“Vision to Prosperity: A New Energy Era Emerges” was the theme of the International Petroleum Technology Conference held last month in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Already a landmark event as the first international multidisciplinary inter-society oil and natural gas conference to be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, IPTC 2020 smashed all attendance records. Nearly 18,000 attendees representing more than 1,000 organizations from 75 countries attended the event. The robust technical program included more than 700 papers in more than 100 sessions.
IPTC is a cooperative venture presented by AAPG, the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. And, for this event, we partnered with Saudi Aramco, our exclusive hosts for IPTC 2020.
“As we close this edition of IPTC, the first ever to be held in Saudi Arabia, we are filled with overwhelming pride as a result of the record-breaking success and the opportunity to hold IPTC at a key hub of the global energy industry,” observed IPTC Board Chairman Mahmoud Abdulbaqi at the closing of the conference.
Congratulations and thanks to Saudi Aramco and the IPTC staff for delivering an exciting and memorable event!
‘Geosciences in the Digital World’
Traveling to the Middle East is something that I get a lot of questions about, particularly from colleagues and friends in the United States and Europe who have never done so. Based on the headlines they read, they’re surprised to hear me say that it is one of my favorite places to travel.
The people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia warmly welcomed IPTC attendees, and a spirit of hospitality pervades cultures in the Middle East. You need to experience it.
And next month we, AAPG, together with EAGE and SEG, will enable you to do just that as we launch GEO 2020, the 14th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition in Bahrain, with the theme “Geosciences in the Digital World: 2020 and Beyond.”
Under the leadership of General Chair Hisham Zubari, senior adviser to His Excellency the Bahrain Minister of Oil Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the GEO 2020 executive and technical program committees have developed a program that will advance both geoscience understanding and how technology continues to shape our discipline.
“The theme reflects our strongest belief,” writes Zubari, “that the advancement in the new cloud technologies, analytics, the ‘Internet of Things,’ artificial intelligence and machine learning will provide geoscientists with powerful tools in dealing with complex data, and we are just in the beginning of this fascinating new era.”
Beginning with an opening ceremony and gala dinner on Monday, March 16, conference attendees will spend the following three days immersed in plenary and technical sessions designed to communicate scientific advances as well as direct applications.
In addition to the technical program, GEO 2020 features a robust exhibition where service companies, vendors and operators will showcase state-of-the-art technology and approaches to help the industry successfully maximize their exploration and production activities. The exhibition will also provide an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded professionals.
Special Features of GEO 2020
A special feature of GEO 2020 is the integrated core and poster display assembled by Volker Vahrenkamp, Israa Abu-Mahfouz and Thomas Finkbeiner, all of King Abdulla University of Science and Technology, with the objective to allow viewers to “gain an improved understanding of the different source rock sequences found on the Arabian plate, which contains some of the most prolific hydrocarbon reservoirs of the world.”
The displays will include information on the:
- PreCambrian carbonates and clastics as seen in Oman
- Siliurian clastic shales as seen in Saudi Arabia
- Late Jurassic carbonates as seen in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
- Early Cretaceous carbonates as seen in Saudi Arabia and UAE
- Mid-Cretaceous carbonates as seen in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman
- Late Cretaceous/Early Cenozoic carbonates as seen in Jordan
In addition to this fantastic opportunity to tour formations across the Arabian plate from the conference venue, GEO 2020 is also offering three trips to get out and see rocks in the field:
- Advances in Jurassic stratigraphy: sequence stratigraphic scheme for the Middle-Upper Jurassic, Jabal Tuwaiq, Central Saudi Arabia
- Lower Cretaceous Carbonates of the UAE: Implications for hydrocarbon field development
- Cambro-Ordovician Tight Gas Reservoirs, Sultanate of Oman, Haima Supergroup (Barik, Al Bashair, and Miqrat formations)
Each of these field trips promise to deliver an experience that you will remember for years, no matter which one you choose.
Have I convinced you?
AAPG’s Dubai team and I look forward to welcoming you to Bahrain next month for GEO 2020.