Justin Birdwell
My USGS research involves the following energy-related issues: estimating undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources from U.S. petroleum systems; assessing development potential of oil shale deposits; examining environmental impacts of energy development; applying new methods to the characterization of source rocks and petroleum; and developing geochemical reference materials.
Biography
Education
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, 2007, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Advisor: Louis J. Thibodeaux)
B.S., Chemical Engineering, 2002, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Professional Experience
Nov. 2011 - Present, Research Engineer, US Geological Survey
Oct. 2009 - Oct. 2011, Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Engineer, US Geological Survey
Jan. 2008 - Sept. 2009, Research Associate, Louisiana State University
Aug. 2002 - Dec. 2007, Graduate Student/Research & Teaching Assistant, Louisiana State University
Professional Activities
Membership in Professional Organizations Member since
American Chemical Society (ENVR, GEOC) 2003
American Geophysical Union (Geochemistry) 2006
Geological Society of America 2010
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (Active, EMD) 2010
Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 2014
Society for Sedimentary Geology (Associate, RMS) 2018
Organization at Professional Meetings and Conferences
- Session Co-Convener, “Advanced Characterization of Geofluids and Geomaterials in Sedimentary Basins”, Goldschmidt Virtual 2020 (June).
- Chair, Technical Review Committee, 35th Oil Shale Symposium (October 2015) in Salt Lake City, UT.
- Co-Chair, 30th through 34th Oil Shale Symposium at the Colorado School of Mines (October, 2010 – 2014).
- Member, Senior Advisory Board, International Oil Shale Symposium (June 2013) – Tallinn, Estonia.
- Co-Chair, Workshop on Principles for Oil Shale Resource Assessment (October 2011) in Golden, CO.
- Session Co-Convener, “Recent advances in the study of environmental mass transport phenomena”, 242nd American Chemical Society Annual Meeting (August 2011) in Denver, CO.
- Session Co-Convener, “Environmental geology of oil shale and tar sands”, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting (November 2010) in Denver, CO.
Service to Professional Organizations
AAPG Energy Minerals Division, Tight Oil and Gas Committee, Chair, 2019 – present.
AAPG Energy Minerals Division, Shale Gas and Liquids Committee, Gulf Coast rep., 2019 – present.
Associate Editor, AAPG Bulletin, Jan. 2019 – present.
Associate Editor, The Mountain Geologist (RMAG), Jan. 2019 – present.
AAPG House of Delegates, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists delegate, 2017-present.
AAPG Energy Minerals Division, Oil Shale Committee, Chair, 2016-2018.
Executive Editor, The Mountain Geologist (RMAG), Jan. 2016 – Dec. 2018.
AAPG Energy Minerals Division, Oil Shale Committee, Vice-Chair – Government, 2015.
SETAC Exposure Modeling Advisory Group Steering Committee – Co-Chair 2012-2014.
Justin Birdwell is a research environmental engineer and geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Central Energy Resources Science Center in Denver, Colorado, where he has worked since 2009. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, earning B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering in 2002 and 2007. He is the Denver project chief for the USGS Energy Resources Program’s Gulf Coast Petroleum Systems Research project, and his research focuses on unconventional petroleum resource assessment in Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain, and Alaskan basins, geochemical characterization of source rocks and petroleum, and development of geochemical reference materials. Justin is chair of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Energy Minerals Division (EMD) commodity committee on tight oil and gas resources, an Associate Editor of AAPG Bulletin and The Mountain Geologist, a member of the AAPG House of Delegates representing Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, and president-elect of AAPG EMD for 2020-2021.
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=16174195400
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Birdwell
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7xr20ZQAAAAJ
Science and Products
Development of USGS Geochemical Reference Materials
The project focus will be the development of traditional and microanalytical reference materials that support USGS geochemical investigations. Development of new microanalytical reference materials allows USGS scientists and outside customers to examine a greater range of sample types while maintaining a high degree of data reliability.
Gulf Coast Petroleum Systems Project - Research
This site highlights the research on the processes that impact the formation, accumulation, occurrence and alteration of hydrocarbon energy resources of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. This portion of the project also conducts assessments of undiscovered, technically recoverable hydrocarbon resources (click here for...
Gulf Coast Petroleum Systems Project - Assessments
This site highlights the assessments of the Gulf Coast Petroleum Systems Project. Scientifically robust assessments of undiscovered, technically recoverable hydrocarbon resources are published in a variety of USGS publications. This project also conducts research on the processes that impact the formation, accumulation, occurrence and alteration of hydrocarbon energy resources (...
Examination of inertinite within immature Eagle Ford Shale at the nanometer-scale using atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy
The nanoscale molecular composition of sedimentary organic matter is challenging to characterize in situ given the limited tools available that can adequately interrogate its complex chemical structure. This is a particularly relevant issue in source rocks, as kerogen composition will strongly impact its reactivity and so is critical to...
Jubb, Aaron M.; Hackley, Paul C.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Hatcherian, Javin J.; Qu, Jing
Assessment of water and proppant quantities associated with petroleum production from the Eagle Ford Group, Gulf Coast, Texas, 2019
Building on a geology-based assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable petroleum resources in the Eagle Ford Group in south Texas, the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the required water and proppant demands and formation water production volumes associated with possible future development of these petroleum resources. The results of...
