Tag: Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

SMU conference promotes technology, economics of geothermal production in oil and gas fields

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 15, 2015

“Power Plays” workshop, in Dallas May 19-20, is SMU Geothermal Laboratory’s seventh international energy conference and workshop

Southern Methodist University’s renowned SMU Geothermal Laboratory will host its seventh international energy conference and workshop on the SMU campus May 19-20. The conference is designed to promote transition of oil and gas fields to electricity-producing geothermal systems by harnessing waste heat and fluids from both active and abandoned fields.

More than 200 professionals – ranging from members of the oil and gas service industry, reservoir engineers, to geothermal energy entrepreneurs, to lawyers – are expected to attend “SMU Power Plays: Geothermal Energy in Oil and Gas Fields” Topics of discussion will include:

Power generation from flare gas

Power generation from waste-heat and geothermal fluids

Research updates on induced seismicity, as well as onshore and offshore thermal maturation

Play Fairway Analysis – a subsurface mapping technique used to identify prospective geothermal resources

Technology updates

Researchers from SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences will present results from their Fall 2014 Eastern North American Margin Community Seismic Experiment (ENAM CSE) research. In addition, equipment such as one-well systems, desalination and other new technologies will be explored. SMU geothermal conference remains open and walk-up attendees will be accommodated.

SMU has been at the forefront of geothermal energy research for more than 45 years, and the Geothermal Laboratory’s mapping of North American geothermal resources is considered the baseline for U.S. geothermal energy exploration. Geothermal Laboratory Coordinator Maria Richards and Emeritus Professor David Blackwell have seen interest in geothermal energy wax and wane with the price of oil and natural gas.

But Richards believes current low oil prices will drive more interest in geothermal development, encouraging oil and gas producers to use geothermal production from existing oil and gas fields as they try to keep them cost-effective for petroleum production at 2015 prices.

The technology that will be examined at the conference is relatively straight-forward: Sedimentary basins drilled for oil and gas production leave behind reservoir pathways that can later be used for heat extraction. Fluids moving through those hot reservoir pathways capture heat, which at the surface can be turned into electricity, or used downhole to replace pumping needs. In addition, the existing surface equipment used in active oil and gas fields generates heat, which also can be tapped to produce electricity and mitigate the cost of production.

“Oil and gas drilling rig counts are down,” Richards said. “The industry has tightened its work force and honed its expertise. The opportunity to produce a new revenue stream during an economically challenging period, through the addition of relatively simple technology at the wellhead, may be the best chance we’ve had in years to gain operators’ attention.”

Featured speakers include Jim Wicklund, managing director for equity research at Credit Suisse, who will speak on “Volatile Economics in the Oil Field,” and Holly Thomas and Tim Reinhardt from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office. STW Water Process & Technology, a water reclamation and oilfield services company, will have desalination equipment on-site for attendees to understand size and scaling capacity of water purification for oil field operators.

Information and registration is available at www.smu.edu/geothermal. — Kimberly Cobb

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags David Blackwell, Maria Richards, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, SMU Geothermal Laboratory

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SMU seismology team to cooperate with state, federal scientists in study of May 7 Venus, Texas earthquake

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 8, 2015

Scientists had been observing smaller quakes in area; SMU seismology team has developed expertise to deploy instruments, analyze and sharedata

SMU’s seismology team was not surprised by the magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred near Venus, Texas, Thursday evening, having been aware of multiple smaller earthquakes identified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in the area in recent months. They are recommending a regional monitoring network.

“We emphasized to the House Committee on Energy Resources the need for a permanent regional network, supplemented by portable instruments, that we can deploy in a time-sensitive manner when earthquakes occur,” said Matthew Hornbach, SMU associate professor of geophysics.

“The seismology team at SMU has developed the expertise to deploy these instruments, analyze and share that data,” said Brian Stump, SMU Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences. “We are committed to cooperate, as resources allow, with both state and federal agencies in addressing these issues,” Stump said.

Currently SMU has 26 seismic instruments deployed in North Texas, split between an area near Azle, Texas, SMU, earthquakes, seismology that experienced a series of earthquakes from late 2013 through spring 2014, and along a fault straddling the Irving-Dallas, Texas, earthquakes, SMU, seismology line where earthquakes have been occurring near the site of the old Texas Stadium.

