Issue 2

Vol. 10

This edition of GEO ExPro Magazine focuses on Australia and North America

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Update

14 Market Update

16 Licensing Opportunities

18 A Minute to Read

42 GEO ExPro Profile: Webster Mohriak – Mr Conjugate Margin

68 History of Oil: Exploration in Yemen

80 GEO Tourism: Scenic Geology of the Icefields Parkway

88 Recent Advances in Technology: Exorcizing Ghosts

92 GEO Cities: Port Moresby

94 Exploration Update

96 GEO Media: A Geology of Australia

98 Q&A 100 Hot Spot

102 Global Resource Management

Features

22 Cover Story: Unleashing the Mad Dog

28 Exploration: Beneath the Labrador Sea

32 Exploration: Ireland’s Porcupine Basin

36 Seismic Foldout: Zeus and Zeebries, Australia’s Carnarvon Basin

46 Reservoir Management: A Simple Guide to Seismic Inversion

52 Technology Explained: From Core to Pore

56 Exploration: New Deepwater Frontiers an Ocean Apart

64 Geophysics: 60 Years of Innovation

74 Seismic Foldout: Recorded Broadband Seismic

Articles

Scenic Geology of the Icefields Parkway

Geological setting The Canadian Rocky Mountains rise majestically from the interior plains of Alberta. Let’s ponder the general geological setting of Canada. In a nutshell, where the central craton of Read More

Shaping a Nation: A Geology of Australia

Shaping a Nation: A Geology of Australia. Geoscience Australia, 2012, Richard Blewitt, Chief Editor, 571 pages Australia’s defining moment came 34 million years ago when the continent rifted from Gondwana. Read More

New Deepwater Frontiers an Ocean Apart

The South Atlantic Equatorial Margin represents new, deepwater exploration frontiers. The 2007 Tullow Oil discovery of the Jubilee Field off the West African margin, located 60 km offshore Ghana in Read More

Broadband Seismic Technology and Beyond, Part II: Exorcizing Seismic Ghosts

“I wouldn’t describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that – the ghosts you chase you never catch“ John Malkovich (1953– ) American actor, producer and Read More

Mr. Conjugate Margin

Webster was working in a bank in São Paulo, Brazil, at the age of 16 where he enjoyed writing international reports for the bank manager. The manager’s secretary translated German Read More

Ireland’s Porcupine Basin: The Dream Comes Closer

Over the years estimates of hydrocarbon resources in Irish waters have ranged from 10 Bboe to 50 Bboe, but at present little exploration work exists to substantiate either figure. Indeed, Read More

Zeus and Zeebries

Zeus and Zeebries: Significant exploration insights High-quality 3D data could provide new exploration opportunities in this highly prospective part of the Northern Carnarvon Basin, where underexplored areas exist within close Read More

Iceland Exploration Revived

Iceland is currently not producing oil or gas. However, the very first oil and gas offshore licensing round of some 40,000 km2 on the Jan Mayen Ridge, which lies between Norway Read More

Demand and Salaries Rising

With the geosciences and subsurface industry constantly growing with further exploration and development worldwide, the demand for skilled technical subsurface professionals has increased. Over the last 12 months permanent salaries Read More

South Australia’s Unconventional Resource

Once regarded as something that would happen in the future, recent exploration results achieved in the South Australian Cooper Basin by companies like Santos, Beach Energy, Origin Energy and Senex Read More

Beneath the Labrador Sea

First oil was produced on the Grand Banks in 1997 from the Hibernia Field and since then the world-class oil-producing fields Terra Nova, White Rose and North Amethyst have come Read More

Unleashing the True Potential of the Mad Dog Oil Field

Mapping on a 1996 vintage 3D seismic survey over the southern Green Canyon area of the Central Gulf of Mexico revealed a broad, simple, anticlinal high. Reflectivity was very poor Read More

Challenges ahead for Venezuela

Oil prices did not react sharply to the news that Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez passed away in March after 14 years in office. Now an election will be held within Read More

Geophysics: A Simple Guide to Seismic Inversion

Seismic inversion is essentially a very simple procedure. In a seismic inversion the original reflectivity data, as typically recorded routinely, is converted from an interface property (i.e. a reflection) to Read More

Port Moresby: Colorful but Troubled

Despite having a dangerous reputation, Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, is expanding fast, principally as a result of a major LNG project. Repeatedly finding itself in the Read More

From Core to Pore

From the early days of hydrocarbon exploration, right up to the present day, the ‘traditional’ method of finding the geological or stratigraphic position of a well while drilling has been Read More

A World of Plenty

Shale gas resources are potentially huge, but so far only the US that has taken advantage of this low permeability reservoir rock. Shale gas has rejuvenated the natural gas industry Read More

Oil Exploration in Yemen

“It is melancholy to find this interesting coast, which in former times was probably fertile and prosperous, now almost entirely desolate and the few inhabitants that remain nearly always at Read More

60 Years of Innovation

Romania is one of the oldest hydrocarbon-producing countries in the world, with initial production recorded in 1858. At one time it was the largest petroleum producer in Eastern Europe but Read More

First success for Sonatrach in Libya – Exploration update

LIBYA: First Success for Sonatrach Sonatrach’s first well on what is highly prospective acreage has been completed as an oil and gas discovery. Wildcat A1-96/1 is in Area 96 in Read More

Recorded broadband 3D: Improving reservoir understanding and characterization with recorded broadband seismic

To see the full seismic lines please download our PDF for the print issue available through this link: GEO ExPro Vol. 10 No. 2 Extracting more than mere frequencies Recorded broadband Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective