Issue 1

This edition of GEO ExPro magazine focuses on North Africa, the Middle East, carbonate reservoirs and non-seismic geophysics.

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Market Update

8 Regional Update

10 GEO ExPro Update: Finding A&D Opportunities in the Fog

12 GEO ExPro Update: What Next for the Arctic?

14 A Minute to Read

38 Recent Advances in Technology: Supercomputers III – GPU-Accelerated Computing

46 GEO Tourism: The Atlantic Road – A Metamorphic Journey

56 GEO Profile: Susan Gourvenec – Australia on the Map

60 Exploration Update

62 GEO Media: Planet Oil

64 Q&A: The Next Generation of Petroleum Geoscientists

66 Global Resource Management

Features

18 Technology Explained: Drone Magic

22 Exploration: Carbonates Potential in the Mediterranean

28 Industry Issues: Hopes and Hazards After the Arab Spring

34 Technology Explained: The Digital Oilfield – Are We There Yet?

42 Exploration: New Opportunities Offshore West Egypt

50 Exploration: Iran After Sanctions – Opportunities and Risks

54 Reservoir Management: An Electrical Rock Physics Framework

Articles

The Atlantic Road A Metamorphic Journey

The Atlantic Road, one of the National Tourist Roads of Norway, offers great scenery all year around. ‘“I’ve never met a morph that I didn’t like,” I say, repeating a Read More

What Next for the Arctic?

Arctic waters hold vast undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves, but will they ever be exploited? Cheaper oil is for the moment driving people away from offshore Arctic exploration. Maybe this will give Read More

Tough Times Still Ahead

Six factors suggest the oil price will remain low in 2016. Oil prices fell markedly in December and still further in January, dropping below $30/barrel for a short time. The Read More

The Next Generation of Petroleum Geoscientists

Royal Holloway, University of London recently celebrated 30 years of their MSc course in Petroleum Geoscience. To mark the occasion, they hosted a 30 year Celebratory Symposium with speakers comprising Read More

Finding A&D Opportunities in the Fog

Global upstream exploration deal flow in a declining commodity price market. When assessing opportunities for successful acquisition and divestment of upstream assets, looking into the future can perhaps be compared Read More

Drone Magic

Photographs acquired through unmanned aerial vehicles are revolutionising digital outcrop models, allowing geoscientists unprecedented insight into subsurface reservoirs. “When developing an oil field or, for that matter, any subsurface resource, Read More

Mediterranean Carbonate Potential: Lessons from Existing Discoveries

The opening of new areas and the changing regional political and economic situation, together with innovative technologies, new seismic data and improved imaging, have revitalised exploration activity in the Central Read More

The Digital Oilfield Are We There Yet?

A complete and integrated workflow for reservoir and production management. The last few years have seen a growing focus on the digital oilfield and a future environment where operators integrate, Read More

How Much is ‘A Tiny Fraction’ 20 Years From Now?

The world’s use of energy will increase in years to come. There is plenty of oil to cover demand. However, the big question is if, and possibly at what rate, Read More

A Wind of Change?

A recent UN agreement aimed at countering anthropogenic climate change is predicted to have a major impact on the oil and gas industry. What, if anything, is being done to Read More

Supercomputers for Beginners – Part III. GPU-Accelerated Computing

Many TOP500 supercomputers today use both CPUs and GPUs to give the best of both worlds: GPU processing to perform mathematically intensive computations on very large data sets, and CPUs Read More

2015 Exploration Results: Eni Best in Class

Measuring success with the drill bit. Prior to official results, the speculation for 2015 was that discovered hydrocarbon volumes would continue their downward trend. The results now in show that Read More

New opportunities offshore West Egypt

The frontier exploration area offshore West Egypt (Figure 1) consists of several structural domains (Figure 2) including, from south to north, a comparatively narrow shelf zone; a west-south-west to east-north-east Read More

After the Arab Spring: Hopes and Hazards in North Africa

The outcomes of political upheaval and insecurity in North Africa will be felt in the wider region and beyond, with Europe in particular either contributing to the region’s prosperity or Read More

Australia on the Map

Through researching the carbonate deposits in her country’s back yard, a geotechnical engineer is pioneering industry advances on the seafloor. In the early stages of her career, geotechnical engineer Susan Read More

An Electrical Rock Physics Framework For CSEM Interpretation

A low-resolution rock physics framework relating CSEM-derived Rn measurements to reservoir properties can provide precise property estimates even in high-uncertainty settings. In the November 2015 issue of the AAPG Explorer, Read More

Planet Oil

The BBC continues its mission of energy education with good results. The public needs to understand energy, where it comes from and where it goes. That is becoming increasingly obvious Read More

Iran After Sanctions: Opportunities and Risks

Iran provides a significant opportunity to access low cost production for the right companies. In response to the removal of sanctions, we take a look at the opportunities and challenges, Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective