Welcome back. September 2012 Let s get right to business. Returning SWLGS President Dr. Gary Kinsland, has this to say about our first technical meeting presentation of the SWLGS season, which will be delivered on Tuesday, September 18 at the Petroleum Club: The opportunity to get Erik Scott to give this particular presentation came up for Tuesday, September 18. Erik presented on campus last spring and this topic is too good to pass up. I guarantee you will be impressed at the evidence he presents. Erik Scott is a geologist who works for Marathon in Houston, and his talk deals with the Chicxulub impact and its effect on sedimentation in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. The presentation therefore combines elements that are of significant academic as well as commercial interest. There is something in here for everybody. Read more about the presentation and about Erik here. On the heels of the kick-off SWLGS meeting on Tuesday, LGS will hold its season opener on Wednesday, September 19, also at the Petroleum Club. LGS s speaker will be SWLGS and LGS member Bill Finley of Rozel Energy. Bill will deliver a presentation entitled So You Want to be a Geoscientist: Welcome to the 21 st Century. The (perhaps) provocative first line in his abstract: We are becoming slaves to our technology. Come to the LGS meeting and see if Bill is onto something, and what he thinks we might do to get our technology working for us again. Check out the entire abstract and Bill s bio farther on in this document. Click here for local industry news and an update on the progress of permitting in the GOM. Finally, there is a geologically interesting but, for the people in the area, personally agonizing situation developing in the Bayou Corne area in Assumption Parish. We hope to get somebody from either the LA DNR or the USGS, which is also conducting some aspects of the investigation, to come to one of our meetings and give us some of the details. See below, from the LA Department of Natural Resources website. Incident Summary In June and July 2012, Assumption Parish government officials, state government, and federal agencies joined in an investigation of unexplained bubbling in Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou. On August 2-3, 2012, an area of wooded swamp located in Bayou Corne began to subside and this activity led Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh to issue a Declaration of Emergency on Friday, August 3, 2012. At the same time, Assumption Parish declared a state of emergency and Governor Bobby Jindal in Proclamation 82 BJ 2012 declared a statewide emergency as a result of the threat of subsidence and subsurface instability that could threaten the lives and property of citizens of Louisiana.
As of August 10, 2012, ALL DNR Bayou Corne Updates can be found here. For more information on Bayou Corne Incident, see the Assumption Parish Government website- www.assumptionla.com and La. Dept. of Environmental Quality See you Tuesday. 2012-2013 SWLGS Officers President Gary Kinsland ULL PO Box 44530 Lafayette, LA 70504 1st Vice President Martell Strong ULL 2nd Vice President Michael R. Blaes Fugro GeoServices, Inc. Secretary Cathy Bishop University of Louisiana at Lafayette Treasurer Tim Bennett Orbit Energy 200 Dulles Drive Lafayette, LA 70506 P.O. Box 44530 Lafayette, LA 70504 400 East Kaliste Saloom Rd Lafayette, LA 70508 (337) 268-3237 (337) 482-0678 (337) 291-2720 Chairpersons Webmaster Scholarship Cathy Bishop OPEN
SIPES 11:30 AM Petroleum Club SPWLA 11:30 AM Petroleum Club SWLGS 11:30 AM Petroleum Club LGS 11:30 AM Petroleum Club Biography SWLGS Technical Meeting 11:30 AM Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Lafayette Petroleum Club Effect of the K/Pg boundary Chicxulub impact on the northern Gulf of Mexico Erik Scott*, Richard Denne, James Kaiser, and David Eickhoff Marathon Oil Company Houston, TX *speaker Erik Scott is a geologist working for Marathon Oil in Houston, Texas on a wide variety of projects in both exploration and production. Over his career, he has engaged in stratigraphic analysis of numerous areas including the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, offshore West Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean. He received a Ph.D. in geology from Louisiana State University, studying under Dr. Arnold H. Bouma, with whom he investigated influences on deepwater sedimentation, based on the turbidite outcrops in the Karoo Basin of South Africa.
Abstract The Chicxulub bolide impact on the Yucatan peninsula at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary has been postulated as the trigger that re-mobilized sediment into mass transport flows on the submerged shelf along eastern North and Central America as well as around the Gulf of Mexico and redistributed sediment out into the deep water Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Well log and biostratigraphic data from Cretaceous well penetrations in the deep-water northern Gulf of Mexico show a distinctive micritic deposit at the K/Pg boundary that is similar in composition and biostratigraphy to sediments found near the Chicxulub Crater, DSDP/ODP cores and outcrops in Cuba. Investigation of seismic data in the northern Gulf of Mexico shows anomalous sedimentary wedges of high amplitude reflectors situated at the top of the Cretaceous section that are interpreted to be the resulting deposit from the mass transport flows and suspension fallout initiated by the impact. At the end of the Cretaceous, the northern Gulf of Mexico was undergoing allocthonous salt movement from the Jurassic Louann Salt that was expressed in numerous salt highs defining potential clastic sediment fairways. The sediment redistribution caused by the Chicxulub impact filled in the available accommodation space around the salt highs, as well as depositing on the highs themselves, and altered the seafloor topography across the northern Gulf of Mexico. This resulted in an efficient transportation pathway from shelf to deep water and influenced the sedimentation patterns of the subsequent sediment gravity flows of the Wilcox Formation. Very Proximal Proximal Intermediate Distal Global distribution of key K/Pg boundary data locations. Note the locations and proximity of the Chicxulub crater to sites around the Gulf of Mexico. (After Schulte et al, 2010)
Log characteristics of the K/Pg deposit in the deep water Gulf of Mexico.