“We are in the process of determining what resources might be available so that we can respond to the largest earthquake now felt in North Texas,” said Heather DeShon, SMU associate professor of geophysics. Previous SMU deployments have relied heavily on loaned monitoring equipment from the USGS and the academic consortium known as IRIS – Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. “We are still in the process of determining how many instruments might be available for this purpose in light of ongoing earthquake activity around the world, such as the recent earthquake in Nepal,” DeShon said.

The magnitude 4.0 earthquake (M4) recorded by the USGS in Venus at 5:58 p.m. Thursday is part of a series of smaller earthquakes the SMU team has been following in the Midlothian area. The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) has reported seven earthquakes within 10 kilometers of the USGS location for the May 7 Venus earthquake, with three of them (including the most recent) occurring at or above magnitude 3. There have been 23 earthquakes recorded within 20 kilometers of the Venus location, since 2009, with five of them registering higher than an M3.

SMU first started studying earthquakes in Johnson County for a series of earthquakes occurring in Cleburne in 2009, culminating in the peer reviewed “Analysis of the Cleburne, Texas, Earthquake Sequence from June 2009 to June 2010 (doi: 10.1785/0120120336 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America October 2013). The SMU team also is watching with interest an additional area of seismicity (based on USGS locations) near Mineral Wells.

“I don’t think any of us was surprised by Thursday’s event,” DeShon said. “There have been a series of magnitude 3 and greater earthquakes in the Johnson County area. If you have movement on a fault and change the stresses, you increase the likelihood of additional earthquakes. In other words, one earthquake frequently leads to another.”

The SMU team noted that the USGS web site for the event contains an analysis of the data that estimates fault motion striking from the northeast to the southwest – consistent with other earthquake sequences SMU has studied in North Texas.

“This illustrates that we all need to think about the possibility of larger earthquakes in the region where we live,” Stump said. — Kimberly Cobb

Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

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James Brooks awarded high honor from American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 1, 2015

Huffington Department of Earth Sciences Professor Emeritus Brooks receives the AAPG’s Presidential Award for Exemplary Service

James Brooks, vice chair of the board of trustees for the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man.

James E. Brooks, provost emeritus and professor emeritus in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at SMU, has been recognized with one of the highest honors of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, AAPG.

Brooks has received the 2015 AAPG Presidential Award for Exemplary Service.

AAPG President Randi Martinsen bestowed the honor upon Brooks “for a lifetime of inspired and dedicated service to his profession and community, and for the education of hundreds of students for whom he has served as an outstanding teacher, wise mentor and genuine friend.”

The SMU AAPG Student Chapter presented Brooks with the AAPG Presidential Award for Exemplary Service at a ceremony May 4, 2015 in Heroy Hall on the SMU campus.

“Uncharacteristically, I have not prepared extensive remarks,” said Brooks, drawing laughter from the students, colleagues, family and friends on hand to celebrate with him. “I’m very, very appreciative. If you’ve spent your life in teaching, there’s something special about being appreciated by your students.”

Brooks reminded those gathered for the reception, “If you have any untoward stories about the honoree, just keep ’em to yourself.”

AAPG is the premier organization for U.S. petroleum geologists. It is one of the world’s largest professional geological societies with more than 36,000 members.

“You can’t help but be considerably humbled,” Brooks said of the award. “AAPG is a big, important organization on a worldwide basis. It only gives out one of these a year. Whether I merited it or not, I do appreciate it.”

An AAPG member, Brooks is an expert in North American and Middle Eastern stratigraphy and geomorphology. He’s been at SMU for 60 years as a professor, department chair, dean of the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, university provost, interim University president and as chairman of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) in SMU’s Department of Earth Sciences.

Brooks was 26 when he started on the faculty at SMU, and ended staying his entire career.

“There was more opportunity and more fun here than at other jobs,” Brooks said. “This was a place you could make things happen. The University wasn’t locked into a set pattern. You had an opportunity to shape the future.”

Officially retired, he remains on the department staff in various roles, including as president emeritus and vice chair of the board of trustees for ISEM.

“He is a beloved teacher, mentor, role model, counselor and principal professor of dozens of M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations,” said former AAPG President James Gibbs. “He has been very supportive of petroleum geology science and business.”

In announcing the award, the AAPG commended Brooks — an AAPG member — for his inspired and dedicated service to his profession, community and students.

“I’ve known Jim for 40 years, and he is a man whose character, accomplishments and modesty I greatly admire,” said past AAPG president Marlan W. Downey.

“An extraordinary number of distinguished people have passed under Jim’s wings at SMU and ISEM in Dallas and have been influenced by him,” Downey said. “Jim is one of the ‘good guys.’”

Among the many awards recognizing Brooks for his service to the field of geology, in 1966 he was named a Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Fellows are cited for distinguished contributions to their field that advance science or its application. AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers. — AAPG and SMU

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Tags Dedman College, James E. Brooks, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

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WFAA 8 ABC: Geologists release details of Azle earthquakes study

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 22, 2015

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

WFAA 8 ABC news reporter Byron Harris reported on the SMU-led team of seismologists whose recent study found that large volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.

The study published in Nature Communications.

WFAA aired their segment, Geologists release details of Azle earthquakes study, April, 21, 2015.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Byron Harris
WFAA 8 ABC
The seismology team led by SMU that has been researching local earthquakes believes it’s found a cause for the ones that hit Azle a couple of years ago.

“Causal Factors for Seismicity near Azle, Texas” was published in Nature Communications. A press release about the findings of the study was released on Tuesday.

It states that the team at SMU found “high volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes.”

Oil and gas drilling takes water out of the ground as a product of energy production. And that water is pumped back into the ground in wastewater injection wells. SMU geologists measured those activities, centered around the Newark East Gas Field north and east of Azle.

They found 70 energy-producing wells in the field, and two adjacent wastewater injection wells. Increased levels of water injection and withdrawal corresponded with the earthquakes, the report says.

The quakes hit Azle between late 2013 and spring of 2014. The town saw seven quakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher in that period. A 3D model was developed to investigate two intersecting faults and estimate stress changes.

Read the full story.

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Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news SMU In The News

Dallas Morning News: Azle earthquakes likely caused by oil and gas operations, study says

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 21, 2015

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

A sign marks the entrance to an EnerVest wellsite in Parker County. SMU researchers detemined that an EnerVest wastewater well was one of two such sites exerting the greatest pressure on the fault where earthquakes occurred starting in November 2013. Workers buried about 120 million gallons of fluid at the site between October 2010 and September 2013. (DMN)

Science journalist Anna Kuchment with The Dallas Morning News covered the research of an SMU-led team of seismologists whose recent study found that large volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.

The study published in Nature Communications.

The Dallas Morning News article published April, 21, 2015.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Anna Kuchment
The Dallas Morning News
Oil and gas operations are the most likely cause of dozens of earthquakes that began rattling the North Texas towns of Azle and Reno in November 2013, a group of scientists has concluded.

The study, led by researchers at SMU and published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, presents some of the most conclusive evidence yet that humans are shifting faults below Dallas-Fort Worth that have not budged in hundreds of millions of years.

While experts have not yet determined what’s causing the shaking in Dallas and Irving, the new paper previews aspects of that study and includes suggestions that will help speed research.

“It’s certainly one of the best cases in the literature,” said Art McGarr of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program in Menlo Park, Calif.

The new findings contradict statements by the Railroad Commission of Texas that there are no definitive links between oil and gas activity and earthquakes in the state.

Shown an embargoed version of the paper, the commission’s staff seismologist Craig Pearson wrote in a statement that “the study raises many questions with regard to its methodology, the information used and conclusions it reaches.” But he declined to answer specific questions before meeting with the paper’s authors. The Railroad Commission regulates the oil and gas industry.

The Azle study is the result of a yearlong collaboration involving 11 researchers at SMU, the University of Texas at Austin, and the U.S. Geological Survey and was reviewed by independent experts before publication.

The scientists zeroed in on an unusual mechanism behind the quakes: workers pushing liquid into the ground on one side of a fault and sucking gas and groundwater from the other side of the fault.

“The combination of these activities seems to have triggered the earthquakes, and that was a real surprise to us,” said Matthew Hornbach, a geophysicist at SMU and a lead author of the paper.

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

The geology of each region is unique, however, so these mechanisms may not be at work elsewhere.

Read the full story.

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Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

“Power Plays” workshop, in Dallas May 19-20, is SMU Geothermal Laboratory’s seventh international energy conference and workshop

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Scientists had been observing smaller quakes in area; SMU seismology team has developed expertise to deploy instruments, analyze and sharedata

Huffington Department of Earth Sciences Professor Emeritus Brooks receives the AAPG’s Presidential Award for Exemplary Service

Related links

More SMU Research news

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news