Issue 5

Vol. 9

This edition of GEO ExPro Magazine focuses on North West Europe, the Arctic and Geophysics

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Columns

5 Editorial

6 Update

10 Market Update

16 A Minute to Read

30 Recent Advances in Technology: Gas Hydrates III

42 GEO Profile: Clearing Cultural Borders to Reach Common Goals

46 History of Oil: Emma Summers – Oil Queen of California

64 GEO Education: Know Your Faults! NEW COLUMN

70 GEO Tourism: Cycling the Norwegian Strandflat

92 GEO Cities: Lerwick – Small Yet Influential

94 Exploration Update

96 GEO Media: Orogenesis – The Making of Mountains

98 Q&A: North West Europe – Optimism or Pessimism?

100 Hot Spot: Australia – A Significant Milestone

102 Global Resource Management

Features

20 Cover Story: Geophysics – Remote Sensing Underground

26 Technology: Into the Abyss

36 Seismic Foldout: Broadband 3D – Building Blocks For Exploration in a Mature Setting

50 Geophysics: Reading Between the Lines

54 Exploration: Lofoten and Vesterålen: Promised Land or Fata Morgana?

60 Industry Issues: Seismic and the Environment

74 Seismic Foldout: Broadband Data from Conventional Streamer Acquisition

80 Exploration: Uniting the Arctic

86 Country Profile: Montenegro

Articles

Uniting the Arctic

A new generation of Circum-Arctic geological and geophysical digital maps will reveal new data about the hydrocarbon potential of the region. Available online for the first time Originally published in Volume Read More

North West Europe – Optimism or Pessimism?

Consider North West Europe to be past its prime? Hannon Westwood’s Jim Hannon and Andrew Vinall take a look at the region’s future. Is North West Europe a mature province?This Read More

A Significant Milestone

Santos has declared itself to be on track to produce Australia’s first commercial shale gas after its Moomba-191 shale gas well in the Cooper Basin licence PPL 7 flowed at Read More

Peru: Repsol Gas Strike

Repsol has made an important gas discovery with its Sagari-1 wildcat in its sub-Andean Block 57 in Peru, establishing gas pay in both the Nia Superior and Nia Inferior formations. Read More

Lerwick Small Yet Influential

Lerwick, the capital of the beautiful Shetland Islands off north-east Scotland, may be a bit small for the term ‘city’ – but its influence on our ideas on how to Read More

Montenegro: A Small Country Thinks Big

Montenegro has black mountains, blue sea, green alpine meadows, awe-inspiring canyons, idyllic lakes – and untapped offshore hydrocarbon potential. The beautiful country of Montenegro is located in south-east Europe, on Read More

Clari-Fi™ Broadband Data from Conventional Streamer Acquisition

Clari-Fi your data TGS’s Clari-FiTM is a proprietary three-step processing solution which allows broadband pre-stack seismic data to be generated from conventionally acquired seismic data, e.g. using single sensor streamers Read More

Know Your Faults! Part I

In Part I of this series, we look at the geometric representation and identification of faults. In the final part, we review slip classification, stress orientations and tectonic styles of Read More

Cycling the Norwegian Strandflat

For the active geotourist, cycling the Nordland coastal route in northern Norway offers an excellent opportunity to get in close contact with a scenic and unique landscape of beautiful mountains, Read More

Seismic and the Environment: It’s Not Easy Being Green

A look at the legislation protecting marine wildlife from the impacts of seismic noise and the practical implications for the oil and gas industry The ocean is a naturally noisy Read More

Emma Summers: Oil Queen of California

“A woman with a genius for affairs – it may sound paradoxical, but the fact exists. If Mrs. Emma A. Summers were less than a genius she could not, as Read More

Clearing Cultural Borders to reach Common Goals

Steve Bate has taken diverse career paths to arrive at his current position as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of INOVA Geophysical Equipment Ltd. At each stage, he has Read More

Broadband 3D: building blocks for exploration in a mature setting

Improved resolution and penetration with Broadband 3D The North Viking Graben is an established hydrocarbon province that after more than 30 years of exploration activity is widely regarded as Read More

Remote Sensing Underground

Satellite remote sensing uses specific frequency bands to reveal details about the surface of the earth. By borrowing this idea and applying it to broadband 3D seismic data, reservoir heterogeneities Read More

A Minute to Read

Africa: Continent of Discoveries, Application Ranks Top Performers, Chemostrat Open Perth Office, New IOR Centre, Lebanon Multi-Client 3D Survey Africa: Continent of Discoveries The 11th annual Conference on African E&P, Read More

Gas Hydrates – Part III: Rock Physics Hydrate Experiments

“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact Read More

Into the Abyss!

Borehole seismic – the technological challenge of listening at extreme depth. William Wills of Avalon Sciences discusses some of the principle requirements driving borehole seismic technology innovation. The domain of Read More

Central American Opportunity

According to Energy and Mining Minister Erick Archila, Guatemala will be opening seven blocks covering nearly 8,000 km2 in the onshore Petén Basin to international bidders and has already made several Read More

Applauding Progress

Great credit must be given to the many people from both academic and organisational backgrounds who have spent many man-years – and millions of dollars – in continuing to develop Read More

Conference on Prolific Zagros Area

London to host conference on hydrocarbon exploration in the Zagros Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran The Zagros Mountains stretch for 1,500 km from south-east Iran through Iraq and into Read More

Oil Prices Stay High – but spare capacity buffer should build

Oil prices are expected to remain high over the next two years as the market will remain tight by historical standards. Supply additions are expected to outpace demand growth, resulting Read More

Preparing for the Global Economy

The donation made through GeoScienceWorld has helped educate Indonesia’s emerging workforce by increasing the breadth of the university’s library holdings and making peer-reviewed research more accessible and easier to use Read More

Lofoten and Vesterålen: Promised Land or Fata Morgana?

Offshore the remote and beautiful Lofoten and Vesterålen Islands, 1,000 km north of Oslo, is the last large, still unopened section of the Norwegian Atlantic margin. In 2010, the Norwegian Read More

Reading Between the Lines

Point-receiver data, isometrically sampled in both crossline and inline directions, fully captures the three-dimensional seismic wavefield for the first time. Even the most cursory study of an outcrop such as Read More

Mexico: Major Gulf Oil Find

In the final months of his presidential term, Mexican President Felipe Calderon proudly announced that state-owned PEMEX has made its first big crude oil discovery in the deep waters of Read More

Kenya: Reality Check

After the excitement of the finds off Mozambique and Tanzania in recent years, the prospectivity of the east African coastline has had a reality check following the outcome of the Read More

Industry Standard Helps Decision Making

The energy industry is steadily adopting drilling data exchange standards Standards have been around for many years, and are steadily being adopted. In the oil industry almost all the major Read More

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective