AAPG 2010 New Orleans

IHS Petra in steam assisted gravity drainage project (SAGD)1.

At the 2010 edition of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Annual Conference and Exhibition (AAPG ACE) there was strong interest in shale gas and other non conventionals (including shale oil as shown in the illustration above.) Aubrey McClendon (Chesapeake CEO) gave an enthusiastic keynote describing very substantial natural gas reserves in the US and arguing for better lobbying on behalf of the industry in the face of entrenched pro-coal advocacy. Stephen Sewalk suggested that the current Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be sold-off and replaced with a new non conventional SPR. Richard Nehring’s talk was more nuanced – noting previous false dawns from touted new gas sources. Nehring also noted uncertainty in reserves numbers, in likely high future cost of downspacing wells and price sensitivity – above sustained $6/bcf gas, ‘we are in a zone of ignorance.’ Carbon sequestration is another strong theme, with a number of pilots and other studies starting in Europe and North America. Edward Rubin provided some estimates of the incremental cost of sequestering carbon from electricity power plants.Midland Valley was showing a field ‘tablet’ for geological mapping with a version of its Move application adapted for field use. BP gave a strong endorsement to EarthVision’s CoViz, used to synchronize 3D well models from field to office. Maersk Oil cited Eliis’ PaleoScan as key in ‘fast-tracking’ development of an Angolan discovery. Geostatistics plays an increasingly key role in modeling and uncertainty analysis – with both Paradigm and JOA/JewelSuite integrating Ephesia’s Impala multi-point statistics in their modeling packages. Elsewhere process-based modeling is emerging from R&D consortia backed by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and many universities. Process-based modeling involves the numerical computation of sedimentary processes – generating passive margins, carbonate ramps and other sedimentary forms on the computer. This can be extended to full basin modeling of both sediment, diagenisis and maturation – but the compute resources and run times involved are enormous. Early results from such forward modeling of the whole geological process have led Colin North to question one of the tenets of geology. North sees the sedimentary record as a ‘disorganized mosaic, built from partially eroded remnants of the genetic elements of active rivers,’ and wonders if ‘it might be necessary to ‘abandon object modeling completely.’ Finally, though the AAPPG was held a few days before the Deepwater Horizon incident, the news for the Mississippi delta area was not good. Sedimentological studies of the area have found that a combination of low sediment supply and rising sea level mean that the only long term solution is ‘managed retreat.’

HighlightsNonconventionals (Chesapeake)

Nonconventionals (Nehring)CoViz use in BP Algeria

PaleoScan for ‘fast track’ interpretationPOROUS M3 – a new CCS code

Process-based modeling

1 Image courtesy IHS – energy.ihs.com.

1 © 2010 The Data Room

AAPG 2010 New Orleans

Table of Contents1006_1 Shale gas and America’s energy future. Chesapeake. Aubrey McClendon ........................................................ 3 1006_2 Shale oil, the new strategic petroleum reserve – Stephen Sewalk, University of Colorado ............................... 4 1006_3 How big is the shale gas resource? – Richard Nehring, Nehring Associates (736816) ...................................... 4 1006_4 Geoscience based management of Mississippi Delta – Mark Kulp, University of New Orleans ...................... 5 1006_5 In Salah Gas – Mark Taylor, BP Algeria ............................................................................................................ 5 1006_6 Upscaling Sedimentary Processes: From Bed to Basin Matthew Wolinsky, Shell (734109) ............................. 5 1006_7 Forward modeling of carbonate ramp reservoirs – Mitch Harris, Chevron (727877) ........................................ 6 1006_1 The cost of CO2 capture and storage – Edward Rubin, Carnegie Mellon University (728695) ....................... 6 1006_8 CCS Data Management – Jess Kozman, CL Tech Consulting (736735) .......................................................... 6 1006_9 AAPG Department of Professional Affairs (DPA) ............................................................................................ 7 1006_2 From the Conference CD-ROM ........................................................................................................................ 7

1006_9.1 Visualization of digital logs in 3D virtual reality – Gary Kinsland, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (734556) .......................................................................................................................................................... 7

1006_9.2 21st Century microfossil taxonomy – Richard Denne, Marathon Oil (728480) .................................... 7 1006_9.3 Future earth science semantic technologies – Tony Gary, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (736527)

........................................................................................................................................................................................ 8 1006_9.4 3D fossil analysis with multi-stripe laser triangulation – Stephen Hasiotis, University of Kansas

(735576) ........................................................................................................................................................................ 8 1006_9.5 3-D seismic interpretation and modeling with PaleoScan – Ingelise Schmidt, Maersk Oil (733428) . . 8 1006_9.6 A streamline approach to uncertainty assessment – Michael Hogg, Chevron Energy Technology

Company (729043) ......................................................................................................................................................... 8 1006_9.7 Resource potential from ‘reservoir technical limits’ – Craig Smalley, BP (688323) ............................. 8 1006_9.8 ‘Petroleomics’ and the the petroleum ‘genome’ – Stephen Larter, University of Calgary (727117) ...... 8 1006_9.9 Hierarchical reservoir modeling with process-based digital analogs – Hongmei Li, ExxonMobil

(728840) ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8 1006_9.10 Fluvial reservoir modeling – Colin North, University of Aberdeen (729032) .................................... 9 1006_9.11 SAGD water re-injection modeling with Petrel and Modflow – Sarah Alloisio, Schlumberger

WaterServices (736888) .................................................................................................................................................. 9 1006_9.12 PorousM3, finite element code for carbon sequestration modeling – Gregory Kirkpatrick, Cornell

University (736481) ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 1006_9.13 Industry response to storms and sea level change – Charlie Williams, Shell (814204) ....................... 9

1006_10 Exhibitors .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 1006_10.1 IHS – Petra well planning module ....................................................................................................... 9 1006_10.2 Midland Valley Exploration – Field mapping system ......................................................................... 10 1006_10.3 Paradigm – collaboration with Ephesia Consult .............................................................................. 11 1006_10.4 Statoil – Integrated Virtual Reality (SHIVR) ..................................................................................... 11 1006_10.5 Statoil – CO2 Storage Mapping Program .......................................................................................... 11 1006_10.6 SMT – Kingdom EarthPAK ................................................................................................................. 11 1006_10.7 JOA – JewelSuite CarboMagic and Ephesia’s Impala ....................................................................... 11 1006_10.8 Wacom – DTU-2231 high resolution pen display for seismic interpretation .................................... 12 1006_10.9 IFP/Beicip Inc. – TemisFlow 10.1, ArcTemis ..................................................................................... 12 1006_10.10 Gatan – Ilion+ SEM preparation tool ............................................................................................. 13 1006_10.11 GeoComputing Group – operating system and application provosioning ....................................... 13 1006_10.12 Ikon Science - WellTie ....................................................................................................................... 13 1006_10.13 Weatherford – ‘Compact’ cross-dipole sonic tool ............................................................................ 14 1006_10.14 Ingrain - CoreHD ............................................................................................................................. 14

1006_11 The Data Room – Technology Watch ............................................................................................................. 15

This Technology Watch report was produced by The Data Room. For more information and sample reports please visit

www.oilit.com/tech or email tw@oilit.com.

2 © 2010 The Data Room