|
Geoscientists, engineers set to meet in Anchorage this spring Joint AAPG, SPE, GSA meeting in Anchorage in May to highlight use of technology to deliver energy, natural resources in future Alan Bailey Petroleum News
People who think that they always have to travel to the Lower 48 or overseas to attend professional conferences might want to check out the joint meeting of the Pacific Section, American Association of Petroleum Geologists; Western Region, Society of Petroleum Engineers; and Cordilleran Section, Geological Society of America taking place in Anchorage on May 8-10.
With a theme of “North to Alaska: geoscience, technology and natural resources,” this major conference will bring together geoscientists and petroleum engineers from around the United States and internationally. And, for anyone with an interest in the geosciences or in natural resource development, the conference will provide a great opportunity to learn about state-of-the-art research and technology.
Hosted by the Alaska Geological Society and the Alaska section of SPE, this will be the first joint meeting in Alaska of all three western chapters of the national organizations, co-chairs, Greg Wilson, Bill Van Dyke and Jeanine Schmidt of the organizing committee told Petroleum News. The organizers expect a mix of experts both from academia and from industry to attend the meeting.
“It’s a great opportunity to exchange all the ideas (across the various disciplines),” Wilson said. For a topic such as heavy oil, for example, “you’re going to get a mix of talks from the engineering side of things and geological side of things,” he said.
And an engineer from one company will be able to listen to a talk by a geologist from another company, and so on, Van Dyke added.
Given the focus of the participating organizations and the location of the meeting, there will be a strong emphasis on the west coast of America in general and Alaska in particular. And although the conference theme is very broad the focus will tend to be on natural resources, with topics on metals as well as oil and gas.
“Resource development is really the big issue that drives geology up here,” Schmidt said.
Henry Posamentier of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. will give the keynote address on 3-D seismic expression of deepwater depositional elements. Technical program The core of the meeting will consist of a three-day technical program, in which experts will deliver a multitude of papers on topics ranging from the petroleum geology of northern Alaska to the latest development in well integrity management. As alternatives to giving talks people can present information on 4-foot by 8-foot posters displayed in the meeting venue.
Alongside technical papers on a variety of themes, a one-day symposium entitled “The Brooks Range Orogen: a Symposium in Honor of Gil Mull” will feature papers about Alaska’s Brooks Range. Veteran geologist Gil Mull was part of the team that discovered the giant Prudhoe Bay field and he remains a central figure in Alaska oil and gas geological research.
The technical program will provide people with an opportunity to present original work, which will then become published in the official meeting abstracts.
“It’s the first forum and the first opportunity to get an idea out there,” Wilson said.
The program will also include sessions for students to present findings from their research.
The meeting organizers have sketched out some theme sessions for the technical program, with lists of topics that seem to reflect the overall theme of the conference.
“In general we wanted to emphasize things that are about tectonics and basic framework geology — how that applies to resources, oil and gas geology,” Schmidt said.
However, these initial theme topics are partly intended to inspire ideas for papers: the organizers will determine a final list of themes once they see what papers have been submitted.
“The organizing committee put these themes together to try to get the papers focused in these areas … they seem to be appropriate session themes,” Van Dyke said. “… But you never know what people want to write about or what they will write about.” Field trips The organizers have scheduled several field trips as part of the conference. Alaska’s magnificent scenery presents some remarkable opportunities to see almost every aspect of geology — the field trips cover a wide spectrum of this geology, from Mesozoic and Cenozoic basins to Quaternary climate change. And the timing of individual trips is staggered, to allow people to attend more than one tour — on different days, for example, an attendee could visit sites from the Alaska Range down to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula.
“Southern Alaska is the plastering of a bunch of terranes over geologic time, so we’ve got a couple of field trips … one from up in the Denali Park area across the Denali Fault working your way down toward the Cook Inlet and up the Matanuska Valley,” Wilson said. “And then (another) on down to Seward and … offshore a little bit.”
In another field trip glaciologist Kristine Crossen from the University of Alaska will lead a glacier cruise in western Prince William Sound.
A conference highlight will be a trip to the Kuparuk field on the North Slope, with BP Exploration (Alaska) providing transportation to the slope and ConocoPhillips Alaska hosting the field tour. That trip will be limited to 111 people — early conference registration will be needed to be sure of a place.
The Anchorage program also includes a program of short courses, including world expert James MacEachern talking about trace fossils and a couple of classes presented by Schlumberger on log interpretation. A course on Alaska’s volcanoes, earthquakes and subduction zones will provide data for classroom use for K through 12 schoolteachers.
The conference will include some special events such as award lunches for presenting service awards and other recognitions. The director of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology will speak at a lunch event. Industry involvement The conference enjoys substantial industry support. As well as the industry-funded Kuparuk field trip, companies are contributing to other events such as icebreakers. There will also be a vendor exhibit hall, where companies can promote their products and services to attendees from industry, colleges and government agencies.
In fact the organizers anticipate a wide variety of people attending the conference — it is open to the general public, not just to the members of the participating organizations. There are also options to attend single days, to just go on a field trip or to attend one of the short courses.
And the conference co-chairs think that the Alaska-based team of 30 or more people who are organizing the conference is bringing Alaska knowledge that gives this major event just the right flavor. As a showcase for geology and a major region for natural resource development, Alaska offers a unique setting that can inspire creative ideas and technical innovation.
Further information about the conference is available at www.anchorage2006.com. People are encouraged to register early and, for those presenting papers, the deadline for abstracts is Feb. 7.
| 