Spring 2012 - Gulf Coast Section SEPM

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GULF COAST SECTION SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC PALEONTOLOGISTS AND MINERALOGISTS 

Volume 59 Number 1 Spring 2012 

As I am taking over the Presidency 

for the year 2012 

I am not even close to the Gulf 

Coast. I am currently spending 

one year in Germany at the 

University of Potsdam where 

I am studying Late Permian 

German shales for their shalegas/oil 

potential as part of a 

Mudrock Systems Research 

Laboratory project at the Bureau 

of Economic Geology. I’ve been 

involved in shale-gas research 

for the past three years when 

I first investigated the Upper 

Jurassic Haynesville mudrocks 

for its shale-gas potential. The 

Bureau of Economic Geology 

has been on the forefront of 

shale-gas research that started 

with Barnett Shale research on 

reservoir characterization and 

facies models and now expanded 

to various topics such as pores 

in the nano-world, petrophysics, 

and geochemistry to name just 

a few. Shale gas has become a 

desirable commodity over the 

past five to eight years since 

the advent of completion techniques 

that efficiently exploit 

gas and oil out of these very tight 

mud rocks. The learning curve 

of most geologists has been 

very steep in interpreting geochemical 

and sedimentological 

variations of these fine-grained 

rocks. Suddenly, geochemists 

are a hot commodity! Having 

The President’s Column 

a background in geochemistry, 

stratigraphy, and sedimentology 

myself, studying mudrocks 

seemed to be natural to 

me. One of the great side effects 

of shale-gas exploration/exploitation 

was that companies 

are again investing more money 

into basic rock research that 

supports geochemical analyses, 

paleo-oceanographic interpretations, 

and environmental SEM. 

Coming from decades of neglecting 

the rocks by relying 

mostly on seismic and elaborate 

imaging techniques, mudrock 

research has changed the interests 

and necessity for efficient 

exploration towards basic rock 

research. This change has provided 

new enthusiasm to basic 

rock research and companies 

have been willing to take more 

core and run more basic rock 

analyses again, much to the 

delight of geologists such as 

myself. 

Although my background is 

carbonate diagenesis, sedimentology, 

and stratigraphy and 

having worked clastics of the 

Gulf of Mexico region before, 

mudrocks sparked my interest 

because of their complexity 

and proximity to surrounding 

carbonate shelves. I received 

a Ph.D. at the University of 

Colorado under David Budd in 

carbonate sequence stratigraphy 

GCSSEPM Dues Reminder 

Members, please remember that yearly dues are due 

by April 1st. The number in the upper right hand corner 

of your mailing label indicates the last year of paid dues. 

Please check your status and use the membership 

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membership online at www.gcssepm.org. 

Page 1 

and geochemistry. My dissertation 

in the Floridan Aquifer 

involved diagenesis of a modern 

aquifer and sequence stratigraphy 

of the Oligocene Suwannee 

Formation. Well, there wasn’t 

much rock-water interaction in 

the present-day Floridan aquifer 

but some indication of Oligocene 

fresh-water lenses that 

had developed on small islands 

on a shallow-water carbonate 

ramp in concert with small-scale 

sea-level fluctuations generated 

some calcite cements. After 

my degree I spent a few years 

working for an environmental 

company, IT Corporation, as 

a geoscientist. Environmental 

work wasn’t exactly my cup of 

tea and I soon jumped on the opportunity 

to work at the Bureau 

of Economic Geology as a Postdoc 

researching Permian Basin 

carbonates. A stint in Houston 

working for Anadarko provided 

excellent experience in oil and 

gas exploration. I gained my 

insight into worldwide business 

development as well as Midcontinent 

and Gulf of Mexico 

exploration. 

Over the past 10 years, I have 

been working at the Bureau of 

Economic Geology following 

my passion of applied research 

including the needs of industry 

and fundamental research in 

the Gulf Coast. Project STARR 

(State of Texas Advanced Resource 

Recovery) kept me engaged 

in Gulf Coast geology and 

thus an interest in being part of 

GCSSEPM. 

I was first introduced to GC- 

SSEPM when I presented a 

paper at one of the Bob F. Perkins 

conferences organized and 

sponsored by the GCSSEPM 

Foundation. These specialized 

Highlights 

The GCSSEPM News is published 

three times a year. Please send any 

comments or suggestions to Charlotte 

Jolley, GCSSEPM Secretary 

at charlotte.jolley@shell.com, or 

contact your local business representative. 

Visit the GCSSEPM 

Website at www.gcssepm.org for 

Section and Foundation news and 

information. 

