| The programs related to petroleum geology and geophysics
at the University of Kansas are on the cutting edge in research and training
for students. KU provides diverse training in theory and practice and
concentrates on both academic and applied research. It maintains a strong
presence in the Industry. For example, at a recent AAPG annual meeting, faculty,
students, and staff from the University of Kansas authored approximately 28 abstracts.
The University of Kansas has maintained close connections with the Oil Industry
over the years and has trained many of the leaders of petroleum geology. It
continues to provide the same broad training to its students while working
on cutting-edge research related to the Industry.
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A recent survey of KU graduates from 1958-1997 shows that 219 persons have entered
the oil industry from this program. The program continues to produce a constant flow
of M.S. and Ph.D. students for work in the oil industry, To evaluate the importance of
University of Kansas students to the petroleum industry, it is worthwhile to evaluate
the accomplishments of some of its outstanding alumni. Yearly, the Department awards
the Erasmus Haworth Award to its most outstanding Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D., and
to its most outstanding alumni. A survey of the accomplishments of these award winners
shows that they have excelled in the geologic sciences and in the oil industry in
particular. The list includes four presidents of the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists (Pratt, Haas, Fisher, and Foster), three presidents of SEPM (the Society for
Sedimentary Geology; Croneis, G. Dallas Hanna, and Marcus A. Hanna), five presidents of
the Paleontological Society (Dunbar, Knight, Newell, Yochelson, and Lane), one of the
Mineralogical Society of America (A.F. Rogers), and one of the Geological Society of
America (Hedberg). There have been 7 recipients of AAPG's highest award, the Sidney
Powers Medal (more than any other university; Pratt, Croneis, McGee, Hedberg, Haas,
Fisher, Foster)** and recipients of SEPM's Twenhofel, Pettijohn, and Moore* medals
(Fisher, Dunbar, Newell, and Enos). Two were recipients of GSA's highest award, the
Penrose medal (Hedberg, Newell) and one received the Meinzer Award of GSA's Hydrogeology
Division (Stanley Davis). Three were recognized as honorary members of GSA (M.A. Hanna,
Dunbar, Newell) and two won the Paleontological Society Medal (Dunbar, Newell). Dan
Merriam received the William Smith Medal, the highest award presented by the Geological
Society of London. Many have achieved positions as high officials in various oil
companies, especially in Exxon (Merrill Haas, Richard Meek, H.H. Hall, Ray P. Walters).
Others have included an Executive Vice President of Phillips (Rickards), a Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Union Pacific Resources (Adams), a President of Shell Gas
(Funk) and a President of Western Geophysical (Cramer) and high officials with Sun
(Tyler), Getty (Carlos), Gulf (Hedberg), and Maraven (Hans Krause). Wallace Pratt was
Vice President of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Now ExxonMobil) and a member of
the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Dean McGee (Kerr-Mcgee) was one of the
400 richest people in the US, as listed by Fortune magazine.
*Both W.H. Twenhofel and R.C. Moore were KU faculty members, although Twenhofel only
was here for 1 year.
**Two KU faculty also won the Powers Medal, K.K. Landes and Moore; Landes had left KU for Michigan
when he won the award.
Many researchers are involved with studies directly relating to petroleum geology.
These researchers include Paul Enos, Evan Franseen and Bob Goldstein, who work extensively
in carbonate reservoir systems, Tim Carr and Lynn Watney who are experts in the subsurface of
Kansas, Tony Walton and Diane Kamola, who specialize in sandstone reservoirs, and John Doveton,
who is an expert in petrophysics. Many projects within the Department are done in conjuction with geologists at the Kansas
Geological Survey and Tertiary Oil Recovery Project in the Department of Petroleum Engineering.
Paul Enos - Paul's work on the Pennsylvanian of Kansas and the Cretaceous of Mexico serve as
excellent reservoir models applicable to the subsurface.
Tim Carr - Tim is working on basin-scale studies of hydrocarbon migration and trapping using
extremely large databases (40,000 wells and 100 horizons over 20,000 sq. miles). Additional work on
using oil and gas fields, and saline reservoirs for CO2 sequestration. Working on technical, economic
and systems feasibility of zero-emission power plants that convert natural gas to electricity and
provide CO2 for IOR processes. Developing online integrated oil and gas databases that provide access
to the 400,000 wells in Kansas and are automatically maintained updated.
Tony Walton Dr. - Walton works with the Kansas oil industry, the Kansas Geological Survey,
and petroleum engineers from KU's unique Tertiary Oil Recovery Project on projects related to reservoir
characterization and improved oil production. This effort includes unique opportunities to get practical
experience in petroleum geology as well as conducting scientific research. Current projects include
attempts to develop better methods of reservoir characterization and of exploration for field
extensions and new deposits using the extensive data already available from the subsurface of eastern Kansas.
Evan Franseen - Much of Evan’s research has application to the petroleum industry through
development of new approaches to the study of carbonate strata that can benefit understanding of carbonate
reservoirs. He has also been involved directly in Kansas reservoir and reservoir analog studies. Recent
projects involve important Ordovician carbonate and Mississippian carbonate and chert reservoirs associated
with major karstic unconformities. Other work is using Pennsylvanian outcrops for reservoir analog studies.
Bob Goldstein - Bob's work in petroleum geology typically focuses on the integration of geochemistry,
diagenesis, and fluid migration. He uses petrographic and geochemical techniques to relate diagenesis and
porosity evolution to tectonic and stratigraphic mechanisms of fluid flow, and especially, applies fluid inclusion
techniques to evaluate thermal history and history of petroleum migration in sedimentary basins.
