Carbonate Core Workshop: Williston Basin
September 9-11, 2024
Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library
Grand Forks, North Dakota
North Dakota Geological Survey
University of North Dakota
North Dakota Geological Society
Core Workshop Schedule
Monday - September 9th
8:00am-5:00pm* - Basics of Carbonate Sedimentology - Sven Egenhoff & Antun Husinec
*Mid-morning and afternoon coffee breaks at 10am and 3pm, catered lunch at 12-1pm.
Tuesday - September 10th
8:00am-12:00pm – Basics of Carbonate Sedimentology – Sven Egenhoff & Antun Husinec
12:00-1:00pm – Lunch
1:00-3:00pm – Upper Red River Formation – Antun Husinec
3:00-3:15pm – Coffee break
3:15-4:00pm – Red River D Interval – Tim Nesheim
4:00-5:00pm – Stony Mountain/Stonewall Formation – Antun Husinec
Wednesday - September 11th
8:00-9:45am – Interlake Formation – Antun Husinec
9:45-10:00am – Coffee Break
10:00am-12:00pm – Mission Canyon Formation: Little Knife Field – Bob Lindsay
12:00-1:00pm – Lunch
1:00-2:30pm – Ratcliffe Interval (Madison Group) – Tim Nesheim
2:30-2:45pm – Coffee Break
2:45-3:45pm – Carbonate petroleum source rock example: Madison Group – Bob Linsday
3:45-5:00pm – Three Forks Formation – Tim Nesheim
Carbonate Core Workshop Description
The beginning of the workshop, titled Basics of Carbonate Sedimentology, will be co-led by sedimentology professors Dr. Sven Egenhoff (University of North Dakota) and Dr. Antun Husinec (St. Lawrence University). Dr. Egenhoff and Dr. Husinec will cover the basics of carbonate rocks and depositional systems through a series of PowerPoint presentations with period breaks to review core examples of carbonate sedimentary features.
The second half of the workshop will consist of core examples ranging from Ordovician to Mississippian in age from the Williston Basin. The contents of this course will be applicable to any working on carbonate rocks within the Williston Basin and beyond, whether for petroleum resources, carbonate sequestration, and beyond.
Core Workshop Instructors
Sven Egenhoff, Ph.D. is an expert in both shale and carbonate sedimentology applied to understanding conventional and unconventional reservoir deposition and diagenesis. Sven has 20+ years of experience post-doctorate working worldwide on hydrocarbon-related problems, mostly onshore Sweden, Norway, continental US (Bakken and Woodford), and Bolivia, as well as offshore UK (Kimmeridge Clay). He is currently the director and professor at the Univesity of North Dakota and has trained over 400 undergraduate and graduate students in oil-related sedimentology and well-logs. Sven has graduated more than 20 students with M.S. or Ph.D. degrees since 2006 working on unconventional reservoirs in shales and mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems, and has consulted or held research contracts with Hess, Marathon, and Noble Energy, among others.
Robert (Bob) Lindsay holds B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in geology. He spent nearly four decades as petroleum geologist working for oil and gas companies including: Gulf Oil (1976-1985), Chevron/ChevronTexaco (1985-2002), and Saudi Aramco (2002-2015). Much of Bob’s industry experience was focused on core-based carbonate sedimentology and enhance oil recovery projects. He has published over 100 abstracts of talks, poster sessions, and papers. Bob is also a former Co-chairman/Chairman SEPM Evaporite Research Group (1984-1986), an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer (1993-94), and Dhahran Geoscience Society Distinguished Lecturer (2013-14). Since 2015, Bob has been consulting on Permian Basin oil fields, leading field trips and short courses, and teaching graduate level courses including: 1) Rock-based Integrated Reservoir Characterization; 2) Modern Carbonate Field Trip to the Bahamas; and 3) Petroleum Systems.
Antun Husinec is a carbonate geologist – sedimentologist with 20+ years of international experience in detailing and predicting surface and subsurface geometries, composition, and textural character of carbonate and evaporite sedimentary rocks on a local and regional scale for hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir sedimentology/petrology. Carbonate exploration experience covers the whole range of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and modern carbonate systems using core, wireline log, outcrop, thin-section to seismic-scale data. It involves high-resolution sequence stratigraphy, facies, and diagenetic controls on carbonate and evaporite systems, specifically from the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Caribbean Region, and North America with a focus on the Williston Basin. Research and teaching is directed at the use of the sedimentary record and microfossils coupled with the integration of stratigraphic analysis, modeling, isotopic approaches and spectral analysis to track the evolution of climates and oceans, and its relationship to the occurrence of petroleum.
Timothy Nesheim has worked as a subsurface geologist with the North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS) for the past 9+ years, where he has also served as Head of the Subsurface Section since 2017. Prior to the NDGS, Tim received a B.S. in Geosciences from the Minnesota State University of Moorhead (2007), earned an M.S. in Geosciences from the University of Iowa (2009), and worked as a full-time temporary research assistant at Washington State University (2009-10). During his time at the NDGS, Tim has worked and published on many of the oil and gas producing formations in the Williston Basin of North Dakota, including: Icebox-Black Island (Winnipeg Group), Red River, Bakken-Three Forks, and Tyler Formations.
Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library
External view of the Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library (above)
Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library was initially built in 1980 on the campus of the University of North Dakota and was recently expanded and renovated in 2015-2016. This building was named for the late Wilson M. Laird, who was the State Geologist from 1941-69 and assisted in the initial development of rules and regulations for oil and gas drilling in North Dakota. Laird’s early oil and gas regulations were enacted in the early 1940’s, nearly 10 years before the initial discovery of oil in North Dakota. One of Laird’s rules required operating companies to submit any and all core samples collected during drilling operations, which has allowed North Dakota to maintain one the most complete core inventories of North America.
To date, the library sample inventory includes over 475,000 feet (91 miles) of core which primarily consists of the numerous oil and gas producing sedimentary formations of the Williston Basin. An expansive inventory of drill cuttings (over 50,000 boxes) from oil and gas wells is also available as well as cores from various mineral test wells. The current facility includes three main labs that are available for usage to visiting professionals as well as several secondary, smaller lab spaces. The numerous lab spaces are meant to allow multiple visitor/groups to utilize the core and sample inventory at the same time. In addition to multiple lab space, the core library also features conference and break rooms that are also accessible to visitors.
The Julie A. LeFever core laboratory is 1,300 square feet (above)
Conference room (above)
Usage of the facility, both lab and core access, is free of charge to visiting professionals. Lab reservations are ideally booked days to weeks (or months) in advance to assure space is available. For additional information or
to reserve lab space, please see the contact information below:
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/Offices/Core_Library/
Phone: (701) 777-2231
2835 Campus Rd.
Grand Forks, ND 58202-8156
Core Workshop Registration
Please email Tim Nesheim (tonesheim@nd.gov) or Ted Starns (ecstarns@nd.gov) if this event is sold out and you would like to be put on a wait list.
Please make a separate purchase per person
Monday (all-day)/Tuesday Morning (Sept. 9-10) - Basics of Carbonate Sedimentology: $250/person
Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday (all-day) (Sept. 10-11) - Williston Basin Core Workshop: $350/person
Combined registration for all three days (Sept. 9-11): $500/person
Please make sure to fill out the form below, after purchasing