Industry

Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Sciences Symposium

The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) at The University of Queensland is proud to host the inaugural Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Sciences Symposium which will be held on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 November 2017 at The University of Queensland.

The Symposium celebrates the achievements of notable women in the Earth Sciences and is named after the late Dorothy Hill, who was the first woman Professor in Australia, the first woman to become a member of the Australian Academy of Sciences and its first President. 

Professor Dorothy Hill was a pioneer of research, a leader for women in science, a woman of action, and one of The University of Queensland’s (UQ) most outstanding graduates.  She was a well-known figure at the University from the time she was 18 years old and beginning her degree until she retired, aged in her seventies. By then she had become a world-renowned professor.  Throughout her career, she led by example and inspired women to pursue science and a university education. Through her numerous achievements, she helped to advance the place of women in academia.

This inspirational event will be a powerful two days of learning. Come and learn from, and network with, some of the world’s top female earth scientists.  Speakers include: 

• Prof Adina Paytan, University of California Santa Cruz, USA
• Prof Kliti Grice, Curtin University, Australia
• Prof Xu, Nanjing University, China
• Dr Zanna Chase, University of Tasmania, Australia
• Dr Emma Gagen, The University of Queensland, Australia
• Prof Carmen Gaina, University of Oslo, Norway
• Dr Vanessa Guthrie, Minerals Council of Australia
• Associate Professor Heather Handley, Macquarie University, Australia
• Dr Sandra McLaren, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Dr Meghan Miller, The Australian National University, Australia
• Dr Michelle Parks, University of Iceland, Iceland
• Dr Catherine Rose, University of St Andrews, UK
• Jill Stevens, ESSO Australia

Symposium website

Registration

The SA Branch is holding a Melbourne Cup Luncheon on Tuesday 7 November

The luncheon will be held in the Hindmarsh Room, Crowne Plaza at 16 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide between 12:00 and 17:00.

Beer, wine, champagne, cider & soft drinks fo 4 hours.
Come in your racing attire - Prizes for best dressed

Menu
Entree:

• Burratina, organic spelt, asparagus, toasted pumpkin seed salad., with basil pesto.

Main: (alternate drop of)

• Grain-fed beef sirloin with wild mushroom ragout, herb roasted new potato and shiraz glaze.
• Marinaded roast chicken breast with cauliflower almond puree, heirloom carrots and pancetta.

Cost

$70 per person for ASEG members & partners

$90 per person for non ASEG members

$50 per person for students (either ASEG member or non-member)

$700 for a table of 10

The ASEG's website is only able to accept payment from ASEG members.

Non-members and students must contact aseg.mlbcup@gmail.com for payment.

AEGC2018 conference presentation skills workshop

Find your Voice - Present with Confidence

Nothing is more important in a presentation than what YOU have to say so; what if breaking some conventions meant your audience actually listened?

What if a willingness to try something new was the key to improving your delivery?

In this get up and do it workshop hovering somewhere between Acting Class, Stand Up and Therapy – Be prepared to justify why you think what you’re doing presently in presentation works!

Using empathy based methods, this workshop asks you to resist emulating the style of others and generate new ideas around creating impact.

As an audience, we don’t perhaps discuss the machinations of what it is to be presented to.

• What is our experience?
• Why do we recall some things and not others?
• How does it feel to be presented to – By You?

Part one of this live demonstration format includes discussion focussing on presentation creation and preparation as well opportunities for participants to deliver an ‘Elevator Pitch’ more effectively.

The second half of the session will see small groups working together on a group presentation challenge to be delivered and adjudicated.

With an emphasis on confidence and team building, this workshop offers an opportunity for collective learning and vibrant discussion while reinforcing the importance of strong professional and personal messaging.

What might it take for you to be “Perfectly Presentable”?

Register for this workshop at TAS

Date: Sunday 18th February 2018

Time: 9am-4pm

Location: Spinnaker B room at the Adina Apartment Hotel, Darling Harbour.

Lunch, morning and afternoon tea included

New pricing

• $225 (+GST) pp for members of the ASEG, AIG or PESA Young Professionals networks
• $375 (+GST) pp for ASEG, PESA and AIG members
• $475 (+GST) pp for non-members

Facilitator biography

This workshop will be facilitated by London-based Doug Knight.

London based Doug Knight is a creative, high-energy presenter, trainer and coach.

As a Public Speaking and Presentation consultant, Doug has inspired clients studying and working across a multitude of sectors including Britain’s Oil and Gas industry.

A trained actor Doug, travelled to the UK from Australia soon after graduating.  10 years in West End theatres was followed by aviation public relations notably helping launch the world’s first A380 Super Jumbo.

From popular and targeted presentation workshops for large corporations to pitch clinics for startups within London's tech. community, Doug’s approach identifies and capitalizes on an individual’s existing abilities.

A heightened awareness of presentation potential is the rewarding benefit for clients, but the rapport Doug develops with groups and individuals is his personal and most important measure of success.

Find out more about Doug by visiting his Website.

"This workshop is being organised by the Young Professionals special interest group of the ASEG as part of a wider effort to improve early career training opportunities. Geoscientists from all society affiliations and experience levels are welcome to attend.

