2020 Meeting Resources

Annual Meeting

  • Focused geologic studies on the Delaware Basin, Midland Basin, Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk Formations in Texas
  • Special technical session and core workshop on the Vaca Muerta Fm., Argentina
  • Integrated core characterization methods and results that tie to rock and fluid attributes
  • Hydrocarbon geochemistry, expulsion, migration and oil saturation studies
  • Understanding fluid transport, and permeability and porosity in mudrock systems
  • Full day Mudrocks short course
  • Full day core workshop (postponed)

Day 1: Wednesday, April 8th, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Technical session

Video 8:00 - 8:30 Log in, set up, introduction, overview, and highlights – Toti Larson & Joseph Yeh
    Reservoir Architecture and Attributes I: Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk Formation
Document
Video
8:30 - 9:00 Chemostratigraphy of the Eagle Ford Shale across the San Marcos Arch and Karnes Trough; Data analytics to integrate complex datasets – Toti Larson and Steve Ruppel
Document
Video
9:00 - 9:30 Eagle Ford diagenesis as a function of burial depth and maturity and how it impacts petrophysical and mechanical properties – Lucy Ko and Robert Loucks
Document
Video
9:30 - 10:00 Geochemical evidence of organic matter source and depositional environments of Lower and Upper Eagle Ford – Xun Sun
Video 10:00 - 10:30 Break with online discussion
Document
Video
10:30 - 11:00 Spatial heterogeneity of crude oil in the Eagle Ford Shale and key controls to oil quality – Tongwei Zhang
Document
Video
11:00 - 11:30 Mineralogy trends for the Austin Chalk across south Texas and Louisiana – Robert Loucks (given by Toti Larson)
Document
Video
11:30 - 12:00 A preliminary study of the effects of thin bed layers on hydraulic fracturing – Farzam Javadpour & Mehran Mehrabi
  12:00 - 1:00 Lunch break and online discussion
    Porosity, Permeability, Wettability, and Fluid Flow Modeling
Document
Video
1:00 - 1:30 The effects of entrapped gas bubbles on liquid flow in shale– Farzam Javadpour and Hong Zuo
Document
Video
1:30 - 2:00 Pore Connectivity, Porosity, Permeability, and Influence of TOC and Mineralogy in Shale– Sheng Peng
Document
Video
2:00 - 2:30 Three Dimensional Digital Shale to Estimate Permeability- Farzam Javadpour & Tao Zhang
  2:30 - 3:00 Break with online discussion
Document
Video
3:00 - 3:30 Gas-water relative permeability and implications on optimal production strategies. Examples from the Eagle Ford Shale and Wolfcamp Formation – Sheng Peng
Document
Video
3:30 - 4:00 Oil recovery by water imbibition and wettability (mostly Wolfcamp) – Sheng Peng
Document
Video
4:00 - 4:30 Machine learning, convolutional neural network application in pore identification in shale/mudrock SEM images - Ken Ikeda & Lucy Ko
Document
Video
4:30 - 5:00 Complex roles of calcite in organic-rich mudrocks: using micropetrography to understand grains, fossils, and cements – Rob Reed & Robert Loucks

Day 2: Thursday, April 9th, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM Technical session

  7:30 - 8:00 Sign in, Set up, Introduction, overview, and highlights – Toti Larson
Video 8:00 - 8:30 Presentation of “Anatomy of a Paleozoic Basin Volume 2” and a stratigraphic framework for the Permian Basin – Charlie Kerans
    Reservoir Architecture and Attributes II: Permian Basin
Document
Video
8:30 - 9:00 Wolfcamp A and B lithologic and thermal maturity trends across Reagan County, Midland Basin – Toti Larson, Lucy Ko, Scott Hamlin, and Steve Ruppel
Document
Video
9:00 - 9:30 Trace-elemental and petrographic constraints on the severity of hydrographic restriction in the silled Midland Basin during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age – Junwen Peng & Toti Larson
  9:30 - 10:00 Slope to basin sediment pathways and stratigraphic correlations in the southern Delaware Basin – Xavier Janson and Buddy Price
  10:00 - 10:30 Break with online discussion
Document
Video
10:30 - 11:00 Data analytical tools to integrated lithofacies and geochemical characterizations of Wolfcamp A and B in the Delaware Basin, Reeves County – Toti Larson, Lucy Ko, Rob Reed, and Steve Ruppel
Document
Video
11:00 - 11:30 Key controls to oil saturation in Wolfcamp A and timing of oil vertical migration in Delaware basin – Tongwei Zhang
Document
Video
11:30 - 12:00 Organic source and deposition conditions of Wolfcamp A, Reeves County, Delaware basin – Sun Xun
  12:00 - 1:00 Lunch break and online discussion
    Special Session on the Vaca Muerta
Document
Video
1:00 - 1:30 Depositional Systems of the Vaca Muerta – Cornel Olariu & Ron Steel
Document
Video
1:30 - 2:00 Lithofacies and Depositional Environments of Vaca Muerta, Neuquén Basin – Lucy Ko & Toti Larson
Document
Video
2:00 - 2:30 A critical review of Vaca Muerta pore data with implications in hydraulic fracturing – Farzam Javadpour
  2:30 - 3:00 Break with online discussion
Document
Video
3:00 - 3:30 Hydrocarbon geochemistry, oil saturation and gas storage in the Vaca Muerta, Neuquén Basin, Argentina – Tongwei Zhang
Document
Video
3:30 - 4:00 Preliminary Pore Systems and SEM Lithologies of a Vaca Muerta Core, Neuquén Basin, Argentina – Rob Reed
Video 4:00 Online discussion and questions

Short Courses

Mudrocks Short course

Thursday, April 16th, 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Outline: This short course will present methods of multidisciplinary data collection, analysis, and interpretation that are critical to characterize unconventional mudrock reservoir systems. The fundamentals of each concept will be introduced. Topics to be covered include depositional processes, facies characterization, chemostratigraphy, hydrocarbon geochemistry, pore systems, porosity/permeability, and fluid flow and their importance in mudrock oil and gas reservoir characterization, hydraulic fracturing and production.

Dr. David Mohrig, Associate Dean for Research at the Jackson School of Geosciences and John E. “Brick” Elliott Centennial Professor in Geological Sciences at The Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin will provide a guest presentation on depositional processes.

Video 7:30 - 8:00 Sign in, Set up, Introduction, overview, and highlights – Toti Larson & Joseph Yeh
Video 8:00 - 9:30

Mudrock depositional processes and deep water turbidites (David Mohrig)

  • Depositional processes of sediment gravity flow deposits
Document
Video
9:30 - 10:30

Geochemistry of mudrock systems (Toti Larson)

  • Defining characteristics and attributes of mudrocks
  • Importance of trace and major element chemistry in mudrock characterization
  • Applied data analytics to mudrock geochemical systems

Document
Video

Document
Video

10:30 - 12:00

Diagenesis and pore networks (Robert Reed and Lucy Ko)

  • Diagenetic processes in mudrocks from deposition through burial
  • Evolution of pore types and pore network as a function of thermal maturity, hydrocarbon generation, expulsion, and migration
  12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
Document
Video
1:00 - 2:00

Fluid flow in mudrock systems (Farzam Javadpour)

  • Reliable permeability values are critical in hydraulic fracturing design and production forecast
  • NonDarcy gas and liquid flow
Document
Video
2:00 - 3:00

Porosity and Permeability measurements (Sheng Peng)

  • Pros and cons of laboratory methods and comparison of GRI vs. pressure decay methods
  • Importance of relative permeability and laboratory measurements

Document
Video

Video

3:00 - 4:30

Hydrocarbon geochemistry – (Tongwei Zhang and Xun Sun)

  • Defining organic matter type, oil and gas generation and migration
  • Biomarkers and their application in source input and thermal maturity
  4:30 - onward Online discussion and questions

CorePy Short course

Wednesday, August 26th

Document
Video
  Integrating geology and data analytics
Document   Identifying possible volcanic ash layers from fluorescent features in UV Mudrock core images using Python
Document   Supplementing stratigraphic frameworks with chemofacies characterization

Characterization of Mudrock Reservoirs Short course

Agenda

Tuesday, December 15th

Video

Document 9:00 - 9:45

CorePy: Data analytics and Chemostratigraphy to characterize mudrock systems (Toti Larson)

  • Integrating supervised data analytics and geochemical principles
  • Upscaling core measurements to GR, NPHI, RHOB, RES wireline logs
Document 9:45 - 10:30

Distinguishing biogenic, detrital, and authigenic silica in mudrock systems (Rob Reed)