LGS Technical Meeting 11:30 AM Wednesday, September 19, 2012 Lafayette Petroleum Club So You Want to be a Geoscientist: Welcome to the 21 st Century Bill Finley Rozel Energy, LLC Lafayette, LA Abstract We are becoming slaves to our technology. How does this happen? The technology is marketed to us in ways to make us think we are making our lives easier by having the technology do some, or all, of our work for us. But do we understand what this implies? We are giving control to the technology. We need help processing increasingly larger volumes of data, but this ability to access and evaluate large data volumes effectively separates us from the data we are trying to interpret and gets us accustomed to the expectation of a quick answer. But if we fail to check the results relative to the input, we could be making decisions based on invalid interpretations. Ultimately our dependence on data processing leads to a failure to integrate and understand basic underlying principles and eventually forgetting how the process works. Think about how many of us still do simple math in our heads since the availability of the calculator, or how few of us learn to read a map since GPS. This process is now happening with computer generation of the maps that are the life blood of our industry. This discussion will be case specific, i.e., about geoscientific applications, and especially how we do our job keeping this country energy secure through exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons. As patriotic as that sounds, we do not work in a vacuum; we have to get paid for our efforts. Thus we will be looking at the economics of what we do and how we can be more efficient and cost effective while keeping true to standard geologic practices and the techniques that have worked so well for us before we were mesmerized by the technology. A brief history of the search for hydrocarbons is relevant as it shows us how we were able to accept the technological advances of the past and utilize them in ways to increase our knowledge and refine our techniques to be more successful in our endeavors. This should encourage us to accept today s technological advances as long as we use them for our ends, keeping them in perspective and relevant to basic geologic principles. As mentioned, economics will direct this discussion. So we start with the reservoir volume map; that entity that defines the economic viability of a project. This will be reconstructed (as per my earlier paper in the March 2011 SIPES Quarterly) defining the elements and processes necessary for its accuracy and reliability. This will lead us to an examination of the data that comprises these elements and their potential for error and misinterpretation. Finally we will examine the processes and how we can use the technology to apply them in ways that will be not only practical, but yield significant economic rewards. Cheaper, faster, better is the goal that gets the bills paid.
Biography Bill Finley Married to Heather Warner since 1984, no children. Grew up in Lake Charles, LA, graduating from LaGrange High with honors in science and math. Started collage at USL (will always be USL to me, just like prior graduates remember it as SLI) as a math major, but twisted off at the Library and got drafted in 1968; not a good time to be going into the service. However, while there I learned that if you want better, you have to work for it, and somehow that got me into Geology. Thought I would be working in the great outdoors. Returned to college (USL) on the GI Bill and finished with a BS in Geology in 1974 and an MS in Geology in 1975. Got out just as the industry began hiring, starting with Gulf Oil in New Orleans. Worked exploration in the MAFLA Region, even doing some well site work in the Baltimore Canyon. After a transfer to Venice Area Development and subsequent disillusionment with management, accepted a position with Forest Oil in Lafayette in 1979. After surviving the roller-coaster ride of the 80 s, I was let go in 1990 to seek my fortune as an independent. (My first contract job was with Forest Oil.) I joined the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (S.I.P.E.S.) that year and have been a member since. As an independent, I have worked extensively with computer applications for geologic mapping and seismic interpretation with Forest Oil, ESRI in Columbia, SC, and Dan Tearpock at Subsurface Consultants & Associates. I joined Rozel, LLC in 1996 and am currently a partner generating prospects and selling deals. A long-time member of AAPG, SEG, and S.I.P.E.S., I was the 2008-09 S.I.P.E.S. Vice President of National Energy, and the National President for 2009-10. I entertained the S.I.P.E.S. Membership with the National Energy articles in the Quarterly in 2008-09 and the President s Message in 2009-10. In addition, I wrote the lead article in the March 2011 Quarterly, Whose Fault Is It? A Geologic Empire in the Central Gulf Coast, a perspective on where we are failing and why we still need geologic input to identify opportunities in this business. Most recently, I contributed to the New Orleans Geological Society s Oil and Gas Fields of S. La., 2010 with an in depth analysis of our rediscovery and development of Creole Field.
Offshore Permit Update Status as of January 9, 2012 Status as of September 14, 2012
Industry News The following are news releases from PXP, announcing acquisitions from BP and Shell of several assets in the Deep Water Gulf of Mexico: o HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE: PXP) ("PXP" or the "Company") today announces it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from BP Exploration & Production Inc. and BP America Production Company ("BP") all of their interests in certain deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and gas properties for $5.55 billion. The properties include the BP-Operated Marlin, Dorado and King Fields (collectively the Marlin Hub, 100% working interest), BP-Operated Horn Mountain Field (working interest 100%), BP- Operated Holstein Field (working interest 50%), BP non-operated Diana-Hoover Field (33.33% working interest, operated by ExxonMobil) and BP non-operated Ram Powell Field (31% working interest, operated by Shell Offshore Inc.). o HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE: PXP) ("PXP" or the "Company") today announces it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from Shell Offshore Inc. ("Shell") its 50% working interest in the Holstein Field for $560 million.