WHAT'S NEW

     Welcome to the website of Ammonite Resources.  In addition to providing information about our firm's petroleum and mineral resources technical and business advisory services, our objective is to make the Ammonite website a friendly place where petroleum and mineral professionals, government regulators, and the investment community, can meet to exchange authoritative ideas on energy policy and industry activity in the Energy Forum and the In The Trenches web pages. Reviews of books of general geoscience interest can be found on the Geoscience Book Reviews web page. We look forward to your contributions!

February 1, 2013

AMMONITE ADVISORY ON $44 MILLION
GEOTHERMAL INVESTMENT BY JPM CAPITAL

Lynn Pittinger and Skip Hobbs at the Ormesa Geothermal Power Plant in Holtsville, CA

Natural steam vent near the Ormat Geothermal Power Plant in Mammoth, CA.

     On January 28, 2013, Ormat Technologies, Inc., a global leader in geothermal power generation, announced closing of a $44.4 Million tax equity partnership with JPM Capital Corporation, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase. The transaction included an investment in eight operating geothermal power plants in Nevada and California. Ammonite advised JPM Capital on the geothermal resources and projected electric power generation of the power plants. Senior Engineering Consultant Lynn Pittinger and Ammonite Managing Partner Skip Hobbs worked on the project from early September 2012 until the closing in January. Lynn Pittinger critically reviewed reports prepared by Ormat and the company's engineering consultants, and independently analyzed years of geothermal reservoir temperature, pressure, fluid flow data, and power generation in order to project expected power plant performance over the remaining economic life of the geothermal fields serving the eight power plants. Hobbs and Pittinger met with Ormat staff in Reno, Nevada, and spent several days visiting the eight plants to better understand the geology of the geothermal reservoir, reservoir dynamics, power plant infrastructure, operating issues, and expected future performance of each power plant. Ammonite had previously advised JPM Capital on a geothermal investment made in 2011.

November 15, 2012

AMMONITE PRESENTS SHORT COURSE
ON EXPLORATION NEW VENTURE DUE DILIGENCE
TO CPC CORPORATION, TAIWAN

Skip Hobbs and Dr. Robert Merrill at the entrance to the offices of CPC Corporation, Taiwan

     The week of October 22nd Ammonite's Bob Merrill and Skip Hobbs travelled to Taipei, Taiwan to present a short course on the due diligence process for international exploration new ventures to the management and staff of the Exploration & Production Business Division of CPC Corporation, Taiwan, the national oil company of Taiwan. The five day visit in Taiwan began with a lecture by Hobbs on global exploration for high risk and high potential plays. Merrill and Hobbs then spent two days lecturing about the geotechnical and business issues of selecting new venture exploration opportunities, establishing a consistent screening methodology, and portfolio optimization. The lectures were illustrated with case studies of companies that have been very successful in the exploration game, and those that have destroyed shareholder value. On the final day in Taiwan, CPC took us to their research laboratory in Miaoli, about a two-hour drive south of Taipei, where we were shown some of CPC's current exploration activities, looked at core samples from a recent well, and were then taken on a geological and sight-seeing trip into the mountains of central Taiwan. We visited one of Taiwan's onshore oil and gas fields. Hobbs commented that the visit to Taiwan was one of the most enjoyable business trips of his career due to the graciousness of Ammonite's Chinese hosts, their interest in what we had to say, and the cultural experience.

Our Students

 

At the CPC Core Laboratory in Miaoli, Taiwan

 

One of our many enjoyable cultural experiences in Taipei with the management of the
Exploration & Production Business Division of CPC Corporation, Taiwan.

 

February 29, 2012

     Ammonite Managing Partner G. Warfield "Skip" Hobbs has released a comprehensive essay that addresses climate change and the human factor, energy supply and demand, and energy policy recommendations that will promote energy conservation, reduce the human carbon footprint, hasten the transition to more renewable energy use, and stimulate the economy. Hobbs said that his service as president-elect, president, and now past-president of the American Geosciences Institute has exposed him to earth scientists of every discipline, many of whom are doing research on climate change. It has become apparent to him that global warming is real, human greenhouse gas emissions have overwhelmed natural factors that have historically driven climate change, and that for the good of human society and planet earth, we must immediately take steps to reduce our carbon emissions. The paper has been written to stimulate discussion of climate and energy policy in the 2012 election cycle - a subject which is sorely missing to date. It is being widely distributed to policy makers, academics and business leaders, the public, and the news media.