1 

President’s Column 

Dues Reminder 

2 

The Director’s Chair 

New Members 

3 

News from Our 

Representatives 

2012 Research Conference 

Announcement 

4 

2011 Research Conference 

Report 

5 

Obituary 

Lost Members 

6 

Membership Application/ 

Renewal Form 

Inserts 

2012 Research Conference 

2013 Research Conference: 

Second Call for Papers 

Who’s Who in the 

GCSSEPM 

theme conferences are exceptional 

and result in world-class 

publications. Thanks to the 

GCSSEPM Foundation, which 

is independent of GCSSEPM 

section, and especially Norm 

and Rashel Rosen, the Perkins 

conferences are always a success 

with topics ranging from seismic 

imaging techniques to reservoir 

characterization to salt tectonics. 

As section president I would 

like to see more involvement 

of young professionals and 

students in the society by appealing 

to all supervisors and advisors 

to challenge your students 

Continued on page 3

The Director’s Chair 

The 2011 conference was a technical 

success and we even made a little (not 

a lot) of money. We did survive the move 

to a different venue and in general those 

who attended appeared pleased with the 

hotel. We are, however, investigating other 

possibilities so that notices for now will not 

have the hotel identified. Kurt, Dengliang, 

and their committee did an outstanding 

job of getting papers and ensuring that 

they arrived on time; for this they have my 

complete thanks and gratitude. 

In the last issue I noted that our online 

silo with the SEPM would blast off in 

October: would you believe early December? 

Right now it is being beta tested and 

we will send an e-mail blast when all the 

bugs and kinks are straightened out. We 

will have a members category that will 

allow access to all our digital publications 

for a yearly fee. 

We are also working on another members 

only benefit: two years ago, our DVD 

was late in coming out, so we added the 

PowerPoint presentations (with permission 

of the presenters); last year, once again 

the DVD was late and we did the same. 

This year, the DVD came out on time. We 

asked the presenters if we could post their 

PowerPoint presentation on line as a PDF 

file. I am pleased to say that most authors/ 

companies agreed. 

The presentations for 2009 and 2010 will 

be converted to PDF format also. These 

(and all future meetings) will be on our 

web site as a members only benefit. Thus 

in addition to supporting our activities 

by being a member, there are some other 

benefits also, and with time we hope to add 

to these benefits. 

The Section has established some standing 

committees to deal with longstanding 

issues. One topic will be whether to continue 

a hard copy of the Newsletter and 

increased usage of the internet for communications 

with members (e.g., Facebook). 

We also are establishing committees for 

membership and fund raising. If anyone 

would like to volunteer at this early date, 

contact me and I will get you in touch with 

the right people. 

The 2012 conference is designed as an 

update to the 2000 conference; we have 

had such an outstanding response to our 

asking for abstracts that we are still in the 

process of organizing the program. While 

2012 will look at continental margins, 2013 

will look at all sedimentary basins and I 

am pleased to say that we actually have a 

paper or two committed for this one. We 

hope that 2012/2013 will be as successful 

as 2000/2001 (at least technically). 

Dr. Norman C. Rosen 

Executive Director 

GCSSEPM Foundation 

The GCSSEPM Welcomes New Members 

Kenneth Abdulah. BHP Billiton Petroleum; Houston, TX 

Ivan D. Marroquin. Paradigm; Houston, TX 

Omar Arias. Oxy Permian; Katy, TX 

Ryan Martin. ffA; Houston, TX 

Martha Barnes. Marathon Oil Company; Houston, TX 

Marcilio Matos. Norman, OK 

Michael Blum. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co.; Houston, TX Reinaldo J. Michelena. iReservoir; Littleton, CO 

Mark Bogaards. Noble Energy Inc; Houston, TX 

Charles V.H. Mims. Common Resources II, LLC; 

Friso Brouwer. dGB Earth Sciences; Sugar Land, TX 

The Woodlands, TX 

Sergio Chavez-Perez. Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo; 

Webster Mohriak. University of Rio de Janeiro; 

Mexico City, Mexico 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

Michael G. Clemenson. Zachry Exploration, LLC; San Antonio, TX Craig Earl Moore. Buccaneer Alaska; Houston, TX 

H. Edward “Ed” Denman. Aperture Geophysical Consulting; Jerry W. Moore. Nexen Petroleum USA; Plano, TX 

Melbourne, FL 

David A. Orsen. Shenandoah, TX 

Pavel Dimitrov. ExxonMobil; Houston, TX 

Ahmed Ouenes. Sigma3 - Integrated Reservoir Solutions; 

Geoffrey A. Dorn. TerraSpark Geosciences LLC; Broomfield, CO The Woodlands, TX 

Jessica Douglas. The University of Southern Mississippi; 

David Paddock. Schlumberger; Houston, TX 

Brookhaven, MS 

Gaynor Paton. ffA; Aberdeen, Scotland 

William “Bill” R. Finley. Rozel, LLC; Lafayette, LA 

Ross G. Peebles. Global Geophysical Services; Missouri City, TX 

Dengliang Gao. West Virginia University; Morgantown, WV Debra Phillips. Hyperdynamics; Houston, TX 

