Oil & Gas

When fast gas becomes slow gas

Permian Rotliegend sandstones form one of northwest Europe’s most important gas reservoirs. Yet, despite decades of mature field production and apparently excellent reservoir properties, something has never quite added up. On paper, these reservoirs look excellent. Core measurements often show…

When precision becomes a trap

In exploration, we spend a great deal of effort making our interpretations more precise. We improve seismic imaging and refine horizon picks. We build increasingly detailed depth maps. We calculate probabilistic volumes and assign geological probabilities to reservoir, charge, trap…

The rise of the onshore

With most attention going to the big discoveries offshore Namibia, or what is shaping up in the Rovuma Basin, it’s easy to miss that onshore activity across Sub-Saharan Africa continues to gain momentum. In Uganda, Tilenga and Kingfisher remain on…

The core of Khorat

Surrounded by the Phetchabun and Annamitic foldbelts in Thailand and Laos / Vietnam respectively, sits the only mildly deformed Khorat Plateau. The region has seen a long history of exploration. Union Oil was the first company granted exploration rights on…

Contrasting fortunes in Sub Saharan Africa

Exploration is firmly back on the agenda for many oil and gas companies, regulators and NOCs. This is especially clear in Africa, where large tracts of open exploration acreage have been taken up. This is particularly the case in West…

The Faroese offshore is back on the exploration radar

After years of quiet, a bit of exciting news emerged from the Faroe Islands this week: Atlantic Petroleum, through a new company that is currently being set up, applied for an exploration licence in the Faroese offshore sector. The timing…

Chasing mud mounds

Core displays are one of my favourite features of geoscience conferences, and the one at the latest GeoConvention in Calgary in May again proved why. There, I met with Alisha Fridrich, who was already deeply engaged in a conversation about…

The next test for US shale capital

On 4 May, Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén (GyP) and Governor Rolando Figueroa launched Round 1/2026 at the OTC in Houston, opening 15 hydrocarbon blocks to national and international bidders. The round was formally enacted on 29 May through its…

Finding oil when everyone expects gas

“It took us a while before we could accept that we found oil,” says chairman Peter Putnam when we get to talk about the discovery his company Central European Petroleum (CEP) made in 2025. And there is a reason why…

Why USGS Yet-to-Find figures are an overestimation

One of the most common ways to estimate YTF is the extrapolation of discovery rates, as can be calculated from a creaming curve. However, this methodology does not have any guidance on discovery size – is it just a single…

Harmonising public data with ground truth

Public production data is the backbone of natural gas market analysis, yet it arrives with a structural delay that few participants fully appreciate. Across 18 producing sub-regions, encompassing the Marcellus, Utica, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, and Permian basins, analysis reveals a…