The essay is titled "A CALL TO ACTION - CONGRESS MUST PASS COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY AND CLIMATE LEGISLATION NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE." Please click HERE to access the PDF file of the paper.

December 15, 2011 

BETSY SUPPES JOINS AMMONITE
AS SENIOR GEOSCIENCE CONSULTANT

     Ammonite Managing Partner, Skip Hobbs, is pleased to announce that Betsy Suppes has joined Ammonite as a Senior Geosciences Consultant. Betsy lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where she joins Ammonite's Appalachian Basin task force. She has 25 years of oil and gas experience as a petroleum geologist. Suppes has spent the last 10 years performing due-diligence reviews for private investors, independent oil and gas companies, legal counsel and financial institutions. As a geologist with an MBA, she specializes in risk analysis of individual oil and gas prospects and portfolio analysis from both a geologic and business perspective. She has prepared and presented oil company employee professional development courses in well log evaluation, core analysis, micropaleontology, seismic interpretation, and prospect presentation. Suppes has been a resident of Pennsylvania since 2002 where she has developed a proficiency in Appalachian reservoirs. Recently, Betsy has assisted clients in public outreach in Pennsylvania by addressing community groups about the Marcellus Shale and its development.

     Betsy started her career at Freeport McMoRan in 1987, exploring for sulphur in Texas, the offshore Gulf of Mexico, Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Gabon. From 1990 through 2001, Betsy worked for Texaco, initially in the New Orleans office, then in Houston. She worked as a development geologist in the offshore Gulf of Mexico, generating prospects, making workover recommendations, evaluating seismic data and well logs, and coordinating the geoscience work for producing property divestments. Suppes also had several international assignments for Texaco. These included serving as a member of the Northwest Australia Evaluation Team, and as wellsite geologist offshore Thailand. In 2000, Betsy became a Senior Business Analyst for the Texaco Venezuelan heavy oil project. Her duties included economic modeling and evaluation, risk management, and preparation of a strategic plan for the multi-billion dollar Hamaca venture. Betsy became an independent consultant in 2002, and has worked onshore Texas, Louisiana, California and the Appalachian Basin.

     Suppes holds an M.B.A. and M.S. in geology from Tulane University, and a B.S. in geology from Dickinson College. Betsy is a member of The American Association of Petroleum Geologists, New Orleans Geological Society, Houston Geological Society, and the Pittsburgh Association of Petroleum Geologists. She is a past Vice President and Treasurer of the New Orleans Geological Society.

November 4, 2011

     Ammonite Managing Partner Skip Hobbs was invited to give an endowed Van Tuyl Lecture at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado on October 27, 2011. The title of Skip's hour-long lecture was "The Future of the Global Oil Industry: Resources, Challenges, and Consequences of a Failed USA Energy Policy". The talk was attended by undergraduate and graduate students and Colorado School of Mines faculty, and alumni. Hobbs's energy policy recommendations generated lively discussion during the question period following the lecture and over a few beers afterward. Click HERE to see a PDF file of the PowerPoint presentation.

April 2011

     Ammonite Managing Partner Skip Hobbs periodically issues a newsletter with commentary on the energy scene and some of Ammonite's more interesting consulting assignments. Please click HERE to read the Ammonite "Spring 2011 Newsletter and Global Energy Observations". We hope that you will find it to be insightful and interesting.

February 23, 2011 

PROFESSOR STEPHEN SONNENBERG
JOINS AMMONITE AS A SENIOR EXPLORATION ADVISOR

     Ammonite Managing partner Skip Hobbs is pleased to announce that his long standing friend and AAPG officer colleague Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg has joined Ammonite as a Senior Exploration Advisor. Steve's expertise in unconventional shale and tight gas reservoirs, sequence stratigraphy and regional tectonics, plus his many years of exploration and exploitation work throughout the Rocky Mountains, will be a great asset for Ammonite's clients.

