The Utah Geological Association is proud to host the AAPG 2018 Annual Convention & Exhibition (ACE) at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Perhaps the most geologically interesting state in America, Utah will be the perfect host for this year’s ACE. Salt Lake City’s proximity to a number of pre and post show field trips will be a significant draw of geoscientists from around the world. With easy access to some of the most extraordinary rocks in the world, Salt Lake City is the ideal location to combine fundamental geology with emerging innovation and technologies.

For over 100 years AAPG has been the core of the petroleum geoscience world. Entering our 2nd century, AAPG is proud to once again bring together the best geoscientists on the planet to see the latest science and technology, both in the program and exhibition halls.

Theme Descriptions and Subthemes for ACE 2018 Technical Program

Theme 1: Siliciclastics

Theme 1 covers the full range of siliciclastic sedimentary systems, and the plays and reservoirs that they host. Of particular interest are submissions that emphasize the novel application of analogs, analytical tools, modeling methods, and big data analytics to aid understanding and prediction of siliciclastic reservoir distribution, character, and quality.

Subthemes:

Analogs for siliciclastic reservoirs: Outcrops, modern systems, experiments, and numerical/digital models

Continental depositional systems, plays, and reservoirs

Shallow-marine depositional systems, plays, and reservoirs

Deepwater depositional systems, plays, and reservoirs

Diagenesis and reservoir quality in conventional and unconventional clastic reservoirs (Joint with Theme 5: Unconventional Resources)

Big data in sedimentary geology: Integrating large datasets and analytics for uncertainty reduction (Joint with Theme 9: Energy Innovation)

Capturing and evaluating the impact of sedimentologic heterogeneity in reservoir models (Joint with Theme 2: Carbonates and Evaporites)

Using AI to Unlock Problems in Sedimentary Geoscience

Theme 2: Carbonates and Evaporites

Carbonate reservoirs hold more than half of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves, from the super giants of the Middle East to the largest oil field in Utah, Greater Aneth. Theme 2 will explore all aspects of carbonate reservoirs and applicable analogs including deposition, diagenesis, and reservoir modeling.

Subthemes:

Carbonate and evaporite depositional systems: Subsurface, outcrop, and modern settings

Carbonate diagenesis and reservoir quality

Carbonates of Western North America

Carbonate slope-to-basin depositional systems

Microbial carbonates and reservoirs (Joint with Theme 7: Lacustrine Systems)

Capturing and evaluating the impact of sedimentologic heterogeneity in reservoir models (Joint with Theme 1: Siliciclastics)

Theme 3: Unconventional Resources

Unconventional reservoirs are the dominant new drilling targets in North America and are rapidly gaining interest worldwide. Theme 3 addresses challenges and successes in unconventional resource plays ranging from early development to drilling and production. Abstracts should highlight multi-disciplinary approaches to advancing unconventional development.

Subthemes:

Western U.S. unconventional systems - Bakken, Permian, Cretaceous Foreland Basin shales, etc.

North American unconventional systems

Global unconventional systems

Unconventional drilling innovations: Extended reach laterals and other new ideas

Using production data to further geologic understanding of unconventional systems

Finding the sweet spot: Insights into resource plays

New paradigms in petrophysical evaluation of unconventional resources (Joint with Theme 6: Geophysics)

Diagenesis and reservoir quality in conventional and unconventional clastic reservoirs (Joint with Theme 1: Siliciclastics)

Theme 4: Geochemistry, Basin Modeling, and Petroleum Systems

Theme 4 explores advances in geochemistry from the molecular scale to petroleum systems modeling. Abstracts should present innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to solving current geochemical questions that face the petroleum industry.

Subthemes:

Organic and inorganic geochemistry of source rocks

Natural gas systems: Advances in understanding hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases

Advances in molecular geochemistry: Unraveling fluid history

Insights into production time scale processes: Integrating geochemistry and reservoir engineering

Geochemical evaluation and petroleum systems modeling of Greater Rocky Mountain basins

New applications and workflows in basin and petroleum systems modeling

Theme 5: Structure, Tectonics, and Geomechanics

Theme 5 seeks abstracts that address applied structural and geomechanical techniques, provide new process understanding, and highlight new modeling approaches across the range from lithospheric to pore-scale. Submissions that emphasize how integrated structural and geomechanical analyses influence subsurface decision making in exploration, appraisal, and production for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon systems are of particular interest.

Subthemes:

Lithosphere, plate, and regional tectonics

Onshore basins: Advances in structural understanding

Offshore basins: Advances in structural understanding

Geomechanics in conventional and unconventional workflows

Faults and fractures

Theme 6: Geophysics

Theme 6 will explore new advances in geophysics and the integration of geophysical, petrophysical, microseismicity, and non-seismic methods to maximize returns from existing fields, exploring for stratigraphic traps, tight reservoirs, and the potential applications and advances provided by geophysical exploration of geothermal resources.

