Until last week it had been a while since I last attended a true, geoscience convention. I hesitate to tell you exactly how long, lest you judge me unworthy of my role as president of this august society. Let’s just stick with “a while”. I remedied the situation last week, as I represented LGS at the GCAGS board meeting, and then attended the GCAGS convention, which now uses the name GeoGulf.
GCAGS conventions, like some of the member societies of GCAGS, have struggled in recent years with low attendance and disappointing financials. Indeed, the day before the convention, reports at the board meeting indicated that the convention would likely suffer a modest financial loss unless there were a significant number of walk-in registrations. I don’t know the final numbers, but I heard reports that the attendance numbers did jump significantly as the convention began. I suspect those late-comers pushed the finances modestly into the black, which is good. GeoGulf 2020 will be here in Lafayette, where we won’t have the luxury of relying on such a large, in-house community to bolster attendance as the convention begins. To that end, our own James Willis, 2020 convention chair, is hard at work on budgets, fund raising, a robust technical program, and early publicity to drive attendance upward. Let’s all support GeoGulf 2020 in whatever ways we can.
As for the convention itself, I enjoyed it a lot. There was quite a lot of focus on deepwater fields, deepwater exploration, and deepwater reservoirs, along with the basin architecture and origins of the Gulf of Mexico. Recent images of 3D seismic data recorded by BP using their Wolfspar ultralow-frequency seismic source, ocean-bottom sensors, and full-waveform inversion were stunning. One author shared prospect characteristics necessary for success in the deep-water Norphlet trend providing a valuable checklist for future efforts. Tim Rynott showed the results of some work closer to home, detailing techniques he used to drill a successful well in Washington Field, St. Landry parish. All in all, the convention was a good reminder that there is a large community of geoscience professionals out there, and it’s a good idea to rub shoulders with them regularly.
I’d like to remind you that this month’s luncheon meeting is on November 18th, which is the third MONDAY of November. This luncheon is a joint meeting with SPE and AADE and features Loren Steffy. Loren has written a book about George Mitchell, who, with his efforts in the Barnett Shale, pioneered the use of the modern combination of horizontal wells and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. A lesser known fact about George Mitchell is that he started his oil and gas career in Lafayette. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1948, and immediately moved to Lafayette to go to work for Amoco. A few years later George started his own company, Mitchell Brothers, and their office was in the building at 1020 Auburn, about a block from the Petroleum Club where we have our meetings.
See you at the luncheon!
Trevor Casper