     Dr. Sonnenberg started his career with Exxon in Houston in 1976, and is now a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, where he holds the Charles Boettcher Distinguished Chair in Petroleum Geology. He specializes in unconventional reservoirs, sequence stratigraphy, tectonic influence on sedimentation, and petroleum geology. A native of Billings, Montana, Sonnenberg received BS and MS degrees in geology from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. degree in geology from the Colorado School of Mines. He has over twenty-five years experience in the petroleum industry, working for such companies as Exxon, Bass Enterprises, North American Resources, Pan Canadian -then Encana, and finally as Exploitation Manager Northern Rockies for Kerr McGee - and then Anadarko, before accepting a position in academia in 2007.

     Steve has served as President of several organizations including the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, and Colorado Scientific Society. He also served on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 1997-2003 and was the Chair of the Commission from 1999-2003. He is the recipient of the Young Alumnus Award, Outstanding Alumnus Award, and Mines Medal from the Colorado School of Mines, Distinguished Achievement Medal from Texas A&M University, distinguished service awards from AAPG and RMAG, and honorary membership awards from AAPG, RMAG and the Colorado Scientific Society.

December 13, 2010 

AMMONITE’S SUSAN EATON
PARTICIPATES IN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

     Last winter, Ammonite Senior Exploration Advisor Susan Eaton participated in the historic Elysium Visual Epic Expedition to Antarctica and South Georgia. The sole Canadian member of a 57-member team of explorers from 19 nations, Susan joined the world's most celebrated scientists, explorers, scuba divers, image makers, movie makers, historians, artists, and musicians and ocean explorers, as they travelled to the Bottom of the World. Her role was two-fold: as a journalist, to document the expedition, and as a geoscientist, to join Elysium's Science Team.

     The Expedition's mission was to follow in Sir Ernest Shackleton's footsteps, one hundred years later, and to record, document, and analyze the Antarctic landscape while creating a visual library illustrating the impact of a greater than 3°C temperature increase over the past 50 years in the planet's remaining frontier.

     Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctica Expedition included both a geologist and geophysicist. One hundred years later, in the spirit of continuing exploration, Susan followed in their esteemed footsteps. The integration of earth sciences, she believes, is essential to the discussion of global climate change, and to the understanding of its' impacts on Antarctica and South Georgia. Just as in Shackleton's day, the relative costs of mounting an expedition to Antarctica are epic.

     Susan's participation in the Elysium Visual Epic Expedition was made possible through crucial financial support from geoscience organizations (the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta, and the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre), and by individuals and corporations, including Ammonite Resources.

     Involved in the grassroots environmental movement since 1990, Susan sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to protect at least 50 percent of Canada's public lands, freshwater and ocean environments. Susan translates environmental issues into bite-size action steps, empowering people to protect Canada's wild spaces and the amazing animals who call them home. In recognition of Susan's environmental leadership, she was selected as an Olympic Torch Relay Runner for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Undeterred by her first open water dives in a February snowstorm in the North Atlantic, Susan received her scuba certification at age sixteen. Today, Susan is hooked on 'extreme' snorkelling around the planet -- she's snorkelled amongst the thousands of beluga whales who congregate every summer, in the sub-Arctic waters of Hudson Bay; she's assisted the Haida Nation Fisheries Program with its fall salmon research, snorkelling the northern rivers of the Haida Gwaii Archipelago; and she's snorkelled in the Galapagos Islands where the diversity and abundance of animal life -- from the rocky lava shores to the cold ocean waters rich in nutrients -- forms a continuum that's ideal for snorkelers to experience.

