Print this pageAbstract: The U.S. Geological Survey World Energy Program
Thomas S. Ahlbrandt
The U.S. Geological Survey has conducted four assessments of world oil and gas resources over the past 15 years. Recently, a new five year plan for the World Energy Program was completed. Eight regional coordinators were appointed and planning activities for a new world assessment which will include oil, natural gas and coal resources is planned within four years. Currently the program is undertaking U.S. AID sponsored collaborative work with research organizations in Russia including VINIGNI and VNIGRI. Some of the products planned for this collaborative effort include a petroleum basin map of the former Soviet Union and eventually a basin map of the world at a scale of 1:5,000,000 and databases characterizing past exploration activities in Russia. Centers are being esta lished in Moscow and Tyumen to where state of the art seismic processing, organic geochemistry and geographic information systems will be operational. Additionally, collaborative research particularly organic geochemical studies and unconventional natural gas studies in the Timon-Pechora basin are underway. Training of Russian scientists both at the USGS and in Russia on equipment purchased for the Russian institutes has been underway for the past year. An analogous program, but at a smaller scale, focusing primarily on seismic processing and compilation of databases is underway with Ukranian geologists.
Similar collaborative activities in coal research are underway in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, and recently completed in India and Pakistan. Collaborative organic geochemical research, natural gas research with particular emphasis on basin centered gas accumulations or unconventional natural gas accumulations such as coal bed methane have been undertaken or are anticipated in several countries including Hungary, Poland, China, several Middle East countries, South America and Indonesia.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90956©1995 AAPG International Convention and Exposition Meeting, Nice, France