  • Biogenic Silica: What is it, what happens to it during diagenesis, and why is it important?
  • Tools and techniques to distinguish silica sources in mudrocks
  10:30 - 11:15

Zircon U–Pb chemical abrasion (“CA-TIMS”) method (Neil Griffis - USGS)

  • U-Pb zircon geochronology and CA-ID-TIMS methods
  • Utility of resolving stratigraphic correlations in the Permian Basin
Document 11:15 - 12:00

In-Depth Rock-Eval Pyrolysis in Unconventional Source and Reservoir Rocks (Lucy Ko)

  • Lithological and facies effects on Rock-Eval parameters
  • Possible interpretation errors associated with Tmax converted thermal maturity (solvent extraction before and after pyrolysis)

Wednesday, December 16th

Video

Document 9:00 - 9:45

Geochemistry of produced fluids (Tongwei Zhang)

  • Oil sulfur content and source attribution of H2S
  • Time-lapse oil geochemistry and drainage rock volume
Document 9:45 - 10:30

Geochemical Biomarkers (Xun Sun)

  • Organic matter type, source input
  • Hydrocarbon molecular and biomarker parameters for thermal maturity assessment
Document 10:30 - 11:15

Methods for measuring permeability and porosity (Sheng Peng)

  • Porosity, permeability, and relative perm
  • Pore connectivity
Document 11:15 - 12:00

Fluid flow in shale (Farzam Javadpour)

  • Permeability models
  • Modeling of two phase flow

Core workshop (postponed until further notice)

Held at Bureau of Economic Geology, Core Research Center. Cores to be presented:

  • Delaware Basin - Bone Spring (Leonardian), Reeves County
  • Delaware Basin - Wolfcamp A & B, Reeves County
  • Midland Basin - Wolfcamp A & B and Dean Fm., Reagan County
  • Eagle Ford Shale: Karnes County
  • Eagle Ford Shale: Webb and Dimmit Counties (two cores)
  • Vaca Muerta Fm., Neuquén Basin, Argentina
8:30 - 9:15 Short oral presentations of cores to be viewed (BEG VR room)
9:15 - 12:00 Core workshop
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 3:00 Core workshop
3:00 - 4:30 Open core viewing

Poster Presentations (postponed until further notice)

The use of neural network to quantify pores and porosity in organic matter - A. Wang & Farzam Javadpour

Effective slip length of heterogeneous surface with entrapped bubble - H. Zuo & Farzam Javadpour

Petrography of Mudrocks and Their Implications on Source Rock and Seal Properties in the Alaska North Slope: OM Types, Quality, Provenance, Diagenesis, and Depositional Environment – Lucy Ko

Bulk and Position-Specific Isotope Geochemistry of Natural Gases from the Eagle Ford Shale, South Texas – Liu, Horita, & Toti Larson

Pore Systems and SEM Lithologies for the Permian Wolfcamp Shale from the Delaware Basin, Texas – R. Reed, S. Peng, S. Ruppel, & E. Sivil

Carbonate Factory Response and Recovery following OAE-1A in Central Texas Esben Pedersen

Geochemical response of Lower Jurassic intervals to magmatic doming of the North Sea – Kiara Gomez

Quartz types in the Upper Pennsylvanian organic-rich Cline Shale (Wolfcamp D), Midland Basin, Texas: Implications for silica diagenesis and rock mechanical properties – J. Peng & Kitty Miliken

Integrated petrographic, lithologic, and geochemical characterization of the Lower Eagle Ford in Dimmit and Webb Counties – Lucy Ko

Geochemical controls of diagenetic limestone concretions in the Lower Eagle Ford Shale – E. Sivil, Toti Larson, & Lucy Ko

SEM image automation using machine learning techniques – Building a tool for size-distribution and detection of pyrite framboids in mudrocks – Artur Davletshin & Ko

Hydrocarbon geochemistry, thermal maturity and oil saturation in the Vaca Muerta – Tongwei Zhang

Tracer-guided characterization of dominant pore network and implication for permeability and wettability in unconventional reservoir rocks Sheng Peng, Rob Reed, Xianghui Xiao, & Yijin Liu


2019 Meeting Resources

2018 March Meeting

2017 March Meeting

2016 March Meeting

2015 April Meeting

2014 March Meeting

2013 March Meeting

2012 March Meeting

2011 March Meeting

2010 June Meeting

2010 January Meeting


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