Speaker : Prof. Mark D. Zoback, Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University; Director of the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity, Stanford University, USA

Title : What’s New in an Old Industry: Oil & Gas in an Era of Decarbonization

Abstract: As global efforts to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants associated fossil fuel use, it is welcome to see new perspectives from oil and gas industry on its potential role in decarbonization. It is an especially welcome development because of the clear need for the continued of oil and gas to sustain economic growth during the transition to lower carbon fuel sources. Conventional and unconventional natural gas provides global opportunities for fuel switching from coal to natural gas and widely distributed global gas resources (and natural gas liquids) provide a critically important thermal fuel for the developing world. Most importantly, massive amounts of CO2 need to be sequestered in the subsurface to limit global warming to 2 degrees as agreed to in the Paris Accords. In this context, extensive use of oil and gas operations represents the only known pathway to reduce carbon emissions before mid-century. The oil and gas industry of the future needs to be one in which it is in the business of producing hydrocarbons and sequestering CO2.

About the speaker: Dr. Mark D. Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage. Dr. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechanics, and reservoir geomechanics with an emphasis on shale gas, tight gas and tight oil production. He is the author of a textbook entitled Reservoir Geomechanics published by Cambridge University Press in 2007, now in its 15th printing and is the author/co-author of approximately 400 technical papers. His online course in reservoir geomechanics has been completed by approximately 10,000 students from around the world. His newest book entitled Unconventional Reservoir Geomechanics (written with former PhD student Arjun Kohli) is being printed by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Zoback has received a number of awards and honors including election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2011. He served on the National Academy of Engineering committee investigating the Deepwater Horizon accident and the Secretary of Energy’s committee on shale gas development and environmental protection. He currently serves on the SPE Task Force on Climate Change.