Subthemes:

Integration of non-seismic geophysical techniques

Seismic imaging, processing, and acquisition: New techniques and breakthroughs

Machine learning advances and applications (Joint with Theme 9: Energy Innovation)

New paradigms in petrophysical evaluation of unconventional resources (Joint with Theme 3: Unconventional Resources)

Microseismicity and induced seismicity: Insights on reservoirs, stress-fields, and development strategies (Joint with Theme 8: Energy and Environment)

Searching for and discovering stratigraphic traps

Integrating petrophysics, lab analyses, and geology

Getting the most out of discoveries: Geophysical techniques and advances

Hydrocarbons and geothermal exploration techniques: Opportunities for technical exchange and advance (Joint with Theme 9: Energy Innovation)

Theme 7: Lacustrine Systems

Exploration in lacustrine systems has seen a significant resurgence in the past decade with the discovery of massive oil deposits in the south Atlantic pre-salt play. With the 2018 ACE meeting in Salt Lake City, and its proximity to the most famous lacustrine rocks in the world, the Eocene Green River Formation, these unique deposits will take center stage.

Subthemes:

Lacustrine hydrocarbon systems of the South Atlantic region: Source, reservoir, seal, and hydrocarbon quality

Fluid flow in lacustrine basin carbonate and clastic reservoirs

The Green River Formation and other ancient carbonate and siliciclastic lake systems

Modern lacustrine analogues: Great Basin, East Africa, China, and others

Controls on hydrocarbon play elements in extensional lake basins

Lake basin analysis: Approaches, controls, and contrasts with marine systems

Microbial carbonates and reservoirs (Joint with Theme 2: Carbonates and Evaporites)

Theme 8: Energy and Environment

The environmental impact of energy development has always been a very important subject for oil and gas companies, but recent high-profile events have brought this controversial topic to the forefront. Theme 8 will explore the science behind several environmentally sensitive issues and how companies can better communicate solutions to the general public.

Subthemes:

Challenges to the social contract: Hydraulic fracturing, produced water, and seismicity

Mitigating environmental impacts in the oil and gas industry

Geochemistry of formation waters and fluid migration

Surface and groundwater contamination and monitoring

Carbon management: From emission through sequestration

Fugitive gas emissions: Seeps, leaks, and well integrity

Coastal and oceanic environmental challenges

Microseismicity and induced seismicity: Insights on reservoirs, stress-fields, and development strategies (Joint with Theme 6: Geophysics)

Theme 9: Energy Innovation

Emphasizing innovation, Theme 9 will highlight emerging science and technologies destined to shape the use of natural energy sources over the next hundred years. Contributions will explore advances in the digital realm that aid geoscientists, nanoscience applications, renewable energy resources, and the resource potential of the solar system.

Subthemes:

Machine learning for exploration and production (Joint with Theme: 6: Geophysics)

Next generation knowledge systems to revitalize opportunities: Making more of what we already know

Sensors to models: Real-time updating of geologic models and simulations

New technologies for imaging, interrogating, and visualizing subsurface data in 3-D and 4-D

Renewable energy integration: Geothermal, solar, wind, and biofuel

Nanoscience for production

New discoveries in the solar system: Implications for energy and mineral resources

Hydrocarbons and geothermal exploration techniques: Opportunities for technical exchange and advance (Joint with Theme 6: Geophysics)

Theme 10: SEPM Research Symposium and Student Research Posters

Dynamics of Sediment Transfer Between Linked Depositional Systems: From Rivers to Lakes to Oceans

The SEPM Research Symposium focuses on records of sediment transfer, with particular attention to stratigraphic perspectives on sediment production, bypass, and storage. Studies may highlight allogenic versus autogenic signals, and the influence of long-term sediment extraction and preservation along source to sink networks in different tectonic settings, climate regimes, etc. Sessions will also explore the petroleum implications of such research, including source and reservoir rock characterization and prediction.

Theme 11: Student Research Poster Sessions

AAPG Student Research Poster Session

SEPM Student Research Poster Session

Special Session: History of Petroleum Geology

The History of Petroleum Geology Committee will again hold its annual forum at the AAPG 2018 ACE. We’re looking for papers that illustrate how petroleum geoscientists throughout history have applied the fundamentals of geoscience to innovative breakthroughs. From paradigm shifts in thinking to key technologies that changed our workflow, the industry is full of examples of how the basics were the key to discovery and to advancing petroleum geology.

Subthemes:

Bridging fundamentals and innovation: examples from our past

The game-changing discoveries, papers and technologies

The history of petroleum exploration in Utah and surrounding areas