AAPG’s Distinguished Lecture program is reloaded and already off to a fast start for a season that will send speakers around the world, in some cases, to places never before traveled by the program.
One international speaker already has started the 2009-10 season with a successful tour of central Asia that attracted large crowds, but that’s just the start.
This year’s DL program, funded largely by the AAPG Foundation, will feature nine domestic and six international speakers.
The program is the Association’s flagship initiative for spreading the latest in science, technology and professional information.
This year’s roster will offer talks that vary widely in subject content, from such traditional topics as petroleum systems, carbonate platforms and deepwater sedimentary processes to more unusual fare such as paleoclimate change, ethics and human evolution.
Two domestic tours – for Gail Ashley and Harris Cander –begin in September.
Last year’s speakers (both domestic and international) appeared at 107 events, reaching more than 6,300 people.
This year’s program, as in past years, offers speakers from both industry and academia.
It also features the return of the intersociety lecturer focus – the eighth year for the cooperative program that presents an opportunity for cross-discipline lectures.
This year’s AAPG-SEG Intersociety Lecturer is Bruce Hart, director of the Shale, Seal and Pressure Group at ConocoPhillips in Houston.[PFItemLinkShortcode|id:677|type:standard|anchorText:RELATED STORY|cssClass:|title:It Takes a Team To Tackle Strat|PFItemLinkShortcode]
Hart is offering two talks:
- “Reservoir-Scale Seismic Stratigraphy: A Call to Integration”.
- “Basin-Centered Gas Accumulations: Revisiting the Type Areas with Integrated Datasets”.
Hart will tour eastern North America from Nov. 9-20, and western North America from Jan. 25-Feb. 5.
Other specially designated lecturers this year include:
Steve Cumella, geologist with Bill Barrett Corp., in Denver, who is this year’s Haas-Pratt Distinguished Lecturer.
The Haas-Pratt lecture is a domestic tour provided by contributions from the late Merrill W. Haas, in honor of famed geologist (and Haas’ mentor) Wallace Pratt. The funding is granted for a lecture of an applied nature dealing with the exploration and discovery history of a field, or a subject having economic implications.
His lecture will be “Geology of the Giant Continuous Gas Accumulation in the Mesaverde Group, Piceance Basin, Colorado.”
Cumella will tour eastern North America Oct. 26-Nov. 6, and western North America Feb. 22-March 5.
John Howell, professor at the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, this year’s Allan P. Bennison Distinguished Lecturer.
The Bennison DL is an international lecturer who makes a U.S. tour, funded by contributions from the late Allan Bennison, a long-time Tulsa geologist.
Howell will be offering two talks:
- “Laser Scanning and Geological Modeling: From Outcrop to Flow Simulation.”
- “Building an Oil Company – How Hard Can It Be?”
Howell will tour western North America Nov. 30-Dec. 11, and eastern North America Jan. 25-Feb. 5.
Lynn N. Hughes, a U.S. District Court judge serving in Houston, who returns for a second consecutive season as the year’s AAPG Distinguished Lecturer on Ethics.
Hughes will be available by request throughout the season. His lecture topic is “Dilemmas of Trust.”
Ole J. Martinsen, vice president, exploration research, StatoilHydro Research, Bergen, Norway, this year’s Roy M. Huffington lecturer.
The Huffington lecture is an international tour provided by contributions from the Huffington family to honor the late oilman-geologist.
Martinsen will be available for Asia-Pacific tours, offering two talks:
- “Sequence Stratigraphy 25 Years Down the Road: Technology Dependencies, Current Practices and Evolving Methods for Prediction of Petroleum Systems.”
- “Deepwater Sedimentary Processes and Systems: The Role of Internal vs. External Controls on Lithology Distribution and Stratigraphy.”
Toni Simo, research associate for ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co., this year’s J. Ben Carsey lecturer.
The Carsey lecture is an annual domestic tour provided by contributions from J. Ben Carsey Jr. of Houston, to establish a named lecturer in memory of his father, who served as AAPG president in 1967-68.
