Field Trips and Short Courses

Anadarko Drilling Rig Tour
We will spend a day in East Texas and go an active drilling location to tour a drilling rig. We will also have a classroom discussion about wellsite operations and field development. This is an exciting and essential part of the energy industry and petroleum geoscientists routinely; (a) use wellsite data to assist in development and exploration efforts, and (b) make decisions that affect current and future drilling operations. This tour will give you a great introduction to this facet of our profession.

This trip will depart on Monday, September 20 in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center near entrances D&E (by the sky bridge to the Hilton Americas hotel) at 7:30 a.m. and will return by 5 p.m., in time for the Ice Breaker/Poster Session. The cost to register for the trip is $10, which will cover transportation and lunch. All participants are responsible for and will be required to wear steel toed boots. All other necessary safety equipment instruction, and a guidebook will be provided.

Coastal Trip
On this field trip we will examine the modern and late Quaternary environments along the East Texas coast. Sea level has been rising and falling fast enough during the late Quaternary that sedimentary sequences have been formed that are thin enough to be imaged with high-resolution seismic data but are thick enough to be preserved on the shelf. These sequences are excellent analogs to ancient deposits that may have been formed during periods of relatively slow sea-level change. The magnitude of sea-level change during the late Quaternary has been great enough to affect the entire shelf and form full sequences. Also, the processes controlling facies architecture (i.e., fluvial input, storm influence, etc.) are at work regardless of the rate of sea-level rise and fall. The East Texas coast and adjacent continental shelf is an ideal natural laboratory for sedimentological work.

During this field trip we will visit and/or discuss several depositional environments, and examine sediment cores and high-resolution seismic records from these and other offshore environments. See http://gulf.rice.edu/fieldtrip_coastal.html for photos from past trips. The objective is to understand the facies architecture of these environments, the distribution of these facies on the continental shelf during the last glacial-eustatic cycle, and their preservation potential.

This trip will depart on Monday, September 20 in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center near entrances D&E (by the sky bridge to the Hilton Americas hotel) at 8 a.m. and will return by 5 p.m., in time for the Ice Breaker/Poster Session. The cost to register for the trip is $10. You will be provided with a guidebook, lunch, and drinks. You should wear comfortable clothes, a sun hat, and closed toe shoes that can get wet. You may want to bring sunscreen, insect repellent, and a camera. (Recruiters are welcome to participate.)

Core Laboratories, Lab Tour
This afternoon field trip will give you the opportunity to visit the US based Advanced Technology Center of Core Laboratories. Core Laboratories is a leading provider of proprietary and patented reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services for the global petroleum industry. These services enable our clients to optimize reservoir performance and maximize hydrocarbon recovery from producing fields. Our staff of geoscientists and engineers work in conjunction with clients to deliver solutions rather than simply data. Integration of the disciplines will reduce overall project cycle time and add value.

The tour will begin with a brief overview of Service Company career opportunities. We will show you what happens to a core when it is delivered to the laboratory and what tests can be run to evaluate this valuable data:

  • Core layout
  • Core processing and wellsite gear
  • Routine core analyses
  • Special core analyses
  • Rock mechanics
  • Petrography / Geology
  • Petrophysics
  • Reservoir Fluids

The Company has over 70 offices in more than 50 countries and is located in every major oil-producing province in the world. The company provides its services to the world's major, national and independent oil companies.

This trip will depart on Monday, September 20 in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center near entrances D&E (by the sky bridge to the Hilton Americas hotel) at 12 p.m. and will return by 4 p.m., in time for the Ice Breaker/Poster Session. The cost to register for the trip is $10.

    Monday Short Courses

Schlumberger/WesternGeco Technology Day
This event will be hosted by Bob Davis, Scientific Advisor from Schlumberger DCS in Oklahoma City. Presentations by Schlumberger Petro Technical Experts will include projects and solutions with which they have been associated. The final presentation list is yet to be determined, but may include:

  • Geological Applications of Borehole Images
  • Advances in Deep Water, Sub Salt, and Drilling Optimization
  • Reservoir Characterization and Simulation of Tight Gas Sands
  • Applied Schlumberger Geosciences Solutions for a Client Deepwater Project
  • Petrel: 3D Geological Modeling
  • Bringing Geology into Focus - Integrated Methods to Improve Seismic Images
  • Applications of LWD and Well Placement

This short course will take place on Monday, September 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost to register for the course is $10. Lunch will be provided.

Lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico
Presented by Shell
In oil and gas exploration the greatest competition is often associated with the acquisition of the lease or resource. Onshore or offshore the concepts are similar, develop your "play" or geologic concept to find and develop hydrocarbons, and then locate and acquire your leases. Onshore this is done on both public and private lands. However, in the offshore waters, state and federal governments control the leases. This short course will provide an overview of the offshore leasing process to compliment the onshore process familiar to many students in the intermountain west.

Twice a year, the United States Government holds a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico to encourage the discovery of new oil and gas fields and to increase domestic production. Oil companies compete aggressively to have the opportunity drill the most attractive of these exploration opportunities.

In order to help management decide how to invest in available blocks, oil company geophysicists and geologists conduct technical analyses to better understand the size of the targets and the "riskiness" of each drilling opportunity.

This course will illustrate how Shell's understanding of the Mars Field (one of the largest in the Gulf) evolved from the time before it was drilled, to when it was fully developed.

After a brief introduction to geological risk, the attendees will next be invited to review three "undrilled" prospects in the Gulf of Mexico, to form their own technical views, and to participate in a simulated lease sale.

Four teams will compete against each other and will see the ultimate results of their technical and "business" decisions.

This will provide and excellent opportunity to improve your understanding of what really happens in offshore exploration and development and, more importantly, will give you a chance to outdo your peers in the race to be "the most successful up and coming oil and gas company".

This short course will take place on Monday, September 20 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The cost to register for the course is $10.

ExxonMobil "Integrated Basin and Play Analysis" (IBA)
Offered by ExxonMobil
The Imperial Barrel Award program is a student competition judged by industry experts. Winning teams have the opportunity for cash prizes for their school, networking, and travel. The course, Integrated Basin and Play Analysis, mirrors a student's experience in the AAPG student competition. This course will explore basin analysis and play as they relate to hydrocarbon exploration and development through lectures and exercises. Students will learn about the geological processes underlying the concepts of basin development. Students will also predict hydrocarbon play elements, to integrate the play elements to a play summary.

This short course will be taught by Bob Stewart, Global Geoscience Recruiting Supervisor, and other technical experts from ExxonMobil on Monday, September 20 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday Short Courses

How to Select an Employer and Evaluate an Offer
Presented by Shell
An insiders look... Let's talk frankly! You've spent the several years in college, visiting recruiters, and networking. You've sent out your resume, applied to multiple company web sites, and gone on a bunch of interviews. And now the moment you've been waiting for is here... You have some job offers to consider. I will bet you didn't think making a decision would be this difficult, but this is serious business. The job you take now may be yours for a long time to come.

*This short course will take place on Tuesday, September 21 from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.

Management Skills Game - Supertanker
Presented by Shell
The Shell Management Skills games help undergraduates develop transferable skills that are applicable in a variety of work situations and that are highly valued by employers. The games aim to teach you the importance of skills - like teamwork, communication, trust, and creativity - that you will find invaluable in your working career and particularly during the selection process for employment.

In this task, tams imagine that they have been dropped by helicopter onto a 200,000-ton supertanker bound for its company tanker's berth located on the chart of the Norwegian Fjords. The team's task is to answer five questions using the information on the cards provided. Key skills learned will include: assertion, information sharing, negotiation, and cooperation.

*This short course will take place on Tuesday, September 21 from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.

Working in Interdisciplinary Environments
Presented by Shell
Interdisciplinary team, is a group that consists of specialists from several fields combining skills and resources to present guidance and information. The multi-disciplinary approach is characterized by each discipline within the team working towards discipline-related goals. Team members work within the boundaries of their professional practice: progress is formally discussed at team meetings, effective communication is considered vital. Come here what it is like to work for a multinational organization like Shell who incorporates and operates across all disciplines at all levels with people from around the globe.

*This short course will take place on Tuesday, September 21 from 3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Intro to Microseismic Frac Monitoring
Presented by Peter Duncan
Gas and oil shale plays are dominating E&P operations in the US these days. These plays, uneconomic just a decade ago, are now accounting for an increasing percentage of our reserve base. It's not that the rocks have changed, but rather horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing and microseismic monitoring technologies have allowed for hydrocarbons trapped in these rocks to be extracted as never before.

This one hour lecture will introduce you to these shale plays and the technologies that have enabled this amazing development, with particular emphasis on the techniques of microseismic monitoring; data acquisition, processing and analysis.

About the instructor: Peter M. Duncan is founding President of MicroSeismic, Inc. a Houston based geophysical service company. He holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Toronto. Duncan was 2003-04 President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and was the Fall 2008 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer speaking on the subject of passive seismic at 45 venues around the world. He is a Life Member of SEG and an Honorary Member of the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG) and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE).

*This short course will take place on Tuesday, September 21 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

*We understand that students may have interviews scheduled during this time frame and may need to come and go. This shouldn't prohibit you from attending this course.