Issue 5

Vol. 11

This edition of GEO ExPro Magazine focuses on North West Europe, Africa, Modelling and Mapping

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Market Update

8 Update

14 Licensing Opportunities

16 A Minute to Read

20 GEO Tourism: Sun, Sea and Sarakiniko

68 Recent Advances in Technology: Broadband XI – Which Technology?

72 What I Do: The Operations Geologist

86 GEO Profile: Ben Asante – Riding the Wave

92 History of Oil: Geologists at War

98 GEO Media: Maps for Understanding the Earth

102 Exploration Update

104 GEO Media: Lebanon – A Beautiful Country

106 Hot Spot: Mexico – Ronda Uno

108 Global Resource Management

Features

26 Exploration: The East African Rift System

32 Technology Explained: Inside the Rock

36 Seismic Foldout: Guinea-Bissau – New Insights

42 Reservoir Management: The Quantification of Uncertainty

46 Exploration: Whale Hunters Seek Elephants

50 Technology Explained: Modelling – The Power of Movement

54 Exploration: The Deepwater Niger Delta

58 Seismic Foldout: Sergipe Basin – DHIs from AVOs

64 Exploration: The South Eastern Barents Sea

74 Exploration: Western Tanzania – The Lake Rukwa and Lake Nyasa Rifts

80 Seismic Foldout: Towed Streamer EM for Success

Articles

Australia: Santos Building Reserves

Although not tested, Santos has claimed its Lasseter 1 wildcat in WA-274-P in the Browse Basin off Western Australia as a significant gas/condensate discovery. The well, located in 404m of water, was targeting Read More

Argentina: Significant Reserves Below Las Mesetas

YPF has made what it describes as the largest conventional gas/condensate discovery in the province of Santa Cruz in the last 20 years by drilling beneath already mature formations in Read More

Malaysia: Second Deepwater Gas Find

For the second time in 2014 Shell has confirmed a deepwater gas discovery in Block SK318 offshore Sarawak, results that are seen as very positive indicators for the gas potential of the area. The Read More

A Beautiful Country – The Geology of Lebanon

This book is in large format, making it suitable for presenting text along with photos and maps. The list of contents includes eight chapters, references, index and author’s biography, but lacks a list of figures. Read More

The Quantification of Uncertainty in Reservoir Management

New developments in history matching improve uncertainty quantification and risk assessment in reservoir management. Improving the analysis of risk in field management is the Holy Grail of reservoir modelling and in Read More

Making an Educated Guess

An online game shows that using input from a knowledgeable crowd can lead to better decisions. In a recent experiment, university students and oil industry staff, including non-explorationists, tried to predict whether exploration Read More

Sergipe Basin, Brazil: DHIs from calibrated AVO stacks

AVO signatures help identify hydrocarbons In the relatively mature Sergipe Basin, AVO anomalies can be used to highlight prospective anomalies and eliminate leads and prospects without such indicators. The Sergipe Read More

Scotland Decides

The issue of Scottish independence has divided a nation – and worried an industry. Since oil was first discovered in the cold, stormy waters of the UK North Sea, people in Read More

Broadband Seismic Technology and Beyond PART XI: Which Technology to Choose?

Using the Utsira High as a field laboratory for broadband testing. The answer, my friend, is hiding in the waves, the answer is hiding in the waves (with apologies to Bob Dylan, and thanks to Read More

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 Read More

The Power of Movement

Kinematic modelling and analysis unlock many secrets of geological systems, providing a structurally valid framework for further analysis and risk assessment, ultimately reducing uncertainty in hydrocarbon exploration and production. Timing Read More

The Search for Oil in the South-Eastern Barents Sea

Broadband imaging improves the understanding of a prospective area on the Finnmark platform. For more than 40 years Russia and Norway were in dispute over a 175,000 km2 area in the Read More

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 Read More

Inside the Rock

For the first time, geoscientists can produce 3D images of rock features at a wide range of scales – from millimetre through micron and down to nanometre size – and Read More

The Deepwater Niger Delta: An Underexplored World-Class Petroleum Province.

Regional, deep-penetrating 2D seismic data is imaging new petroleum potential in this prolific province. The Niger Delta system (Figure 1) is one of the world’s largest Tertiary deltas and one of Read More

The PESGB Celebrates Its 50th Birthday

Formed just as the first discoveries were being made in the North Sea, the Petroleum Society of Great Britain’s mission is to promote, for the public benefit, education in the Read More

Geologists at War

2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of World War One. The Great War, as it was generally referred to in Europe, heralded a major shift in political power across Read More

Maps for Understanding the Earth.

Set up over 100 years ago, the Commission for the Geological Map of the World has been an important factor in the drive for standardisation in geological mapping and nomenclature. Read More

Khanty Mansiysk: Oil, Sport and Woolly Rhinos

Khanty Mansiysk may be a very long way from anywhere, but it is a rapidly developing city with a growing cultural and sporting reputation. Khanty Mansiysk lies seemingly in the Read More

A 25-year anniversary

The Valdez spill was the largest ever in US waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident. A massive clean-up effort was instigated immediately, with more than 11,000 Alaskan residents involved. While the Read More

Sun, Sea, and Sarakiniko

The volcanic island of Milos is a horseshoeshaped gem rising out of the azure waters of the Aegean Sea, where the geological tourist will never be bored.

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 Read More

What is Putin’s plan?

How on earth did this happen? How, in less than a year, did East and West get themselves back to a state of cold war? Last winter there were mass demonstrations Read More

Ronda Uno

Mexico’s first exploration licensing round is a landmark event in the history of oil exploration in Latin America Mexico’s oil industry is opening up to the private sector after a 76-year Read More

Transport the Last Stronghold

Oil demand growth is expected to pick up, but only slowly. There is a considerable risk in oil price forecasting as the oil price outlook for 2015-16 will be clouded Read More

Ben Asante: Riding the Wave

Benjamin Asante, until recently a senior geoscientist at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, has ridden the wave of Ghana’s national development. Although his story is full of significant and unusual Read More

Towed Streamer EM for Success

See the ‘Big Picture’ and the ‘Details’. Using a towed streamer EM system makes it possible to use the same data to determine resistivity on a scale of a few Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective