Petroleum
geology in Mexico will be celebrating 100 years in 2004 — and a perfect
way to celebrate it is with this year's international
technical conference and exhibition, jointly sponsored by the Mexican
Association of Petroleum Geologists and AAPG, in the strikingly beautiful
resort of Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Mexico's oil
industry got its head start in 1904 when a gusher was discovered in
the Cerro la Pez well in the municipality of Ebano, San Luis Potosí,
in the Tampico Basin. Since then 30 billion barrels of oil and 50 tcf
of gas have been produced, and there are still remnant reserves of over
40 billion barrels and 80 tcf.
During the
meeting, set Oct. 24-27, attendees will learn more about the gas basins
of Mexico:
- Sabinas
in Coahuila, which produces from Mesozoic carbonates.
- Burgos
in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, which is an extension to the south of
the Rio Grande Tertiary siliciclastics.
- Veracruz
in the state of Veracruz, which produces both from Paleogene siliciclastics
and Cretaceous limestones.
- The Tertiary
siliciclastic embayment of Macuspana, Tabasco, Southern Mexico.
- The shelf
of the Gulf of Mexico, which is just beginning to be developed for
gas.
With regards
to the oil provinces, there will be papers on all major producing basins:
Tampico-Misantla (which includes the Poza Rica and Golden Lane fields),
and the extremely prolific southern fields, both onshore (Bermudez and
Centeno complexes, Jujo-Tecominoacán, etc.) and offshore (featuring
the Cantarell Field, currently producing over two million barrels of
oil per day.)
For a country
with a history of 100 years of exploration and production of oil and
gas, many people would assume its industry would be declining — but
through the application of technologies, new business concepts and a
focus on new frontiers, production is expanding, enabling Mexico to
meet the challenge of providing the inexpensive and secure energy that
the North American market requires to meet its growth expectations.
Thus, our meeting
theme, "Petroleum Industry in the 21st Century — Technology, Business
and Frontiers," will emphasize how technological advances have strongly
contributed to maximize economic recovery of the reservoir, and how
the petroleum business has undergone dramatic and extremely exciting
changes over the last few years, opening new frontiers and changing
paradigms for new opportunities for the petroleum industry into the
21st century.
The conference
will offer the perfect opportunity to follow these hot conference theme
topics, addressing not only Mexican cases but also worldwide examples
about issues such as:
- Full
Basin 4-D Modeling.
- Reducing
Uncertainty in Deep-Water Reservoir Prediction.
- New Approaches
in Carbonate Reservoir Modeling.
- Remote
Control of Producing Fields.
- Monetizing
Gas Resources.
- New Play
Concepts in Mature Basins.
- Two management
forums about technology and business will address the present and
future of these vital trends of our industry.
Attendees also
will have the opportunity to take pre- and post-conference courses and
select a field trip following an educational module approach in northern,
central or southeastern Mexico.
Make plans
to come and spend some quality time with us in the wonderful environs
of Cancun, while learning in depth how more and cheaper resources can
be found and produced.
The final
announcement will be available at the Annual Meeting in Dallas;
stop by the Cancun booth in the AAPG Center to register.