Geology & Geophysics Archives

Geology & Geophysics

The inconvenient truth about pore pressure prediction in unconventional plays

Subsurface Alliance

August 14, 2026

Pore pressure prediction has always been central to safe drilling and well planning. But in the last two decades, during which thousands of wells have been drilled across US unconventional…

What else is hiding in your reservoir brine?

István Nagy-Korodi, Consulting Geologist

July 31, 2026

In oil and gas, water is usually treated as a liability – something to manage, re-inject, or dispose of. But from a geological perspective, produced water is not just a…

The class of ’71

Juan Cottier, MMbbls Subsurface Consulting

July 24, 2026

I am working on a Brent Province project at the moment. It’s the appraisal of a significant discovery. The Brent is classic petroleum geology – and this project really does…

Seismic reflections – lithological boundaries or timelines?

Henk Kombrink

July 23, 2026

In basic terms, acoustic impedance is a measure of how resistant a material is to sound waves passing through it. When that resistance changes across a lithological boundary, some of…

Beyond turbidites: Core insights from the Rovuma Basin

Corneliu Cosovanu, Core Laboratories

July 17, 2026

The Rovuma Basin evolved from Early Jurassic rifting into a passive margin by the Mid-Cretaceous, followed by significant clastic infill through the Cretaceous and Tertiary. Uplift associated with the early…

Wadi Nukhul – a glimpse of the Red Sea-Gulf of Suez rift system

Ian Sharp, Equinor

July 13, 2026

During the Oligocene and Miocene, a 2,000 km long zone of extension developed that formed the Red Sea-Gulf of Suez rift system. In this outcrop photo, we are looking south…

The rebellious proto-Riedel shear zones

Molly Turko, Devon Energy

June 25, 2026

Classic Riedel shears are the first subsidiary fractures that form prior to breakthrough of a master fault. They appear as low-angle (~15°) en echelon arrays oriented synthetically to the principal…

Mid Atlantic ocean floor at outcrop

Simon Schneider, CASP and Colm S. Pierce, University College Dublin

June 19, 2026

The island of Maio, Cabo Verde, 600 km the west of Senegal, is the only place where Cretaceous mid-ocean floor of the distal Mauritania – Senegal – Guinea Bissau – Conakry…

What’s hidden in your reservoir brine?

István Nagy-Korodi, Consulting Geologist

June 16, 2026

For more than a century, petroleum exploration has focused on hydrocarbons. Yet, sooner or later, every producing oil and gas field also brings something else to the surface: Formation water.…

The tricky part of resource assessments within gas-dominated basins or petroleum systems

Lukasz Krawczynski, Top Down Petroleum Systems Analysis and Martin Neumaier, ArianeLogiX

June 15, 2026

When conducting prospect resource assessments within gas-dominated basins, there is a low likelihood of oil or mixed-phase accumulations being filled to spill. If this is not properly considered, prospect resource…

The very first core cut in the UK North Sea

Henk Kombrink

June 8, 2026

It is boxing day 1964, a day most people in the countries around the North Sea don’t think about spending a day at sea. Yet, the crew of the Global…

What are we risking and why is it important?

Jan de Jager

May 21, 2026

Risk is about the chance of finding producible hydrocarbons; uncertainty is about the volume of hydrocarbons that may be found in the case of success. The geological Probability of Success…

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective