With WTI in the mid $60s and Brent reaching $70 a barrel, things are getting exciting again in the oil field.  Your East Texas Geological Society also has some exciting events you won’t want to miss.

First up is a timely half day seminar by Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg titled “Reservoir Characteristics for Mudrock Reservoirs”.  This is course is designed for geologists, geophysicists and engineers who are interested in exploring and developing mudrock formations.  The course will be an overview of various successful and unsuccessful mudrock systems.  Dr. Sonnenberg is a professor of geology and geological engineering at Colorado School of Mines and the Charles Boettcher distinguished chair in petroleum geology.  He brings a wealth of experience in industry, teaching and research.

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  I am so grateful as mine was filled with family, friends, too much good food, and too little sleep.  Which also makes me grateful it is over and 2018 is here!  It seems the oil industry is entering this year with cautious optimism.  Ray Thompson gave us an excellent outlook last month of oil staying in the $50-$60 range and the price of natural gas strengthening.  There also seems to be optimism around all the federal regulations being cut and offshore and arctic areas that were previously protected being open to drilling.  However, it seems to me we should be careful what we wish for.  Those areas will probably be exploited by the bigger companies, providing more supply to the market and potentially suppressing prices.  I recently asked an oil field executive if he would rather deal with some cumbersome regulation or have higher oil and gas prices, he said he would definitely pick higher prices.  With US crude and LNG exports ramping up, perhaps it will balance out.  At least it should lead to more jobs, which would be a welcome relief in our industry after the past few years.

I hope this finds everyone enjoying the holidays.  The Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (GCAGS) convention last month was fun and worthwhile.  There were many interesting talks, meetings and lively social events. The individual geological society presidents and GCAGS board meet twice a year to help plan future GCAGS conventions, and report our society activities.  Next year, GCAGS will be held in Shreveport. The ETGS board has pledged to help with the convention, since we are so close geographically and several of our members and theirs participate in both societies.  The Shreveport Geological Society has some good things planned already; I know it will be worth attending. We always appreciate input from our members; please contact us if you have any ideas to improve the conventions or if you would like to help.

The carbonate seminar we offered last month, taught by Dr. Jeff Dravis, was a great success.  It was well attended and we had a record turnout for the luncheon, 83.  I would like to thank Rusty Jackson for setting up the seminar and luncheon and Dr. Dravis for his quality instruction and interesting presentations.