Lynn Watney - Watney currently participates in two DOE-funded interdisciplinary programs: 1) the
evaluation of the carbon dioxide flooding potential to recover additional petroleum from Upper
Pennsylvanian oomoldic carbonate reservoirs (http://crude2.kgs.ukans.edu/CO2/index.html); 2) building a free website called GEMINI
(Geo-Engineering Modeling through Internet Informatics) to provide data, linking to current Digital Petroleum
Atlas, and a suite of analytical web-application software over the next three years (2000-03) to build
quantitative, 3-D models of rock and fluid volumes. The website will facilitate team-based, distributed
evaluation of resource recovery strategies and technologies (website URL) with a goal to keep Kansas
competitive and serve as a model for other mature petroleum producing provinces.
John Doveton - Application of wireline petrophysical logs to both the identification of lithologies
and interpretation of depositional and diagenetic histories. Elucidation of hydrocarbon reservoir
microarchitecture of pore-throat and pore-body facies from integrated core and wireline petrophysical
data. Mathematical methods for analyzing petrophysical data as inputs for subsurface geological models
in time and space at a variety of scales.
Lee Gerhard - Lee's work in petroleum geology focuses on study of the fundamental tectonic controls
of carbonate stratigraphy in the upper Mid-continent. In addition he is interested in policy issues in
supply of energy resources to the United States, and environment and resource issues of the world.
Diane Kamola - Diane's work in petroleum geology is in the area of sequence stratigraphy, facies
relations and continuity and geometries of sandstone bodies. Recent work includes the application of high
resolution sequence stratigraphy to the prediction of sandstone body architecture and permeability barrier
distribution in fluvial and shallow marine reservoirs through integrated outcrop and borehole study.
Books recently published by KU researchers in petroleum
geology include:
Doveton, J.H., 1994, Geological Log Analysis Using Computer Methods: AAPG
Computer Applications in Geology, No. 2, AAPG,Tulsa, 169 pp.
Doveton, J.H., 1994, Geologic Log Interpretation : SEPM Short Course 29, 169 pp.
Examples of recent publications
Newell, K. D., Goldstein, R.H., and Burdick, C.J. (in press) Diagenesis and late-stage porosity development in Pennsylvanian Strawn Formation, Val Verde Basin, Texas: W. Ahr, ed., Permo-Carboniferous Platforms and Reefs, SEPM-AAPG Special Publication #
McKirahan, J.R., and Goldstein, R.H., and Franseen, E. K. (in press) Build-and-fill sequences: How subtle paleotopography affects 3-D heterogeneity of potential reservoir facies: : W. Ahr, ed., Permo-Carboniferous Platforms and Reefs, SEPM-AAPG Special Publication #
Carlson, R.C., Goldstein, R.H., and Enos, Paul. (in press) Effects of Subaerial Exposure on Porosity Evolution in the Carboniferous Lisburne Group, Northeastern Brooks Range, Alaska: : W. Ahr, ed., Permo-Carboniferous Platforms and Reefs, SEPM-AAPG Special Publication #
Rossi, C., Goldstein, R.H., Ceriani, A., and Marfil, R. 2002, Fluid inclusions record thermal and fluid evolution in reservoir sandstones, Khatatba Formation, Western Desert, Egypt: A case for fluid injection: AAPG Bulletin, v. 86, p. 1773-1799.
Ceriani, A., Di Guilio, A., Goldstein, R.H., and Rossi, C. 2002, Diagenesis associated with cooling during burial: An example from Lower Cretaceous reservoir sandstones (Sirt basin, Libya): AAPG Bulletin, v. 86, p. 1573-1591.
C. Rossi, R. Marfil, R.H. Goldstein, R. Salas, A. Permanyer, J.A. de la Pe–a, M.A. Caja, and M.I. Benito. 2001. Diagenetic and oil migration history of the Kimmeridgian Ascla Formation, Maestrat Basin, Spain, Marine and Petroleum Geology v.18 (3), p. 287-306
Rossi, C., Goldstein, R.H., and Marfil, R. 2000. Pore fluid evolution and quartz diagenesis in the Khatatba Formation, Western Desert, Egypt: Journal of Geochemical Exploration, v. 69-70, p. 91-96
Doveton, J.H., Watney, W.L., and Guy, W.J. 2000. Integrated analysis of reservoir petrofacies in platform carbonates of Kansas; techniques and case studies, pp. 223-225, In, Johnson, K.S., (ed.); Platform carbonates in the southern midcontinent, 1996 symposium Oklahoma Geological Survey, Circular, no. 101, 359 pages
Forster, A., Merriam, D.F., and Watney, W.L. 2001. Temperature analysis in the mature hydrocarbon province of Kansas; utilizing a large database of well-completion histories, pp. 285-301, In, Merriam, D.F.; and Davis, J.C., (eds.); Geologic modeling and simulation; sedimentary systems Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, New York, NY, Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences, 352 pages
Harff, J.[E.], Watney, W.L., Bohling, G.C., Doveton, J.H., Olea, R.A., and Newell, K.D. 2001. Three-dimensional regionalziation for oil field modeling, pp. 205-227, In, Merriam, D.F.; and Davis, J.C., (eds.); Geologic modeling and simulation; sedimentary systems Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, New York, NY, Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences, 352 pages
Watney, W.L., Guy, W.J., and Byrnes, A.P. 2001. Characterization of the Mississippian chat in south-central Kansas American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 85-113
Watney, W.L., Guy, W.J., Doveton, J.H., Bhattacharya, S., Gerlach, P.M., Bohling, G.C., and Carr, T.R. 1999. Petrofacies analysis; a petrophysical tool for geologic/engineering reservoir characterization, pp. 73-90, In, Schatzinger, R.A.; and Jordan, J.F., (eds.); Reservoir characterization; recent advances American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir, no. 71, 404 pages
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