Mike Halpin. ffA; Houston, TX 

Brian Rader. Kosmos Energy; Dallas, TX 

Kamal Hami-Eddine. Paradigm; Paris, France 

Frank Reid. Eagle Oil and Gas Company; Wichita Falls, TX 

Elizabeth Harvey. Chevron; Missouri City, TX 

Charles (Chuck) B. Reis. Zachry Exploration LLC; 

Donpaul Henderson. Forest Oil Corp.; Cypress, TX 

San Antonio, TX 

Jonathan Henderson. ffA; Newcastle upon Tyne, England Don E. Robinson. Resolve GeoSciences, Inc.; Katy, TX 

Matthias Imhof. ExxonMobil; Houston, TX 

Toby Roesler. Stone Energy Corporation; New Orleans, LA 

Du Sik Johng. Noble Energy Inc; Houston, TX 

Steve Sabrier. Century Exploration New Orleans, LLC; Metairie, LA 

Al J. Krejci. Consultant; Katy, TX 

Michael Schneider. Stone Energy Corporation; New Orleans, LA 

David LaClair. Stone Energy; Lafayette, LA 

Fred W. Schroeder. Noble Energy; Houston, TX 

Gorka Garcia Leiceaga. Schlumberger; Houston, TX 

James Schuelke. Devon Energy; Houston, TX 

Kurt J. Marfurt. The University of Oklahoma; Norman, OK Continued on page 5 

Page 2

President’s Column 

continued from page 1 

and young geologists to join our society 

whether they are working Gulf Coast or 

not. Eventually most geologists will work 

the Gulf of Mexico onshore or offshore. 

Our society provides great support for 

Gulf Coast geology through meetings and 

publications. We need to advise young geologists 

that networking and volunteering 

will contribute to success in their respective 

careers. 

One of the tasks of our team of President-elect 

(Mike Blum), past president 

(Bruce Hart), and vice president (Don Van 

Nieuwenhuise) is to offer a GCSSEPM 

sponsored short course for students. Following 

the successful short courses taught 

by Bruce Hart on seismic interpretation and 

by myself on mudrocks, Mike Blum will 

offer a one-day short course on Gulf Coast 

depositional systems in the fall. 

Please stay tuned, pay your dues so 

you’ll receive your newsletter, and get 

involved. 

Ursula Hammes 

President 

News from Our Business, Corporate & 

Student Representatives 

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA 

The Department of Geological Sciences 

has a new sedimentologist, Dr. Ryan 

Ewing. For more on Dr. Ewing, go to 

http://www.as.ua.edu/geo/faculty-staff/ 

ryan-c-ewing/. 

There are some PhD and MS opportunities 

open in the Geological Sciences 

department. For more information, 

please see http://www.as.ua.edu/ 

geo/job-openings/. Dr. Aharon and 

the SPELEO-TEAM GROUP are seeking 

PhD applicants interested to pursue 

research on an NSF-funded study of 

caves and stalagmites from the island 

of Niue in the South Pacific. For details 

click on the bold caption and open the 

file. 

ALABAMA AREA NEWS 

Dr. David T. King Jr., 

Auburn University 

UNIVERSITY OF AUBURN 

The Geology program has a new instructor, 

Steven Jaret, and a new post-doc 

instructor and researcher, Dr. Shawn 

Wright. Both of these new colleagues 

are interested in impact and planetary 

geology. 

For the second year in a row, AU Geology 

will have a team in the AAPG Imperial 

Barrel Award competition. The team 

is being supervised by Dr. Ashraf Uddin. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 

ALABAMA 

For information on gas shale exploration 

in Alabama, see the web page at http:// 

www.gsa.state.al.us/gsa/shalegas.html. 

There are potential plays in the Floyd 

and Conasauga formations. 

Coming in December… 

New Understanding of the Petroleum Systems of Continental Margins of the World 

32nd Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference 

December 2-5, 2012, Houston, TX 

During the past decade, numerous discoveries have been made in many continental margin settings 

and adjacent deep-water basins globally, as well as ongoing significant development of previous 

discoveries. With many new companies operating in deep water, our goal is to assemble an outstanding, 

innovative technical program that summarizes the recent successes globally, and a DVD 

of the conference proceedings. We have solicited papers that document some or all aspects of the 

petroleum systems of continental margins and deep-water basins having major production and/or 

discoveries (source rocks, seals, generation, migration, reservoirs, and traps) as well as papers that 

address these specific elements in a field, discovery, emerging play or regional setting of a basin. At 

this time, we have received so many abstracts that we are still organizing our conference. 

