Art Donovan
  • Professor of the Practice
  • Unconventional Reservoirs

Research Interests

My primary research focus is applying Sequence stratigraphic concepts to help to explain and predict the distributions, thickness variations, and sweet spots of unconventional Source Rock and Tight Rock Reservoirs from the basin- to field-scale. Sequence Stratigraphy is a methodology that defines sequence boundaries (unconformities and their correlative conformities) and the depositional sequences that they bound.  This methodology defines hiatal breaks in the stratigraphic record and allows the understanding of sedimentary strata in terms of both what was originally deposited, as well as what was subsequently preserved. My PhD research at the Colorado School of Mines in the early 1980’s was one of the pioneering efforts to apply sequence stratigraphic concepts to outcrops and the shallow subsurface. Over the past three decades, I have published numerous articles on the subject, as well as taught sequence stratigraphic courses, and field seminars, for Exxon, BP, GSA, AAPG, SEPM, & THE GEOLOCAL SOCIETY. I have over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and spent over 15 years at both ExxonMobil and BP.  At ExxonMobil, I had the opportunity to conduct and manage sequence and seismic stratigraphic studies from basin around the world, as well as help to develop and teach numerous courses.  at BP, I served as the sed/strat discipline lead, a member of the Global Exploration Assurance Team, Senior Geoscience Advisor for BP Global Unconventional Efforts, as well as help rebuild their R&D and internal training efforts globally.   During my career in the oil and gas industry, I had the opportunity to work conventional Non-marine, Marginal-Marine, and Deep-Water Reservoirs in outcrop, as well as the subsurface, from basing around the world. However, over the past decade, my efforts were focused on: 1) studying unconventional Source and Tight Rock plays around the world, but especially in North America; 2) applying sequence stratigraphic concepts to better explain and predict the distributions, thickness variations, and sweet spots of unconventional Source Rock and Tight Rock Reservoirs; 3) Bringing outcrops into the 21st century by collecting and integrating stratigraphic, biostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, petrophysical, and geochemical data in outcrops and using this integrated information to better understand unconventional plays in the adjacent subsurface; 4) the Earth’s climate change over geologic time, but especially during the Cretaceous; 5) studying the upper cretaceous succession, especially the Woodbine, Eagle Ford and Austin Groups across Texas; and 6) understanding the interactions among tectonics, inherited physiography, and stratigraphy.  I am also very interested in utilizing drone imagery to capture large-scale seismic-scale geometries in outcrops, especially from the cretaceous of the Western interior of the U.S.  After retiring from BP in 2016, I joined the Department of Geology and Geophysics at TAMU as a full-time faculty member in 2017, after serving as an adjunct faculty Member since 2008.  





Research Focus

  • Unconventional Reservoirs

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. in Geology, Colorado School of Mines
  • B.S. in Geology and Biology, University of Rochester

Selected Publications

  • Donovan, A.D., J. Evenick, L. Banfield, N. McInnis, & W. Hill, 2017.  An organofacies-based Mudstone Classification for Unconventional Tight Rock and Source Rock Plays: URTEC 2715154, July 2017.

  • Donovan, A. D. 2016, Making Outcrops Relevant for an Unconventional Source Rock Play: An example from the Eagle Ford Group of Texas.  In Bowman, M., H.R. Smyth, T.R. Good, S.R. Passey, J.P.P. Hirst, and C.J. Jordan (eds.): The Geologic Society Special Publication 436: The Value of Outcrop Studies in Reducing Subsurface Uncertainty and Risk in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production p.193-206.

  • Donovan, Arthur D., T. Scott Staerker, Rand Gardner, Michael Pope, Aris Pramudito, and Matthew Wehner, 2016, Findings from the Eagle Ford outcrops of west Texas and implications to the subsurface of south Texas: in J. A. Breyer, ed., The Eagle Ford Shale: A renaissance in U.S. oil production: AAPG Memoir 110, p. 301–336.

  • Donovan, A.D., R.D. Gardner, A. Pramudito, T.S. Staerker, M. P. Wehner, M.J. Corbett, J.J. Lundquist, A.M. Romero, L.C. Henry, J.R. Rotzien, and K.S. Boling, 2015, Chronostratigraphic Relationships of the Woodbine and Eagle Ford Groups across Texas, GCAGS Journal, v.4, p.67-87.

  • Pope, M.C., Michael Tice, Arthur Donovan, Matthew Wehner, & Rand Gardner, 2015, The Eagle Ford Group in west Texas: The record of an alternating anoxic and oxic shallow-water carbonate and shale ramp, Abstract: Inaugural Mountjoy Conference - Advances in                Characterization and Modeling of Complex Carbonate Reservoirs, Banff, Alberta, August 23-28, 2015

  • Donovan, A.D., M.C. Pope, R.D. Gardner, M. P. Wehner, & Staerker, Corbett, J.J., 2015, Making Outcrops Relevant to the Subsurface: Learnings from the Eagle Ford Group in West Texas, Extended Abstract, 2015 URTEC Conference, San Antonio Texas, July 2015.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2014, A Sequence Stratigraphic Framework for Defining and Differentiating the Woodbine & Eagle Ford Groups across Texas, Abstract AAPG Annual Meeting Houston, April 2014

  • Donovan, A.D., 2014, How Integrated Outcrop Studies Can Impact Your Subsurface Understandings across an Unconventional Play Fairway: Learning’s from the Eagle Ford Outcrops of West Texas, Geological Society Conference on the Use of Outcrops Analogues in Reducing Reservoir Uncertainties, March 6th, 2014

  • Donovan, A.D., 2014, Understanding the Geologic Variability within Unconventional Reservoirs, Learning’s from the Eagle Ford, Shale UK Conference, London, March 4th, 2014.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, J. Lundquist, and M. Corbett, 2013, Impact of the Proposed GSSP Turonian-Coniacian Boundary Revision and a U.S. Alternative, Abstract GSA Annual Meeting Denver

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, R. Gardner, M.C. Pope, M.J. Corbett, C.M. Lowery, A.M. Romero, 2013, A 3-d Outcrop Perspective of an Unconventional Carbonate Mudstone Reservoir, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference.

  • Gardner, R.D, M.C. Pope, M.P. Wehner, and A.D. Donovan, 2013, Lateral Continuity of Eagle Ford Group Strata in Lozier Canyon and Antonio Creek, Terrell County, Texas. GCAGS Journal, v2.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, R. Gardner, M.C. Pope, M.J. Corbett, C.M. Lowery, A.M. Romero, 2013, The Eagle Ford Outcrops of West Texas: A Laboratory for Understanding Heterogeneities, as well as Sequence Stratigraphic Controls, on Unconventional Mudstone Reservoirs, A 3-d Outcrop Perspective of an Unconventional Carbonate Mudstone Reservoir, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference. 2013 AAPG Annual Meeting Pittsburg, Pa.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, W. Li, M.J. Corbett, C.M. Lowery, A.M. Romero, and R.D. Gardner, 2012, The Eagle Ford Outcrops of West Texas: A Field Laboratory For Understanding Heterogeneities Within Unconventional Mudstone Reservoirs, GCAGS Journal, v1. p.162-185.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, W. Li, M.J. Corbett, C.M. Lowery, A.M. Romero, and R.D. Gardner, 2012, Field Guide to the Eagle Ford Outcrops of West Texas:  Fieldtrip for the 2012 Annual GCAGS Meeting, Austin Texas.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, 2011, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Eagle Ford (Boquillas) Formation in the outcrops of West Texas and Subsurface of South Texas.  HGS Bulletin, v54, #2, p.39-41.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, A. Pramudito, W. Li, M.J. Corbett, C.M. Lowery, and A.M. Romero, 2011,  Unconventional Mudstone Reservoirs Field Seminar West Texas.  Fieldtrip for the 2011 AAPG Annual Meeting Houston, Texas, 119p.

  • Donovan, A. D., W. Li, A. Pramudito, and T.S. Staerker, 2011, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Eagle Ford (Boquillas) Formation in the Outcrops of West Texas & Subsurface of South Texas: 2011 AAPG Annual Meeting Houston, Texas (abstract)

  • Donovan, A. D., 2011, The Slope Rise and Run: A Critical Factor in Explaining and Predicting the Development, Distribution, and Scale of Basin-Floor Fans, 2011 AAPG Annual Meeting Houston, Texas (abstract)

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Staerker, W. Li, A. Pramudito, J. Evenick, A. McClain, 2010, Field Guide to the Eagle Ford (Boquillas) Formation: West Texas:  Fieldtrip for the 2010 AAPG Hedberg Seminar on Unconventional Shale Reservoirs, Austin Texas, December 6-11, 2011, 109p.

