<Center>World-Class Public Core, Cuttings, And Sample Facility<br>Right Here in Houston, Texas</center>

As geoscientists, we strive to understand Earth’s history using a multitude of data having ranges of resolution that vary by orders of magnitude. From continuous outcrops to individual cores and cuttings, rock material provides us with crucial information that can be utilized in many ways. The geologic samples of today will continue to provide crucial information to help answer tomorrow’s questions. For instance, enhancement of natural gas production from unconventional sources such as tight gas sandstones, coalbed methane, black shales, and deep-basin reservoirs will continue to benefit greatly from analysis and integration of cores taken in crucial areas. Geologic sequestration of CO2 is a new field of investigation that is making use of cores originally collected for completely different purposes.
With so much new technology available, many companies are taking fresh looks at old, perhaps underdeveloped fields. Holding the reservoir or seal in your hands may provide insight into a new and different stratigraphic interpretation of your reservoir or provide a better understanding of the complicated production history of a particular field. Whether used for mapping new infill locations or designing tertiary recovery projects, cores play an integral role in the construction of any 3-D model of the reservoir. Cores also allow for the accurate calibration of electric log response to the true rock properties of the reservoir or seal. In the field of environmental geology, cores have proved invaluable for properly characterizing and mapping aquifers and pollution plumes. In an industry that is becoming increasingly more dependent on seismic, one cannot forget that rock material provides the ground truth. Many crucial and high-dollar business decisions are based on seismic data alone, but integrating seismic attributes with the geologic information derived from the rocks can significantly reduce risk factors. The utilization of available rock material simply makes good business sense.
The University of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) has taken ownership of a world-class core and sample repository right here in Houston, Texas. Most of the cores, samples, and cuttings at the repository were acquired privately by industry and are now available to the public for the first time. The BEG Houston Research Center (HRC) was originally built and operated by Amoco, then subsequently acquired by BP, before being donated to the BEG in late 2002. The HRC provides space for viewing and describing core and cuttings as well as conference rooms for teaching or collaboration; these amenities come with the added convenience of having the rock materials stored onsite.
Integration of rock material into our projects is a true challenge, a challenge that is compounded by the fact that our industry faces some critical decisions regarding the „ preservation and proper curation of this invaluable material. With the ever-decreasing presence of research centers in industry, it is typically necessary to travel to a distant warehouse to find and describe cores and cuttings of interest, sometimes describing the material in a parking lot! The Houston facility’s well-lit core viewing room has ample layout space, complete with rolling tables and microscopes.
The complex also has additional office and laboratory space as well as two conference rooms equipped with modern projection systems. All interior space, including the core warehouse, is air-conditioned. The lighted, climate-controlled warehouse was designed for curation of geologic materials and has wide aisles that allow easy access for forklifts to move materials. Elevated loading docks, specialized storage for frozen core, and basic rock preparation equipment (including rock saws and equipment for making thin sections) make the HRC well-designed for storage, easy access of materials, and research.
The Houston Research Center strives to be the flagship public-sector core and sample repository in the United States. Just the physical facilities alone have been valued at $5.5 million. The facility includes more than 12 acres of land, 108,000 square feet of warehouse and office space, machinery, equipment, furnishings, and the BP donation also includes $1.5 million in cash, a significant start toward creating an endowment that will allow the Houston facility to operate well into the future. The HRC houses more than 277,000 boxes of core samples and 280,000 boxes of rock cuttings. This generous donation adds to the existing BEG core and cuttings collections housed in Austin and Midland. The Austin Core Research Center currently houses more than 390,000 boxes of core and 265,000 boxes of cuttings, and the Midland Core Research Center has more than 224,000 boxes of core and 275,000 boxes of cuttings. The BP donation brings the BEG holdings to a total of more than 1.7 million boxes of geologic material available for public use. The BEG is committed to increasing its collection of cores and other rock material; if you are aware of rock material that could be donated please call the Houston Research Center.
The creation of the HRC comes on the heels of a movement to improve the preservation of geoscience data by several Federal agencies and other organizations and individuals that recognize the value and importance of rock material. In fact, a recent National Research Council (NRC) report on the preservation of geoscience data makes a strong recommendation for quick action to prevent this critical material from being lost or destroyed (“Geoscience Data and Collections: National Resources in Peril” found at the website: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10348.html) and (see guest editorial by R. Sneider on page 11 ). The NRC study concludes that most of the state geological surveys have only limited space available for additional material and that many of the core and cuttings collections nationwide are at risk of disposal.
One mission of the BEG is to preserve invaluable geoscience data at risk of being „ destroyed or lost. The BEG is committed to the proper, permanent curation of geoscience material, as well as providing easy, convenient access to the data for industry, academia, and other researchers. In recognition of the BEG’s commitment to the preservation of geoscience data, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided the Houston Research Center with a generous grant to cover first-year operating expenses. As a follow-up to the NRC report, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently sponsored a workshop in which the academic research community addressed the issues of long-term storage and curation of valuable scientific research materials. NSF is currently considering a proposal for the Houston Research Center to house hard-rock cores and samples from NSF-funded research projects.
The BEG complex is located at 11611 West Little York Road on the west side of Houston, six miles north of I-10 and two miles south of U.S. Highway 290, and it is easily accessible from any of Houston’s major freeways. A list of available core and cuttings is posted on the BEG’s Website ( www.beg.utexas.edu ). There are modest fees for laying out cores and cuttings in the viewing room; however, the ultimate goal for the Houston facility HRC is to create an endowment that would allow the user fees to be discontinued, resulting in a true public core library. The facility is also available for core workshops, seminars, and classes, and is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Contact Beverly Blakeney DeJarnett ( bev.dejarnett@beg.utexas.edu or 713-896-6740) or Laura Zahm ( laura.zahm@beg.utexas.edu or 713-896-8560) for additional information or scheduling. Beverly and Laura specialize in sedimentology and stratigraphy and can assist visiting scientists with core