The Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB) and the Geological Society are launching a new major conference series entitled the Energy Geoscience Conference (EGC). The series will disseminate high-quality, energy-related geoscience to a UK and global audience via a physical and virtual conference every six years, with the proceedings published by the Society’s Publishing House. The first conference – EGC1 – is scheduled for 16 – 18 May 2023 in Aberdeen, UK.
Towards net zero
Graham Goffey, Conference Board Chair, explains, “EGC was originally conceived in 2018 to supersede the highly successful Petroleum Geology Conference (PGC) series. PGC ran eight times between 1974 and 2015, and played a key role in documenting industry and academia’s developing understanding of the offshore petroleum provinces of NW Europe”. Professor John Underhill, Director of the UK Centre for Doctoral Training, GeoNetZero, and a Lead Convenor for EGC1 adds, “Close collaboration between industry and academia, coupled with the authoritative proceedings volumes were real highlights of PGC, which broke new ground in subsurface evaluation. The proceedings are still a go-to reference source and with EGC we aim to replicate these key elements across the breadth of the energy geosciences”.
Geoscience underpins many aspects of the global energy mix and offers solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the world progresses towards net zero. EGC will explore and develop the contribution of geology and geophysics to the energy transition. Lead Convenor Dr Caroline Gill, a Subsurface Lead for Shell in Aberdeen and outgoing Chair of the Society’s Energy Group emphasises, “We want to bring together geoscientists working across the energy geoscience spectrum to examine areas of overlap, encouraging cross-disciplinary sharing of scientific insights, techniques, best practice and case histories with a NW Europe and global audience. Reflecting the focus of the Society’s Energy Group, it is natural for its committee and wider group to be instrumental in delivering this new conference series”.
Supporting geoscientists
The conference aims to support geoscientists in industry and academia who are researching, exploring and developing lower-carbon oil and gas, energy storage, renewable energy sources and waste product storage/sequestration solutions, both in the UK and internationally. The steering committee of convenors reflects the breadth of UK-based expertise in the area, and the convening group will expand as the convenors now move into soliciting talks and poster presentations for the event.
Convenor Dr Charlotte Adams has long been involved in promoting the UK’s geothermal potential. A hydrogeologist and Principal Manager of Mine Water Heat for the UK’s Coal Authority, Charlotte previously co-convened several of the ‘UK Deep Geothermal’ conference series. She commented, “This conference provides an excellent opportunity for knowledge transfer and partnership development between the geothermal and hydrocarbon industries”. Similarly, convenor and Energy Group committee member Simon Norris (of Radioactive Waste Management), who has been studying the geological disposal of radioactive waste for close to three decades, highlights the importance of sharing best practice from industries such as oil and gas, and providing information and experience that can be used in the siting and construction of radioactive waste disposal facilities. Convenor Nick Prowse, Technical Lead at Orsted focussing on building integrated surface and subsurface ground models for wind farm siting also draws attention to the overlap between disciplines and industries, ”This conference will provide an excellent opportunity for people to discover insights into some of those technical overlaps”.
Hybrid event
The 2023 conference is hybrid in in nature, offering an opportunity for networking after so long without in-person meetings, as well as the virtual option to allow meaningful international participation. Inevitably, some talks will have confidentiality limitations, so will be given in-person only, but these will be a small minority. The convenors are especially keen to attract early career professionals and hope that a shorter ‘research highlights’ talk option will help attract this community.
The call for abstracts is now open, with a deadline of 30th June 2022. The convenors are actively soliciting talks and posters for what promises to be an important scientific conference and a key part of the Society’s energy transition scientific focus in 2023.
For more information, please visit: www.energygeoscienceconf.org
