Listening to “Togetherness (K’a jo
se)” as I write prompted me to think
about community. AAPG has been a
pillar of the scientific community for more
than 100 years, with a lengthy history of
collaboration and rewarding relationships
that extend beyond the Association. Like
the rise to international success of Nigerian
musician King Sunny Adé, AAPG has grown
beyond its American roots to serve a global
community of energy geoscientists as
well as professionals working in adjacent
functions like data science, carbon capture,
use and sequestration, and various
engineering disciplines.
Achieving a sense of harmony – while
change and uncertainty dominate our lives
and our profession – challenges us to
make the best possible business decisions
on behalf of AAPG and our community.
After extensive strategic assessment, the
2020-21 Executive Committee unanimously
supported the ongoing exploration of
developing a new organization with the
Society of Petroleum Engineers.
New information continues to be added
to our merger website, AAPG-SPE-Merger.org, as members of the AAPG and SPE
Steering Committee gather input, articulate
a mission and vision, define governance
and address fundamental aspects such
as corporate structure, for review by
the Executive Committee and the SPE
Board this month. In August, the Steering
Committee formed a team to examine
membership models, with AAPG volunteers
Kristie Ferguson, House of Delegates
chair, and John Casiano working with
AAPG staff and SPE counterparts. Another
team that included past President and
Advisory Council Chair Rick Fritz, Advisory
Council member and Co-chair of the HoD
Constitution and Bylaws Committee Ryan
Lemiski, DPA President-Elect Andrea
Reynolds, and AAPG staff worked with
SPE counterparts to consider how AAPG
committees, divisions, regions, sections,
SIGs and TIGs and affiliated societies could
fit together with components of SPE in a
new organization. As with any combination
of organizations, essential work must be
done to proceed, even though some details
cannot be ironed out up front, including
aspects such as branding and the name of
the organization.
Please offer your feedback and
suggestions on the merger website as this
work continues.
As we manage the process of exploring
a new organization with SPE, we recognize
that preparing AAPG for the future is the
key responsibility of the 2021-22 Executive
Committee: change is inevitable. If AAPG
does not form a new organization with
SPE, then AAPG must greatly reduce its
governance, business operations, and
product and service portfolio to become
a much smaller organization that lives
within its means. Our fear is that reduced
services to our members and to society will
contribute to further erosion of relevance,
requiring further reductions at AAPG – a
downward spiral we wish to avoid.
In the short term, you can support AAPG
by logging into AAPG.org, updating your
profile, paying your dues, registering for a
conference or buying a book, and recruiting
new members. Contact me if you would
like to volunteer!
Where Are We Going?
The AAPG Executive Committee and
SPE Board recently met for a strategy
session that included discussions about
the energy transition and the role of our
professional organizations. Panelists from
industry and academia emphasized the
fact that the energy transition is happening
and expectations about how we deliver
energy are changing, but that oil and gas
will play a key role for decades to come.
Our skills will be critically important to
delivering energy during this transition.
As many experts have noted, the
principal issue is not the fuel, it is the
emissions. For example, using more natural
gas and less coal represents a significant
step toward a lower carbon footprint
and reduced carbon intensity. Energy
geoscientists will also be part of expanding
efforts to sequester carbon and develop
other forms of energy, such as geothermal
and hydrogen.
Closer alignment of professional
organizations and companies that employ
members will help geoscientists and
engineers adapt more quickly to whatever
future employment opportunities may
demand. Just as geoscientists are a big
piece of the energy solution, AAPG is also a
part of the energy solution.
Rolling Out the Red Carpet
AAPG looks forward to welcoming
registrants who can safely travel to
upcoming conferences, including the
inaugural International Meeting for Applied
Geoscience and Energy in Denver this
month. Last month’s Unconventional
Resources Technology Conference in
Houston attracted several thousand
registrants, of whom 70 percent attended
in person and 30 percent online. Many
of us are looking forward to the Eastern
Section meeting in Pittsburgh (Oct. 2-6), the
Midcontinent Section meeting in Tulsa (Oct.
3-5) and GeoGulf in Austin (Oct. 27-29).
Other events are in flux while we assess
whether travel and gathering are safe.
As part of my research for this column,
I contacted Dr. Olufemi Babalola, a
geoscientist who has been translating
the lyrics of King Sunny Adé since the
1980s. As Dr. Babalola attested, the lyrics
remind us that we are all in this together.
Indeed, we are in this together – in energy
geoscience, in AAPG, and in a global
community. Since you have read this far, I
will award a $100 AAPG gift certificate to
the first person who provides an interesting
fact about petroleum geoscience of
west Africa as an online comment to this
EXPLORER article.
Congratulations to July’s winner, George
Allen of Butte, Montana, and August winner
Graham Brew of Alameda, California.
Until next time,
Gretchen