The conference will address current areas of active exploration/development, ultra-deep burial depth 

plays in shallow water and onshore basins, and emerging plays in deep-water basins. Current areas 

that will be covered include northern Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, South Africa, the Beaufort Sea, 

Canadian Arctic, Greenland, eastern Mediterranean, southern Atlantic, Indonesia/circum-Borneo, 

Brazil, and the northwest Shelf of Australia. 

At present, we believe the conference will be three full days (with poster sessions!); and as in the 

past, registration fees will cover meals and conference DVD. We hope to have complete information 

available on our website by June, 2012. 

Page 3

Report on the 31st Annual GCSSEPM Foundation 

Bob F. Perkins Research Conference 

Attributes: New Views on Seismic Imaging 

Their Use in Exploration and Production 

The 31st Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins 

Research Conference was held December 4-7th 

in north Houston, Texas. One hundred forty people attended 

the three-day conference, thirty-four papers were 

presented, and all the presentations were published as fulllength 

papers that have been peer-reviewed in the volume. 

The conference provided a unique opportunity for such 

an attribute forum. It was small enough to provide a great 

deal of interaction, particularly at meals and breaks, yet it 

was large enough to allow the participation and input of 

the greater seismic interpretation community. The quality 

and technical content of the papers provided the feel of a 

‘technical workshop,’ whereby experts could compare and 

contrast state-of-the-art innovations with their expert peer 

group. We instructed the authors that the intended audience 

would be primarily practicing geologists and geophysicists 

and to pitch their papers and presentations appropriately. 

Thus, the tone of the conference was more tutorial, with the 

expected outcome much like a short-course for the conference 

participants at large, with the associated ‘take-aways’ 

and ‘best practices’ that go with such venues. 

The organization of the thirty-four papers mimics the 

E&P progression of attribute use from early qualitative 

scoping activities to later quantitative reserve assessment 

and infill-drilling decisions. The conference began on 

Monday morning with (1) data conditioning/case studies, 

continued through (2) visualization and feature extraction, 

(3) interpretation workflows, (4) clustering and classification, 

(5) fault and fracture analysis, (6) seismic inversion 

and AVO, and ended on Wednesday with (7) reservoir 

characterization. 

Presentations on Monday included such topics as footprint 

suppression applied to legacy seismic data volume, 

seismic data conditioning, displaying seismic data to look 

like geology, data visualization with color blending, multivariate 

volume rendering and Glyphs, domain transform, 

new method of volume rendering, multi-attribute imaging 

and geobody delineation, phase analysis in spectral 

decomposition, frequency-dependent attributes, etc. Presentations 

on Tuesday included multivariate-supervised 

and interpreter-driven attribute classification, clustering 

analysis, neural networks, work flow for discontinuity 

attribute analysis, full-azimuthal seismic data for fracture 

analysis, radon transform, automatic fault extraction, curvature 

attribute selection, etc. Presentations on Wednesday 

included 3D AVO case study, acoustic impedance for 

deep-water seismic stratigraphy, AVO/simultaneous inversion, 

3D curvature and flexure for fractured reservoir 

characterization, multidimensional cross-plots of seismic 

attributes, seismic attribute analysis in shale plays, and 

application to Eagle Ford exploration and development. 

We, the conference co-conveners, are truly impressed 

with the innovation, breath, and quality of the authors’ 

contributions. We thank the editorial team of Art Barnes, 

Satinder Chopra, Antonio Corrao, Bruce Hart, Huw James, 

and Jory Pacht for providing two careful peer reviews and 

timely feedback for each of the contributed papers. Their 

prompt and timely peer reviews made the production of 

the conference DVD possible in time for distribution at 

the conference. Most of all we thank Norman Rosen, who 

to us is the face of the GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. 

Perkins Research Conference, for his tireless encouragement, 

prodding, and yes, worrying, to see this product 

come to fruition. 

Last but not the least, we the conveners would like to 

thank the sponsors who provided financial support to the 

con ference enabling the financial cost to be reduced for 

attendees, especially Hess Corporation, Statoil, Shell. In 

addition, we thank all those attendees who did not present 

papers but came with questions and for discussions: 

without your support this conference would not have been 

possible. 

Kurt Marfurt (University of Oklahoma) & 

Dengliang Gao (West Virginia University) 

Technical Program CoChairs 

Page 4

Barry Carr-Brown 1936 - 2011 

Micropalaeontologist in the oil industry, who contributed 

greatly to the geology of his native Trinidad & Tobago 

A true ‘gentleman’ a “chivalrous, courteous or well-educated 

man” (OED) as his many friends and colleagues will attest, 

Barry Carr-Brown was born in an oilfield hospital in Pointea-Pierre, 

southern Trinidad 

and raised on the Royal Dutch 

Shell camp in Point Fortin. 

He received his secondary 

education at the Lodge School 

(Barbados) and then gained an 

Honours Geology degree (1959) 

at Queen’s University (Canada). 

His graduate thesis was on Upper 

Cretaceous foraminifera. 

Moving back to Trinidad he 

joined Shell as an exploitation 

engineer and stayed for three 

years before transferring to Texaco Trinidad as a field geologist. 

Three years later, in 1965, he re-established his primary 

interest in biostratigraphy by joining the Texaco Geological 

Laboratory. It was then that Barry came under the influence 

of leading micropalaeontologists such as Hans Bolli and John 

Saunders who encouraged him in his chosen profession. 

A new opportunity arose in 1968 when Pan American Oil 

(later Amoco) was awarded acreage off the east coast of Trinidad 

and Barry joined them, becoming Palaeontological Group 

Leader. Here he became intimately involved in the early drilling 

in what is now known as the Columbus Basin. Managing 

multidisciplinary biostratigraphic studies he developed the 

company’s foraminiferal zonation and presented a paper 

on the Holocene/Pleistocene contact in the area at the 1971 

Caribbean Geological Conference. He also worked closely 

with Amoco’s Gulf Coast Paleontological Group assessing 

and comparing the relative stratigraphic and paleobathymetric 

ranges of the taxa of both regions. 

Although finding oil was his first priority, Barry was also 

highly successful in finding water, carrying out groundwater 

studies and supervising water-well drilling to establish a 

potable water supply for Amoco’s Galeota base and the surrounding 

residential/industrial area 

In 1980 he moved to INTEVEP in Venezuela and then in 

1983 to California as the Manager of the BioStratigraphics 

Unit of McClelland Engineers. The call of home led him back 

to Trinidad in 1985 as Geological Services Superintendent 

with the Trinidad and Tobago Oil Company. He was later 

appointed Head of Exploration and Production Research 

Services. 

Taking early retirement from TRINTOC (1990), he went on 

to establish Biostratigraphic Associates (Trinidad) Ltd, beginning 

a new phase of contributions to the biostratigraphy and 

geology of Trinidad. He remained active in the exploration of 

the region until his untimely illness forced him from his office. 

Barry, the offspring of English, French and Portuguese 

colonials in Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, married Jackie 

Gibbons in 1969. They had two daughters, Joanna and Jillian. 

Barry had a large, close, extended family and many friends, 

all of whom will miss his warm and genuine companionship. 

One described him well as an “awesome friend and a great 

palaeontologist” and another concluded: “Trinidad will not be 

the same without him” – a thought shared by many. 

A true Trinidadian, he loved his cricket, particularly at 

the Queens Park Oval with the West Indies playing. As well 

as FGS he was an Honorary and Founding Member of the 

Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago. 

By Haydon Bailey, with contributions from 

John Frampton, Reg Potter and David Pocknall 

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/society/history/ 

obituaries/page10655.html 

The GCSSEPM Welcomes New Members continued from page 2 

Karen Sherlock. TerraSpark Geosciences, LLC; Sugar Land, TX 

Elena Shoshitaishvili. BP; Houston, TX 

Wade Skelton. Shell; Houston, TX 

Nathaniel “Nat” G. Smith. Hess Corporation; Houston, TX 

Tracy J. Stark. Stark Reality, Inc.; Plano, TX 

Scott Stoner. Noble Energy; Houston, TX 

Gordon “Rick” F.C. Stucker. Nobel Energy; Evergreen, CO 

Mirko van der Baan. University of Alberta; Edmonton, Canada 

Connie VanSchuyver. Paradigm Geophysical; Houston, TX 

Renjun Wen. Geomodeling Technology Corp.; Calgary, Canada 

Jesse Yoste. Stone Energy Corporation; New Orleans, LA 

LOST MEMBERS 

We no longer have contact information for 

the following individual. 

Mark Tomasso 

If you can provide information please contact: 

Brandi Sellepack brandi.p.sellepack@conocophillips.com. 

Page 5

Gulf Coast Section – Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists 

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION AND RENEWAL 

PLEASE USE THIS FORM FOR MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION, MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL AND ADDRESS CORRECTIONS AND CHANGES 

Check appropriate box(es): ❑ APPLICATION ❑ RENEWAL ❑ ADDRESS OR E-MAIL CHANGE 

Membership dues for the year 2012 are now due. If the date shown on the name line of your mailing label is not 

12 or later, please remit dues with this form as soon as possible in order to remain a member of the GCSSEPM and 

continue to receive this Newsletter. You can also renew online at www.gcssepm.org. 

