This month, AAPG will hold our International Conference and Exhibition (ICE) in the ExCel center in London, England. The theme of the event is “100 Years of Science Fueled by 100 Years of Prosperity.”
Kudos to the London ICE organizers for an outstanding program!
One session in particular I recommend attendees mark on their calendar is the Discovery Thinking Forum which will be held on Monday afternoon, Oct. 16, in the conference center Capital Suite. I will be at my usual podium spot co-chairing the forum along with past AAPG President Paul Weimer and past AAPG European Region President Jonathan Craig.
Discovery Thinking Forums began in 2007 and I have spoken about them before. It was a program initiative created by the 100th Anniversary Committee that featured geo-discoverers telling stories about finding new fields or creating new play concepts.
During Discovery Thinking in London, we plan to feature four game-changing play discoveries. In addition, I plan to feature several brief representative vignettes of previous presentations spotlighting valuable exploration lessons. In the decade since inception, 19 Discovery Thinking Forums have been hosted at both Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE) and ICE events. More than 100 speakers and their co-authors have presented discoveries they know well commonly to standing room only audiences. We owe these “100 who made a difference” heartfelt gratitude as we celebrate the AAPG centenary. They have generously gifted us with hard won and costly insights leading to significant discoveries. We pay tribute to the 115 men and women who have participated in these Discovery Thinking forums.
I was inspired by meeting the renowned geologist Hans Ronnevik at the 2014 Discovery Thinking Forum. He talked about the process leading to the 2010 discovery of the giant Johan Sverdrup Field on the Utsira high, in the central part of the Norwegian North Sea. The Norwegian North Sea was considered exhausted after more than 40 years of disappointing exploration drilling before Ronnevik’s team re-assessed the area. Reserves would become 1.7-3.0 billion barrels of oil. The discovery was the result of a breakthrough of systematic geoscience integration that made use of improved broadband seismic data. I encourage people to see Hans Ronnevik’s 2014 talk and that of his colleague Arild Jorstad in 2012 in the AAPG Discovery Thinking Video Vault. The discovery methodology is also published in AAPG Memoir 113 “Giant Fields of the Decade 2000-2010” edited by myself and Robert Merrill.
Bob Merrill and I are already working on a proposed 2010-2020 AAPG Memoir of Giant Fields. Let us know if you have a giant field discovered in that timeline you’d like to write about! It is fun to see the sequence of giant fields unfold over the past century of AAPG. It is clear to me that AAPG and other professional societies have played a major role in the technology transfer that continues to fuel global prosperity.
What’s Next?
We are presently working out details for the two-day Global Super Basin Leadership Conference previously announced for Feb. 28-March 2, 2018 at the Hilton America Hotel in Houston. This new conference will share best practices on energy, economics and the environment.
AAPG is dedicated to providing valuable geoscience and professional content to fuel prosperity in AAPG’s second century, through both publications and events. Since 2010 there has been a technology-led energy renaissance to revisit the world’s most richly endowed super basins. David Gee of Boston Consulting Group will present how this energy revolution has profoundly improved the U.S. economy, created jobs and benefitted the environment.
The Permian and Gulf Coast basins are prototype super basins with more than 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE) produced, 5 BBOE future reserves, multiple source rocks, many pays, infrastructure and well established service sectors. The top 25 “super basins” around the globe have potential energy resources of more than 800 BBOE, according to data provided by Bob Fryklund and Pete Stark of IHS Markit. Choices made by host countries of super basins will play a key role in future energy prosperity.
Let’s Get Networking
Fall meeting season kicks off right now for AAPG Sections and Regions. I’d like to ask everyone to think of the value of AAPG in facilitating the opportunity for us to meet interesting and inspiring people. Please tell me about someone you met and shook hands with that made an impact.
Back in 2011, during the Houston ACE, Steve Levine asked me to moderate the “Taking Geoscience to Greater Heights” All Convention Luncheon (aapg.to/ace2011vidacl). That was a wonderful program of several generations of astronauts, including Apollo moonwalker and AAPG Honorary Member Jack Schmitt and space shuttle veteran Jim Reilly. I expect a few of you reading this were there with me. Scott Carpenter represented the Mercury NASA astronaut generation. Shaking Scott’s hand was a special moment for me. With a twinkle in his eye, he told me about shaking President John F. Kennedy’s hand. For some reason I think about that often. I shook past AAPG President Michel T. Halbouty’s hand many times. I often wonder about connections between Halbouty and past explorers? Patillo Higgins, Glen McCarthy, Dad Joiner, AAPG’s founders?
What’s your story? I am interested and would like to know. Send me an email at [email protected], or come tell me at one of AAPG’s many fine upcoming meetings.