Geoffrey S Ellis
Geoffrey Ellis is a petroleum geochemist with the Energy Resources Program (ERP) of the US Geological Survey. He manages the sealed tube and hydrous pyrolysis laboratories within the Central Energy Resources Science Center.
Geoffrey Ellis' research interests encompass the areas of organic-inorganic interactions in petroleum systems, gas isotope geochemistry, and the controls on sedimentary organic geochemistry in aquatic environments. He has published extensively on the process of thermochemical sulfate reduction and its impact on petroleum geochemistry. He is also actively investigating the application of compound-specific sulfur isotope analysis to problems in petroleum and organic geochemistry. He also has ongoing research projects involving clumped and position specific isotope analysis of hydrocarbons and organosulfur compounds and their relation to petroleum formation processes.
Professional Experience
2006-Present: Research Geologist, Energy Resources Program, USGS
2003-2006: Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
1996-2003: Graduate Research Assistant, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami
1994-1996: Consulting Petroleum Geochemist, Venezuela
1991-1994: Physical Scientist, Nation Research Program, Water Resources Division, USGS
1988-1990: Geochemist, Northeast Research Institute
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Marine Geology and Geophysics, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami
M.S., Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines
B.A., Geological Sciences, Cornell University
Affiliations and Memberships*
Affiliate faculty Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Member American Association of Petroleum Geologists, European Association of Organic Geochemists, Geochemical Society, Geological Society of America
Member Association of Afro-Asian Petroleum Geochemists, Latin American Association of Organic Geochemistry
Member of the “Committee on Research” of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (2009-present)
Vice-chairman of the executive council of the Association of Afro-Asian Petroleum Geochemists
Founding member of the editorial board of the journal Petroleum Research
Member of the editorial board of the English-language version of the journal Acta Petrolei Sinica
Member of the editorial board of the journal Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience
Member of the editorial board of the journal Unconventional Resources
Science and Products
Geochemical characterization of natural gases in the pre-salt section of the Santos Basin (Brazil) focused on hydrocarbons and volatile organic sulfur compounds
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of the greater Taranaki Basin and East Coast Basin of New Zealand, 2020
Development of hydrocarbon gas standards for stable isotopic composition (δ13C and δ2H)
Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil resources in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota and Montana, 2021
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of China, 2020
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in the lower Paleozoic of the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of upper Paleozoic strata in the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Pennsylvanian Tyler Formation of the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Assessment of undiscovered gas resources in the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Assessment of continuous oil and gas resources in the Mowry Shale, Wind River Basin Province, Wyoming, 2020
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2019
Position-specific distribution of hydrogen isotopes in natural propane: Effects of thermal cracking, equilibration and biodegradation
Science and Products
- Data
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 67
Geochemical characterization of natural gases in the pre-salt section of the Santos Basin (Brazil) focused on hydrocarbons and volatile organic sulfur compounds
The objective of this work is to characterize the geochemistry of a suite of natural gas samples from five fields in order to improve the understanding of the lacustrine petroleum system of the pre-salt section from the Santos Basin (Brazil). Additionally, the distribution of volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSC) in petroleum reservoirs was examined to investigate possible applications to petroAuthorsIgor V. A. F. Souza, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Alexandre A. Ferreira, Jarbas V. P. Guzzo, Rut A. Díaz, Ana Luiza S. Albuquerque, Alon AmraniAssessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of the greater Taranaki Basin and East Coast Basin of New Zealand, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 806 million barrels of oil and 17.0 trillion cubic feet of gas within the greater Taranaki Basin and East Coast Basin of New Zealand.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Marilyn Tennyson, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Cheryl A. Woodall, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeDevelopment of hydrocarbon gas standards for stable isotopic composition (δ13C and δ2H)
A suite of gas standards was developed to serve as international secondary reference materials (RMs) for the determination of the compound-specific carbon-13/carbon-12 (δ13C) and hydrogen-2/hydrogen-1 (δ2H) values of hydrocarbon gases. This report provides background information on the project, the methods used to produce and analyze the gases, as well as the data analysis and recommended stable iAuthorsGeoffrey S. Ellis, Robert F. DiasAssessment of undiscovered continuous oil resources in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota and Montana, 2021
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 4.3 billion barrels of oil and 4.9 trillion cubic feet of gas (associated) in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota and Montana.AuthorsKristen R. Marra, Tracey J. Mercier, Sarah E. Gelman, Christopher J. Schenk, Cheryl A. Woodall, Andrea D. Cicero, Ronald M. Drake, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Michael H. Gardner, Jane S. Hearon, Benjamin G. Johnson, Jenny H. Lagesse, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Kira K. Timm, Scott S. YoungAssessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of China, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 13.4 billion barrels of oil and 244.4 trillion cubic feet of gas in nine geologic provinces of China.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeAssessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in the lower Paleozoic of the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 83 million barrels of oil and 351 billion cubic feet of gas in lower Paleozoic strata of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeAssessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of upper Paleozoic strata in the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean oil and gas resources of 134 million barrels of oil and 81 billion cubic feet of gas in upper Paleozoic strata of the Williston Basin Province in North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeAssessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Pennsylvanian Tyler Formation of the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 161 million barrels of oil and 93 billion cubic feet of gas in the Tyler Formation of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeAssessment of undiscovered gas resources in the Williston Basin Province, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 2,438 billion (2.4 trillion) cubic feet of gas resources in the Williston Basin Province, in North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota.AuthorsChristopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. DrakeAssessment of continuous oil and gas resources in the Mowry Shale, Wind River Basin Province, Wyoming, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 288 million barrels of oil and 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Mowry Shale in the Wind River Basin Province, Wyoming.AuthorsThomas M. Finn, Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Kristen R. Marra, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Geoffrey S. EllisAssessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2019
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 6.9 billion barrels of oil and 41.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in conventional and continuous accumulations in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations onshore and in State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast region.AuthorsJanet K. Pitman, Stanley T. Paxton, Scott A. Kinney, Katherine J. Whidden, Seth S. Haines, Brian A. Varela, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Christopher J. Schenk, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ofori N. Pearson, Lauri A. Burke, Phuong A. Le, Justin E. Birdwell, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Katherine L. French, Ronald M. Drake, Thomas M. Finn, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Kristen R. Marra, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Chilisa M. ShortenPosition-specific distribution of hydrogen isotopes in natural propane: Effects of thermal cracking, equilibration and biodegradation
Intramolecular isotope distributions, including isotope clumping and position specific fractionation, can provide proxies for the formation temperature and formation and destruction pathways of molecules. In this study, we explore the position-specific hydrogen isotope distribution in propane. We analyzed propane samples from 10 different petroleum systems with high-resolution molecular mass spectAuthorsHao Xie, Camilo Ponton, Michael Formolo, Michael Lawson, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Michael Lewan, Alexandre A. Ferreira, Erica T. Morais, Andre D. Spigolon, Alex L. Sessions, John M. Eiler - News
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