Today’s Date:________________________ 

Name (Last, First, Middle Initial):___________________________________________________________________________ 

Company or University:___________________________________________________________________________________ 

Mailing Address:_________________________________________________________________________________________ 

City, State/Country, Zip:___________________________________________________________________________________ 

Business Telephone: ( _____ )_______________ Daytime Telephone: ( _____ )_______________ 

E-mail Address:_________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Are you a member or associate member of National SEPM? ❑ Yes ❑ No 

Please Check: 

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Mail this form with payment to: GCSSEPM Treasurer, 2719 S. Southern Oaks, Houston, Texas 77068 

or Fax to (281) 586-0833 (Fax available for Credit Card Payment Only) 

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Page 6

NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THE PETROLEUM SYSTEMS 

OF CONTINENTAL MARGINS OF THE WORLD 

32nd Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference 

December 2-5, 2012 • Houston, TX 

During the past decade, numerous discoveries have been made in many continental margin settings and adjacent deep-water 

basins globally, as well as ongoing significant development of previous discoveries. With many new companies operating 

in deep water, our goal is to assemble an outstanding, innovative technical program that summarizes the recent successes 

globally, and a DVD of the conference proceedings. We have solicited papers that document some or all aspects of the 

petroleum systems of continental margins and deep-water basins having major production and/or discoveries (source rocks, 

seals, generation, migration, reservoirs, and traps) as well as papers that address these specific elements in a field, discovery, 

emerging play or regional setting of a basin. At this time, we have received so many abstracts that we are still organizing 

our conference. 

The conference will address current areas of active exploration/development, ultra-deep burial depth plays in shallow water 

and onshore basins, and emerging plays in deep-water basins. Current areas that will be covered include northern Gulf 

of Mexico, West Africa, South Africa, the Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic, Greenland, eastern Mediterranean, southern 

Atlantic, Indonesia/circum-Borneo, Brazil, and the northwest Shelf of Australia. 

At present, we believe the conference will be three full days (with poster sessions!); and as in the past, registration fees will 

cover meals and conference DVD. We hope to have complete information available on our website by June, 2012. 

TECHNICAL CO-CONVENERS 

Paul Weimer (University of Colorado, Boulder, CO) ......................paul.weimer@colorado.edu 

Marek Kacewicz (Chevron, Houston, TX) ...............................mkacewicz@chevron.com 

Bruce Trudgill (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO) ...................btrudgil@mines.edu 

Richard Fillon (Earth Studies Group, New Orleans, LA) ....................fillorh@bellsouth.net 

Menno Dinkelman (GXT ION Geophysical, Houston, TX) ..................menno.dinkelman@iongeo.com 

Technical Coordinator: Norman Rosen (NCR & Assoc., Houston, TX) ........gcssepm@comcast.net 

TECHNICAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

Vitor Abreu (ExxonMobil, Houston, TX) ...............................vitor.abreu@exxonmobil.com 

Sam Algar (Murphy Oil) ............................................sam_algar@murphyoilcorp.com 

Rick Beaubouef (Hess) ..............................................rbeaubouef@hess.com 

Jean Gerard (YPF-Repsol, Madrid, Spain) ...............................jgerard@repsol.com 

Sverre Henricksen (Statoil, Trondheim, Norway) .........................shen@statoil.com 

Edmundo Marques (OGX, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) ........................edmundo.marques@ogx.com.br 

Trey Meckel (Woodside, Houston, TX) ................................trey.meckel@woodsideeneregy.com 

Henry Pettingill (Noble Energy, Houston, TX) . ..........................hpettingill@nobleenergyinc.com 

Brad Prather (Shell Exploration, Houston, TX) . ..........................bradford.prather@shell.com 

Gabor Tari (OMV, Vienna Austria) . ...................................gabor.tari@omv.com

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS 

Sedimentary Basins: Origin, Depositional 

Histories, and Petroleum systems 

33rd Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference 

DECEMBER 1-4, 2013, HOUSTON, TX 

The structural and depositional diversity of sedimentary basins is profound, effecting great variation in petroleum systems. 

This diversity encompasses rifts, sag basins, pull-apart and low-angle detachment basins, foreland basins, and divergent 

and transform passive margins, to name just a few. In addition, the need to understand the depositional patterns and 

processes of shale has increased dramatically in the last few years. 

Technological advances in data acquisition are changing our conceptual models of many facets of geology. This, in turn, 

impacts the way we think, interpret data, and explore for energy resources. Examples include recognition of the ongoing 

dynamics of “passive” margins, visualization of the Moho with implications for heat flow history and crustal balancing, 

appreciation for low angle detachment faults in extension, exhumation of sub-continental mantle at continent-ocean 

transition zones, sub-salt imaging, and listric fault control beneath seaward dipping reflector packages which in turn 

controls subsidence histories at outer margins. 

This conference is devoted to upgrading our conceptual models of exploration settings and to identifying the geological 

processes that create them. We also seek to highlight ties between these processes and depositional systems, along with 

implications for various petroleum systems. 

