Chevron Gift Secures Storehouse of Geological Knowledge for Generations to Come

February 21, 2007

• School-wide event associated with this story: Wednesday, Feb. 21, noon-1 p.m. See details.

Austin, Texas—The key to the future often rests with the past, but preserving the past is an ongoing challenge. The Chevron Corporation has risen to that challenge by making a major donation of geological cores and cuttings and a $1.5 million endowment to the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences. Thanks to the gift, future generations will have a new storehouse of knowledge that will be kept in pristine condition.

With the gift of 1,500 tons of geological cores and cuttings collected over 60 years, along with $1.5 million to preserve and maintain the materials, Chevron dramatically enhances the largest publicly available collection of geologic cores and cuttings in the world. The cash donation also bolsters the Bureau of Economic Geology’s ability to manage the collection, helping to secure a geoscience treasure for generations to come.

About 100 scientists, engineers and students visit the HRC each month. Photo: Charlotte Sullivan with visitors.

“The willingness and the generosity of companies like Chevron to make these materials and their associated data public, along with cash contributions to preserve them, is a huge, huge gift to future generations,” said Scott Tinker, director of the bureau. “It’s making something permanent that would otherwise be lost and in this country would never be collected again.”

Cores, solid cylinders of rock ranging from a few inches to up to 60 feet in length, and cuttings, ground up bits of rock, are collected during oil and gas exploration. In many cases, they have been recovered from miles below Earth's surface. To a geologist, they speak volumes about the structure and evolution of the subsurface.

“In a mature area like the United States, which has this huge historic backlog of information, there’s the risk that many of these samples will eventually be lost,” said Don Paul, vice president and chief technology officer of Chevron. “In some cases, in places like the Los Angeles Basin, the city now sits on top of the old wells. Cores from these areas will never be collected again. Yet the geologic information will be useful for all time.”

Once collected, these cores need to be cataloged and stored properly in order to preserve the sample to later extract data. Most of the samples will be stored at the Houston Research Center (HRC), one of three core research facilities operated by the bureau. Beverly Blakeney DeJarnett, research associate at the HRC, estimates that the delivery, scheduled to begin in March, will take 12 to 14 months and will fill 20,000 square feet of the repository.

The size of the bureau, its preservation efforts and reputation for staff excellence attracted Chevron, but several other factors also made the bureau the natural choice to house the collection. Samples are cataloged in a searchable online database and stored in climate controlled warehouses. In addition, the bureau houses state-of-the-art viewing facilities that are readily available to the public, and unlike other institutions, there is room to grow.

“The BEG has been curating this type of material for over 70 years, so we’re well experienced in how to do it,” said DeJarnett. “Also, the bulk of the oil companies are based in Houston. So it’s going to be easy and convenient for them, as well as scientists and students, to use. As a result, the cores will be utilized much more frequently.”

 

Petroleum geologists use the materials to determine how porous and permeable rock is in a certain location. That can determine how easily oil and gas can be removed and at what quantities. Cores also help geologists understand how the rock was originally deposited, which further aids petroleum exploration. This research has the potential to boost domestic energy production and increase energy security.

Geoscientists might use the material to better understand the causes and possible warning signs of geohazards such as earthquakes or to study the effects of groundwater pollution.

Perhaps most importantly, the materials will be there for some future student, scientist or exploration geologist who will use them to answer questions that have not yet even been imagined.

“Time after time, we’ve seen the situation where we don’t realize what’s going to be a critical issue in the future—problems we wouldn’t have predicted—and scientists have come back to the rocks to find the answers,” said DeJarnett.

She added that in the oil industry, “things go in and out of vogue.” For example, maybe a company was drilling for one kind of reservoir in the 1960s, and subsequently the technology and economics of oil and gas changed. Additionally, when the economics prove advantageous and advances in technology and analysis are made, current holdings can be re-evaluated for new information not previously interpreted by earlier research.

“People are constantly going back into areas that were drilled before and taking a fresh look,” said DeJarnett. “That happens daily. People are taking a new look at older, more developed areas.”

This donation will provide real-world geological data and samples from around the U.S. and will allow educational and training opportunities for students, researchers and industry professionals to promote scientific and technological innovation.

“It’s a sample that to many folks might seem like just a piece of rock,” said Tinker, “but a lot of times it directs us to where oil and gas is or more important nowadays, where it might be. So the fact that these cores can be used to train the next generation of geoscientists for future study may lead to additional resource discovery in the U.S. that they might not have been able to do in the past.”

For more information about the Jackson School, contact J.B. Bird at jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.