Online
registration for the AAPG
International Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain, is
up and running and geologists are already signing up for the Sept. 21-24
meeting.
“Crossroads
of Geology, Energy and Cultures” is the meeting’s theme, and a diverse,
heavyweight technical
program has been planned that includes 300 poster sessions, over
200 oral sessions and two continuing education workshops.
All sessions
plus the extensive exhibits hall will be held in the Catalonia Palace
of Congresses.
Thirteen field
trips to the country’s many spectacular outcrops are offered. Six
of the scientific field trips also offer coinciding “guest
field trips,” which focus on the area’s culture and history.
A variety of
sightseeing tours
are offered for attendees and guests in the historic area known for
its beauty, hospitality and cuisine.
Attendees are
advised to register early to ensure hotel reservations in the AAPG hotel
block of rooms.
And remember,
all activities including hotel reservations can be made online.
AAPG
has found it necessary to postpone the Hedberg Conference, originally
scheduled next month in Vienna, due to recent world events.
The conference,
which will be on the topic of “Origin of Petroleum — Biogenic and/or
Abiogenic and Its Significance in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production,”
will be rescheduled in 2004.
There has been
a great deal of interest in this topic, with 80 abstracts already received.
Watch the EXPLORER and the AAPG Web site for information on the conference’s
new date.
AAPG has held
three international Hedberg research conferences in the past eight months.
The most recent
Hedberg was held in February in Algiers, Algeria. The theme was “Paleozoic
and Triassic Petroleum Systems in North Africa,” and it was hosted and
heavily supported by Sonatrach.
The conference
conveners were Djilali Takherist (Sonatrach) and Lucien Montadert (IFP),
and the technical program committee was headed by Djamel Bekkouche (Sonatrach),
Fadhila Braik (Sonatrach) and David Roberts (BP).
Making use
of a concurrent session format, this three-day conference included 53
oral presentations, 46 posters and a core workshop/poster session.
More than 230
attended, with well over half coming from countries outside Algeria,
including Tunisia, Kuwait, Libya, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom,
the United States, Morocco, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Australia.
Before the Algiers
session, an international Hedberg conference was held in December 2002
in the Barossa Valley, Australia. The title was “Evaluating the Hydrocarbon
Sealing Potential of Faults and Caprocks,” and the session was co-convened
by John Kaldi (NCPGG, University of Adelaide), Peter Boult (PIRSA),
Mike Badley (Badleys, UK) and Bill Almon (ChevronTexaco.)
About 85 attended
this conference, which featured a diverse and intensive program of 42
oral presentations and eight posters. Almost half of the registrants
came from locations outside of Australia, including Brazil, United Kingdom,
Norway, Indonesia, New Zealand, France, Venezuela, Malaysia, The Netherlands,
Canada and the United States.
Abstracts for
the Australia conference are available for viewing through the Hedberg
Conference area of the AAPG Web site, as well as on the Search and
Discovery site.
(We hope to
have the abstracts for Norway and Algeria posted soon as well.)
Stavanger, Norway,
was the site for the September 2002 international Hedberg, held on “The
Hydrocarbon Habitat of Volcanic Rifted Passive Margins.”
Sigrunn Johnsen
(RWE-DEA) and David Roberts (BP) were conference co-conveners.
There were
over 100 participants, with representatives from the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Denmark, Brazil and the United States, as well as several
cities in Norway.
The technical
quality of this conference was extremely high, and participants said
they enjoyed the program of oral and poster presentations, as well as
informative discussion sessions.
Meeting reminder:
The Houston Geological Society and the Petroleum Exploration Society
of Great Britain (PESGB) will hold their second international symposium,
“Africa: New Plays — New Perspectives, Sept. 3-4 at the Westchase Hilton
in Houston, Texas.
The program
will include a full two-day program of talks and posters.
The deadline
for early registration discounts and for abstracts is May 31.