  • Donovan, A.D. and T.S. Staerker, T.S., 2010, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Eagle Ford (Boquillas) Formation in the subsurface of South Texas and the outcrops of West Texas, in Gulf Coast Association of Geologic Societies Transactions. v.60, p. 861-899.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2010, The Sequence Stratigraphy Family Tree: Understanding the Portfolio of Sequence Methodologies, In Zaitland, B, and Radcliff, K. (eds.) Modern Stratigraphic Techniques: Theory and Case Histories, SEPM Special Publication 94. p.4-33.

  • Donovan, A.D, K.M. Campion, & K.M. Bohacs, 2010, Lithostratigraphy vs. Chronostratigraphy- Simple Examples of the Importance of a Genetic Framework, In V. Abreu, J.E. Neal, K.M. Bohacs, and J.L. Kalbas (eds.), Sequence Stratigraphy of Siliciclastic Systems: SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology #9.

  • Donovan, A.D, K.M. Campion, & K.M. Bohacs, 2010, Geometric Elements of an Idealized Depositional Sequence, In V. Abreu, J.E. Neal, K.M. Bohacs, and J.L. Kalbas (eds.), Sequence Stratigraphy of Siliciclastic Systems: SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology #9.

  • Van Wagoner, J.C., R. M. Mitchum, K.M. Campion, V.D. Rahmanian, H.R. Feldman, and A. D. Donovan, 2010, Sequence Stratigraphic Architecture of Miocene Incised Valleys, South-Central Louisiana, In V. Abreu, J.E. Neal, K.M. Bohacs, and J.L. Kalbas (eds.), Sequence Stratigraphy of Siliciclastic Systems: SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology #9.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2007, What is the Shelf Break? 2007 AAPG Annual Meeting (Long Beach) Abstract Volume, p.3z.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2007, Slope Terrains: A Critical Factor in Explaining and predicting the distribution of Slope Reservoirs, 2007 Annual AAPG Meeting Abstract Volume, p3z.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2005, Slope Terrains: Understanding and Predicting the Distribution and Type of Slope Reservoirs, 2005 Annual AAPG Meeting Abstract Volume, p.A36

  • Donovan, A.D., 2005, Taking the Scenic Route and Avoiding the Interstates: Understanding an Predicting the Distribution and Type of Slope Reservoirs, January HGS Bulletin.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2005, Striving to Attain Formalized “Sequence Stratigraphic” Nirvana, 2005 Annual AAPG Meeting Abstract Volume, p.A36

  • Donovan, A.D., 2005, Escaping the Discontinuity-bounded Tower of Babel, 2005 GSA  Meeting Abstract Volume.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2004, Escaping the Tower of Babel: A Paradigm Shift from Disconformity-bounded Stratigraphic Units.  Keynote address at ICSN (International Committee Stratigraphic Nomenclature) Session at the International Geological Congress: Florence Italy

  • Donovan, A.D., 2003, Clinoform Control on Submarine Fan Development within Depositional Sequences, 2003 GSA Annual Meeting Program.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2003, Depositional Topography and Sequence Development, in H.H. Roberts, and others (eds), 23rd Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Research Conference: Shelf Margin Deltas and Linked Down Slope Petroleum Systems, p. 493-522.

  • Donovan, A.D., J.M. Casey, D.I. Sanabria, D.K. Willis, and D.A. Stauber, 2003, Composite Sequences, Seismic Facies, and Reservoir Distributions in the Diana-Hoover Basin, 2003 AAPG Annual Convention Official Program p. A43.

  • Sanabria, D.I., L.M. Smith, W.H. Crane, A.D. Donovan, D.K. Willis, T.Matava, J.C. Turner, K. Meisling, B.A. Lanan,  J.W. Thompson, L.K. Antrin, & T. Birch, 2003, Integrated Analysis of the Mars-Ursa Basin: Deep-water Gulf of Mexico, 2003 AAPG Annual Convention Official Program p. A151.

  • Westergaard, E.H., P.F. Cherveny, R.L. Eastwood,  J.J. Hickey,  A.D. Donovan, S. Lowe, F.A. Paskvan, G. Bolger, J. Sneider, B. Henk, F.O. Rollins, J. Chiemlowski, G.T. Molinero, M. Panda, M. Wong, and B. Burns, 2002, Aurora Borealis: Shining Light on Two New North Slope Alaska Satellite Fields: in AAPG Annual Convention, Annual Meeting Abstracts American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 2002, p. A188.

