Alexander (63 in attendance)

4/25 - “’From the Depths’ – Texaco’s Petronius Project” by James Gagliardi (67

in attendance)

5/30 - “Waling Through Fractured Reservoirs and Failed Seals” by Alfred

Lacazette (40 in attendance)

The above dinner and luncheons, combined for the year, had a total attendance of 1030, a drop of 1464 front the previous year. Luncheons showed a profit of $889 while the dinner meetings carried a loss of $2825. Some of this loss can be attributable to free lunches given to student award and scholarship winners along with their faculty representatives.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer: Bill Osteen

Treasurer-elect: Craig Dingler

The final gross income, including trailing items, for last year was $578,895 while total expenses was $593,489. These figures are comparable to ’99-’00 numbers except this year the society loss $14, 594 while net income the previous year was a positive $40,161. Major differences are increased bulletin and trailing expenses. Final year-end figures year are included at the end of this report.

Vendor's Corner

Chair: Shawn Porche

This committee in its fourth year of existence arranges exhibitors to display their products at technical meetings. From the $250 raised from each vendor, $100 goes toward the HGS budget and $150 is donated to the North Harris Community College's computer lab. Vendor’s corner raised $2500 this year.

Volunteer Coordinator

Coordinator: Sharie Sartain

This position was created two years ago in order to match committee needs with volunteer candidates. Periodic ads for volunteers were placed in the Bulletin.

Calvert Memorial Scholarship Board (Graduate)

Chair: Dan Smith

Three new $2800 scholarships were awarded this past year. The recipients were Brian Locke of Rice, Vernon Moore of Texas A&M and Kristi Rasmussen of Boston College. In addition, this board approved continued scholarships of $1400 each for Michelle Shearer of Rice and Eric Zimmerman of LSU.

HGS Undergraduate Scholarship Foundation

Chair: Hugh Hardy

This foundation has been providing scholarships to deserving students since 1984. To date, over $80,000 in scholarships has been awarded. At the January 8 dinner meeting, the committee presented $1,000 scholarships to Megan Anderson (Texas A&M), Elisabeth Grove (Rice), Tina Gammill (Sam Houston State), Aaron Jones (Stephen F. Austin), Doug Hinkle (University of Houston), Lori Farmer (Larmar) and Austin Baldwin (University of Texas). Since money is provided by the interest generated from its asset base, this committee is always in need of further outside donations. HGS provides some funding and encouragement of support from its members. One of this foundation’s long-standing member and patron, Merrill Haas, passed away on 4/21/01.

Ongoing Business

The following are trailing items from last year and previous years, which need further consideration.

1. Locating new office space.

2. Create an office policy manual.

3. Archive and have access to bulletins, digitally.

4. Find a computer application chair.

5. Find a new home for the electric logs stored at the Houston public library.

6. Hold a global warming symposium and printing a respective publication

7. Look into the proposal of publishing an offshore continental shelf cd-rom archive file.

8. Research the ramifications and liabilities of publishing a prospect website for the

membership.

9. Find a replacement that will oversee the printing of the directory of

oil company name changes.

10. Define a policy on how to financially treat new members who apply and pay dues

toward the end of a fiscal year, i.e. having to immediately turn around and pay dues

again.

11. Look into expanding technofest.

12. Look into benefits of joining HESS.