Deep-water Delaware
The featured photo shows a road cut in the Permian (Guadalupian) Brushy Canyon Formation off US Highway 62/180 in the foreground. The west-facing exposure, with the Delaware Mountains in the Read More
Your “catch of the day” causes plumes and marine devastation at a much larger scale than any deep-sea mining activity will cause anytime soon
In the fourteenth century, British fishermen from Essex sent a petition to King Edward III from England. They wanted him to ban a new type of fishing gear that some Read More
The time of deep resistivity
Times are gone that deep resistivity tools are only being used for geo-steering. The inverted data help build geomodels, help estimate net pay thickness away from well data and see Read More
Is Multi-Point Statistics the future of reservoir modelling?
In our quest to build more realistic reservoir models, we stumble upon the challenge of how to fill up the blanks between well data. Many robust algorithms are widely used Read More
The geoscience of decommissioning
“ Let’s not try to sugarcoat it, it wasn’t always easy”, she continues. “The pandemic unfolded, and taking care of homeschooling, a full-time job and completing the university modules on Read More
The little big number
“Levelized cost of energy” (LCOE) measures an energy source’s lifetime costs divided by energy output and is a metric often used for comparing the competitiveness of different energy forms to Read More
Drilling deeper than the primary target – the next frontier?
The idea for this story was born when I saw a LinkedIn post from Mike Smith in the USA in which he wrote about a well in the Gulf of Read More
What can resistivity tell you about your prospect?
Over the last few years, significant advancements have been made in the field of seismic quality, fundamentally transforming the landscape of geological exploration. The increase in bandwidth coupled with improved Read More
Imagine – heating your house using gas produced by 1.3 billion-year-old blue-green algae
Compared to gas from the Beetaloo Basin, shale gas from the USA is just a teenager, with the age of the Pennsylvanian source rocks hovering around 350 million years. The Read More
Time-lapse gravity
Monitoring strategies for offshore Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) cannot simply replicate those used in the oil and gas industry, which often rely on 4D seismic methods. Regulations mandate monitoring Read More
Exploration of the Papuan Plateau: How revolutionary geophysical technology reveals new seismic insights
Holding out for a hero: How evolving geophysical technology revolutionised a Frontier Basin A lot can change in twenty years. In 2004, the Nintendo DS had just been released, Facebook Read More
Why political endorsement of the oil and gas industry won’t bring back the majors straight away
It is too easy to think that a policy reversal in favour of oil and gas exploration such as the one that was recently announced for New Zealand will immediately Read More
Integration of structural and stratigraphic data using automated workflows
Geoscientists rely on their pattern recognition ability every day, comparing already known sedimentary and structural fabrics with new ones when diving into new datasets. However, with the increase in size Read More
Strike-slip kinematics for pop-ups and pull-aparts
Pop-ups and pull-aparts, releasing- and restraining-bends, positive- and negative-flower structures. These are the various names given to the little, and big, structures that develop along strike-slip faults. They often form Read More
Unlocking Gulf energy: The impact of advanced seismic technologies on exploration
Finding treasures beneath the waves: The role of advanced seismic technologies in the Gulf of Mexico The Gulf Of Mexico (GOM) has long been a cornerstone of America’s energy landscape, Read More
Geothermal energy from buried basement rocks
Closed-loop shallow geothermal boreholes drilled up to a depth of around 200 m are quite common in Estonia. But recently, the Geological Survey decided to embark on a project to Read More
Applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics in Carbon Capture and Storage Well Design
CFD is used to model the leak rate of CO₂ through abandoned wells and to verify that the leak rates are As Low As Reasonably Possible. The risk of loss Read More
With ‘real-time’ reservoir management now within reach, energy companies are seeing they simply have no choice but to adapt to the growing technology landscape
Why the key to E&P success lies in seismic interpretation Time is money Bringing new assets online quickly brings a significant advantage to energy companies where time is money. Operators Read More
Oman – beneath the surface
Much has been written, including in this magazine, about the fantastic outcrop geology of Oman, the wonderful exposure, the preservation of salt at surface in the arid climate, and the Read More
FORGE – first injection test successfully completed but no pressure equilibrium achieved
A couple of months ago, the FORGE project in Utah, USA, reported a successful stimulation and circulation test at their flagship Enhanced Geothermal Systems project. “These tests in stimulated hot Read More
Chasing zombie wells
“It doesn’t have the dramatic fire and oil shooting out like the bp Macondo well. No, here, in the Permian Basin, wells are spewing fully saturated brine instead”, says Sarah Read More
T&T deep water bid round: A gateway to energy opportunities
Trinidad and Tobago: A vital 2024 deepwater frontier The Caribbean Atlantic Margin Deep Imaging seismic survey (CAMDI) spans 16,348 km with long offsets (12 km) and a deep record length Read More
Is carbon capture and storage really a fantasy?
In July, the Pulitzer Center published an article entitled “Documents, Whistleblowers, and Public Comments Are Clear: Oil Companies Know Carbon Capture Is Not a Climate Solution”. The authors state that Read More
Digitisation before digitalisation
When a country where some previous exploration efforts took place decides to run another licensing round in an attempt to attract interest from the global exploration community, legacy data quickly Read More
Uncertainty – the most important result of basin modelling
I have long wanted to write about uncertainties in basin modelling. Despite their general acknowledgement, they are commonly underestimated due to various biases and psychological pressures. Explorationists sometimes live in Read More
Removing barriers to geothermal project development
Trying to work with the current myriads of non-standardised terms, definitions, and well design types for geothermal projects is challenging. Interest in the sector is growing rapidly, but its technical Read More
A coup for the country
The Ministry of Energy and Mines in Peru (Minem) recently indicated that the oil industry is ‘being reactivated’. And so far, the signs are indeed pointing in that direction, particularly Read More
The North American helium fairway
As always, news outlets concentrate on the handful of exploration companies trying to prove additional (helium) resources. For instance, Gold Hydrogen announced a record find of 17.5% helium in the Read More
Data is not the new oil
“Deeply misleading”, that’s how Thomas Halsey describes the commonly cited phrase “Data is the new oil”. At least when it comes to data held by the upstream industry. The main Read More
Peat: So hot right now
“The offshore wind sector is still very much a geotechnical exercise”, I was told recently by someone with knowledge on the matter. “But that model is due an update.” Despite Read More
Seeing around OBM
Geochemical analyses focused on characterising oil are frequently challenged by contamination with oil-based muds (OBM). This renders the results either uncertain or in some cases unusable, particularly in solvent extraction Read More
Nodules may indeed be “battery rocks”
Nodules were originally termed “a battery in a rock” by The Metals Company (TMC) to convey to the public the need for deep sea minerals for the green shift. Polymetallic Read More
Not one, but seven new discoveries announced in Saudi Arabia
Just a couple of days ago, Reuters published a short article stating that Saudi Arabia’s energy minister announced the discovery of seven oil and gas accumulations in the country. As Read More
Gold hydrogen – or Gold helium?
On Wednesday 22 May, Gold Hydrogen’s share price reached its highest level so far at 2.09 Australian dollars. A few days later, following the release of an ASX statement on Read More
The forgotten value of (seismic) tapes
“I’m probably the only tape machine specialist left in northwest Europe”, says Egil Simones from ET Works when we meet at the EAGE Conference in Oslo this week. Egil is Read More
Another pressure plot without values
It is the third time in a matter of a few months that a pressure plot was shown during a carbon storage presentation without values on the vertical axis – Read More