A Message from EMD’s President

Stephen M. Testa, P.G.

To Energy Resource Geologists Around the World:

Welcome to the Public Home Page of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)'s Energy Minerals Division's website. As President of EMD, one of my areas of responsibility is to introduce the EMD to the new AAPG members. EMD is about exploration, development and production of unconventional and alternative energy resources. With a national political and policy emphasis on unconventional and alternative energy strategies, there is no better time to become involved in what is now becoming part of our everyday discussion on energy.

Another area of responsibility is to provide the general public and non-AAPG geologists and other professionals with a general idea of the range of energy resource commodities EMD geologists deal with in their professional activities. EMD provides technical information and training opportunities for professional growth to an increasing number of energy resource geologists whose activities focus on unconventional and alternative energy resources.

Formed in 1977, EMD offers technical information, publications, and meeting programs to its members covering the alternate energy resources such as coal and lignite, uranium, and geothermal energy. The unconventional resources include coal-bed methane, gas hydrates, shale gas & liquids, tight gas sands and, as long as the market prices remain relatively high, oil shale and oil sands. Renewables such as wind and solar also comprise the unconventional resources. No matter where one looks, the role the alternatives and unconventional energy resources are projected to increase dramatically over the next 25 years, with natural gas resources representing the future for the U.S. energy market. It is these alternative and unconventional resources that will make up an important part of the available carbon-based energy resources that will likely assist in our transition to more climate-friendly energy strategy over the next 30 years and beyond. Many of these new resources are U.S. and Canada based, albeit not limited to North America. Projections suggest that natural gas will remain to be a principal resource in the U.S., as will uranium and geothermal energy, with increased interest and development of renewable energy resources by industry and the private sector.

As a Division of the AAPG, EMD is part of a professional association of some 36,000 geologists working in the U.S. and overseas, which leads the way in developing new methods and techniques in the exploration and production for these new energy resources, with an emphasis on building up reserves located in the U.S. and in other cooperative areas of the world. To accomplish these tasks, the need continues to develop the science of energy resource geology and technology in supporting the exploration and development of unconventional resources, as well as the traditional nuclear-based and thermal-based energy resources to support a strong economy in the U.S. and around the world. In the meantime, the various forms of renewable energy attempt to become an integral part of the energy future.

EMD members are an integral part of the AAPG membership and you will find EMD members assisting in their local societies and on a regional, national and international level in the development of the science of geology and geophysics in special symposia, workshops, short courses, and field trips. EMD members also contribute to the well-known AAPG Bulletin, the AAPG EXPLORER, in EMD memoirs and special publications and in the EMD-suppored journal, Natural Resources Research, and the DEG journal, Environmental Geosciences.

The history of the AAPG and the ongoing missions of EMD in developing new unconventional and alternate energy resources are well expressed and equally applicable in an AAPG video on exploring for and developing energy resources in the U.S. and overseas. If you think "energy resources" every time the term "petroleum" is mentioned in the video, the points made are one and the same. Scott Tinker, AAPG Past President, speaks in a GSA video about the future and about the role of the energy and environmental geologists in today's society.

New programs, new services, and a re-structured EMD designed to improve communications between the AAPG and EMD leadership have resulted in a significant increase in EMD membership, not only because the EMD membership dues have been eliminated as an impediment to joining EMD, but also because the volume and quality of the technical information and associated training programs have increased substantially.

It is my expressed opinion that environmental concerns drive policy and policy drives conventional, unconventional and alternative energy resources exploration and development, regardless of their respective merits. Thus, combined with the increasing number of member benefits coming from the Division of Professional Affairs (DPA <http://dpa.aapg.org/> ) and the Division of Environmental Geosciences (DEG <http://deg.aapg.org/> ), the three Divisions provide relevancy and depth to AAPG and AAPG membership. The outstanding member benefits that have been provided by AAPG for many decades, and are complemented by the increasing contributions from the EMD, the DPA and the DEG, help make us better geoscientists and better prepared for the challenges of the 21st Century.

So, if you are a member of AAPG, just click a box in your AAPG profile to become a member of EMD with access to all of the Commodity Committee Members Only webpages and associated technical information. If you are a geologist working on energy resources and are not an AAPG member, what are you waiting for, an invitation? OK, here it is, see AAPG and EMD Membership Applications. You won’t regret it.

These are exciting times for EMD and those involved in energy resources.

I invite you all to participate in this innovative and challenging venture!

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Testa, P.G.
President, EMD (2011-12)