     Susan snorkelled amongst icebergs in the icy waters of Antarctica, coming face-to-mask with Leopard seals, the top predators of the Southern Ocean. As far as snorkelling goes, Susan confirms that "Antarctica is as 'extreme' as it gets." Susan recently wrote a two-part series which was published in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Explorer Magazine:

http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2011/01jan/antarctic0111.cfm

http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2011/02feb/antarctic0211.cfm

     For additional information on Susan R. Eaton, including her blogs, photos and videos from Antarctica and South Georgia, please visit her website at:

http://www.susanreaton.com/

Snorkelers admire a Towering Ice Wall in Pleneau Bay on the Western Antarctic Peninsula Image courtesy of SR ECO Consultants Inc. and Susan R. Eaton

December 1, 2010 

American Geological Institute
Announces G. Warfield "Skip" Hobbs as its 2011 President

     Alexandria, VA - The American Geological Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce Mr. G. Warfield "Skip" Hobbs as its new President. He was inducted at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado in November.
 

     Hobbs, founder and Managing Partner of Ammonite Resources Company, an international energy and mineral resource geotechnical and business consulting firm, received his B.S. in geology from Yale College, and his M.S. in petroleum geology from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London.
 

     Before founding Ammonite Resources in 1982, Hobbs was employed as an exploration geologist by Texaco, Inc. in Ecuador, Great Britain, Indonesia and Portugal, and then by the Amerada Hess Corporation in New York. In 2008, Hobbs founded and is the president of Ammonite Nova Scotia Corporation, the operator of two petroleum exploration licenses offshore Eastern Canada.
 

     Hobbs served on the AGI Executive Committee as Member-at-Large from 2004 to 2007. He has also served as President of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Division of Professional Affairs, and was the 1993-1995 Secretary of the AAPG. He also previously served on the board of directors of the Sierra Madre Foundation for Geological Research, and the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation in Field, British Columbia. In 2005, Hobbs was presented with the Honorary Membership Award of the AAPG. He has been a trustee of the New Canaan Nature Center, in his hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut since 2000.
 

     AGI is a nonprofit federation of 47 geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 120,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists in disciplines which range from petroleum and mining, hydrology, seismology, mineralogy, paleontology, geochemistry, soils, and karsts, to atmospheric and planetary studies, and the environment. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment. Among AGI's many services is its ongoing geoscience workforce study and annual survey of university student enrollment in the geosciences. Earth Magazine, a monthly journal for the public about topical geoscience issues, is just one of many AGI publications. Please visit AGI's website at www.agiweb.org/ for more information.
 

March 15, 2010 

NATIONAL HYDROCARBON AGENCY OF COLOMBIA RETAINS AMMONITE AS ADVISORS
FOR THE COLOMBIAN 2010 OPEN LICENSING ROUND

     Ammonite was retained in January to advise the Colombian Government Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) in marketing the Colombian 2010 Open Licensing Round. Ammonite Managing Partner Skip Hobbs, and senior exploration consultants Dr. Robert Merrill and Dr. Stephen Schamel worked during January in Bogota with ANH geotechnical staff, in reviewing the geotechnical data base for all the onshore and offshore basins of Colombia. PowerPoint presentations of the petroleum geology of the mature, emerging, and frontier basins were prepared for the ANH “Road Show” marketing campaign to the international petroleum industry. Ammonite was asked to introduce the technical part of the Road Show with a thirty minute overview and what we believe to be the most attractive aspects of the Colombia 2010 Open Round. Skip Hobbs spoke on behalf of ANH in Calgary on February 4th and in Houston on February 9th. Bob Merrill spoke at the Road Show in London on March 5th. Colombia has excellent exploration and development opportunities for all players – from the small independent to the multi-national oil company.      

November 1, 2009 

Hobbs Becomes President-Elect of American Geological Institute

     Ammonite Managing Partner G. Warfield “Skip” Hobbs was installed on October 19th as President-Elect of the American Geological Institute at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon. This professional honor follows Skip’s three-year tenure as a board member of the AGI, and earlier position as member society council representative for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

     The AGI is a federation of 46 geoscience societies representing over 120,000 professional earth scientists, covering such diverse disciplines as hydrology, seismology, geological engineering, paleontology, volcanology, mining and petroleum, soil science, environmental geology, and geoscience education. Founded in 1948, the American Geological Institute has a full-time staff of over 60 at its headquarters in Arlington Virginia, manages a global online database of over 3 million published geosciences citations, develops K-12 school earth science curricula, and coordinates the interests of its member societies for public outreach and government affairs. The AGI also publishes various online and print monthly newsletters, including Earth Magazine. Congress looks to the AGI to identify and bring experts to Washington to provide objective science-based testimony on such legislative issues as clean water resources, geological hazards, soil conservation, sustainable energy and mineral resource extraction; nuclear waste disposal, carbon sequestration, and climate change.

