Lacustrine Basin Exploration

Who Should Attend

Geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers, managers and anyone working with lacustrine petroleum source rocks, oil shale, lacustrine or fluvial reservoirs, and non-marine basin stratigraphy.

Objectives

Lake basins contain some of the most prolific hydrocarbon resources in the world, including super-giant fields in the South Atlantic, Caspian Sea, and in China and SE Asia. Even larger resources are associated with oil shale deposits in the western U.S. Despite their growing importance, the petroleum geology of lake basins has received far less attention than marine basins. This course therefore aims at developing an understanding of the unique aspects of lacustrine source rocks, reservoirs, and basin evolution that will aid future exploration and development efforts. We will do so using the world-famous record of Quaternary Lake Bonneville to gain insight on controls on lacustrine deposition, and the similarly famous Eocene Green River Formation to examine the preserved deposits of a well-exposed ancient lake basin.