Political Geology in the Arctic
Geology has been used to argue for the rearrangement of maritime borders of states, often to the prejudice of geology as a science. This is especially true in the Arctic,…
Exploration
Prudhoe Bay and Beyond
A geologist’s career on the North Slope helped lead to the discovery of North America’s largest oil field and, later, his own geological find. Through the windows of the chemistry…
Offshore and Deepwater Challenges Remain
The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources opened the 2015 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round on 18 June 2014 advising that applications for Licensing Options are to…
The Great Australian Bight An Emerging Global Hotspot
Scale and ambition are accurate words to describe new oil exploration underway in the Great Australian Bight, but they do not quite do it justice. To get a real sense…
A New Oil Play in East Africa
Following the recent discoveries off Tanzania and Mozambique, a newly acquired 2D seismic data set (MAD13) which clearly illustrates the tectonic setting and prospectivity of offshore western Madagascar is set…
Mongolia. Potential in an Emerging Economy.
Mongolia’s oil and gas E&P sector has been characterized by, well, not very much – up until now. Mongolia emerged as an independent and fledgling democracy following the collapse of…
Western Tanzania: The Lake Rukwa and Lake Nyasa Rifts
Independent explorer Heritage Oil focuses on regions which may have been overlooked and where it can participate as an early entrant. We look at its exploration efforts in two blocks…
Like Everywhere You’ve Never Been
One of the last intact wildernesses left on earth, Papua New Guinea is experiencing an unprecedented resurgence of interest from the hydrocarbon industry. Is it possible to encourage the advances…
That’s Not a Very Prospective Basin…
Time was when industry interest in the MSGBC Basin was lukewarm to say the least: not any more. The recent world-class oil discoveries by Cairn-FAR-Conoco-Phillips offshore Senegal and by Kosmos…
The Deepwater Niger Delta: An Underexplored World-Class Petroleum Province
The Niger Delta system (Figure 1) is one of the world’s largest Tertiary deltas and one of its most prolific hydrocarbon systems, containing an estimated 68 Bboe and producing approximately 3 MMboe per…
Feelings Before Facts
Elephants hiding in East Africa? The discovery of hydrocarbons can be a wonderful bonus to a country, or a mixed blessing – or in some cases, the root of decades…
Exploration in the East African Rift System
Billions of barrels of oil have been discovered in the East African Rifts in recent years, but it remains highly underexplored with only two rifts partially explored so far. The…