It looked like machines and the weather were conspiring against us. The last flight from Denver to Gillette, Wyoming was ‘temporarily’ delayed (which in airport speak means “quite possibly cancelled”) and then there was the weather. I had flown the previous day from Brisbane, Australia to Denver to meet the field trip participants at one […]
Why does Indonesia have so much coal? This might be like asking why is the sky blue? – but, like that question, it is fundamental and few seem to have considered it. A new paper by Mike Friederich, Tim Moore and Romeo Flores (“A regional review and new insights into SE Asian Cenozoic coal-bearing sediments: […]
The morning was smoky and hazy as we made our way to the docks from the hotel. A forecasted El Niño year was already being felt in East Kalimantan (Borneo) as evidenced by the fires through out the region. Still, we were all looking forward to going out on the infamous (at least in geological […]
We sped across the surface of Lake Semayang with the bottom only inches below us. Using traditional long boats – with light but powerful engines – twenty-seven of us were headed for Semayang village, on the north central ‘coast’ of the lake. We were there as part of a geological field trip examining modern environments […]
We are nearly there! – The 32nd Annual Conference of The Society for Organic Petrology will be held in a few days time. The Organising Committee wishes to thank all the speakers and poster presenters for all their hard work and for all attending participants for their presence. We know that during this current economic […]
The Society for Organic Petrology Annual Meeting: Hydrocarbons in the Tropics – On the Edge Field Trip The 2015 TSOP Post-Conference field trip is scheduled to take place from Thursday, 24th September to Sunday 27th September. SEE LINK: www.tsop.org for more about the society, the 2015 Annual Meeting in Yogyakarta and the field trip to Kalimantan We […]
The Indonesian Archipelago is vast, diverse and exciting. The culture is as deep and varied as it’s geology and history. It is a region at the nexus, or on the edge if you will, of almost everything; and that includes hydrocarbon generation. Indonesia has been exploiting petroleum for almost two hundred years and coal mining […]
Internationally refereed articles on coalbed methane in Indonesia are rare. However, an article addressing heat flow effects on a coalbed methane reservoir in East Kalimantan, Indonesia has recently been published*. You may well ask, so what? Indeed a good question; here is the context. There are many of us who have been sitting at the […]
Unconventionally produced gas (coalbed methane, shale gas, tight gas etc) will become increasingly important in the world’s energy mix. The success of the shale gas plays in North America only reinforces just how economically important these deposits are both on continental as well as global scales. But, despite its success, there are large unknowns surrounding […]
Considering the impact that coal has on the world, there are surprisingly few technical books dedicated to the subject. Romeo Flores, recently retired from the US Geological Survey (but still a Cipher Associate [see: https://www.ciphercoal.com/the-team/dr-romeo-m-flores/ ]), has gone some way to remedy this situation. His book “Coal and Coalbed Gas: Fueling the Future” has just […]