Geology & Geophysics Archives - Page 13 of 19

Geology & Geophysics

Field trips and software don’t mix very well – or do they?

“It was a new thing to us,” says Lilly Walker from RFD when we meet on what is her Wednesday afternoon in Perth, Australia. Lilly is a geologist and joined RFD’s Australia team a little more than a year ago.…

Henk Kombrink

September 4, 2026

The inconvenient truth about pore pressure prediction in unconventional plays

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 basins, the industry has learned a hard truth: Unconventional basins…

Subsurface Alliance

August 14, 2026

What else is hiding in your reservoir brine?

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 by-product. It is the most mobile part of the system,…

István Nagy-Korodi, Consulting Geologist

July 31, 2026

The class of ’71

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 feel classic, it feels like heritage, it feels good. The…

Juan Cottier, MMbbls Subsurface Consulting

July 24, 2026

Seismic reflections – lithological boundaries or timelines?

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 the seismic energy bounces back, creating a reflection. Because different…

Henk Kombrink

July 23, 2026

Beyond turbidites: Core insights from the Rovuma Basin

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 Paleogene East African Rift System drove substantial sediment supply, feeding…

Corneliu Cosovanu, Core Laboratories

July 17, 2026

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

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 in the Wadi Nukhul region on the east coast of…

Ian Sharp, Equinor

July 13, 2026

The rebellious proto-Riedel shear zones

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 displacement zone (PDZ), sharing the same sense of slip. This…

Molly Turko, Devon Energy

June 25, 2026

Mid Atlantic ocean floor at outcrop

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 (MSGBC) Basin is exposed, providing a unique opportunity to study…

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

June 19, 2026

What’s hidden in your reservoir brine?

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. Vast volumes of saline fluids accompany hydrocarbon production, typically treated…

István Nagy-Korodi, Consulting Geologist

June 16, 2026

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

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 assessments may overestimate predicted oil volumes, thereby creating unrealistic expectations…

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

June 15, 2026

The very first core cut in the UK North Sea

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 Marine Mr Cap Barge was about to spud a well…

Henk Kombrink

June 8, 2026

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective