Welcome to the Halifax 2008 - Central Atlantic Conjugate Margins Conference.
The conference will be held at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 13–15, 2008. It will be preceded by a series of pre-conference field trips in Nova Scotia and a variety of short courses, and followed by post-conference field trips to Portugal and/or Morocco all of which are subject to attendance thresholds and limits.
Halifax 2008 will be an outstanding opportunity to incorporate the results of hydrocarbon exploration throughout the Central Atlantic conjugate margin basins using the latest concepts and interpretations of divergent margin basin evolution, petroleum systems, productive fields and analogues.
This conference will be of significant benefit to potential industry, academic and government participants for a number of reasons, a few of which are:
• the significant gas discovery in the Late Jurassic (Abenaki) reef trend offshore Nova Scotia;
• the significant deep-water oil and gas discoveries offshore Mauritania;
• acquisition of new 2D, 3D, and deep-crustal regional seismic datasets from around the margin;
• recently available well data from previously unexplored frontier basins;
• the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 that mandated a comprehensive inventory of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and natural gas resources; and
• the possible expiration of the exploration moratorium for the entire US Atlantic OCS and Canadian Georges Bank in 2013.
We are convinced that such a gathering is necessary and indeed beneficial to all workers and explorers in the Central Atlantic realm. It is time to collaborate on improving our understanding of these conjugate margin basins. This will lead to an increased understanding of the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the margins, reduced exploration risks, and more exploration successes. We want to build on the well established north-south relationships (Europe-Northwest Africa, and the Americas) by creating a pan-Atlantic gathering for researchers and industry to focus on topics directly impacting hydrocarbon exploration in these Atlantic basins, and to appeal to those exploring and researching the frontier basins along these margins. We are particularly interested in providing a venue for colleagues from both sides of the Atlantic to interact, share ideas, and exchange knowledge on subjects of mutual interest.
The Conference will have three main oral presentation sessions that will run consecutively over three days:
• Margin Evolution & Development;
• Petroleum Systems; and
• Productive Fields & Analogues
Topics within these sessions will be derived from invited and submitted short abstracts as selected by the Steering and Technical Committees.
There will also be a conference-long Poster-Only section for authors preferring this form of presentation. In addition, authors of oral papers are strongly encouraged to provide a poster presentation.
Authors of all oral and poster-only papers must submit an extended abstract. These will be distributed at no charge to all conference attendees as a word-searchable CD-ROM. Furthermore, proceedings from the conference will be subsequently published by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists as CSPG Memoir 20.
Halifax 2008 will offer participants the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of events. Five pre- and post-conference field trips are being planned to basins and sections in Nova Scotia (3), and Morocco and Portugal respectively. Technical short courses on “Geodynamic Modelling of Continental Margin Processes”, “Practical Salt Tectonics” and “Thermochronology”, will be offered to attendees, as well as a Conventional Core Workshop on “Offshore Nova Scotia Reservoirs, Facies & Sequences”. We are particularly excited about the Seismic Data Room where numerous full-scale seismic lines from the latest industry deep crustal and regional programs in the Central Atlantic Realm will be displayed.
No conference is complete without a centerpiece banquet. In true Nova Scotia style, we invite all attendees to participate in a fabulous Lobster Feast where they will experience fine local cuisine and entertainment. Ice-breakers will be held each evening amongst the poster and related displays to encourage discussions and networking, as will be the daily refreshment breaks.
On behalf of the Conference Committees members and our sponsors, we look forward to your attendance and participation at Halifax 2008 and seeing you in August 2008!
Our deadlines for abstract and extended abstract submission are:
Short Abstract — 1 March 2008
Extended Abstract — 1 June 2008
All 250-word abstracts must be submitted using the on-line Abstract Submission form.
Sincerely,
David E. Brown & Grant D. Wach
Conference Chairs, Halifax 2008
For administrative matters or questions contact Trudy Lewis.