  • Patterson, P.A., T.A. Jones, C. Donofrio, A. D. Donovan, J. Ottmann, 2002, Geologic Modeling of External and Internal Reservoir Architecture of Fluvial Depositional Systems: in Geostatistics Rio 2000; in M. Armstrong and others, (editors), p.41-52.

  • Weimer, P, M. Sweet, M. Sullivan, J. Kendrick, D. Pyles, and A.D. Donovan (editors), 2002, Deep-water Core Workshop, Northern Gulf of Mexico: Gulf Coast Section SEPM Volume, 92p. (CD)

  • Donovan, A.D., C. A. Yeilding, and M.J. Mayall, 2001, Deep-water Facies Models, An overview: GSA Annual Meeting Program, p. A35.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2001, Physiographic Controls on Basin-Floor-Fan Development: Keynote Address of the Proceedings of FOSI 2nd Regional Seminar: Deep-water Sedimentation of Southeast Asia, Program Abstracts p. 8.

  • Donovan, A.D., 2001, Free Market Theory and Sequence Stratigraphy; in Abstracts  AAPG Hedberg Research Conference: Disconformity-bounded Units.

  • Stefaniak, A., J. Eckert, D. Buffington, A.D. Donovan, & T.M. Demko, 2001, Redevelopment of El Paistle Deep Field, Kenedy County, Texas: AAPG Bulletin, v. 85, #13, Supplement

  • Donovan, A.D., 2000, Topographic-keyed Sequence Models: Explaining and Predicting the Development of Basin-floor (Lowstand) fans within Sequences (abstract): in AAPG Annual Convention, Annual Meeting Abstracts - American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 2000.

  • P.E. Patterson, T.A. Jones, A. D. Donovan, C. Donofrio, J. Ottmann, 2000, Geologic Modeling of External and Internal Reservoir Architecture of Fluvial Depositional Systems; International Geological Congress Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Congress Program, p49.

  • P.E. Patterson, T.A. Jones, C. Donofrio, A. D. Donovan, J. Ottmann, 2000, Geologic Modeling of External and Internal Reservoir Architecture of Fluvial Depositional Systems; in Abstracts AAPG Hedberg Research Conference; Applied Reservoir Characterization Using Geostatistics.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1999, Depositional Topography and Sequence Stratigraphy (abstract): in AAPG Annual Convention, Annual Meeting Abstracts - American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 1999, p. A32.

  • Donovan, A.D., D.J. Bouquet, P.E. Walker, L.M. Dobson, and M.D. Sullivan, 1996, Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis of the Kuparuk River Field: Implications for Kemik Exploration on the North Slope of Alaska: in  Annual Meeting Abstracts- American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 5, p.37.

  • Donovan, A.D., J.O. Byrd, J.C. Warrner, G.J. Nolet, & K.A. Knabe, 1996, Insights into the Origins of First- and Second-order Depositional Sequences in the North Slope of Alaska: in  Annual Meeting Abstracts- American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 5, p.37.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1995, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Muddy Formation: Hilight Field, Powder River Basin, Wyoming: USA: in  Sequence Stratigraphy of Foreland Basin Deposits Outcrop and Subsurface Examples from the Cretaceous of North America, in  J.C. Van Wagoner and G.T. Bertram, (editors), AAPG Memoir 64, p. 395-428.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1994, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Muddy Formation at Hilight Field: Powder River Basin, Wyoming (abstract): in AAPG Annual Convention, Annual Meeting Abstracts - American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 1994, p. 138.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1994, Lithostratigraphy vs. Sequence Stratigraphy (abstract): in  AAPG Annual Convention, Annual Meeting Abstracts - American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 1994, p. 138.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1993, The Use of Sequence Stratigraphy to Gain New Insights into Stratigraphic Relationships in the Upper Cretaceous of the US Gulf Coast: in Sequence Stratigraphy and Facies Associations (Henry W. Posamentier, et al, editors), Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists, 18,  p. 563-577.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1993, Sequence Stratigraphic Control on Middle and Upper Jurassic Reservoir Distribution within the UK Central North Sea: in   Petroleum Gelolgy of Northwest Europe (J.R. Parker, editor), Proceedings of the 4th Conference, p. 241-269.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1991, Sequence Stratigraphy: New Frontiers in Facies Analysis from the Basin to Reservoir Scale (abstract): London Geological Society, Exploration Britain - Into the Next Decade, Programme and Abstracts p 5.