     Hobbs will serve as President-Elect from 2009-2010 and then as AGI President from 2010-2011. He is looking forward to playing a key role in national legislative matters concerning the geosciences, and earth science education. Increasing the role of women and minorities in the geosciences will be one of Skip’s management goals.

September 15, 2009 

MARK HUGHES JOINS AMMONITE AS SENIOR CONSULTANT FOR LAND

     Ammonite Managing Partner Skip Hobbs is pleased to announce that Mark Hughes has joined Ammonite as Senior Consultant for Land. Mark has over 35 years experience in all phases of oil and gas lease acquisition, mineral purchasing, right-of-way acquisition, lease take-off and mapping, title memorandum, due diligence, well permitting and staking, negotiating farmout agreements and other duties that are common in a land procurement effort. During his career he has supervised the leasing of over 750,000 acres. Hughes is President of Mark J. Hughes & Associates and Audubon Oil & Gas, LLC. He has a full office staff in place to handle all of a client’s needs including lease processing, timely payment of lease bonuses, mapping, title memorandums, and detailed billing. The company has the capacity to effectively manage 100+ landmen, with current management in place, and are capable of placing 18+ landmen ready to go within 10 days to begin a new project in the Appalachian Basin. Areas where Mark J Hughes & Associates has managed significant lease plays ranging from 10,000 up to 300,000 acres for oil and gas, coalbed methane and coal, include Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Missouri. The company has also worked in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Montana. Hughes began his career with Amax Coal company prior to forming his own independent land brokerage company. He is a member of many industry trade associations including the AAPL and IPAA, and has served as an officer of the Tri-State Association of Petroleum Landman and Kentucky Oil & Gas Association.

March 4, 2009 

LYNN PITTINGER JOINS AMMONITE AS SENIOR CONSULTANT FOR ENGINEERING AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

     Ammonite Resources is pleased to announce that Lynn Pittinger has joined the firm as a Senior Consultant for Engineering and Economic Analysis. Pittinger has over 28 years of global experience in economic evaluation, decision analysis and reservoir engineering. Prior to becoming a consultant in 2008, Lynn worked from 2001-2007 for Occidental Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas, where he was Chief of Exploration Economics, and then Sr. Economics and Planning Consultant. As Chief, he was responsible for reviewing all exploration projects and focused on improving play and prospect resource assessment. He began his career with Unocal in 1981. His 20 years experience at Unocal included 10 years overseas in Indonesia, Philippines, Scotland and Thailand, and his last two positions were Director of Petroleum Engineering (Thailand business unit), and Manager of International Evaluations, with concurrent responsibility as Technology Integration Team Leader for Deepwater companywide in reservoir engineering and economics.

     Pittinger received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a Degree of Engineer (Management Option) in Petroleum Engineering, from Stanford University. Following his graduate work in decision analysis, his main career interest has been incorporating risk and uncertainty into exploration, development and acquisition evaluations. He adopts a pragmatic approach to capture the range of potential outcomes with a limited number of scenarios, yet keeps the evaluation simple. This allows the discussion to focus on the most important input assumptions, their impact on financial results and how various alternatives compare, enabling the decision maker to manage risk and uncertainty more effectively.

     The addition of Lynn Pittinger to “Team Ammonite” significantly enhances the firm’s expertise in petroleum acquisition and finance due diligence.

January 2009 

AMMONITE IN 2008

     2008 was a tumultuous year for the global petroleum industry, and a busy year for Ammonite Resources. From our "hideout" in the woods of New Canaan, Connecticut, we have advised clients on some very diverse domestic and international assignments.

