Basins and Petroleum System Modeling Group Director: Stephan A. Graham Annual membership: $40,000 Research focus: The Basin and Petroleum Systems Modeling program seeks to be a recognized center of excellence for training and research in visualization and quantification of the geohistory of basins and petroleum systems by (1) training the next generation of petroleum systems modelers, (2) devising quantitative tools that, in combination with assessment methodology, can be used to rigorously evaluate geologic risk in various petroleum exploration settings, and (3) conducting basic and applied energy-focused research.
Center for Aquifer Simulation Director: Steven M. Gorelick Annual membership: $50,000 Research focus: An interdisciplinary program to develop and integrate Earth science and engineering techniques used to analyze and assess contaminant behavior originating from point and non-point sources, in both the unsaturated near surface and the saturated subsurface.
Geothermal Program Affiliates Director: Roland N. Horne Annual membership: $20,000 Research focus: Geothermal reservoir engineering to advance the forecasting, evaluation and development of geothermal fields.
Molecular Organic Geochemistry Industrial Affiliates Director: J. Michael Moldowan Annual membership: $33,000 (continuing sponsor), $45,000 (new sponsor Research focus: Developing methods in molecular organic geochemistry toward application in petroleum exploration/exploitation and the environment.
Smart Fields Director: Khalid Aziz Annual membership: $50,000 Research focus: The real-time monitoring, model updating and optimal control of oil and gas fields is known in the industry by various names, including Smart Fields, i-fields, e-fields, closed-loop reservoir management, etc. Such a system could be implemented in existing fields or in new fields that are developed by using optimization techniques to determine the location, number and type of wells.
Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting Director: Jef Caers and Tapan Mukerji Annual membership: $35,000 Research focus: General problem of reservoir characterization and performance, including forecasting, interpreting reservoir geology and geophysics, geostatistics, reservoir engineering, and simulation.
Stanford Exploration Project Director: Jon Claerbout and B. Biondi Annual membership: $41,000 (continuing sponsor), TBD (new sponsor Research focus: To improve the theory and practice of constructing 3-D and 4-D images of the Earth from seismic echo soundings.
Stanford Rock Fracture Project Director: Atilla Aydin and David Pollard Annual membership: $30,000 Research focus: Faulting and fracturing of rock problems relevant to oil and gas reservoir charaterization the flow of underground fluids.
Stanford Rockphysics & Borehole Geophysics Project Director: Gary Mavko Annual membership: $51,000 Research focus: Properties and processes in rock as related to geophysical exploration, crustal studies, and tectonic and borehole processes.
Stanford-China Geosciences Industrial Affiliates Director: Stephan A. Graham Annual membership: $20,000 Research focus: Cooperative research with representatives of Chinese institutions in the study of geology, particularly the tectonics of western China and the origins and characteristics of petroliferous basins and mineralized belts.