  • Donovan, A.D. & K.M. Campion, 1991, Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis: Field Excursion Guidebook to the Middle and Upper Eocene of the Hampshire Basin, England: Geological Society of London Conference Exploration Britain into the Next Decade, 43p.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1991, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Muddy Sandstone: Powder River Basin, Wyoming (abstract): 1991 NUNA Conference on High Resolution Sequence Stratigraphy, Program/ Proceedings / Guidebook, p. 11.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1990, The Use of Sequence Stratigraphy to Resolve Lithostratigraphic and Biostratigraphic Anomalies in the Rock Record: A Case Study (abstract): in Sediments 1990 -13th International Sedimentological Congress, Nottingham England, Abstracts of Papers, p. 136.

  • Donovan, A.D., C. R. Jones, and D.P. Curtin, 1990, Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis of the Late Kimmerigian Unconformity in the Central North Sea (abstract), Sediments 1990 -13th International Sedimentological Congress, Nottingham England, Abstracts of Papers, p. 136.

  • Donovan, A.D., T.S. Loutit, and S.M. Greenlee, 1990, Looking at the Forest as well as the Trees: The Sequence Stratigraphic Setting of the K-T Boundary in the Southern United States (abstract): in The Geological Society of America, 1990 Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs - Geological of America 22 (7), p. 279.

  • Donovan, A.D., G. R. Baum, G.L. Blechschmidt, T.S. Loutit, C.E. Pflume, and P.R. Vail, 1988, Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in Central Alabama; in Sea-Level Changes - An Integrated Approach (C. K. Wilgus, et al, editors) , SEPM Special Publication #42, p. 299-307.

  • Vail, P.R., G.R. Baum, T.S. Loutit, T.S., A.D. Donovan, E.A. Mancini, and B.H. Tew, 1987, Sequence Stratigraphy of the Uppermost Cretaceous and Paleogene of the Alabama/Western Georgia Coastal Plain: 1987 Field Trip Guidebook for the Lafayette Geological Society.

  • Donovan, A.D. and P.R. Vail, 1986, Sequence Stratigraphy of the K-T Boundary in Central Alabama: A Noncatastrophic alternative (abstract): in Geological Society of America, 99th Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, p. 587

  • Reinhardt, Juergen, and A.D. Donovan, 1986, Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Cretaceous Continental and Nearshore Sediments in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain: in  Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of Continental, Nearshore, and Marine Cretaceous Sediments of the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain (Juergen Reinhardt, editor), Guidebook Fieldtrip #3, 1986 AAPG National Meeting Atlanta, Georgia, p. 3-9.

  • Reinhardt, Juergen, and A. D. Donovan, 1986, Road Log:  in   Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of Continental, Nearshore, and Marine Cretaceous Sediments of the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain (Juergen Reinhardt, editor), Guidebook Fieldtrip #3, 1986 AAPG National Meeting Atlanta, Georgia, p. 72-91.

  • Donovan, A.D. & Juergen Reinhardt, 1986, Providence Canyons: The Grand Canyon of Southwest Georgia: in   Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America: Centennial field guide # 6 (T. L. Neathery, editor), p. 359-362.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1986, Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the Providence Formation: in Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of Continental, Nearshore, and Marine Cretaceous Sediments of the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain (Juergen Reinhardt, editor): Guidebook Fieldtrip #3, 1986 AAPG National Meeting Atlanta, Georgia, p. 29-44.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1985, Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the Upper Cretaceous Providence Formation (Western Georgia and Eastern Alabama): Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, 236p.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1984, Middle Maestrichtian marginal-marine and shelf deposits of the eastern Gulf of Mexico (abstract): in SEPM First Annual Midyear Meeting Abstracts, p. 26.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1984, Stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous Providence Sand, in The Geological Society of America, Southeastern Section, 33rd Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 16 (3), p.134.

  • Donovan, A.D. and J. Reinhardt, 1981, Middle Cretaceous and Younger Continental to Marine Sediments in the Coastal Plain of western Georgia, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper P 1275, p.64-65.

  • Donovan, A.D. and Juergen Reinhardt, 1980, Accelerated Erosion (1820-1980) in the (Upper Cretaceous) Providence Sand: western Georgia Coastal Plain: in The Geological Society of America, 93rd Annual Meeting, Abstract with Programs, p. 415.

  • Donovan, A.D., 1980, Depositional Environments of the (Upper Cretaceous) Providence Sand: Western Georgia Coastal Plain: in Geological Society of America, 93rd Annual Meeting, Abstract with Programs, p. 415.