August Luncheon Meeting

Please RSVP by 3:00pm on Friday, August 12, 2022.

Reservations made after the deadline will incur an additional fee of $10.

LOCATION: In-Person luncheon meeting will be held at Ranchland Hills Golf Club. Virtual meeting on the GoToMeeting Platform. 

TOPIC: A Simple Method for Improved Paleoenvironmental Analyses of Shales

ABSTRACT: Methods for reconstructing present-day TOC values to their original values are widely used in petroleum systems analysis. However, the importance of making these corrections appears to be underappreciated when TOC is used for paleoenvironmental interpretation. In this presentation I will demonstrate how differences between present-day TOC (TOCpd) values (e.g., as measured via LECO and similar methods) and those at the time of deposition (TOCo) can materially affect paleoenvironmental interpretations that use TOC as a variable (e.g., Mo vs TOC, S vs TOC). Two datasets, one from the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Formation of South Texas and the other from the Upper Devonian Lower Bakken Shale of North Dakota, will be used to illustrate the importance of making the correction. The difference between TOCpd and TOCo depends on the thermal maturity of the deposits and the original kerogen type. There are uncertainties associated with defining the original organic matter type, and other unknowns that can affect the TOC reconstruction. As such, it is useful to present a range of possible TOCo values, i.e., deliberately capture uncertainty, rather than assume that a precise TOCo value can be defined.

BIO: Bruce Hart is an Adjunct Professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada. He previously held positions with Equinor/Statoil, ConocoPhillips, McGill University, New Mexico Tech, Penn State, and the Geological Survey of Canada. During that time, he worked as a researcher, technical specialist and explorationist for shale plays, tight-gas sandstones, tight-oil plays, fractured carbonates and other unconventional targets on six continents. He toured as the AAPG/SEG Distinguished Lecturer in 2009–2010 and 2016–2017.