AIPG-TX

In December, 2016, the Texas Section of AIPG began an online survey of Texas membership about career opportunities and choices. We asked Texas members to tell us what subjects they needed most to improve/broaden their careers. We indicated that we would then search for online resources addressing the top three areas of interest. For more on the survey, click here.

The results of the survey indicated the top three interest areas were:

• Petroleum Geology – Principally concerned with the evaluation of seven key elements applicable in the search for hydrocarbons: source, reservoir, seal, trap, maturation and migration.
• Hydrogeology / Groundwater Resource Evaluation – Groundwater quality and availability issues. Before water resources can be developed and managed, they must be evaluated, i.e., what portion of those resources can be sustainably developed for various uses, after setting aside a proportion for environmental or ecological needs.
• Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources – Distribution and production of oil and gas from shale (fracking) and gas from coal bed methane. Unconventional hydrocarbon deposits are very diverse and difficult to characterize overall, but in general are often lower in resource concentration, dispersed over large areas, and require well stimulation or additional extraction or conversion technology.

We generated a list of online courses (with links), webinars and resources, all of which address the above three career paths.

This information should give you some help in either furthering your current career or venturing into new fields of geoscience. The rest is up to you! Attend your local geological society meetings (also on the list) and get involved. You have much in common with the men and woman of the AIPG and with those who are active in local geological societies.

Professional employment seems to be in flux these days, especially within the energy industry. For a range of coverage on the subjects involved, see the search results from the I2M Web Portal for “Employment”.

Please feel free to send us additional links that are not in the list and we will update the above online list accordingly. Take note of the Version # to stay current.

Thank you and good luck!

Doug Hall, Chair
AIPG Texas Section Business & Training Committee