GEOL 745 - Petroleum Geology

Brief Summary:

This course provides a hands-on introduction to the process of and principles for exploration of oil and natural gas, and is based around the annual international Imperial Barrel Award competition sponsored by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. In addition to addresssing topics relevant to petroleum exploration, the course will also provide students an opportunity to work as a team to compete internationally and present their work to professionals in the petroleum industry.

Course Organization:

The course will be focussed around interpretation and analysis of the dataset provided through the Imperial Barrell Award competition, supplemented by lectures and discussions on selected topics. Up to five class members will be selected to represent the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the annual IBA competition, with Regionals in late March, and potentially at the finals in late April, per the rules and regulations of the competition.

Important Dates:

• 09 Jan 2012 - First day of classes spring 2012
• 29 Jan 2012 - distribution of IBA dataset
• 05-09 Mar 2012 - Spring break
• 24 Mar 2012 - AAPG Eastern Section IBA competition - Pittsburgh, PA
• 20-21 Apr 2012 - AAPG Final IBA competition, AAPG Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA
• 22 Apr 2012 - IBA Awards Presentation, AAPG Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA
• 23 Apr 2012 - Last day of classes spring 2012

Suggested Textbooks :

Applied Subsurface Geological Mapping with Structural Methods (2nd Ed.), 2003, Daniel J. Tearpock and Richard E. Bischke, Pearson, 864 p.

Practical Seismic Interpretation, 1985, Michael E. Badley, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 266 p.(out of print)

Treatise on Petroleum Geology, American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Software Packages (as appropriate for IBA dataset):

• Landmark Software
• The Kingdom Suite - SMT
• HampsonRussell
• Petrel

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this upper-division course, students will

• understand the mutliple facets of modern petroleum exploration
• have a command of various software tools used in manipulating and analyzing geophysical and geological data
• develop the ability to integrate diverse datasets to understand subsurface geology
• complete an assignment in a time-limited manner with significant uncertainties
• establish a team-oriented approach to complex problem solving

Assessment:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of

• class presentation on one of the IBA topics (25%)
• peer assessment of class presentation (25%)
• peer assessment of group effort (25%)
• written summary of project at end of semester (25%)