Sicily 2015
 
 

Welcome from the Conference Chairs:

"Welcome to the AAPG European Region's “Fractured Reservoirs: Geological, Geophysical and Engineering Tools to crack them”. AAPG Europe and us, your conference chairs, invite you to join us for this exciting conference in Catania, Sicily. This is the first AAPG conference to be held in the beautiful city of Catania, bringing together geoscientists and engineers from around Europe.

 In the last twenty years, exploring and developing naturally fractured reservoirs has increasingly required approaches integrating Structural Geology, Geomechanics and Rock Physics. These disciplines help in a huge varieties of challenges, including: play definition (e.g. fracture occurrence and density controls); reserve assessment (e.g. fracture networks connectivity controls and scenarios); and production rates potential realisation (e.g. targeting strategies and development optimisation given the structural and mechanical properties of fracture systems and the physical properties of the host rocks).

 In the immediate future it is clear that successful players will be companies able to innovate and sometimes revolutionise their exploration and development practices in order to find new plays in maturing basins or develop resources so far thought inaccessible. We believe that Structural Geology; Geomechanics and Rock Physics represent indispensable tools in these quests.

 This conference aims to bring together, for the first time in one place, practitioners of these key disciplines to discuss (i) experience gained, to date, in the integration of these disciplines and (ii) the new approaches currently in development. In order to accurately represent the innovations in current practice and new research developments we are eliciting participation from both industry and academia.

It is in the context of this rational that we look forward to welcoming you to Catania, Sicily, to share your experiences in this field and to help formulate a strategy for future research."

With best wishes,

Raffaele Di Cuia, Davide Casabianca, John Cosgrove