Issue 6

Central themes in this issue are innovation and the simple observations this requires, the geology of the Suriname-Guyana Basin, and the many aspects of step-out wells. And as always, we also bring you the latest on geothermal, CCS and Deep Sea Minerals, all illustrated with maps and cross-sections to set the scene.

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Columns

3 – Editors page

5 – A minute to read

12 – Contents

14 – Regional update – Timor Leste

16 – Striking Gas – Ghawar

90 – Hot Spot – Malayasia

92 – GEO EXPRO Volume 20

93 – Faults and Fractures

94 – Nothing beats the field

96 – Vertical geology

Features

18 – The world of step-out wells

24 – The Big Buzz of Buzzard II

31 – Northwest Europe

36 – Have bottom currents defined the Golden Lane and determined updip prospectivity?

38 – Why it is not a slam dunk to ramp up gas production in Bolivia

41 – A unique well at a unique time

44 – Seismic velocity – A strong identifier of gas prospects

48 – Shaking up the Earth: The AI revolution in seismic interpretation

50 – Santos Basin, Brazil: Understanding the CO2 exploration risk with ultradeep seismic

56 – Portraits and Interviews – Guy Wheater

62 – Geothermal energy

68 – Quad 35 Hybrid MC3Ds: Innovative multi-parameter FWI for near field exploration

74 – Subsurface storage

80 – Technology

84 – Deep Sea minerals

Articles

Full circle

“I was still a student in the US when the GEO EXPRO magazine was launched at the EAGE Annual Convention in Paris in 2004”, says Ingvild Ryggen Carstens. “The year Read More

Unlocking Permian and Carboniferous petroleum systems of the Southern North Sea

The northern part of the UK Southern North Sea (SNS) and the adjacent Mid North Sea High (MNSH) have seen a recent revival when it comes to exploration activity, with Read More

Have bottom currents defined the Golden Lane and determined updip prospectivity?

Since the prolific Cretaceous oil kitchen of the Canje Formation offshore Guyana was demonstrated by Lawrence and Bray (1989), an anomaly related to the lack of exploration encouragement away from Read More

Are outcrops the key to unlock the CCUS potential in the Middle East?

The Middle East region is under the spotlight of the carbon-neutral worldwide ambition. COP28 was a testimony of the effort put by the regional energy powerhouses. What if the success Read More

Oil in the Dammam field overburden – lateral migration or an imperfect seal?

Next week, I’ll be attending the IPTC Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It made me look at the local geology of the area, only then to realise that Dammam is Read More

What pressure data can do

The ENE trending Rankin High is dissected by a series of sub-parallel Lower to Middle Jurassic basins, of which the Searipple Graben to the west of NW Rankin is an Read More

Analysing a hydraulically fractured horizontal core to assess refrac candidates

Is a refrac worth the investment? That is what we investigated in an extensive study. A key piece of data in the study included a horizontal core adjacent to a Read More

When will the first prospect be drilled that was identified and de-risked through the use of AI?

There is a buzz around artificial intelligence (AI). With routine tasks being increasingly taken over by machines, to the point that they are better trained than the human eye, when Read More

Shallow geothermal energy is also thriving in the Munich area

The Munich area in the south of Germany is situated in a genuine hot spot when it comes to geothermal energy production. Karstified Upper Jurassic carbonates have already formed an Read More

Why it is not a slam dunk to ramp up gas production in Bolivia

Bolivia is still a gas-exporting country, with Brazil and Argentina being the two customers. But, with production on a long-term decline, and with Argentina now developing its own resource in Read More

More wells

High-impact New player MCF will drill two high-impact wells in Germany in Q1 2024. One will be a development well in the Lech area Bavaria, Germany. A previously drilled well Read More

Shaking up the Earth: The AI revolution in seismic interpretation

AI’s transformative role in seismic interpretation is not merely illuminating the subsurface; it’s fast-tracking one of the energy industry’s most business-critical phases. The interpretation of seismic data requires a comprehensive Read More

Tidal influence in a deep marine turbiditic succession

The Suriname-Guyana basin is a genuine exploration hotspot these days. But it is not only a hotspot from an economical point of view, it is also an area where new Read More

Ghawar keeps on going

In November last year, Aramco announced that it produced its first unconventional tight gas from the Ghawar South project, producing up to 300 mmscf/day of gas and 38 kbpd of Read More

The Big Buzz of Buzzard II

Buzzard II: the sequel How about looking for another Buzzard field, next to the one that was found over 20 years ago? Our geological understanding is only ever a transient Read More

Santos Basin, Brazil: Understanding the CO₂ exploration risk with ultra-deep seismic

Santos Basin: New seismic data helps de-risk CO₂ contamination for pre-salt exploration CGG’s latest imaging technology delivers unprecedented detail of the deep structure in the pre-salt rift basin to support the Read More

What moves a grain?

Plume dispersion is not solely a matter of distance from the mine site, physical processeses are also important”, said Thomas Peacock, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the Read More

A truly global event focused on prospecting, business transactions, and deal-making for the oil and gas E&P sector

A catalyst for deals to be struck and new ventures to be undertaken, BEOS will bring together Oil and Gas Majors, IOCs, NOCs, Independents, E&P firms and Governments, whilst also Read More

Geothermal resources show their limits

Development of geothermal capacity in Turkey has seen a rapid increase over the past decades but has recently slowed down.

A unique well at a unique time

“It is easy to reconstruct the rifting and drifting history between South America and Africa. Similarly, it is straightforward to piece together the extensional history between Norway and Greenland. But Read More

The future looks bright for the world’s fourth-youngest country

Timor-Leste was quick to capitalise on its oil and gas resources after in became independent in 2002. In the same year, a treaty was signed with Australia for a Joint Read More

PETRONAS DRO strategy continues to attract new domestic and overseas investors

The PETRONAS “myPROdata” portal offers a wide variety of opportunities assisted by access to data. This has attracted familiar and new domestic and overseas investors, with Discovered Resource Opportunities (DROs) Read More

“Rigs are fantastic places for R&D”

“I have always wanted to have one foot in the field and one foot in the lab, to better solve practical problems in the oilfield”, says Guy Wheater on a Read More

Why do cables get stuck during open-hole wireline logging operations?

In his book “Oil Notes”, geologist Rick Bass describes the importance of logging operations. Only after completing a log run, the well can be properly classed as a success or Read More

“I think it is going to be mission impossible”

“The key challenge when it comes to storing CO2 is containment”, says Raffik Lazar, CEO of Dubai-based GeomodL International. “And the only element I can trust in the containment scenario Read More

Quad 35 Hybrid MC3Ds: Innovative multi-parameter FWI for near field exploration

Utilising all hybrid acquired waveforms in a revolutionary MP-FWI processing approach The Hybrid Q35N MC3D was acquired in 2022 in the Måløy Slope, towards the Uer Terrace, in the Northern Read More

Shifts in the seismic acquisition space

“In the past, we as a provider of OBN and streamer technology would mostly liaise with seismic acquisition companies; our exposure to oil companies was very limited,” says Gaetan Mellier, Read More

Exploration drilling – for geothermal energy

Only a few days ago, a very interesting drilling campaign kicked off in the Netherlands, at a very prominent location close to the Ajax football stadium in Amsterdam. And while Read More

Europe’s first full-scale onshore CO2 storage project

Gas Storage Denmark (GSD) is currently in the detailed engineering phase of Europe’s first large-scale, commercially operational onshore CO2 storage facility (CO2RYLUS). This initiative aims to accelerate the development of Read More

Extended reach drilling for geothermal energy production

The energy transition is about pipe, lots of pipe. Where gas can be transported across the globe, geothermal energy, especially the low-temperature version of it that is mainly used for Read More

Why did it take so long to develop Rosebank?

Rosebank was discovered in 2004 by Chevron and partners DONG, OMV and then StatoilHydro. The reservoir quality of the Paleocene/Eocene Colsay Sandstone Member was shown to be good (around 20%), Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective