Plan to Attend the Cairo Meeting

International Bulletin Board

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Eight thousand years ago, this stone-age village thrived along the shoreline of ancient Lake Moeris, long since withdrawn miles to the south to what is now Lake Qarun.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:

Image Caption

Come for a meeting and stay to visit the sites — and sights — of geological wonder, like this scene at Whale Valley, during the AAPG international conference in Cairo, Egypt.

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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Eight thousand years ago, this stone-age village thrived along the shoreline of ancient Lake Moeris, long since withdrawn miles to the south to what is now Lake Qarun.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!

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