I've been working with Doug to adapt the latter part of the workshop to geoscience presentation challenges with a focus on conference oral or poster formats and including typical geoscientific content. However, if group presentation therapy is not your thing, feel free to contact Doug directly via his website for in-house or 1-on-1 training.

I know it will be a fun day and I look forward to welcoming you to the premiere offering of this workshop in Australia." Dr Jarrod Dunne

The Australian Geoscience Council (AGC) and Australian Academy of Science (AAS) have opened a new round of major grants to support early-career Australian and New Zealand Geoscientists to travel overseas to work with global scientific experts, and progress research, in a wide range of critical Geoscience subject areas.
Research supported by the grants is anticipated to bring significant benefits to the people of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Previous grant rounds in 2015 and 2016 supported recipients’ travel to undertake:

• cutting edge research into what triggers volcanoes
• field-based research into the potentially-explosive hazards posed by the interaction of magma with water in volcanic fields in Arizona
• research on volcanic lava domes in Chile, to assist with risk assessment of future lava dome eruptions in New Zealand
• state-of-the-art earthquake experiments in a Paris laboratory
• research into novel approaches to the underground storage of carbon dioxide
• research using a drone to map and understand the link between brown coal and weed expansion on sand-dunes in New Zealand, in order to better understand past climate change

The grants have also supported:

• research into more accurate methods of timing major geological events
• the planning of an oceanographic survey of deep-sea volcanoes
• research into an improved understanding of New Zealand gold deposits
• work to determine the geological pathways by which Australian mineral deposits have formed
• participation in geological mapping work in Papua New Guinea

The grants are being offered by the AGC (Australia’s peak body for more than 8000 Geoscientists) and AAS under the 34th International Geological Congress Travel Grant Scheme for Early-Career Australian and New Zealand Geoscientists.

For the 2017 travel grant applications, additional funds are available to early-career Geoscientists who propose to make a significant contribution to the Australian Geoscience Council Convention to be held in Adelaide in October 2018 (www.agcc.org.au). This will be the first time that all of Australia’s major Geoscience organisations will come together under the AGC umbrella to address Big Issues and Ideas in Geoscience.

Applications for the 2017 grants round are now open, and close on 31 October.

More information here

The future of Western Australia’s petroleum security will be under the spotlight at this year’s annual Petroleum Open Day, to be held on Friday, 15 September 2017 at the Hyatt Regency, Perth.

In addition to presentations from senior Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) staff,  an extensive poster display and exhibits by Pawsey supercomputing centre, Australian Marine Complex (AMC), Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), National Energy Resources Australia (NERA), Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (wa:era) and Geoscience Australia, along with IT sessions for the Western Australian Petroleum and Geothermal Information Management System (WAPIMS) and the Petroleum Gateway, will be on show.

Some of the major presentations include:

• Vision for Petroleum 2020, Jeff Haworth, Executive Director Petroleum, DMIRS
• Towards 2020, Simon Ridge, Executive Director Resources Safety, DMIRS
• Waitsia/Senecio Project, Dr Suzanne Hunt, Manager Engineering and Development, AWE
• Tubridgi gas storage, Jon Cleary, General Manager Commercial, Dampier Bunbury Pipeline
• Panel discussion on Energy Security facilitated by Tom Baddeley, Santos.

The full program and bookings can be found at www.dmp.wa.gov.au/pod

This course will inspire geoscientists to explore if EM geophysics can be relevant to their problem, build a foundation for choosing an appropriate survey based upon knowledge of physical principles, and set realistic expectations for what information you might be able to extract from a survey based on physical principles.

The course will be hosted by Doug Oldenburg from the Geophysical Inversion Facility at UBC.

This course is run over two days.

Day 1 is the DISC Course

Day 2 is the DISC Lab which is non-compulsory.

A webinar has been added to Doug's itinerary. This will be hosted from the Brisbane leg of the tour.

Webinar booking.

More details are here.

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.

Call for Abstracts Now Open

Deadline for Submissions is 28 September 2017

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. Don't miss your chance to share your knowledge and investigate all Utah has to offer.

The Technical Program Committee encourages abstracts with direct application to industry. In particular, abstracts that deal with the hottest, most relevant play areas, both domestic and international, are most desirable. We also encourage case studies that illustrate the successful implementation of new techniques and technologies. In addition, student participation is a priority ‒ AAPG ACE is an invaluable opportunity to showcase graduate research that advances the industry.

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)

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

More information at http://ace.aapg.org/2018/

Bala Kunjan, from CUE Energy Ltd, will talk to the topic: " The challenges with Exploration Chance of Success Predictions and suggestions to manage them.”

Although the examples used in the presentation pertain to oil and gas exploration, the ideas are more generally applicable in all areas of exploration predictions, so don’t hesitate to attend -- your worst COS outcome is free drinks!

A detailed abstracted is provided in the registration link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/aseg-technical-meeting-tickets-36351904525

Please RSVP before the 26/07/2017 COB using the above provided link:

Please advise of special dietary requirements by emailing vicpresident@aseg.org.au

Geophysics Students graduating from the University of Queensland will present their Honours Thesis topics.