Intensive, hands-on learning experiences led by industry experts. Gain practical skills in AI, simulation, carbon capture chemistry, and more.
SC-01: Applications of AI in Geological CO₂ Storage
AI is transforming how we characterize, monitor, and manage subsurface CO₂ storage systems. This short course introduces participants to the latest AI-driven methods applied to geophysical and geological datasets for effective carbon storage assessment.
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General background on ML/AI
- Multi-layer perception, back propagation, kernels (1 hour)
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Convolutional Neural Networks
- Theory (30 min)
- Case Study – Analysis of CO₂ injection data (30 min)
- Hands on exercise (45 min)
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Recurrent Neural Networks
- Theory (30 min)
- Case Study – ML based proxy for CO₂ displacement (30 min)
- Hands-on Exercise (45 min)
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Generative Adversarial Networks
- Theory (30 min)
- Case Study – Conditional representation of pore networks (30 min)
- Hands-on Exercise (30 min)
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Reinforcement Learning
- Theory (30 min)
- Case Study – CO₂ injection optimization (30 min)
- Hands-on Exercise (30 min)
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AI for time-lapse seismic inversion (30 min)
SC-02: SimCCS: Open-Source and Unified Modeling Platform for Carbon Transportation
Bailian Chen
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Bulbul Ahmmed
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Moises Velasco-Lozano
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Wenfeng Li
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Maureen James
Colorado School of Mines
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Objectives: The objective of this course is to equip professionals in carbon transport deployment with the latest toolset supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The course aims to foster industry collaboration by connecting participants with key project leads and program managers, enabling them to fast-track their projects and apply cutting-edge methodologies and technologies. Additionally, the course promotes knowledge sharing and innovation within the field, driving the adoption of advanced practices in carbon management.
Description: This course is designed for fast-tracking carbon transport deployment professionals. Participants will gain insights into all the toolkits under the Unified SimCCS platform. The course will feature presentations from project leaders who will demonstrate current tool capabilities and discuss opportunities for collaboration with industry partners and researchers.
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SimCCS:
- A transport network modeling software that can be easily utilized to help address emerging carbon transport challenges including multi-modal transport and phased transport design.
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CostMAP:
- A tool to generate transport cost surface by integrating GIS information and the output from CostMAP will be used as input for SimCCS.
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SAFETY:
- The safety module enables fast prediction of CO₂ concentration profiles and estimation of the dispersion zone following an accidental CO₂ pipeline release.
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SCO2T:
- Rapidly assesses the storage capabilities and costs of carbon storage for a variety of geological reservoirs.
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FEED:
- Tool for front-end engineering design (FEED) of CO₂ pipelines: hydraulics, mechanical sizing (ASME-style schedule selection), material take-off, thermal and anchor checks, and CAPEX/OPEX costing with uncertainty and per-tonne views.
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Utilization:
- This application provides rapid techno-economic assessment of various carbon CO₂ utilization pathways. Users can evaluate the viability of converting CO₂ into valuable products by analyzing costs, resource requirements, and profitability under various assumptions.
SC-03: Subsurface CO₂ Storage Simulation
Objectives: Introduction to the basics of reservoir simulation of CO₂ sequestration in the subsurface. The relevant physics and the modeling of CO₂ sequestration in saline aquifers, depleted gas reservoirs, and depleted oil reservoirs.
Description: Reservoir simulation is a vital component of multi-disciplinary CO₂ storage studies as the behavior of CO₂ over the lifetime of the project needs to be studied. This requires specialist features, as well as software functionality used for dynamic simulation of oil and gas fields. This course introduces the basics of the reservoir simulation aspect of carbon capture sequestration (CCS) evaluation including the physical phenomena and modeling approaches. It also introduces the approaches to simulate CO₂ in saline aquifers, in depleted gas reservoirs, and depleted oil reservoirs with hands on simulation using the Petrel/Intersect workflow.
SC-04: The Chemistry of Carbon Capture
Objectives: Convey a baseline understanding of how adsorbents and absorbents can selectively capture carbon dioxide from flue streams and/or the atmosphere.
Description: This will be a series of lectures providing an introduction to the chemistry of carbon dioxide and how its unique structure allows us to design adsorbents and absorbents to selectively react with it in complex mixtures. We will then discuss various types of adsorbents and absorbents, evaluating their relative pros and cons with an eye to durability, energy requirements, and cost.
SC-05: Monitoring Methods for CCUS, Geothermal, Oil and Gas — What Works and Why
Objectives: Understanding the various monitoring methods available from a practical point of view and knowing under what circumstances different monitoring methods work for a particular problem in CCUS, Oil and Gas and Geothermal applications. Learning how to select monitoring methods based on bow-tie based risk analysis and cost versus benefit understanding.
Description: This course will go over fundamental concepts discussing under what circumstances different monitoring methods work or don’t work. Field examples will be a key part of the course. We will also cover under which applications what monitoring methods will be valuable.
SC-06: Applying the Explorer’s Mindset in the Energy Industry: Focus on CCUS
Jonathan Rotzien
Basin Dynamics
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Cindy Yeilding
Chair of The Center for Houston’s Future
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Objectives: To teach skilled energy industry professionals about The Explorer’s Mindset and how to explore the lessons learned within it to add value through a company’s CCUS portfolio.
Description:
Conventional wisdom dictates that leaders are born. Let’s say that’s true. What makes them effective leaders in applied geoscience and the broader energy industry? How about Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) in particular? To better understand what differentiates effective leaders in the geosciences and broader energy industry, this study interviewed over 30 people over seven years from a diverse range of energy expertise and experience. Through presentations and active audience participation, this 3-hour-long workshop discusses conclusions from the study: 1) themes that define excellence in explorers; 2) traits of exploration leaders; 3) the essential elements of The Explorer’s Mindset, the central theme in the study and book, and 4) how these leadership skills can be effectively extended into CCUS as well as other disciplines and professions.
Rotzien and Yeilding will lead the discussion and provide unique insights into the following areas with the objective of empowering attendees with what they have learned through analysis of the explorer’s mindset and exploration leadership:
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There are broad themes demonstrated by the successful explorer, including a pioneering spirit, an exploration mindset, excellence in defining the challenge, power in building teams, entrepreneurship, and business talent. These themes are integral to the success of a CCUS portfolio as well as other new energies as they are to oil and gas.
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These themes can be subdivided into traits that specifically address success in the exploration and production business. From a sound understanding of geologic principles and fundamentals, to the ability to ask the right question, to the exercising of discipline and patience, there are nearly two dozen traits that successful exploration leaders utilize to create value through exploration. While exploration is most often associated with finding petroleum, exploration in this course focuses on finding the right habitat and business proposition for carbon dioxide use or storage. While explorers are often remembered for excellence in one area – the “difference maker” task – the task that set them above and beyond average explorers, these explorers are also masters at many other parts of the exploration process.
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These tasks originate in the broad spectrum of activities required for successful exploration and involve clear and intuitive definition of the problem, an ability to bring teams together to action, storytelling and marketing, business acumen and tenacity and grit, with these five traits being distilled into one of the key themes – and eventual title – of the book, The Explorer’s Mindset, originally defined by Cindy A. Yeilding in an AAPG Distinguished Lecture Tour in the early 2000s. Yeilding built upon how these characteristics in her conference-opening keynote, “Put the YOU in CCUS: Let’s Explore!” for the first AAPG CCUS conference in 2021.
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If leaders are only born, this study is not very useful. But if exploration leadership traits can be defined, studied, nurtured and interrogated, anyone with ambition, work ethic and technical and business savvy can apply these concepts and traits to exploration of new energy and technology applications, improve their own exploration leadership, and in turn, over the long run uses these exploration concepts to yield business success.
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What makes exploration, and hence exploration leadership, different from other segments of an integrated energy business and for that matter, business in general? Do exploration leadership traits differ from those required for other types of leadership? By understanding the uniqueness of exploration and exploration leadership, we can see how effective exploration leaders evolve into broader leadership roles in new energy applications including CCUS.
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One of the key strengths of this course is that it goes directly to the source – the energy industry and its people – with a focus on oil and gas exploration and production. This work highlights the most important resource in this industry: its people. These leaders originate new play types, design engineering patents, negotiate lucrative contracts, and break down dogma that acts as a ceiling to growth and prosperity, among other critical achievements. While this only includes 30+ personal testimonies, it encourages us to continue to seek wisdom from those who are innovating and creating value. The world is full of these individuals, yet they are relatively rare.
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Proposed Format:
- Objectives and findings of this study
- Discussions on learning from history and experience with examples and discussion
- How these concepts can be applied in new technology applications and new energy business developments
- Dialog: question and answer session with participants
WS-01: SEAM Benchmarks for CO₂ Reservoir, Geology, Geomechanics, and Geophysics
Mike Fehler
Consultant
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Bill Abriel
Consultant
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Joe Stefani
Consultant
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Romain Prioul
Geosciences Research Director & Scientific Advisor, SLB
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Objectives: Describe the construction, purpose, and industry value of the numerical deliverables of SEAM CO₂.
Contributors: The workshop will be presented by the participants, managers, and subcontractors of the project including:
- Project manager Mike Fehler (Consultant)
- Coordinator Bill Abriel (Consultant)
- Contractor Joe Stefani (Consultant)
- Contractor Advanced Geophysical Technologies (AGT)
- Participants: Aramco, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Oxy, Shell, SLB, Total, Woodside
Description: SEAM is in its third year of an industry co-operative building numerical benchmarks for subsurface monitoring of CO₂ injection. The project has built the latest technologies in multi-physics simulation of CO₂ monitoring employing geology, reservoir dynamics, geomechanics, and geophysics. Because this is a project to generate benchmark models, they encompass a generally wider range of exact detail and completeness of data than digital twins of live projects where there is significant remaining uncertainty in the subsurface. SEAM CO₂ has generated models and simulations for injection into saline aquifers on land and marine, contained and uncontained CO₂ injection, and also injection in a depleted gas reservoir.
The purpose of this public workshop is to impart the challenges, techniques, and learnings from this project to engineers, geologists, and geophysicists. In addition to direct learnings, the workshop can also provide a platform to describe the research and training potential of the benchmarks generated by the SEAM CO₂ project.
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Challenges for numerical simulation — process and recognized gaps
- Complex earth model parameterization for reservoir simulation, geomechanics, and geophysics
- Reservoir simulation of reservoir dynamics and coupling geomechanics
- Geophysical simulation requirements
- Workflow coupling multi-physics exchanges amongst required simulators
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Results and learnings
- Gaps in capability of representing the subsurface
- Total workflow definition and needs for improvement
- Effect of two-way coupling of simulators (e.g. geomechanics)
- Resolution and value of various geophysical techniques (3D, 2D, VSP, potential fields)
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The potential for using the SEAM benchmarks in the industry
- Suggestions for research in a common sandbox
- Opportunities for teaching, training, illustration
- A platform for companies to develop intellectual property
- Short courses and workshops are limited in size and reserved on a first-come, first-served basis and must be accompanied by full payment.
- If you do not plan to attend CCUS, a US$35 enrollment fee will be added to the short course and workshop fee. This fee may be applied toward registration if you decide to attend the conference at a later date.
- A wait list is automatically created if a short course or workshop sells out. You will be notified if space becomes available.
- It is recommended that you register before 24 February. At this time, it may be determined if the course or workshop will be cancelled due to low enrollment.
- Registration for short courses and workshop will close on 24 March 2026.
- Cancellations can be made by contacting CCUS Registration on or before 6 March 2026.
- Cancellations received on or before 6 March 2026 will receive a refund less a US$75 processing fee.
- Refunds will not be issued after 6 March 2026 or for “no shows.”
- You may substitute one participant for another.