We are soliciting papers that document how sedimentary basins are formed, how sediments (including shales) are 

deposited in all types of basins, and how petroleum systems can differ in these various basins. Settings may come 

from around the globe. We expect to have sessions on specific margins and regions such as the “Gulf of Mexico,” the 

“Atlantic,” and the “Arctic, Pacific and Indian oceans.” Talks for topical themes such as “rifting,” “transform margins,” 

“shale deposits,” and “subduction-related basins” are also sought. 

Authors interested in presenting a paper at the conference should submit an abstract using the abstract submission form 

on our web site or by e-mail to Norman C. Rosen or to one of the technical co-conveners, whose contacts are below. 

DEADLINES 

Preliminary Title and Abstract ....December 1, 2012 First Manuscript ............January 15, 2013 

Tentative Program Announced ...December 31, 2012 Final Illustrated Manuscript ...June 1, 2013 

TECHNICAL CO-CONVENERS 

James Pindell (Tectonic Analysis Inc., Rice University) ...............jim@tectonicanalysis.com 

Brian Horn (ION Geophysical Inc) ...............................brian.horn@iongeo.com 

Technical Coordinator: Norman C. Rosen (NCR & Assoc.) ............gcssepm@comcast.net 

TECHNICAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

Allen Lowrie (Independent Consultant) ............................allen.lowrie@navy.mil 

Richard Fillon (Earth Studies Associates) ..........................fillorh@bellsouth.net 

James Granath (Granath and Associates Consulting) ................jgranath@q.com 

Lorcan Kennan (Shell) ........................................lorcan.kennan@shell.com

WHO’S WHO IN THE GCSSEPM 

2012 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 

PRESIDENT 

Ursula Hammes 

Bureau of Economic Geology 

10100 Burnet Rd., Bldg. 130 

Austin, TX 78758 

Tel: (512) 471-1891 

ursula.hammes@beg.utexas.edu 

PRESIDENT ELECT 

Mike Blum 

ExxonMobil Upstream Research 

Company 

P.O. Box 2189 

Houston, TX 77252 

Tel: (713) 431-7554 

mike.blum@exxonmobil.com 

VICE PRESIDENT 

Don Van Nieuwenhuise 

Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences 

University of Houston 

Houston, TX 77204-5007 

Tel: (713) 743-3423 

donvann@uh.edu 

SECRETARY 

Charlotte Jolley 

Shell Exploration & Production Co. 

150C North Dairy Ashford 


Tel: (832) 337-2435 

charlotte.jolley@shell.com 

TREASURER 

Brandi Sellepack 

GOM Deepwater Exploration 

ConocoPhillips Company 

3096 Dubai Bldg. 

PO Box 2197 

Houston, TX 77252-2197 

Tel: (281) 293-3366 

brandi.p.sellepack@conocophillips.com 

PAST PRESIDENT 

Bruce S. Hart 

ConocoPhillips 

600 North Dairy Ashford 


Tel: (281) 293-5638 

bruce.hart@conocophillips.com 

FOUNDATION TRUSTEES 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

Norman C. Rosen 


Houston, TX 77068-2610 

Tel/Fax: (281) 586-0833 

gcssepm@comcast.net 

TRUSTEE CHAIRPERSON 

Patricia Santogrossi 

Statoil Gulf of Mexico 

2103 CityWest Blvd, Suite 800 


Tel: (713) 918-8240 

psanto@statoil.com 

Anthony D’Agostino 

Hess Corporation 

500 Dallas St., Allen Center 1 


Tel: (713) 609-4544 

tdagostino@hess.com 

Richard H. Fillon 

Earth Studies Group 

3730 Rue Nichole 

New Orleans, LA 70131 

Tel: (505) 394-0797 

fillorh@bellsouth.net 

Jory Pacht 

Altair Resources 

19 Pembroke Street 

Sugar Land, TX 77479 

Tel: (281) 875-6200 

jorypacht@windstream.net 

2012 RESEARCH CONFERENCE 

COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS 

Paul Weimer 

University of Colorado 

Boulder, CO 

paul.weimer@colorado.edu 

Marek Kacewicz 

Chevron, Houston, TX 

mkacewicz@chevron.com 

Bruce Trudgill 

Colorado School of Mines 

Golden, CO 

btrudgil@mines.edu 

Richard H. Fillon 

Earth Studies Group 

3730 Rue Nichole 

New Orleans, LA 70131 

Tel: (505) 394-0797 

fillorh@bellsouth.net 

Menno Dinkelman 

GXT ION Geophysical 

Houston, TX 

menno.dinkelman@iongeo.com 

TECHNICAL COORDINATOR 

Norman C. Rosen 


Houston, TX 77068-2610 

Tel/Fax: (281) 586-0833 

gcssepm@comcast.net 

WEB MASTER 

Gail R. Bergen 

Bergan et al., Inc. 

