AAPG is committed to connecting promising original research with much-needed funding and is continually seeking – and finding – new ways to make that potential a reality.
Those efforts range from providing exposure and networking opportunities at Geoscience Technology Workshops and various local, regional, national and international conferences and conventions throughout the year, to the Research Launcher program, which makes it possible to review ongoing and proposed research with the click of a mouse.
Along those same lines, AAPG’s next related effort is the new Research Showcase, which will be unveiled in Denver at the 2015 Annual Convention and Exhibition, set for May 31-June 3 at the Colorado Convention Center.
The Research Showcase will be an attraction unto itself on the exhibition floor where ongoing or proposed research will be on display (see Director’s Corner, page 66).
Susan Nash, AAPG’s director of education and professional development, had the opportunity to sit down for a Q&A with three principle players in just one “success story in the making,” resulting from AAPG’s active efforts to connect researchers with potential funding sources.
Her conversations were with:
- Bryan W. Turner, an AAPG student member and doctorate candidate at the University of Oklahoma, who is doing research on the value and limitations of using hand-held x-ray fluorescence spectrometry for resource shale analysis.
- Roger Slatt , an AAPG Honorary member and Turner’s adviser at OU, and director of the Reservoir Characterization Consortium, which is helping to fund Turner’s research.
- Deborah Sacrey, an AAPG member and former AAPG treasurer, as well as an industry member (Auburn Energy) and an industry supporter of research.
Turner and Sacrey both presented at the Permian Basin Research Exchange Workshop in September – Turner presented a poster of his research, while Sacrey presented on new technology and research in seismic.
Bryan W. Turner
EXPLORER: What is your relation to the geosciences?
TURNER: I am a stratigrapher with an interest in mudrocks and shales. I am currently starting my third year of my Ph.D. with Dr. Roger Slatt, and I have begun using geochemistry to develop chemostratigraphic frameworks that can be used to build correlations within mudrock successions.
In the process, I am evaluating the value and limitations of using hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for resource shale analysis.
EXPLORER: What is the subject of your research?
TURNER: My research focuses on developing chemostratigraphic frameworks within mudrocks and shales and evaluating X-ray fluorescence technology that has become so widely used in unconventional resource shale studies.
Conventional stratigraphic correlation within shale units can be difficult when they appear lithologically uniform in logs, cores and outcrops. Correlation of lateral, coeval facies shifts separated by bounding surfaces is the basis for chronostratigraphic correlations like sequence stratigraphy.
However, as shales may not produce visibly recognizable facies shifts, the bounding surfaces can be difficult to identify. Therefore, sequence stratigraphic correlation within shales utilizes other techniques.
Sequence stratigraphic correlations within thick successions of shales are conventionally interpreted from gamma ray log response and through physically tracing the relationship to shore facies.
Recent advances in technology make it possible to enhance established sequence stratigraphic interpretations based upon high-resolution chemostratigraphy. High-resolution chemostratigraphy is becoming a common tool in the oil and gas industry for characterizing and correlating shales over broad areas, as well as interpreting their environments of deposition and resource potential.
EXPLORER: What exactly are you doing and how does it benefit companies and individuals working in shale plays?
TURNER: Chemostratigraphy can be used to evaluate whether there is lateral variability in rates of shale accumulation throughout a depositional basin, as well as for regional correlation of potentially productive and non-productive stratigraphic intervals. This will allow for more detailed sequence stratigraphic correlations within a basin.
Furthermore, this can potentially be used to develop reservoir characterization models and help predict areas of high productivity within a basin, and therefore, intervals of high organic content for generation of hydrocarbons.
A high-resolution stratigraphic framework combined with geochemical proxies for environmental conditions indicating horizons where conditions would favor the accumulation of hydrocarbons are critical elements in planning the development of a field.
EXPLORER: What are your plans?
TURNER: Upon completion of my degree, I plan on continuing my research in mudrock chemostratigraphy and unconventional reservoirs.
EXPLORER: How can I find out more about how to contribute or fund research efforts?
TURNER: My funding is directly related to Dr. Slatt’s consortium researching the Woodford Shale. Any individuals interested in aspects of my research should contact him. His research consortium currently has 10 member companies.
Roger Slatt
EXPLORER: What is your relation to the geosciences?
SLATT: I am the Gungoll Chair professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Institute of Reservoir Characterization there.
EXPLORER: What is the subject of your research?
SLATT: I am guiding my students with a study of the regional to local stratigraphy of the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma, which is a good oil and gas producer (in other words, unconventional resource shale) as well as a good analog to certain other resource shales.
I fund my students through a consortium of oil and gas companies that currently includes 10 member companies. I provide the companies with quarterly reports of progress, field trips and other updates concerning the Woodford Shale.
EXPLORER: What exactly are you doing and how does it benefit companies and individuals working in shale plays?
SLATT: We are learning about regional correlations of Woodford stratigraphy, have developed a more detailed stratigraphic characterization that highlights favored zones for horizontal drilling (in other words, landing zones) based upon rock properties and stratigraphy.
We have been using and refining a sequence stratigraphic approach to our characterization and correlation studies.
EXPLORER: What are your plans?
SLATT: My plans are to continue to educate students in analysis of resource shales since they are becoming major exploration and development resources globally. My students will be well prepared to enter the petroleum industry upon graduation and work on unconventional resource shales.
I can carry out these plans as long as I have funding to support students and some equipment.
EXPLORER: How can I find out more about how to contribute or fund research efforts?
SLATT: You can contact me directly if interested in joining the Woodford Stratigraphy Resource Consortium in the Institute of Reservoir Characterization, School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma.
Deborah Sacrey
EXPLORER: What is your relation to the geosciences?
SACREY: I graduated with a degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma in 1976.
EXPLORER: You are a great supporter of new technology and research in the geosciences. Can you give an example of what you’ve been involved in recently?
SACREY: I have been fortunate for the last three years to be working with an excellent group of geophysicists and software developers working on exciting technology involving unsupervised neural analysis of multiple seismic attributes.
This technology is helping, through the use of advanced pattern recognition processes, to understand the geological information buried in seismic attributes. I personally have used this technology to help find oil and gas reserves in the Gulf Coast, but the application can be used in both conventional and unconventional resource plays around the world using both 2-D and 3-D data.
EXPLORER: What are your thoughts about how one can support the research currently being conducted by universities, university consortia and graduate students?
SACREY: There are a couple of obvious ways in which one can help.
First, as an alumnus of a university, get involved with your school. Most universities have an alumni advisory council of some sort. This is a great way to funnel energy and monetary support for one’s school and specifically direct funds to the most needed areas. As a past chair of the Alumni Advisory Council for the School of Geology and Geophysics at OU, I was amazed at the generosity of the school’s alumni.
Second, most schools with larger departments in the geosciences have continuing research programs designed to help graduate students. I know at OU, Roger Slatt has a consortia he is developing to understand the rock properties and stratigraphy of various resource plays, including the Woodford Shales in Oklahoma.
Kurt Marfurt, also at OU, has a consortia called Attribute Assisted Seismic Processing and Integration (AASPI), and Geophysical Insights, the company with whom I have been working on neural analysis, is working on contract agreements to be a sponsor in that consortia.
Certainly, involvement through AASPI will provide funding for research into new seismic technologies by graduate students, as well as provide a networking opportunity for the students and other sponsor companies.