Simo’s talk will be “Isolated Carbonate Platforms and Mounds (ICPM): Initiation, Growth and Demise.”
He will tour western North America Jan. 11-22, and eastern North America Feb. 15-26.
Frans S. Van Buchem, lead geologist for Maersk Oil Qatar, this year’s Dean A. McGee lecturer.
The McGee tour, provided through a gift from Kerr-McGee Corp., features a North American lecturer speaking to an international audience on a topic directly applicable to petroleum geology. The endowment was made to honor the company’s founder, who was also a Sidney Powers medalist.
Buchem will offer two talks:
- “Barremian/Aptian Carbonate Systems of the Eastern Arabian Plate – A Global Sequence Stratigraphic Reference Model.”
- “Stratigraphic Patterns in Carbonate Source Rock Distribution – With Special Attention to Cretaceous Intrashelf Basins of the Southern Arabian Plate.”
He is available to the Middle East Region.
This year’s list of domestic Distinguished Lecturers also includes:
Gail Ashley, geological sciences professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
Her first tour, of western North America, is Sept. 28-Oct. 7. She’ll tour eastern North America March 1-5.
She’ll offer two talks:
- “The Paleoclimatic Framework of Human Evolution.”
- “The Sedimentary Record of Human Evolution.”
Harris Cander, exploration and technology group, BP America, Houston.
He will make four tours this season, visiting western North America Sept. 21-26 and April 12-17, and eastern North America Oct. 12-16 and March 29-April 2.
His talk is “Granite to Grass Roots: Understanding the Geologic History of Unconventional Resource Basins from Bottom to Top.”
Martin Perimutter, team leader and research scientist, Chevron, Houston.
He will tour western North America Oct. 26-Nov. 6, and eastern North America April 5-16.
He offers two talks:
- “High Frequency Paleoclimate Change: Impact on Exploration Strategy and Climate Research.”
- “The Influence of High Frequency Climate Variability on Paleoclimate Interpretation.”
Guy Plint, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
He will tour eastern North America Feb. 8-12, and western North America April 5-10.
He will offer two talks:
- “The Evolution of a Cenomanian Delta Complex in the Western Canada Foreland Basin: Paleogeographic and Stratigraphic Responses to Tectonic and Eustatic Forcing.”
- “Evolving Flexural Depocentres in the Middle Cretaceous of the Western Canada Foreland Basin.”
This year’s list of international Distinguished Lecturers also includes:
Christian J. Heine, senior geological consultant, upstream ventures, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Heine is available for central Asia and European Region lectures, offering two talks:
- “Where Does Up-Scaling Begin? Let’s Put Geology Back into Geostatistics.”
- “Nature’s Juggling Act – Glaciers, Sand Dunes and Limestone: A Post Glacial Sea-Level Rise Captures in Rock a Record of the Early Permian Stratigraphy of Saudi Arabia.”
Dale R. Issler, research scientist, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, Canada.
Issler is available for Asia-Pacific tours, offering two talks:
- “Integrated Thermal History Analysis of Sedimentary Basins Using Multi-Kinetic Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology: Examples from Northern Canada.”
- “Quantitative Analysis of Petroleum Systems of the Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin, Arctic Canada: An Integrated Approach.”
John G. Kaldi, professor, Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide, Australia, continues his season on the international DL roster, and is available for European Region talks.
He offers five talks:
- “Carbon Capture and Geological Storage: What are the Big Issues and Opportunities?”
- “CO2Storage Capacity Estimation and Site Selection.”
- “Evaluating Seal Potential for Hydrocarbon Accumulations.”
- “Pore-Level Reservoir Characterization.”
- “Geological Applications of Capillary Pressure: Taking the Mystery out of Basic Rock Properties.”
Kenneth E. Peters, business development manager-integrated services for exploration, Schlumberger, Mill Valley, Calif., and consulting professor, Stanford University.
Peters will be available for European Region tours, offering two talks:
- “Establishing Petroleum Systems: Biomarkers, Isotopes and Chemometrics.”
- “Exploration Paradigm Shift: The Dynamic Petroleum System Concept.”