413 So. Church Street 

Rockport, TX 78382 

Tel/Fax: (361) 727-2343 

gail.bergen@bergan.com 

www.bergan.com 

(Continued – over)

BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES 

ALABAMA 

David T. King Jr. 

Geology Office, 210 Petrie Hall 

Auburn University 

Auburn, Alabama 36849-5305 

Tel: (334) 844-4882 

Fax: (334) 844-4486 

kingdat@auburn.edu 

AUSTIN 

Hilary Clement Olson 

Institute for Geophysics 

The University of Texas at Austin 

J.J. Pickle Research 

10100 Burnet Rd. 

Bldg. 196 (ROC) 


Tel: (512) 653-8356 

olson@utig.ig.utexas.edu 

BATON ROUGE 

Looking for a New Business 

Representative 

CORPUS CHRISTI 

Jennifer Smith-Engle 

Geoscience Program 

Texas A&M Corpus Christi 

6300 Ocean Dr. 

Corpus Christi, TX 78412 

Tel: (361) 825-2436 

jennifer.smith-engle@tamucc.edu 

DALLAS – FORT WORTH 



FLORIDA 

Mitch Covington 

BugWare, Inc. 

4027 Bobbin Brook Circle 

Tallahassee, FL 32312 

Tel: (850) 668-3894 

Cell: (850) 591-5087 

mitch.covington@bugware.com 

HOUSTON 

Patricia Santogrossi 

Leading Reservoir Geologist 

Wells and Appraisal 

Statoil Gulf of Mexico 

2103 CityWest Blvd, Suite 800 


Tel: (713) 918-8240 

psanto@statoil.com 

LAFAYETTE 

Tom Shunick 

Bane and Shunick 

714 E. Kaliste Saloom, Suite B5 

Lafayette, LA 70508 

Tel: (337) 235-0740 

bspaleo@cox-internet.com 

MEXICO 

Víctor Dávila 

Dpto. de Geología Regional 

Instituto de Geología 

Universidad Nacional 

Autonoma de Mexico 

Coyoacán c.p. 04510 

Tel: 5622-4264 ext. 116 

Tel: 5622-4288 ext. 151 

Fax: 5622-4289 

davilal@servidor.unam.mx 

MISSISSIPPI 



NEW ORLEANS 



SAN ANTONIO 

Bonnie Weise 

Geological Consultant 

19240 Redland Road, Ste. 200 

San Antonio, TX 78259 

Tel: (210) 402-0957 

Fax: (210) 824-6423 

bweise1@sbcglobal.net 

SHREVEPORT 

Ralph G. Richardson 

Sartor-Richardson 

800 Spring Street, Suite 100 

Shreveport, LA 71101-3758 

Tel: (318) 227-2913 

sartorri@bellsouth.net 

CORPORATE REPRESENTATIVES 

BHP BILLITON 

Chris Lerch 

BHP Billiton Petroleum (Americas) Inc 

1360 Post Oak Blvd, Ste 150, Houston, 

TX 77056 

Tel: (713) 961-830 

chris.lerch@bhpbilliton.com 

CHEVRON 

Larry Zarra 

Chevron North America E&P 

Deep Water Exploration 

1500 Louisiana Street, Rm 20-065 


Tel: (832) 854-3642 

lzarra@chevron.com 

CONOCOPHILLIPS 

Brandi Sellepack 

GOM Deepwater Exploration 

ConocoPhillips Company 

3096 Dubai Bldg. 

PO Box 2197 

Houston, TX 77252-2197 

Tel: (281) 293-3366 

brandi.p.sellepack@conocophillips.com 

SHELL 

Amy E. Sullivan 

Shell Projects & Technology 

Global Solutions Upstream 

Shell International E&P Inc. 

200 North Dairy Ashford 

Houston, TX 77079-1197 

Tel: (281) 544-3876 

amy.sullivan@shell.com 

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES 

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON 

Adrian Gittens 

Dept. Earth & Atmospheric Sciences 

SR1 Rm 312, University of Houston 

4800 Calhoun Road 

Houston, TX 77204-5007 

asgittens@hotmail.com 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Andrew Petter 

UT Jackson School of Geoscience 

JGB Room 6.126 


Tel: (512) 471-6955 

petter@mail.utexas.edu 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Ron Tingook 

Dept. of Earth & Environmental Sciences 

Box 19049 

Arlington, TX 76019 

Tel: (682) 227-7146 

ronnie.tingook@mavs.uta.edu 

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 

Elizabeth T. Baruch 

The University of Oklahoma 

810 Sarkeys Energy Center 

100 E Boyd St 

Norman, OK 73019 

Tel: (405) 822-0304 

elizabethbaruch@ou.edu

Spring 2012 - Gulf Coast Section SEPM

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