Kom
W. This Neolithic rubble pile of pottery shards and stone implements
lay buried on the barren desert floor an hour south of Cairo, Egypt,
in the Fayoum Basin.
Eight thousand
years ago, this stone-age village thrived along the shoreline of ancient
Lake Moeris, long since withdrawn miles to the south to what is now
Lake Qarun. Lush grasses and vegetation rimmed a lake teaming with birds
and other wildlife.
How do we know
this? Thousands of flint sickle blades have been excavated in and around
this site. Each sickle blade was attached to a stick with twine and
tar. The tar must have come from the oil seeps of Gebel El Zeit, over
230 kilometers to the southeast along the shores of the Red Sea. A well-developed
trade network and culture was already in place here when American Indians
were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
Oil provided
an important part of the Kom W people's natural resources.
"Ancient Oil
— New Energy."
We can't think
of a better theme for Cairo 2002, the international petroleum conference
and exhibition that will be held in Egypt on Oct. 27-30.
Today, the
bustling population of Cairo and large potential markets for hydrocarbons
around the Mediterranean region continue to demand these resources:
Giant gas fields are being discovered and developed in deep-water trends
of the Nile Delta.
LNG projects
are under way.
In the Red
Sea, deep-water drilling is targeting elusive sub-salt reserves.
The Gulf of
Suez, a classic mature basin, and Western Desert continue to yield new
discoveries and reserves, fueled in large part by the application of
state-of-the-art seismic imaging and data integration.
This conference,
however, is not just about Egypt. It covers the entire circum-Mediterranean,
north and west African and Middle East region, with other sessions covering
new discoveries in Australia and Indonesia.
It is also
the first joint AAPG/EPEX/ SEG/EGS/EAGE conference ever held. A robust
program of 25 oral and poster sessions will yield up to 250 papers and
350 poster sessions. The sessions and short courses cover major themes
such as technology trends, business challenges, gas marketplace strategies
and the petroleum potential of frontier as well as mature basins and
plays.
Technical sessions
also bring critical technologies to the forefront. Topics to be covered
include:
- Advances in petroleum
systems.
- Horizontal drilling.
- Well completions.
- Techniques for exploring
sub-salt.
- Unconventional plays
in mature basins.
- Unraveling complex traps.
- Applications of geostatistics.
- Advances in logging.
Ten field trips
and additional spouse events combine archeological, cultural and scenic
stops with world-class geological exposures. Attendees are urged to
arrive early and leave late for this conference, as the travel opportunities
in Egypt and surrounding countries provide a spectacular venue for the
entire family.
Pre-conference
trips include:
- The Atlas Mountains of
Morocco.
- Modern rift structure
and stratigraphy of Kenya (plus spectacular wildlife vistas).
- The petroleum systems
and archeology of Jordan (includes stops at Petra and crusader castles).
- The geology of the Pyramids.
- The Syrian Arc Jurassic
inversion structures of North Egypt.
- The Eastern Sinai rift
structure and stratigraphy.
The latter
two trips end in Sharm El Sheik, with the further opportunity to scuba
dive or snorkel in the Red Sea.
After the conference,
try a trip to Bahariya and Farafra oases, combining an evening camel
safari and Bedouin feast with exposures of Syrian Arc wrench faults
and non-marine Upper Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy. Seismic scale,
high resolution syn-tectonic rift sequence stratigraphy of the Sinai
margin, Egypt, features a state-of-the art look at sedimentation in
an active tectonic province (the trip also ends in Sharm El Sheik).
The Mesozoic
carbonate systems of Oman provide another great trip, with an emphasis
on fracturing, faulting and subsurface analogues.
If staying
in Egypt, take the Cairo-to-Luxor field trip, examining Red Sea rift
sedimentation and tectonics, snorkel on reefs at El Quseir, visit the
oldest gold mines in the world and end in the spectacular Valley of
the Kings at Luxor — with an option to go on to Abu Simbel on the following
day.
Finally, a
two-day trip to Whale Valley and the Fayoum Basin, Egypt, features desert
scenery, a graveyard of 390+ fossil Eocene whales and sea cows, Neolithic,
Pharonic and Greco-Roman ruins, petrified forests, Upper Eocene estuary
deposits and ancient Pharonic basalt quarries.
Those who have
ventured to far reaches of the planet will appreciate the unique experiences
and insights that only the AAPG field trip leaders can provide. For
those not so familiar with globe-trotting, there are a multitude of
experiences in Cairo to satisfy your curiosity and provide the highest
levels of comfort and security.
So get out
your planners and block off late October and early November for a great
conference and a chance to visit Egypt and surrounding areas!