GCAGS/GCSSEPM 1999 Best Papers

1999 First Place Best Paper Award: Excellence in Presentation Dynamic Response of Deepwater Depositional Systems to Growth of the Mississippi Fan Fold Belt, Gulf of Mexico Ciaran J. O’Byrne, Joydeep K. Halder, Arthur E. Berman, Richard Klecker and John Martinez
	Ciaran O’Byrne completed a Ph.D in 1990 on deepwater clastics at University College, Dublin, Ireland. This was followed by a Post-Doctoral study with the Reservoir Modeling Group at Shell Research, The Netherlands and Liverpool University, U.K., on sequence stratigraphic analysis of nearshore marine and fluvial sediments in the Book Cliffs Utah and it’s application to reservoir modeling. He subsequently joined the Stratigraphic Prediction Group at Shell’s Bellaire Research Center in Houston, USA involved in domestic and international exploration/ production projects and training courses. Ciaran resigned from Shell in 1993 and joined Amoco Production Co.’s Worldwide Exploration Business Group providing technical support to the WEBG risk and exploration teams. Working primarily in Tertiary basin clastics he was involved in various exploration plays in the S. China Sea, S. America, West Africa, USA and Mexico. Currently he is a member of BPAmoco’s Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Exploration business unit and is actively involved in various internal and external sedimentology and stratigraphy networks. In addition, Ciaran continues to provide training classes in clastic sedimentology and stratigraphy at BPAmoco. He is an active member of the AAPG, SEPM, IAS, Houston Geophysical and Geological Societies.
	Richard Klecker began his geological career with Amoco’s Denver office in 1980 after receiving his M.S. degree in geology from Oregon State University. During his stay in Denver he worked on exploration projects in western Montana, Colorado’s D-J Basin, and the San Joaquin Basin in California. He also gained exploitation experience in the DJ Basin and the Arkoma Basin. Since transferring to Houston in 1992, Rich has held exploration assignments in the Polish Carpathians and most recently in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. He is currently a Senior Geologist with BP Amoco’s Deepwater Gulf of Mexico group responsible for exploration prospect generation. Rich’s professional interests include deep marine deposi- tional processes, the interaction of salt tectonics and depositional facies distribution, and seismic facies interpretation. Rich is a member of the AAPG.
	John Martinez began his career with Amoco in 1966 starting as a sample washer in the Denver Regional office. Shortly thereafter, he became an exploration technologist. He worked with geophysicists on seismic data acquisition and seismic processing projects throughout the Rocky Mountain area and Alaska. In 1979, after having earned his B.S. degree in math and geology from Metropolitan State College, John was promoted to geophysicist. From 1979 to 1992, he worked on some of Amoco’s highest profile exploration projects in the Denver Region as a seismic interpreter. These assignments allowed John to develop his expertise in seismic interpretation and prospect generation while incorporating his seismic processing experience. In 1992, John transferred to Houston to work in Amoco’s Worldwide Exploration Business group as a senior seismic interpreter working in San Joaquin Basin project in California. In 1994, he was transferred into the Gulf of Mexico Shelf team and soon after became a member of Amoco’s Gulf of Mexico Deepwater team assigned to do regional mapping, acreage evaluation and prospect generation. John has been involved with workstation interpretation of 2D and 3D seismic data in numerous area of the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, John is a member of BP Amoco’s Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Exploration Team.
1999 Second Place Best Paper Award Production Characteristics of Sheet and Channelized Turbidite Reservoirs, Garden Banks 191, Gulf of Mexico, USA David S. Fugitt, Charles E. Stelting, William J. Schweller, James E. Florstedt, Gary J. Herricks and Michael R. Wise
	David Fugitt is currently a staff geologist with Chevron in Lafayette, Louisiana. He joined Chevron in New Orleans in 1978 where worked both exploration and geophysical assignments in the Gulf Coast. In 1985 he moved to Lafayette where he has worked in field development and near field exploration. His current work involves building integrated subsurface and reservoir models for field development. David received a B.S. in geology from the Ohio State University in 1976, and an M.S. in geology from Texas A&M University in 1978. He is a member of the AAPG, the Lafayette Geological Society, the New Orleans Geological Society, and the SPWLA.
	Charles E. Stelting is a research geologist in the Reservoir Geology team at Chevron Petroleum Technology Company (New Orleans, LA). He received his B.S. in geology from Texas A&M University - Kingsville in 1980 and his M.S. in geology from University of California - Riverside in 1989. He worked as a technician and as a geologist at the U. S. Geological Survey - Office of Marine Geology (Corpus Christi, TX) from 1976 to 1982. He worked as a research geologist at Gulf Research & Development Company (Hamarville, PA and Houston, TX) from 1982 to 1985 and at Chevron Oil Field Research Company (La Habra, CA) from 1985 to 1990. From 1990 to 1998, he mainly worked as a regional stratigrapher at Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company (New Orleans, LA) in Gulf of Mexico deepwater and shelf properties, but he also began working on international stratigraphic projects in 1994. In 1998, Charles resumed working as a research geologist at Chevron Petroleum Technology Company and has provided stratigraphic expertise on both domestic and international stratigraphic projects. He began teaching several of Chevron’s deepwater and fluvial-dominated delta stratigraphy courses in 1991. Chuck participated as a sedimentologist on Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 96 on the Mississippi Fan in 1983. He has co-authored one volume: Fine-Grained Turbidite Systems (AAPG-SEPM); and has co-led several professional society field trips: modern coastal systems (GCAGS), deepwater reservoirs (AAPG), and fluvial to deepwater reservoir stratigraphy (New Orleans Geological Society). He has co-authored more than 40 papers. Chuck’s research interests are concentrated on deepwater depositional systems and include transportation- depositional processes, reservoir characterization, and applied sequence stratigraphy.
	William J. Schweller is a senior staff research scientist at Chevron Petroleum Technology Company in San Ramon, California. Will received his B.S. in geology from Pennsylvania State University in 1973, his M.S. in geologic oceanography from Oregon State University, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1982. He began studying turbidites for his M.S. and continued this research at Oregon State University as a postgraduate researcher from 1976 to 1978. He worked as a research geologist at Gulf Research & Development Company (Hamarville, PA and Houston, TX) from 1982 to 1985, at Chevron Oil Field Research Company (La Habra, CA) from 1985 to 1991, and at Chevron Petroleum Technology Company (La Habra, CA and San Ramon, CA) from 1991 to present. In addition to studies of turbidite systems around the world, Will has also worked on marine source rock systems and shallow marine clastic reservoirs in several regions. He has taught courses for Chevron in seismic stratigraphy, turbidite reservoirs, core and borehole image interpretation, and related topics, and has led numerous field trips and field-related workshops. Will was an instructor in the AAPG Sedimentation and Tectonics School for several years and was a visiting research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 1998. He has co-authored more than 30 published papers. His current research interests are in turbidite depositional systems, the dynamics of different types of sediment gravity flows, and in predicting the reservoir architecture and production performance of deepwater clastic reservoirs.
	Jim Florstedt worked for 30 years as a geologist for Exxon, Tenneco, and Chevron. He is now retired and living in Lafayette.
	Gary J. Herricks has worked predominantly in the area of reservoir engineering during his twenty years of industry experience. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1979. Gary started with Tenneco Oil company in the Rocky Mountain region where he was involved in several secondary and tertiary recovery projects. His last fifteen years have been spent working reservoir engineering issues in the Gulf of Mexico.Gary has been with Chevron since 1989. With Chevron he has worked in various capacities including Senior Reservoir Engineer, Garden Banks 191 Project Communication Coordinator, Petroleum Engineering Information Technology Coordinator, and most recently as Reservoir Engineering Advisor.
	Michael R. Wise is a senior petroleum engineer with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and is currently working in the Gulf of Mexico Business Unit of the North American E&P Company. Wise has almost 22 years of combined experience with Gulf and Chevron and has worked in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Permian Basin regions, primarily in production and reservoir engineering assignments. He holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering (1978) from Louisiana Tech University. He is a registered Petroleum Engineer in the State of Louisiana and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
1999 Third Place Best Paper Award Mud Hole: A Unique Warm-Water Submarine Spring Located Offshore Southwestern Florida Hugh J. Mitchell-Tapping, Joël Bellucci, Graham Woody and Thomas J. Lee
	Hugh J. Mitchell-Tapping obtained a B.A. (cum laude) from the University of the Virgin Islands in 1974 and a M.S. (1976) and Ph.D. (1978) in geology from Florida State University, USVI. Hugh joined Amoco in New Orleans, LA. In 1981 Hugh moved to Sun Exploration in Las Colinas, TX working in Gulf Coast exploration and subsequently as Manager of Geoscience in Sun Research. In 1983, he was appointed Exploration Manager for Sun Orient in Zhanjiang, Peoples Republic of China, and, upon his return to the USA in 1986, he worked for Sun International Exploration in Dallas in both the South America, Far East, and Africa divisions. In 1988, he joined Hunt Oil in international exploration. After a pedestrian/auto accident in November 1991 which left him and his wife disabled, Hugh became Director of Consumptive Use Water Permitting for St. John’s River Water Management in Palatka, FL in 1992. In 1994, he moved to Fort Myers where he has worked as a hydrogeologist for an engineering company, and now as an adjunct professor of geology at ECC and Florida Gulf Coast University and as Baywatch Director for Estero Bay Marine Laboratory. Hugh has more than 80 professional publications, is licensed as a Professional Geologist in the State of Florida, and holds a SCUBA Instructor license.
	Joël Bellucci was born and raised in northwestern New Jersey. He received his B.A. (1993) in English Literature (Mathematics minor) from Loyola College in Baltimore. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Marine Science at the University of South Florida. Between his undergraduate and graduate careers, Joël took on a variety of occupations including working as a teacher’s aide at an elementary school, authoring websites and creating 3D computer art. He also commenced a photo-identification study of a Southwest Florida population of bottlenose dolphins and assisted in numerous other marine studies. Joel is a certified open-water diver.
	Graham Edward Woody, a California native, graduated high school at 16, and, as a computer programmer, wrote sales and marketing applications software. At 19, with this skill and an Open Water Diving Certificate, he traveled the world as Boson/Electronics Officer on the H.M.S. Navigator, performing exploration charters throughout the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Later, he contracted as a commercial and salvage diver for A.F.M. Diving in Dubai, UAE, and for Wijsmuller Salvage throughout the Middle East. As Chief Electrician and Dive Officer aboard R/V Heraclitus, a training vessel for Biosphere 2, Graham collected baseline coral reef data off Belize. He then worked as Diver and Remote Operations Vehicle Technician for American Pacific Marine in Port Hueneme, California. After moving to Sanibel, Florida, to help with his family’s sales and marketing business and also to study for an AA degree at ECC in Fort Myers, Graham returned to California in the autumn of 1998 in order to complete his undergraduate studies, but was involved in a paragliding accident that resulted in a nine-week coma that lead to his death.
	Thomas J. Lee received a B.S. in Professional Aeronautics in 1979 from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL. From September, 1966 to July, 1987 Tom was in the United States Army serving as an Infantry Officer and Aviator in numerous command, staff, and training positions throughout the world, including combat assignments in the Republic of Vietnam Army, and retiring as Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army. Since that time, Tom has been a substitute teacher, the Executive Director of Ostego Bay Foundation, and now the President of the Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc. He is also a P.A.D.I. certified Advanced Open Water Diver, 1994.