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Book brings WMU geologist international recognition

Sept. 21, 2005

KALAMAZOO--A Western Michigan University geologist has won international recognition from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for his research and writing.

Dr. G. Michael Grammer, associate professor of geosciences, is a co-winner of the Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award, which honors the best original special publication dealing with petroleum geology that the AAPG publishes each year.

The newly bestowed 2006 award singles out the best 2005 publication. The work selected, a book co-edited by Grammer, was so well received that it has already had to be reprinted.

Called "Memoir 80: Integration of Outcrop and Modern Analogs in Reservoir Modeling," it provides important information that will help oil and gas geologists understand ancient deposits by looking at modern analogs.

Grammer served as the lead editor for the book, and senior author of one of its chapters, along with P.M. Harris, a senior consultant with Chevron in San Ramon, Calif., and G.P. Eberli, chairperson of the Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics at the University of Miami.

Many of the cutting-edge techniques described in the text are currently being utilized in an ongoing U.S. Department of Energy project that Grammer is leading at WMU.

The three-year, $1 million DOE project is determining the most likely underground distribution of some of Michigan's best-producing oil and gas reservoirs, allowing these hydrocarbons to be extracted in more efficient and economical ways.

"Given the record demand for oil and gas today, it's crucial that we not only locate more hydrocarbon reservoirs, but also learn to extract everything we can from them," Grammer says.

"The primary production from a typical oil reservoir leaves some 60 to 70 percent of the resource in the ground. The research we're doing at WMU will help us to extract a higher percentage of these stranded hydrocarbons, which is much needed here in Michigan as well as around the country."

Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

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