Issue 4

Vol. 8

This edition of GEO ExPro Magazine focuses on Africa, Geophysics and New Technologies

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Update

14 Market Update

16 A Minute to Read

48 GEO ExPro Profile: Scott Tinker

64 Recent Advances in Technology: Seismic Surveys and Fish (1)

80 GeoTourism: Ngorongoro – A Truly Magical Place

92 Geocities: Lagos

94 Exploration Update

96 Geomedia: New Digital Africa Maps

98 Q&A: Do We Need Another Seismic Company?

100 Hot Spot: Kwanza Basin Presalt

102 Global Resource Management

Features

20 Cover story: East African Rift System – A View from Space

26 Technology: Beyond Macondo

30 Exploration: South Atlantic Palaeolandscapes

36 SEISMIC FOLDOUT 1: Ghana/Sierra Leone Lookalike Plays in Northern Brazil

42 Geophysics: Seismic Survey Without Cables

52 Technology: Unlocking the Secrets of the Barents Sea

58 SEISMIC FOLDOUT 2: Offshore Florida Regional Perspective

70 Geophysical Techniques: Listening From a Distance

76 Exploration: Exploring the Icelandic Frontiers

86 The Standard Oil Story, Part 3: The Rise, Fall and Rise of the Standard Oil Company

90 Technology: Nano Technology – Mighty Thoughts of Small

Articles

Marine Seismic Sources Part IX: Seismic Surveys and Fish

What is known about the impact of seismic surveys on fish and fisheries? “I know that the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.” George W. Bush, 43rd U.S. President (1946- Read More

Offshore Florida: regional perspective

What lies offshore Florida? Despite recent political events cooling interest in the area, newly acquired seismic shows that there remains considerable potential in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Read More

Unlocking the Secrets of the Barents Sea

The complexity of the Western Barents Sea necessitates the use of all available geological and geophysical data when undertaking regional interpretations, play fairway assessments and prospect definition. Several recent oil Read More

Seismic Surveys Without Cables

Cableless systems have been the long-time dream of exploration seismic for many years. Has it finally been attained? The desire to conduct surveys without cables has been an elusive, perhaps Read More

Learning from the Past?

As this edition of GEO ExPro magazine bears out, some of the most exciting areas in the oil and gas industry at the moment are in Africa; and not the Read More

Do We Need Another Seismic Company?

New kid on the offshore seismic block, Dolphin Geophysical, started trading in 2010 and has been growing steadily ever since. But with a few notable exceptions, seismic companies seems to Read More

Pre-Salt Exploration Trends in the Kwanza Basin

The continued application of new technologies is opening up a new exploration frontier in the deepwater Kwanza Basin. Since the discovery of the Girassol field by Elf in 1996, most Read More

Beyond Macondo

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong Read More

The East African Rift System – A View from Space

Remote sensing data has given a unique perspective on the East African Rift System, allowing both large regional structures and more subtle features to be identified and placed in context Read More

Exploring the Icelandic Frontiers

Iceland is renowned for its hot springs, geysers and active volcanoes that erupt from time to time, not world-class oil and gas production – but could basins close to this Read More

A Truly Magical Place

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania is a World Heritage site renowned for its beauty and unique wildlife and one of the few places where active continental break-up and Read More

Ghana/Sierra Leone Lookalike Plays in Northern Brazil

Following the recent major discoveries in West Africa, a new focus has been placed on the conjugate margin in northern Brazil, where over the entire 2,200 km margin only 20 Read More

New Digital Africa Maps

New digital maps, based on ones originally produced by Africa specialist Ed Purdy, should shed new light on the exploration of the continent. Ed Purdy was an explorationist, academician and Read More

From Palm Oil to Petroleum

Lagos: the Liverpool of West Africa Lagos is famous for its teeming crowds and chaotic traffic jams, full to the brim with noise, pollution and crime. As the commercial centre Read More

Listening from a Distance

Active listening to passive seismic pays off for shale plays. The past decade has seen a major transformation in gas production in the United States, driven mainly by the development Read More

South Atlantic Palaeogeography: Reconstructing Palaeolandscapes for New Ventures

Use of palaeolandscapes is essential for understanding the South Atlantic, where the interplay of plate tectonics and landscape evolution has a direct influence on the development of hydrocarbons. Palaeogeography has Read More

Mighty Thoughts of Small: Nanotechnology for Upstream Applications

From opening new doors in the understanding of gas flow in low permeability shale packages to reservoir monitoring and enhanced recovery, nanotechnology’s potential is huge. Something that we are all Read More

The Standard Oil Story III: The Rise, Fall and Rise of The Standard Oil Company

In the past two issues of GEO ExPro (No. 2 and 3, Vol. 8), we looked at the profiles of John D. Rockefeller and Ida Tarbell; in this final part of the Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective