Issue 5

Vol. 13

This edition of GEO ExPro magazine focuses on Africa, North West Europe and the North Atlantic, and EOR.

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Market Update

8 Regional Update

10 Licensing Update

12 Technology Update: EOR in Sudan

14 A Minute to Read

38 GEO Profile: Paul Dailly

54 GEO Tourism: Greenland – A World of Drifting Ice

70 GEO Physics: Taking the Plunge

78 GEO City: Doha – the Pearl of Qatar

80 Exploration Update

82 Q&A: Promoting the UKCS

84 Global Resource Management

Features

20 Seismic Foldout: Priority Onboard

26 Cover Story – Exploration: The ‘Gatwick Gusher’ – Fact or Fiction?

30 History of Oil: The Yanks are Coming

34 Exploration: Exploring Rockall – A Renaissance or a Dark Age?

42 Seismic Foldout: Finding More Gaveas in the Campos Basin

48 Exploration: Unlocking the UK North Sea’s Hidden Wealth

58 Geology: Was the Mozambique Channel Scattered with Islands?

64 Seismic Foldout: The Namibe Basin – a Clearer Image

74 Recent Advances in Technology: Codes and Ciphers II

Articles

Mapping the Seafloor

GEBCO plans a comprehensive mapping of the entire ocean floor. It has been said that our present world view and comprehension of the Earth’s processes is a direct result of Read More

Exploring Rockall

A Renaissance or a Dark Age? The increasing maturity of the North Sea is forcing explorers west, towards the frontier Northern Atlantic Margin in search of the next oil province. Read More

The ‘Gatwick Gusher’ – Fact or Fiction?

The Horse Hill discovery in England lies in an area considered rich in hydrocarbons but which has been ignored for decades. With the help of geologist Chris Pullan we look Read More

The Namibe Basin: a clearer Image

The Namibe Basin Compelling seismic evidence for a significant unexploited hydrocarbon province located offshore southern Angola. The Namibe Basin represents a significant unexploited hydrocarbon province located offshore southern Angola (Figure Read More

Exploration Update – USA

Mississippi Canyon Discovery On 28 July 2016, Shell announced that it had made a hydrocarbon discovery with the Fort Sumter discovery well (G08831 1), situated in the 23 km2 Mississippi Read More

Was the Mozambique Channel Once Scattered with Islands?

The geological history of the Davie Ridge tells us how tectonic, erosional and climatic forces shaped this part of the earth, pushing the mountains of west Madagascar, which once abutted Read More

Codes and Ciphers – PART II

Guest Contributors: Johan O. A. Robertsson and Dirk-Jan Van Manen (ETH Zurich, Institute of Geophysics). Editors: Lasse Amundsen and Martin Landrø. Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and Read More

Exploration Update – Angola

Another Pre-Salt Find Since the Cameia discovery in 2012 confirmed the presence of an expansive pre-salt hydrocarbon reservoir in the deepwater offshore Angola, there has been a continuing flow of Read More

Activity Picking Up in 2017

The sanctioning of new projects is expected to pick up in the North Atlantic Between 2010 and 2014 activity on the North Atlantic region was at an all-time high, reaching Read More

Finding More Gaveas in the Campos Basin and Beyond the Salt Domes…

A complete regional picture First exploration efforts in the Campos Basin began in 1968. The giant Albacora and Marlim fields were found in the mid-1980s and by 2003, 41 oil Read More

Promoting the UKCS

The UK Oil and Gas Authority was recently set up as the regulator for both onshore and offshore oil and gas operations in the United Kingdom. Director of Exploration, Production Read More

Bucking the Trend

Exploration discoveries are at their lowest ebb for 70 years but one continent seems to be bucking the trend. Since 2015, nine of the biggest global discoveries have been in Read More

Taking the Plunge: How nodes can navigate ocean bottom seismic into the mainstream

Norwegian start-up company inApril explain why they took the plunge into the ocean bottom seismic market. It is sometimes said that it took nearly 30 years for towed-streamer 3D marine Read More

Licensing Update – Faroes

During the 5th Faroe Islands Exploration Conference, which will be held on 17 May 2017, the Faroese Minister of Industry and Trade will announce the opening of the 4th Faroese Read More

Licensing Update – Israel

First Round Announced A string of recent giant gas discoveries in Israeli, Egyptian and Cypriot waters in the Eastern Mediterranean have heightened interest in this previously relatively overlooked area. Encouraged Read More

Unlocking the UK North Sea’s Hidden Wealth

What are the keys to revealing the remaining potential of the UK Lower Cretaceous? The current very low level of exploration drilling in the UK North Sea should not signal Read More

London Pavement Geology

A new website and smartphone App for geologists brings the pavements and buildings of London to life. A wealth of high quality rock samples of all types can be seen Read More

A World of Drifting Ice

Ilulissat Icefjord in western Greenland offers a unique view of a scenic landscape that demonstrates active glaciological processes, where majestic icebergs calve into the fjord and out to sea. A Read More

Some Basic Facts

Oil is still no. 1, but renewables are picking up fast – very fast. Global energy consumption grew by only 1.0% in 2015. This is in line with 2014 (1.1%), Read More

Fundamentals of Reservoir Understanding

An industry tendency to resort to overly complicated modelling and simulation software is being challenged in the existing low oil-price environment. Some are now utilising low-cost solutions, highlighting the fundamentals Read More

Searching for Overlooked and Underexplored Frontiers

As a founding partner of Kosmos Energy, Paul Dailly has been involved in some of the most exciting and significant discoveries of recent years. He tells us the story behind Read More

Doha – The Pearl of Qatar

Over the last 70 years, Doha has risen from the sands of the desert to become a major, glamorous regional power. Qatar is a peninsula 160 km long and up Read More

EOR, Local Skills Development and Sustainability

Multidisciplinary interaction and local skills development proved critical when analysing scenarios for advanced chemical EOR in a Sudanese field, thus enabling future sustainability for the vital Sudanese petroleum industry. Following Read More

Optimists and Pessimists

Experts are divided when predicting the oil market As Jarand Rystad of Rystad Energy recently pointed out, several important questions face the industry: when will the oil market rebalance? What Read More

The Yanks Are Coming

As Britain fought for its survival during World War II, a team of American oil drillers found themselves on their way across the Atlantic to help the war effort. They Read More

Exploration Update – Algeria

Algeria: Triassic Discovery During early June 2016, Sonatrach made an oil and gas discovery in Algeria with its Oued Noumer Sud 1 (ONRS 1) new field wildcat. The discovery is Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective