Issue 3

Vol. 18

This issue of GEO ExPro focuses on Europe; Robotics and Automation; Unconventional Resources and the Energy Transition.

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Regional Update: Private Equity Firms Drive UK Oil and Gas Activity

8 Licensing Update: Angola’s ANPG Promotes Onshore Exploration

10 A Minute to Read

30 Energy Transition Update: A Difficult Transition

36 Hot Spot: Australia’s Beetaloo Shale Play – A Rival to the North American
Marcellus Play?

48 GEO Tourism: Dalmatia – Where Karst Meets Coast

52 History of Oil: The Winning of Romanian Oil

56 Exploration: The West of Shetland Petroleum System

60 Exploration: UK Onshore Palaeozoic

70 New Technology: Microbial Magic

78 Exploration Update

80 GEO Media: STRATA – William Smith’s
Geological Maps

82 Q&A: Susan Nash: Unconventionals in the US – What Next?

84 FlowBack: Making a Date with the Data

Features

14 Exploration: Unconventionals in
Mexico

20 Seismic Foldout: Multi-Azimuth
Dataset Delivers Accurate Lead
Characterisation, South Viking Graben,
Norway.

26 Cover Story: Wild Roving with Percy

32 Geophysics: Seabed Mineral
Exploration

38 New Technology: Robots on the
Seabed

42 Seismic Foldout: UK Continental Shelf –
An Evolution in 3D Seismic Imaging of
the Central North Sea

64 Seismic Foldout: What Does It Mean
When Bottom Simulating Reflectors
Are Black Swans?

74 Energy Transition: Geothermal Energy

Articles

Oil Discovery Offshore Guyana

ExxonMobil and partners Hess and CNOOC made another oil discovery offshore Guyana; encountering 36.7m of oil in Cretaceous sandstones in the Uaru-2 wildcat well on the prolific Stabroek Block. Map Read More

Geothermal Energy

A new frontier for energy – and petroleum geoscientists. Last year certainly brought us all unexpected challenges and perhaps some new opportunities. In my own career, the opportunity was a Read More

STRATA – William Smith’s Geological Maps

Created in collaboration with Oxford University Museum of Natural History and showcasing the best of William Smith’s archive, STRATA traces the life and work of William Smith from apprentice surveyor Read More

A Difficult Energy Transition

The transition to cleaner energy sources poses a challenge to many NOCs. A Difficult Energy Transition In the last edition of GEO ExPro, we discussed how the supermajor E&P companies Read More

Unconventional Formation Evaluation: Advanced Surface Logging Solutions

GEOLOG Surface Logging has developed solutions utilising mud gas and drill cuttings to deliver hydrocarbon and formation characterisation. Ongoing market pressure has led operators to focus on cost-control, seeking improved Read More

The Winning of Romanian Oil

Geopolitically important as an oil producer for a century, Romania remains one of Europe’s largest producers. Oil was first exploited commercially in Romania in 1857 and, since then, the industry Read More

Private Equity Firms Drive UK Oil and Gas Activity

Despite a drop in new exploration and appraisal drilling in the UK offshore sector, the industry remains very buoyant compared to other parts of the world. Since the first hydrocarbons Read More

Environmental Monitoring from Space

This year, Capterio launched their free-to-download flare-tracking application (FlareIntel), and CGG their new monitoring solution that provides sea surface slick intelligence data (SeaScope). Gas Flaring is coming under increasing scrutiny Read More

Seabed mineral exploration

Seabed mining is very much in the news today, following initiatives from the Norwegian authorities who are encouraging companies and organisations to develop technical solutions to help kick-start and service Read More

UK Onshore Palaeozoic

This article, from the second of our joint GEO ExPro student competition winners, focuses on overlooked onshore UK oil and gas prospectivity. A Rich History In 1851, wide seams of Read More

Unconventionals in the US: What Next?

Susan Nash, the Director of Innovation and Emerging Science/Technology at the AAPG talks about how US unconventionals are adapting to a transitioning world Susan Nash, Director of Innovation and Emerging Read More

What does it mean when bottom simulators are black swans?

Bottom simulating reflectors in global frontier hydrocarbon exploration Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance consisting of methane and water, that is stable at low temperature and under high pressure. Read More

Ocean Bottom Seismic: Robots on the Seabed

Will automation in ocean bottom seismic revolutionise operations and cut costs? It is generally accepted within the seismic acquisition industry that seabed seismic receivers deliver superior seismic data and consequently Read More

Geomicrobial Exploration

Microbial magic: how medical DNA fingerprinting can de-risk hydrocarbon exploration and production. Geomicrobial exploration is a novel technique within geochemical exploration. It uses the same base principle of detecting a Read More

UK Continental Shelf: an evolution in 3D seismic imaging of the Central North Sea

Exploring the deeper potential of the Central North Sea With recent successes, such as the Glengorm and Isabella discoveries, the Central North Sea is proving that the deeper potential may Read More

The West of Shetland Petroleum System

While aspects of the geological evolution may still be complex, the distribution of phase (oil vs gas) is not and can be accounted for by the expected physical behaviour of Read More

Angola’s ANPG Promotes Onshore Exploration

In mid-April this year, Angola’s National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG) started a virtual and physical roadshow for its 2020/21 bid round. The acreage on offer comprises a total Read More

Australia’s Beetaloo shale play

The Beetaloo Basin has, until recent years, been underexplored, with explorers believing the Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic (1.0–1.7 billion years ago) sequences too old to support hydrocarbons. However, following successful drilling Read More

Extending the Highly Productive Gas Play in Sarawak, Offshore Malaysia

PTTEP announced in May its offshore Sirung-1 exploration well as an oil and gas discovery, intersecting a column of more than 100m in Miocene clastic reservoirs, in the shallow waters Read More

Establishing a Working Petroleum System in the Kavango Frontier, Onshore Namibia

With drilling, coring and logging operations now complete on ReconAfrica’s PEL 73 6-2 well, clear evidence of a working conventional petroleum system has been shown in the Kavango Basin, onshore Read More

Growth in Demand for ‘Energy Transition Minerals’ Drives Expansion for Xcalibur

At the end of June this year, Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics completed its acquisition of CGG Multiphysics businesses. The new combined group will be named XCalibur Multiphysics. At the end of Read More

Making a Date with the Data

Whether you’re trying to monetise climate risk or find new ways to extend the life of offshore oil and gas assets, getting access to usable data is a vital part Read More

GeoStreamer X delivers near-field multi-azimuth dataset for accurate lead characterisation, South Viking Graben, Norway

Multi-Azimuth, multisensor, quantitative interpretation case study: South Viking Graben, Norway GeoStreamer X is a broadband multi-azimuth acquisition and state-of-the-art depth-imaging solution. Here we demonstrate the suitability of the dataset for Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective