Overview:

The boom in unconventional oil and gas development presents many challenges to groundwater resources, including water availability and groundwater quality.

To provide forums to address these issues, NGWA sponsored workshops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2014 and in Columbus, Ohio, in 2017 to bring together scientists and practitioners from the groundwater and oil and gas industries, government, and universities. The goal of these workshops was to identify data gaps and science needs, and to provide recommendations for reducing uncertainties related to groundwater risk.

This third workshop will focus on water availability and improved water management practices for groundwater protection.

Keynote speaker

“Wellbore Barriers — More than Just a Good Cement Job” will be presented by keynote speaker Glen Benge, an independent consultant specializing in wellbore isolation and well cementing.

Retired from ExxonMobil where he spent more than 24 years working as a technical adviser in drilling, Benge has 40 years of experience associated with all aspects of well cementing and isolation, and has authored numerous papers and texts on all aspects of cementing design and application. He served as the testifying expert for the U.S. Department of Justice for evaluation of cementing on the Deepwater Horizon case. He’s past chairman of API Subcommittee 10 on Oil Well Cementing and remains an active member and work group chair.

Benge has authored technical papers on zonal isolation and wellbore isolation for containment of gas migration, fluid isolation, and pressure containment for long-term wellbore integrity. He is a technical editor for SPE Drilling & Completionjournal, and has served as session chairman for the National AADE Conference and on the steering committee for the SPE Forum on Advanced Drilling Techniques. Benge serves on industry advisory groups for the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. He’s past president of the New Orleans Chapter of the American Association of Drilling Engineers and is a senior member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a technical editor since 2003, and received the SPE recognition for “A Peer Apart” in 2013.

• Bill Alley, Ph.D.
• Glen Benge
• Anthony Gorody, Ph.D., PG
• Richard Jackson, Ph.D., PE
• Kyle Murray, Ph.D.
• Jean-Philippe Nicot, Ph.D.
• Joe Scott
• Dan Soeder