EMD LUNCHEON AT 1992AAPG-CSPG MEETING

Terms of office for the following offi-cers are from July 1, 1992, to June 30,1994.

The following abstract is for theJune 24 EMD Luncheon presentationto be made by Dennis J. Nikols, of theAlberta Geological Survey and theAlberta Research Council, at theAAPG-CSPG Annual Meeting in Cal-gary.

The luncheon is scheduled from11 :30 a.m. to 1 :30 p.m. at the WestinHotel in downtown Calgary, and willalso include presentation of awards forthe best oral and best papers given atthe 1991 convention.

Energy Minerals And ResourcesIn A Changing World

Vice- President/President-Elect:John W. Gabelman

Eastern Section Councillor:Gayle H. "Scott" McColloch, Jr.

Mid-Continent Section Councillor:David G. Campbell

Pacific Section Councillor:Mel C. Erskine

Rocky Mtn. Section Councillor:William L. Chenoweth

Bylaws Amendments:

1) Name Change: Vote was forENERGY MINERALS DIVISION.

2) Voting By Section: Vote was forvoting for councillors by section.

3) Voting By Mailed Ballot: Votewas for amendment of bylaw.

phone calls in August and Septemberof 1991. We narrowed the list and rec-ommended a slate of nine candidates.We recommended to the Council twocandidates each for Vice-President/President-Elect and Coun-cillors for the Eastern, Mid-Continent,and Rocky Mountain sections, and anunopposed candidate for Pacific Sec-tion Councillor.

Although we could not attend theFall Council Meeting in September, Isubmitted the slate of nominees to theEMD President for Council approval.Following notification from the Presi-dent that the Council had approvedthe recommended slate, I sent a copyto the AAPG Executive Committee,informing them of the EMD Council'saction and requested their approval.The AAPG Executive Committeeapproved the EMD slate of officer can-didates in January, 1992, right onschedule.

Writing to each one, I thanked thecandidates for agreeing to run forEMD office. I requested (and laterreceived from each one) a statementon why he/she was running and aresume of activities in AAPG andEMD. Those documents then wereedited and included in the next Ener-gy Minerals Geologist, which alsocontained a brightly colored separatepage (for easy recognition) that con-tained the EMD ballot. I also includedwith my letter a copy of those parts ofthe Bylaws stating the duties andresponsibilities of each office.

We thank all 30 on the preliminarylist of candidates that I telephoned,and especially the nine on the slate.We enjoyed selecting them for a pos-sible leadership role in EMD. TheDivision cannot progress without them.Win or lose, all of these candidates arehighly regarded, exceptionally quali-fied EMD members.

(Editors' Note: These results must be approved bythe MPG Executive Committee before they becomeofficial and actually modify the Bylaws. The decision ofthe MPG Executive Committee will be reported in thenext newsletter.)

Energy minerals represent a fixed but vaststore of resources and include uranium, oilsands and shales, coal, and other unconven-tional hydrocarbon reservoirs. When oneexamines the total resource estimates, thenumbers resemble geologic time in scale.The world's store of reserves, however, issubject to change. Factors such as techno-logical innovation, economic rent, social poli-cy, geopolitical and national political condi-tions, environment, and demand all impacthow much of the resource can be counted asa reserve.

People often believe that change is abnor-mal and status quo is normal. Geologic andhuman history indicate that change in theworld is common. The pace of change insociety has been increasing over time andwill continue to increase until some naturallimit halts that process. Change causesresources to become reserves or reserves tobecome resources.

The energy minerals industry appears tobe a victim of its own success, at least in theshort run. The world has an oversupply rela-tive to most energy minerals. The economicrent required to see increased conversion ofresources to reserves is higher than our cur-rent energy costs. In the longer term, as theworld population grows and the demand forenergy accelerates, the combination of forcesthat influences the economic value of com-modities should cause large fractions of theresource base then to become reserves.

In accordance with Article IV, Sec-tion 3 of the EMD Bylaws, the commit-tee compiled a list of some 30 poten-tial candidates, placing about 35

per day. Unexpected start-up prob-lems develop occasionally as the soft-ware is fairly complex. However,things are working out well and I amlearning to use the BBS software bet-ter with every problem that I solve.

Samuel A. Friedman (CommitteeChair), Sandra C. Feldman,Frank E. Kottlowski, and Donald F.Towse

in Upper Cretaceous Fruitland Forma-tion coal: Possible effects on coal bedstimulation and methane production".

The Best Poster Paper Award willbe presented to C. A. John-

son for "Structure and tec-tonics of the SierraMadre Oriental Fold- Come See The BBS

In Calgary!!

