Exploration Creativity in the Golden Age of Super Basins and What AAPG is Doing About Them

Abstract

As AAPG begins our second century, we are seeing an energy renaissance in abundant and affordable energy supply. In addition to exploration in remote and deep(er) water frontiers, new technology such as hydraulic fracturing in horizontal wells and enhanced seismic imaging in “super basins” (the world’s most prolific petroleum provinces which already possess social license and extensive infrastructure), will sustain us long into the future. The concept of super basins* – a new way of thinking – combines geoscience architecture, commerciality, infrastructure and aboveground issues. Instead of focusing on an individual field, trend or play, the fundamental unit of understanding is a holistic review of entire basins, their petroleum systems, and “yet to find” resources. Comparing and contrasting super basins enables anticipation of new resources by looking for opportunities in all basins. AAPG has instituted a series of conferences, forums, and publications to assist geoscientists. AAPG hosted the inaugural Global Super Basin Leadership Conference (GSBLC) Mar. 27-29 2018 in Houston. We held a Super Basin Forum at ACE in Salt Lake City on May 21, 2018. This program had more than 500 attendees – the largest attended session. AAPG hosted an invited session for The European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) on June 13, 2018 (Copenhagen, Denmark), featuring Europe and North Africa super basins. As of this writing (November 2018), AAPG’s branding of super basin programs has occurred in multiple venues. In March 2018, the AAPG Bulletin launched the Global Super Basin initiative. Global experts on the world’s richest basins have been proactively recruited to submit articles to the AAPG Bulletin. These programs are ongoing and receiving great interest and participation. With respect to African Basins, it is clear that energy resources are abundant and varied. Africa possesses a rich series of super basins in Niger Delta, Algeria, Libya and emerging places such as Mozambique and offshore Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean. Natural gas and LNG appears to be a fuel for the future. There appear to be offshore extensions to some of the super basins (e.g. Sirte Basin, Libya) and the potential for onshore unconventional resources where need for water, sand, services and infrastructure remain important challenges to overcome. *The concept and definition of Super Basins were initially developed by Bob Fryklund, Pete Stark, IHS market research paper, 2016.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90332 © 2018 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa, November 4-11, 2018