Short Courses

As an innovation fro IMOG 2007. short courses were held during lunchtime on Monday to Thursday. These proved to be very popular and were well attended.

Monday 10th September

Petroleum System Evaluation: Fluid Compositional Prediction
Brian Horsfield and Rolando di Primio
GFZ-Potsdam, Germany

Bulk petroleum composition (e.g. GOR, sulphur content) is strongly governed by phase behaviour in carrier systems, and this in turn is controlled by source organic matter type and the maturation history of the drainage area. This course covers how gas and oil charge volumes may be predicted in time and space by integrating chemical kinetics, phase behaviour and basin modelling. We present numerous case histories from marine and non-marine settings from around the world.

Tuesday 11th September

Stable Isotopes in Biogeochemistry
Katherine H. Freeman and Courtney H. Turich
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

The short course will survey the fundamental physical and biogeochemical processes affecting stable isotope distributions in the natural world, the analyses of natural materials, and the systematic treatment of isotopic data. It will also provide a short survey of prominent applications in light-element, low temperature stable isotope biogeochemistry and its application to questions in hydrology, paleoceanography, climate and ecology.

Wednesday 12th September

Bugs, Biodegradation & Biogeochemistry of Heavy Oils & Tar Sands
Steve Larter
Alberta Ingenuity Center for Insitu Energy(AICISE)

Heavy oil and tar sands are formed by anaerobic microbial degradation of conventional crude oils over geological timescales. Constraints such as oil charge mixing, reservoir-temperature dependant biodegradation rate and supply of water and nutrients to the organisms ultimately dictate the final level of biodegradation and distribution of API gravity and viscosity found in heavy oil fields. Large-scale lateral and small-scale vertical variations in fluid properties due to interaction of biodegradation and charge mixing are common, with up to orders of magnitude variation in viscosity over the thickness of a reservoir. These variations are often predictable and can be integrated into reservoir simulation models in a manner similar to specifying geological heterogeneity. In this course, we describe the current understanding of biodegradation in-reservoir and illustrate quantitative geological controls on biodgradation levels fluid property variations and show how petroleum geochemistry can be used to rapidly produce high resolution fluid property images of tar sand and heavy oil reservoirs.

Thursday 13th September

Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction as a Guide to Anticipating Future Climate Change
Rich Pancost and James Bendle
University of Bristol, UK

This short course lies at the triple junction of science, statistics and politics. We plan to zig-zag across these boundaries by considering the background natural climate variability - how the hockey stick graph was generated and its importance in the climate change debate. As a case study we will consider "The Day After Tomorrow" - how palaeoclimate records inspired a Hollywood Blockbuster. Taking this as a model, we will review the pitfalls of extrapolating from past 'extreme events' to the future - for example "the imminent gas hydrate catastrophe".