We will have an off-line version ofthe BBS running at the EMD booth(#223) at the Annual Meeting in Cal-gary! Come see what features wehave running at that time and gainsome familiarity with the system. I willbe staffing the booth intermittently.The on-line BBS will be running thenas well, although we will not be con-

nected to it by phonefrom Calgary

because of theexpense of con-

necting forthe durationof the exhibi-tion.

AWARDS =--,.-

AT THE LUN-CHEON MEET -lNG, Wednes-day, June 24,1992.

~ How ToGet

Started

To use the EMD. Connection it will be

necessary to havesome son of computer, a-- modem, and communications

software. For IBM-PC compatibles Ican help as I have two communica-tions packages to distribute. Pro-comm is shareware that requires asmall payment for continued use, andMS-Kermit is public-domain software.I should also have access to the Ker-mit distribution files at Columbia Uni-versity in the near future, via Internet,and would be willing to try to helpobtain versions of Kermit for othercomputers.

Thrust Belt ~near Monter- ,~ .rey, northeasternMexico", Co-authorsG. G. Gray and R. K. Goldhammer willreceive certificates of excellence.Runnerup authors J. M. Ellis, P. D.Caldwell, and P. B. Goodwin willreceive certificates for their posterpaper "Merging satellite images andmaps to improve operations, NigerDelta, Nigeria".

Accessing The EMDConnection

If you have the necessary hardwareand software, to use the EMD connec-tion you need to:

1 )Set up your communications soft-ware for 300, 1200, or 2400 bps, no

The EMD Bulletin Board System(BBS) is on line - almost 24 hours

r

Sandra C. Feldmanhas been selected to receive the EMDDistinguished Service Award.

Best paper Award for the 1991Annual Convention in Dallas will bepresented to Walter B. Ayers, Jr. forhis presentation of "Geologic andhydrologic characterization of coal bedmethane reservoirs, Fruitland Forma-tion, San Juan Basin, Colorado andNew Mexico. " Co-authors W. A.

Ambrose, W. R. Kaiser, S. E.Laubach, A. R. Scott, J. S. Yeh, C. M.Tremain, and N. H. Whitehead willreceive certificates of excellence.

Certificates of excellence will alsobe awarded to D. D. Rice and R. M.Flores for their paper "Controls onbacterial gas accumulations in thickTertiary coal beds and adjacent chan-nel sandstones, Powder River Basin,Wyoming and Montana", and to S. E.Laubach and C. M. Tremain for theirpaper "Distribution and origin ofregional coal fracture (cleat) domains

Westin Hotel, Calgary.The out-going and

incomingCouncil Offi-

cers shouldsttend.

All EMD mem-bers are free to sitin.

BBS Features the BBS or by sending an IBM-formatdiskette to me (West Virginia Geologi-cal and Economic Survey, P.O. Box879, Morgantown, WV 26507-0879).

G.H. "Scott" McColloch

Besides the electronic mail and filelibraries, we will be implementing theclassified advertisements section inorder to allow members seekingemployment or consulting work toadvertise. I will have the classified adssection set up so "non-live" users (i.e.,non-members of EMD) also can readthem. Because of the way classified

SHORT COURSE ANDFIELD Tmp PLANNINGUPDATE

parity, 8 bits, and 1 stop bit. This oftenis abbreviated as 1200-N-8-1 or 2400-N-8-1 or some similar combination,depending on your communicationssoftware. The number of bps, some-times referred to as "baud", automati-cally will be sensed by the BBS.

2)DiaI304-594-3547. The BBS willanswer and the modems will exchangesome information in the form of tones.At this point, your modem will informyou that it has connectedat the communicationspeed (bps or baud rate)that you set up.

3)Type a couple ofcarriage returns for thesoftware to use to deter-mine this speed on theother end. You then willreceive a welcome mes-sage that will include ashort message from me.

4)Type NEW asinstructed if you are anew user. (After anaccount is set up, typeyour user name andpassword.)

After you type "new", the "

BBS will print several para- ';

graphs to read and ask you aseries of questions. At the end ofthis, you will receive an electronicmail message from me that includesan "attached" file.

5)Read the message by typingEAT (this concatenated commandstands for "E-mail Read To you").This will display some header infor-mation and ask if you would like toread the message by typing A. Dothis and read the message. You thenwill be given the opportunity to down-load a file of user information namedNEWUSER.TXT. Both the initial wel-come message and NEWUSER. TXTwill include information that I willkeep up to date. I will make sure thatNEWUSER. TXT also is available in alibrary file for experienced users.Please fill out the registry of users assoon as possible. This is a publicinformation listing that can be used tofind out a little about other users onthe BBS. Information in the registrycan be updated by you at any time.

ads are dis- "-played, I suggest v

that the topic oneach classified ad be descriptive (i.e.,"RESUME" or "CONSULTANT"). Thetext of the classified ads are ASCII textfiles that can be up to 1,920 characterslong.

The files system includes a listing ofcurrent EMD members in a comma-delimited format. This is located in theMBRS library. I hope to begin to havefiles with the text of the previous andpresent Energy Minerals Geologistissues in the MBRS library in the nearfuture and am exploring how to bestimplement a calendar of upcomingevents of interest to members.

Submissions to the RESUME andCONSULTANT listings must be in digi-tal form, either by uploadinQ the file to

The EMDshort courses forthe Calgarymeeting havehad a mixedresponse. ZeevBerger's shortcourse (#12) hasfilled with 20 par-ticipants and themaximum enroll-ment has beenextended to 25.The coalbedmethane shortcourse (#13) has

a low enrollmentat this time (still

below the break-evenpoint). Anyone inter-

ested in this short courseshould sign up as soon as

possible so that it will not becanceled.Although not necessarily an

,,'-J EMD subject, we have proposeda short course on sequence

stratigraphy for the 1992 RockyMountain Section meeting in Casperin September. This course would berun by Betty Wilson of MethaneResources and Karen Porter of theMontana Geological Survey. Thecourse would stress the practicalapplications of sequence stratigraphyin the Rocky Mountain region.

The EMD combination shortcourse/field trip at the 1993 NewOrleans meeting will focus onsequence stratigraphy in the GulfCoast lignites. Mike Fein has set upthe course to be a half-day shortcourse followed by a one-day fieldtrip to the Dolet Hills Project. Theshort course tentatively will beoffered again following the return ofthe field trip participants.

A short course on geomicrobialexploration methods for ore andpetroleum exploration, to be taucht by

Rusty Riese (ARCO), CQllen Dunn(geological Survey of Canada), JerryArp (Consultant), and John Stednick(Colorado State University), is a pos-sible topic for the 1994 AAPG meet-ing in Denver. Dr. Riese is a dynamicspeaker. If this course comes about,it should prove to be a very interestingand informative event.

Gretchen Hoffman

pleased to announce the AntoinetteLierman Medlin Scholarship in CoalGeology for the 1992-1993 academicyear. The scholarship was estab-lished as a memorial to Antoinette"Toni" Medlin who, for many years,quietly and efficiently dedicated herselfto the advancement of coal geo-science and to the encouragement ofstudents in coal geology. Monies forthe Scholarship are derived from theannual interest income from the Schol-arship fund. The Scholarship providesfull-time students, who are involved inresearch in coal geology (origin,occurrence, geologic characteristics,or economic implications of coal andassociated rocks), with financial sup-port for their project for one year.

Scholarship funding can be used forfield or laboratory expenses, sampleanalyses, instrumentation, supplies, orother expenses essential to the suc-cessful completion of the researchproject. Approximately $1 ,500 will beavailable for the 1992 award. In addi-tion, the recipient may be providedwith an additional stipend to presentresults of the research at the 1993GSA Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass-achusetts.

Proposals for the 1992 Scholarshipwill be evaluated by a panel of coalgeoscientists. The award will go to thestudent whose proposal is rankedhighest by this panel.

Interested students should submitthe following:

1 )A concise statement of objectivesand methods, and a statement of howthe Scholarship funds will be used toenhance their project. The proposalshould be no more than 5 double-spaced pages.

We intend to "knock your socks off"with five great invited papers (speak-ers verbally committed) and a round-table discussion with four eminent -and opinionated - individuals, with a

special guest moderator deflecting thesparks. It is conceivable that AAPGmay videotape the session for futuredistribution to the industry, media, andlay communities.

More? Look at the suggested EMDsession topics. Those of you whocomplain about nothing new will find ithere, without ignoring the fields thathelped build EMD!! You will get agreat session Wednesday, plus beable to view posters at your conve-nience anytime Tuesday, with twoauthor-availability periods within theposter session.

More? How about a modularapproach to pre-convention activities?You can take Dr. John Breyer's "Lig-nite Sequence Stratigraphy" shortcourse on Thursday morning beforethe convention, and drive up that after-noon to visit the outcrops of the lowerWilcox Formation at the Dolet HillsMine near Mansfield, Louisiana, onFriday. Return will be on Saturday.You say you can't get here until noonon Thursday? Then take in Dr. Brey-er's repeat performance of the courseon Sunday morning. Or take one, two,or all three modules!

Still not enough? Then cap yourconvention with the EMD luncheon,right after the Wednesday oral session.Enjoy a swordfish luncheon, salute ouraward winners, and then settle backand hold on to your chair for one of thegreat heroines of our time, and cham-pion of American industry and technol-ogy, former Governor of Washingtonand author of Trashing the Planet, Dr.Dixie Lee Ray!

Bring a paper, a poster, a friend,spouse, and/or loved one, and jointhose of us in New Orleans who are"Rebuilding Our Industry!!!"

2)A letter of recommendation fromthe student's immediate advisor whichincludes a statement of financial needand the amount and nature of otheravailable funding for the research pro-ject.Michael N. Fein

The material should be sent to Ms.Sandra G. Neuzil, U.S. GeologicalSurvey, National Center, MS 956,Reston, VA 22092, Phone 703-648-6443. The proposal and letter of rec-ommendation must arrive no later thanJune 15, 1992. Applicants will be noti-fied of the Scholarship Committee'sdecision by July 15, 1992.

ANTOINETTE LIERMANMEDLIN SCHOLARSHIPIN COAL GEOLOGY

It may be hard to believe, but I feltstrongly at the one-year-out meeting ofthe New Orleans Convention Commit-tee on April 24 that, come April 1993,we will look back at this day and clearlyrecognize that, on this day, among thecarnage of the local hydrocarbonindustry, we already were off bottom asan industry. Market psychology ispeculiar in some of its predictability.

The spectacular excesses that char-acterize over-bought situations have abear market mirror image as well. Inoil and gas, the excesses have beenthe final steep collapse of natural gasprices this past winter, the mass jobannihilations still in progress at severalcompanies, and the threatened extinc-tion of the Louisiana Geological Surveyby the Governor (for purely politicalreasons). Even now, gas futuresprices are reaching new contract highs,and economic indicators clearly pointtoward recovery with a strong whiff ofprice inflation. The Convention inex-orably creeps closer, however, butyour committee is muddling throughthe rubble and our fallen comrades.

By now, you all have received theCall For Papers for the 1993 AnnualMeeting. Take a special note of theSpecial Session sponsored byEMD/DPA/DEG, "Get It Out Cleanly!The Environment and Extraction ofEnergy Minerals." This is a first forAAPG: three cooperating Divisionsputting on one session on a topic areafor which we have taken much criti-cism, deserved or not.

The Coal Geology Division of theGeological Society of America is

(Editors' Note: If the newsletter is slow in gettingto you and you are pressed for time, call Ms.Neuzil and request a short extension (1-2 weeksat most) of the deadline. Extension requests willbe handled on a case-by-case basis.)

MEETING NOTE

Co. Ltd. (principal: Keith Murray).An aggressive exploration programis planned for South Wales, andadditional applications for coalbedmethane license rights in the U.K.are contemplated.

Coal Geologists from Arkansas,Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma,and the Coal Branch of the U.S. Geo-logical Survey met in Columbia, Mis-souri, at the 16th Annual Forum ofCoal Geologists of the Western Interi-or Coal Basin on June 2-3, 1992. Thisinformal meeting provides a forum fordiscussions and reports of the coalproduction and the coal industries inthese states, and the research in coalgeology in progress or completed ateach of the participating State andFederal institutions that concerns theWestern Interior Coal Region. In addi-tion, a field trip was scheduled to Mon-roe County, Missouri, to sample andexamine a strip mine in which rarecannel coal is exposed. Joy Bosticcoordinated the meeting for the Mis-souri Geological Survey.

D. Keith Murray

Orders should be placed withTechBooks, 4012 Williamsburg Court,Fairfax, VA 22032, or you may phone(703) 352-0001. The price of the bookis $95. Postage in the U.S. is anadditional $5, $12 in Canada and $20elsewhere.

1) Energy InformationAdministration, 1991, GeothermalEnergy in the Western UnitedStates and Hawaii: Resources andProjected Electricity GenerationSupplies: U.S. Department of Energy(Forrestal Bldg., Room 1 F-048,Wash., DC 20585), 70 p.

1992July 23-241 2) Bioreactor Slashes Coal

Sulfur Content (News report inResearch & Development Magazine,April 1992 issue, p. 22-23.) Extractedsection: "Researchers from EG&GIdaho, which operates INEL for DOE,have demonstrated a technique usingmicroorganisms that removes morethan 90% of the inorganic pyritic sulfurcontent - or 45% of the total sulfurcontent - in some types of coal."

The Society for Organic Petrology9th Annual Meeting, UniversityPark, Pennsylvania. Contact:James Hower, Center for AppliedEnergy Research, 3572 Iron WorksPike, Lexington, KY 40511-8433,Phone 606-257-0261, Fax 606-257-0302.

November 18-201992 Eastern Oil Shale Sympo-sium, Hyatt Regency, Lexington,Kentucky. (Emphasis on oil shaleand tar sands/heavy oil.) Abstractsdue June 19. Contact: Geaunita H.Caylor, Coordinator, University ofKentucky/OISTL, 643 Maxwelton Ct.,Lexington, KY 40506-0350, Phone606-257 -2820, Fax 606-258-1049.

1993

3) HIGHLIGHTS, Newsletter of theInstitute for Mining and MineralsResearch of the University ofKentucky; Free subscriptions availablefrom IMMR (233 Mining and MineralResources Building, Lexington, KY40506-0107); Recent articles:Differentiation of Organic SulfurForms in Fossil Fuels and Use ofthe Variogram in Coal Exploration.

October 24-285th International Conference onProcessing and Utilization of HighSulfur Coals, Lexington, Kentucky.Contact: Dr. B.K. Parekh, Universityof Kentucky, Center for Applied Ener-gy Research, 3572 Iron Works Pike,Lexington, KY 40511-8433, Phone606-257-0239, Fax 606-257-0302.

PUBLICATIONS OFINTEREST

REPO RT OFCOMMITTEEONNEWSLETTEROPERA TI 0 NS

The Energy Minerals Geologist isthe name of the present series of theEMD newsletter, which I initiated asVol. 1, No.1 in March, 1990. Itincluded a file photo of the lively EMDExecutive Committee. I believe aphoto of the current ExecutiveCommittee should appear in thenewsletter once a year because tosome degree communication will beimproved between the leadership and

The United Kingdom departmentof Energy has awarded an Explo-ration License conveying more than150,000 acres in the unmined por-tion of the South Wales coal basin tothe Kirkland (CBM) Group forcoalbed methane exploration. Den-ver geologists Tom Fails and KeithMurray, working with Dr. David Whit-bread of Oxford, England generatedthe South Wales prospect andformed and managed the applicantgroup for this license. Group partici-pants are Kirkland Resources((Holdings) Pic. (the operator), Ash-down Resources Ltd., the U.K. sub-sidiary corporations of J. MakowskiAssociates of Boston, ResourceEnterprises, Inc. of Salt Lake City,Hagley Resources Ltd. (principal:Tom Fails), and Ayrshire Production

Geology in Coal ResourceUtilization, edited by Douglas C.Peters, informally known as "The CoalBook," has earned EMD more then$1,000 in royalties so far. We haveless than $5,000 to go for break-even,so help us finish in the black on thismajor project by ordering this finerAfArAn~A hnnk

newsletters be entered into theLibrary section of the EMD computerbulletin board.

members of the Division. Therefore,the issues should be preserved andmade available to all through theEMD computer bulletin board. Irecommend to the President and theExecutive Committee that all the

Samuel A Friedman,Committee Chair

the membership of the Division.The present issue, Vol. 3, No.3,

June, 1992, is the 5th in this dynamicinformative series. It is designed tobond us together through ourcommon interests in alternativesources of energy and associatedtechnologies including economicaspects.

Approximately 35 pages in 5issues have been published. AsCommittee Chair, I have edited or co-edited and coordinated the EnergyMinerals Geologist for 3 years withmost of the computerized typingbeing done by Towse and, morerecently by Peters.I have enjoyed working with them andSandra Feldman to produce thesedocuments for the membership. TheEnergy Minerals Geologist evolvedfrom an initial series edited byChristine Turner and a subsequentseries by Jeremy Platt. The past andpresent newsletters contain importantgeologic and historical EMD materialof interest to current and future

~~~~~

Volume3. Number3. June, 1992

Published by the American Association of Petroleum GeologistsP.O. Box 979Tulsa, Oklahoma 74101-0979

Energy Minerals Division

PresidentDouglas C. PetersU.S. Bureau of MinesBuilding 20, Denver Federal CenterBox 25086Denver, CO 80225-0086(303) 236-0772

Vice-PresidentCarlJ.SmithUSNRCOMSCSW A-BahrainP.O. Box 516New York FPO, NY 09526-2800(304) 594-2331

SecretaryrrreasurerFrank D. PruettIndiana Geoscience InstituteP.O. Box 6222Bloomington, IN 47407(812) 333-0331

0242402BRIAN JOSEPH CARDOTTOKLAHOMA GEOL. SURVEYENERGY CENTER. ROOM N-1Jl100 EAST BOYD STREETNORMAN OK 73019-0628