     Client due diligence assignments have taken us physically and virtually from one end of North America to the other, and overseas, to evaluate conventional and unconventional petroleum E&P projects. Domestic projects have been in: the Gulf Coast - both onshore and offshore, the Rockies, Kansas, Appalachians, Cook Inlet and North Slope of Alaska; and South Florida. While our work normally involves the review of offering company prior geotechnical studies, Ammonite's Dallas-based Dr. Jeffrey Levine prepared over a several month period a comprehensive report on the coalbed methane geology of the Cherokee Basin in Kansas and Oklahoma for a gas utility company client. The study identified areas of maximum resource potential and guided our client in making a $100+MM acquisition.

     We have been very active in Canada, looking at conventional, coalbed methane and oil sands projects. Ammonite consultants Dr. Robert Mummery (Calgary) and Dr. Robert Merrill (Houston) evaluated the large Western Canada prospect portfolio of a mid-size Canadian public company as part of the due diligence for a significant PIPE investment. A Monte Carlo analysis was made of the exploration and development portfolio of the company to determine a statistical P10-Pmean-P90 distribution of future reserves and production levels which had not been evaluated by the company's reserve engineers. Our most interesting Canadian project this year involved an assessment of a steam boiler technology and its applicability and market potential in the oil sands. Calgary-based consultant Susan Eaton conducted the study together with a process engineering firm which Ammonite sub-contracted, on behalf of a buyout firm that was interested in, and did purchase, a large steam boiler manufacturer.

      Latin America has been very active for us this past year. Bob Merrill has made multiple trips to Colombia and Brazil to evaluate E&P opportunities there. Skip Hobbs spent a week in Colombia in February, where he was a keynote luncheon speaker and represented the AAPG at a Latin American petroleum conference. His talk was titled "The Future of the Global Oil Industry - the Resources, the Challenges, and the Geoscience Workforce." Skip has given this speech at a number of conferences, lastly in Halifax in August as the keynote dinner speaker at the Atlantic Conjugate Margins Conference. It is regularly updated - and definitely needs an update now. West Africa, North Sea, Black Sea, Syria, Iraq, Qatar, and Indonesia have also been areas where we looked at acquisition opportunities for Ammonite clients. Our most interesting international project this year was in Ukraine in September. Our client had acquired an operating company in Ukraine, and was considering either making two additional acquisitions to reach an optimum critical mass, or selling their existing asset. Merrill and Hobbs, together with the client's acquisition VP, spent a week in Kiev and in the Donets Basin in Eastern Ukraine. Conventional wisdom says that the huge tight gas resources in the Paleozoic rocks of the interior basins of Ukraine would be ideal candidates for Western horizontal drilling and fracturing technologies. Maybe so, but we found was that Ukraine is an impossible operating environment for foreign companies due to import restrictions, bureaucratic road blocks, corruption, and myriad other negative factors. We advised our client to exit the country. The photo below is of Bob Merrill and Skip Hobbs in Kiev. The city center and historic district have been restored and are now quite lovely, a big contrast from 1995, when Hobbs first visited Ukraine to look at CBM opportunities.

     One of the factors that distinguishes Ammonite from many other consulting firms, is that we are - ever so modestly, perceptive at identifying future energy trends. We were one of the earliest firms in the 1980's to develop expertise in coalbed methane. We recognized the potential of heavy oil and the oil sands in the 1990's before the industry became "hot". Admittedly, we were late on the shale plays, but Ammonite is now very much up to speed in that resource. Texas-based consultant Mary Van der Loop, for example, participated in a multi-basin shale characterization study for a major oil service company (this was not an Ammonite engagement, but gives us some very valuable expertise).

      Two new areas for us this year are geothermal energy and carbon sequestration. Dr. Merrill and Skip Hobbs have looked at a number of geothermal projects, and Bob has built a Monte Carlo evaluation program for geothermal prospects. Skip's advisory work with NYSERDA - the New York State Energy Research and Development, Authority has exposed him to carbon sequestration technologies and site characterization. Several Ammonite consultants (including Hobbs) have recently taken short courses on reservoir characterization for carbon sequestration. It may be a bit early for the commercialization of carbon sequestration, but it is coming, given the political interest in climate change, and President Obama's commitment to green technologies. Ammonite is now in a position to identify and evaluate potential commercial-scale subsurface carbon sequestration opportunities.
     

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