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ABGS Call for Abstracts

SAVE THE DATE - 6th Annual 

Appalachian Basin Geophysical Symposium & ABGS Golf Outing

Call for Abstracts for the 6th Annual Appalachian Basin Geophysical Symposium, to be held on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025.

Now accepting abstracts and talks emailed to: harbert@pitt.edu

Abstract submission deadline – 4/18/25

Early Bird Registration ends May 20th!

Keynote speaker: Jim White, Executive Director of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, presenting: “SEG & Beyond – How Will Societies Overcome the Challenges to Providing Value to Their Members?”

Early Bird Registration, Sponsorship and Exhibits NOW AVAILABLE - REGISTER HERE!

• Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025; Symposium at Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh/Southpointe
• Wednesday, June 4th, 2025: GSP Golf Tournament at the Quicksilver Golf Club, Washington County, Pennsylvania

This will be an in-person symposium. We look forward to seeing all of you in Pittsburgh.

May Dinner Meeting

The Appalachian Basin – A Phoenix Rising Story:

One Geologist’s Tale of its Rebirth into Prominence

Tuesday, May 13th, 2025

5:00pm Social Time

6:00pm Dinner Buffet

6:30pm Speaker

This meeting will be held at:

Cefalo's Restaurant

428 Washington Avenue

Carnegie, PA

Presented By: William A. Zagorski

Cost: $35 to PAPG Members / $40 for Non-Members / $5 Students

The Appalachian Basin has a rich and varied exploration history. The basin has experienced 

several transformative changes since the Drake discovery in 1859 in Titusville, PA to the discovery and commercialization of the giant unconventional Marcellus and Utica Point Pleasant resource plays in 2004/2007 and 2010/2011. Current production in early 2025 from the Marcellus/Utica reservoirs is now over 35 BCFEQ/D, supplying a sizeable portion of the domestic US natural gas market. The Appalachian Basin’s rise and return to industry prominence has not been an easy journey. Until recently, the Appalachian Basin was considered a “played out” basin with low volume production dominated by small to mid-size independents and limited involvement/interest by major energy companies.

As a working geologist active in the Appalachian Basin since 1980, I got to observe and participate at various stages of this transformation. It represents a true phoenix rising tale. Over the last 45 years the basin has evolved. These include several regional stratigraphic plays including the historic shallow oil belt of Mississippian and Upper Devonian sandstone reservoirs and tight sandstone gas production from the Upper Devonian Sandstone Group and deeper Silurian Medina Sandstone Group plays. Higher volume, structurally controlled Appalachian exploration plays include Lower Devonian Huntersville Chert/Oriskany Sandstone, Ordovician Trenton Black River carbonates, and various Cambro Ordovician Knox Unconformity targets.

The Appalachian Basin has a unique and ever evolving history of unconventional shale exploration starting with the Fredonia shallow shale gas discoveries along the Lake Erie shoreline (1821-1825) in New York, the multi TCF Big Sandy Field in Kentucky and West Virginia (1920’s), coal bed methane development, and now of course the Marcellus and deeper Utica Point Pleasant shale plays. I got the opportunity to learn and work on most of these plays, some successfully, others not so much. Over time, I learned that failures and successes are closely related and often not obvious. In this presentation, I will share some of my experiences, successes, disappointments, lessons learned (and not learned), and key mentors that helped make this journey special.