EXPLORER Explorer <strong>of</strong> the year Zagorski Made His Mark With the Marcellus By DAVID BROWN, EXPLORER Correspondent AAPG To understand why Bill Zagorski is getting AAPG’s Outstanding Explorer Award at the upcoming AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Pittsburgh, you have to travel far, far back into the distant reaches <strong>of</strong> Deep Time. All the way back to 2004. It’s hard to believe now, but back then the industry was just awakening to how the technology from the successful Barnett Shale development in Texas could be applied to unlock other North <strong>American</strong> shale plays. Zagorski was in Pennsylvania, working a play for Range Resources Corp. and evaluating a well that passed through the Devonian Marcellus Shale. He had the idea <strong>of</strong> using Barnett-style horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing to develop the Marcellus. What happened next is exciting, informative, dramatic, instructional and perhaps even inspirational – a success story that has become part <strong>of</strong> the industry’s lore. Today, Zagorski serves as vice president-geology for Range Resources- Appalachia LLC in Southpointe, Pa. A native <strong>of</strong> Pittsburgh with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from the University <strong>of</strong> Pittsburgh, he was named “Father <strong>of</strong> the Marcellus” by the Pittsburgh <strong>Association</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Petroleum</strong> <strong>Geologists</strong> in 2009. And this year he receives AAPG’s Norman H. Foster Outstanding Explorer Award, to be presented at the AAPG Bill Zagorski, this year’s winner <strong>of</strong> the AAPG Norman H. Foster Outstanding Explorer Award, looking at (and explaining) data from the Marcellus Shale play. Annual Convention and Exhibition in Pittsburgh, and given “in recognition <strong>of</strong> distinguished and outstanding achievement in exploration for petroleum or mineral resources, by members who have shown a consistent pattern <strong>of</strong> exploratory success.” AAPG “explorer <strong>of</strong> the year” honoree Bill Zagorski is going to have a high pr<strong>of</strong>ile at this year’s AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Pittsburgh. First, Zagorski will receive his Norman H. Foster Outstanding Explorer Award at the ACE opening session and awards ceremony, which begins at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 19. Photos courtesy <strong>of</strong> James Knox | Tribune-Review Getting Started “I had an interest in science and geology from a very early age,” Zagorski recalled. “I was drawing dinosaurs on a tablet when I was four or five and collecting rocks with my dad when I was seven.” Second, he’ll also be part <strong>of</strong> this year’s Discovery Thinking Forum, which will be held from 1:15-5 p.m. Monday, May 20, where he will discuss the liquids rich portion <strong>of</strong> the Marcellus Shale play. This year’s forum will <strong>of</strong>fer five talks from seven explorers who will talk about their exploration experiences and successes. (See related story, page 20.) Although he began his university studies majoring in chemistry with a minor in mineralogy, he soon switched to geology – but not yet with a focus in oil and gas. “I didn’t have the ‘Ah-ha!’ moment in petroleum geology until I finished undergraduate school,” he said. Zagorski went to work for Atlas Energy Group Inc. in Pittsburgh, then moved on to new independent Mark Resources Corp., which he called “a great career opportunity.” “I started getting familiar with the Devonian Shale and the Marcellus when I took that job in 1983,” he said. “Back in that time there was quite a bit <strong>of</strong> research going on in the Department <strong>of</strong> Energy, and you had the Section 29 tight sands tax credit, so you were looking at $8, $9 per mcf gas prices.” At Mark Resources he became interested in Western Canada’s Elmsworth Field – and legendary AAPG geologist John Masters’ basin-centered gas concepts. “It’s not uncommon now, but at the time it was quite unconventional as it went against the anticlinal theory,” he said. Zagorski used these concepts to study the huge Clinton Medina fields in Ohio and Pennsylvania and came up with a major success: generating the prospect that became the Cooperstown Gas Field in Pennsylvania and led to the drilling <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> wells. These studies also See Zagorski, page 34 32 MAY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG
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