Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia Distinguished Lecture Tour

The 2016 Australian Stress Map, summarised into average stress orientations in 29 geological provinces in Australia and New Guinea.

It is my great pleasure to have been invited to give a distinguished lecture and course tour for the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA). This tour will be held throughout the rest of March, and starts this week in Sydney and Melbourne, before being followed by visits to Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane in the following weeks. The main focus of the tour is to give courses on the two topics I specialize in: Overpressures and Pore Pressure Prediction, and Petroleum Geomechanics.

Each course is designed to provide participants with the solid foundations and understandings of how geomechanics and pore pressure analysis are undertaken in the oil-patch. In particular, the courses will focus on the many significant and important exploration and production applications of geomechanics and pore pressure, as well as highlighting some of the many traps and pitfalls that are commonly encountered.

Geomechanics and pore pressure prediction are often taught upon a foundation of rock physics or petroleum engineering, and the underlying mathematics of these disciplines (which is critical for expert practitioners to understand) can often be quite daunting. However, this course is unusual in that it aims to strip away a lot of the maths and, instead, really focus on the geological aspects of geomechanics and pore pressure. After all, the answer to most questions in geoscience ultimately comes back understanding the rocks – so this course is uniquely designed to communicate the principles and applications of geomechanics and pore pressure analysis in a way that can be understood by all geoscientists.

Another key difference of this course is that it will be taught with a regional focus. The vast majority of published literature in pore pressure and geomechanics comes out of the USA, and pore pressure prediction, in particular has a habit of being extremely ‘Gulf of Mexico centric’. But, the lessons from the GoM and US often cannot be directly applied to the very different geological environments we see in Australia and South East Asia. So, just as this course is being founded on understanding the geology underlying pore pressure prediction and geomechanics, the course will also focus on the lessons learned from Australia and SE Asia.

In addition to giving these courses, I have also been invited to give distinguished lectures at PESA lunch and evening events in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. So, I thought that I’d write a post introducing these lectures.

Each state was offered a list of six topics to choose from. Much to my delight, each of the four states picked a different topic, and so the lecture tour will consist of the following talks.

1. The present-day stress field in sedimentary basins (Sydney, 14^th March).
2. Did drilling cause the ‘Lusi’ mud eruption of East Java? (Melbourne, 15^th March).
3. The Australian Stress Map Project: implications for exploration and production (Perth, 23^rd March).
4. A fresh look at pore pressure prediction: using ‘play-based pore pressure prediction’ to identify successful new play concepts (Adelaide, 28^th March).

 Sadly, none of the states picked my favourite offered talk – a Dr Seuss-inspired talk entitled ‘Oh? The Outcrops You’ll Go!’. This was definitely the most fun lecture of my career to write, and takes people on a tour of amazing outcrops from around the world, while being presented entirely in Seussian rhythmic rhyme (you can read it here, and even listen to it on YouTube). Oh well! I’m sure I’ll get to give this one again sometime soon!

I look forward to meeting lots of industry professionals all around Australia throughout the rest of March!