Dates for the Spring 2016 Central Texas Field Trip have been fixed. The dates will be:
Saturday, May 14, 2016 to Sunday, May 15, 2016
Final editing of the Field Trip Guidebook is also underway.
Registrants from last year’s postponed field trip will be given priority.
For details, see the Field Trip page.
Look forward to seeing you this year.
Henry M. Wise, P.G., C.P.G.
President – AIPG Texas Section
Susan S. Nash, Ph.D., AAPG Director of Education and Professional Development, Tulsa, OK, Bryan Flynn, Geophysicist, HGS Continuing Education Committee, Houston, and Thom Tucker, C.P.G., HGS Continuing Education Committee, Houston have prepared a comprehensive list of reports, surveys, databases, maps, and software of use to the petroleum geologist and geophysicist. There are also filings and legal reports which can help in decision-making. The fact that the information is readily available via the Internet, and that there are many free cloud-based collaborative tools, makes it more viable than ever to work in teams to quickly put together ideas, evaluate ideas, and make recommendations (see more).
All AIPG Texas Section and prospective members are cordially invited to attend a Meet-and-Greet on March 22, 2016.
The Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists has issued Advisory Opinion AOR #13 (2015).
Is Texas P.G. licensure and/or firm registration required if a P.G. licensed in another state physically moves his or her firm to Texas and engages in the following activities?
The beginning coverage of what’s going on in the American and World economy: /employment/#Economics
More articles and videos will be presented as they are submitted, screened, and linked in the above webpage.
The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) adopts amendments to §§3.5, 3.31, 3.38, 3.40, 3.45, 3.51, 3.52 and 3.86, relating to Application To Drill, Deepen, Reenter, or Plug Back; Gas Reservoirs and Gas Well Allowable; Well Densities; Assignment of Acreage to Pooled Development and Proration Units; Oil Allowables; Oil Potential Test Forms Required; Oil Well Allowable Production; and Horizontal Drainhole Wells, respectively. Sections 3.5, 3.31, 3.38, 3.40, 3.45, 3.51 and 3.52 are adopted without changes, and §3.86 is adopted with changes from the proposed text as published in the November 6, 2015, issue of the Texas Register (40 TexReg 7766).
The RRC adopts the amendments to establish a procedure for designating certain fields as unconventional fracture treated fields (“UFT fields”). A UFT field is a field in which horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing must be used in order to recover resources from all or part of the field and which is developed using either vertical or horizontal drilling techniques. This designation includes shale formations, such as the Eagle Ford and Barnett Shale, in which the drainage of a wellbore is based upon the area reached by the hydraulic fracturing treatments rather than conventional flow patterns. The substantive amendments to incorporate this concept are adopted in §3.86(i) – (l), with supporting and conforming amendments proposed in the other sections.
The AIPG Texas Section Officers, 4 District Representatives, and Councilor- and Member-at-Large, have begun evaluations on how to best assist recent graduates in gaining employment (here), and the members of the AIPG Texas Section and other geologists in Texas who have recently become unemployed only because they were very good at discovering vast shale gas resources in Texas and all over the world for the oil and gas industry. In the meantime, we have provided some guidance (here).
The TCEQ has announced updates to the Texas Risk Reduction Program (TRRP) Tier 1 Protective Concentration Levels (PCLs) are now available. You can access these tables at: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/remediation/trrp/trrppcls.html
On Sept. 24, 2015, the EPA signed the final rule which requires NPDES regulated entities to electronically submit specific permit and compliance monitoring information instead of filing paper reports. This rule will be implemented in two phases. Phase I becomes effective on Dec. 21, 2016, and Phase II becomes effective on Dec. 21, 2020. The following is a brief summary of the Phase I and Phase II requirements as they apply to NPDES regulated entities.
Michael D. Campbell, AIPG-TX Vice President – Eastern Texas, and James R. Conca, Member of the Advisory Group of the EMD Uranium (and Nuclear and Rare Earth Minerals) Committee have just published a section in the “Unconventional Energy Resources: 2015 Review” in the Journal of Natural Resources Research, Vol. 24, No.4 entitled: “Energy Competition in the Uranium, Thorium, and Rare Earth Industries in the U.S. and the World,” updated and summarized from the 2015 Annual Report of the EMD Uranium (and Nuclear and Rare Earth Minerals) Committee, see pp. 8-16, (here).
