In 1989, the chief geologist of BP Exploration and his senior colleagues recognized the need to expand the company’s resource of sequence stratigraphers, and created the Stratigraphic Studies Group. This group initially included a few experts, but was composed chiefly of a mixture of willing geophysicists, sedimcntologists and bio-stratigraphers, who were to train as sequence stratigraphers, but more importantly, were to bring the expertise from their own disciplines to bear on sequence stratigraphy. This merging of geological disciplines with sequence stratigraphic principles first saw the light of day as BP’s ‘Introduction to Sequence Stratigraphy’ course. This course has been given internally since 1991, and has been presented in whole or in part to over a dozen national oil companies and at several international geological and geophysical conferences.

Significant problems are being encountered by stratigraphers as they attempt to apply Exxonian sequence analysis to the depositional record. The most serious problem is one of consistent and objective boundary recognition. The unconformable portion of the boundary usually can be recognized with reasonable objectivity but a major problem occurs when the boundary is a "correlative conformity". The Exxon model defines such a surface as the depositional surface which existed at the time of the end of base level (relative sea level) fall. In many cases this theoretical surface has no apparent lithologic expression and cannot be recognized objectively. Thus correlation of a depositional sequence throughout a basin is either impossible or is an extremely subjective exercise.

Part I: Shale and Clay Overview

1. Mudrock Components and the Genesis of Bulk Rock Properties: Review of Current Advances and Challenges Kitty L. Milliken and Nicholas W.Hayman

2. Chemical Composition of Formation Water in Shale and Tight Reservoirs: A Basin‐Scale Perspective Yousif Kharaka, Kathleen Gans, Elisabeth Rowan, James Thordsen, Christopher Conaway, Madalyn Blondes, and Mark Engle

3. From Nanofluidics to Basin‐Scale Flow in Shale: Tracer Investigations Yifeng Wang

4. Metals in Oil and Gas‐Bearing Shales: Are They Potential (Future) Ore Deposits? Mark J. Rigali and James L. Krumhansl