Gianoutsos, Nicholas J.; Haines, Seth S.; Varela, Brian A.; Whidden, Katherine J.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Burke, Lauri A.; Drake, Ronald M.; Finn, Thomas M.; French, Katherine L.; Jenni, Karen E.; Kinney, Scott A.; Le, Phuong A.; Leathers-Miller, Heidi M.; Marra, Kristen R.; Mercier, Tracey J.; Paxton, Stanley T.; Pitman, Janet K.; Schenk, Christopher J.; Shaffer, Brian N.; Shorten, Chilisa M.; Tennyson, Marilyn E.; Woodall, Cheryl A. Nanoscale molecular composition of solid bitumen from the Eagle Ford Group across a natural thermal maturity gradient
Microscopic solid bitumen is a petrographically defined secondary organic matter residue produced during petroleum generation and subsequent oil transformation. The presence of solid bitumen impacts many reservoir properties including porosity, permeability, and hydrocarbon generation and storage, among others. Furthermore, solid bitumen...
Jubb, Aaron M.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Hackley, Paul C.; Hatcherian, Javin J.; Qu, Jing Trends in thermal maturity indicators for the organic sulfur-rich Eagle Ford Shale
Thermal maturity is critical to evaluate petroleum systems and to interpret biomarker results for paleoenvironmental and geobiology studies. Many thermal maturity indices were developed for marine source rocks containing type II kerogen, but their behavior in organic sulfur-rich source rocks requires more investigation. Here, we present...
French, Katherine L.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Lewan, Michael Mineralogy and lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation determined by hyperspectral core imaging
Sections of the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian to Campanian) Niobrara Formation in two cores from Kansas and Colorado, the Amoco Rebecca Bounds and USGS Portland 1, respectively, were examined by hyperspectral core imaging and analysis. A spectral imaging system combining high-resolution photography (50 μm), 3D laser profiling (20 μm), and near-...
Birdwell, Justin E.; Fontenot, Lionel C.; Martini, Brigette Biomarker similarities between the saline lacustrine Eocene Green River and the Paleoproterozoic Barney Creek Formations
The Paleoproterozoic Barney Creek Formation, which is currently interpreted as a restricted, deep marine paleoenvironment, plays a disproportionate role in our understanding of Proterozoic ocean chemistry and the rise of complex life. The Barney Creek Formation hosts several unusual biomarker features, specifically its methylhopane and carotenoid...
French, Katherine L.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Vanden Berg, Michael Element cycling in the Middle-Late Triassic Shublik Formation: Mineralization vs. recycling of biolimiting nutrients in an unconventional resource play
The Triassic Shublik Formation in northern Alaska is one of the major source rocks in North America, having generated much of the petroleum in Prudhoe Bay and associated fields. The middle Shublik Formation, the focus of this study, is a highly phosphatic, organic-rich carbonate mudstone interval. Apatite cements can occur as phosphatic peloids,...
Whidden, Katherine J.; Dumoulin, Julie A.; Macquaker, James; Birdwell, Justin E.; Boehlke, Adam; French, Katherine L. Variability in results from mineralogical and organic geochemical interlaboratory testing of U. S. Geological Survey shale reference materials
The expansion of unconventional petroleum resource exploration and production in the United States has led to an increase in source rock characterization efforts, particularly related to bulk organic and mineralogical properties. To support the analytical and research needs of industry and academia, as well as internal work, the U.S. Geological...
Birdwell, Justin E.; Wilson, Stephen A. Connections between Eocene Lakes Uinta and Gosiute with emphasis on the infilling stage of Lake Uinta in Piceance Basin
Late in its history, Eocene saline Lake Gosiute in the Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming and Colorado was progressively filled from north to south with coarse volcaniclastic sediments. During the infilling, Lake Gosiute began to drain southward across the Axial arch into saline Lake Uinta in the Piceance and Uinta Basins, Colorado and Utah (about...
Johnson, Ronald C.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Brownfield, Michael E.; Mercier, Tracey J.; Hansley, Paula L. Distribution of mineral phases in the Eocene Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, Colorado – Implications for the evolution of Lake Uinta
The mineralogy of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado, has been the subject of numerous studies since the 1920s. Most previous work has focused on the resource potential of these lacustrine mudrocks, which in addition to substantial oil shale potential (in-place resources of 353 billion barrels of synthetic crude oil...
Birdwell, Justin E.; Johnson, Ronald C.; Brownfield, Michael E. Geochemistry of a thermally immature Eagle Ford Group drill core in central Texas
The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Group displays significant lateral and vertical geochemical variability. Much of the work on the Eagle Ford Group has been focused southwest of the San Marcos arch. To more fully characterize the Eagle Ford across the entire region, a thermally immature drill core was acquired north of the San Marcos arch that...
French, Katherine L.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Whidden, Katherine J. Investigation into the effect of heteroatom content on kerogen structure using advanced 13C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
To elucidate how different extreme heteroatom concentrations in oil shale kerogen may present and contribute to various structural features, three shale samples, containing kerogen with high oxygen content, low heteroatom content, and high sulfur content, were analyzed using advanced 13C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques...
Chu, Wenying; Cao, Xiaoyan; Schmidt-Rohr, Klaus; Birdwell, Justin E.; Mao, Jingdong